December 6, 20232 yr In most countries' charts I'm not sure there are even any rules. I often look at Sweden, Germany and Australia and they're always completely swamped by Christmas and album bombs in a way that suggests everything is counted like for like. (Obligatory Dirca post) the ARIA Charts don't have any specific restrictions although I'll note that officially everything needs to be individually signed off to appear on the survey. There's a clause in the code of practice that notes they make sure "significant selling Titles have not been omitted from survey". This is a loose rule but I've tended to apply it as meaning once something has had a theoretical week in the top 20 it'll almost definitely appear next week. Most blatantly this happened with "What You Know Bout Love" and "Beggin'" which took especially long to appear (arguably Pop Smoke missed a year end list because of this), and I think it's also why "Riptide" finally appeared on the chart after being omitted for years. On the other hand, stuff that doesn't get that high doesn't get the same liberties. BENEE (back when she was just Bene) had a (probably) top 40 hit with "Soaked" that never was, a year before "Glitter" and "Supalonely" took off. Frank Ocean's been in the top 100 on Spotify since April and still isn't on the survey with "Pink + White", and I'd also argue his album would probably be a perennial charter like it is in New Zealand but it's never gotten re-added since it dropped out pre-streaming. I was just noting today in the chart thread I do here that they only just added the Christmas songs this week, which probably cost Mariah Carey a week in the top 50 (and possibly another in the top 100), something that will never get retroactively fixed. But actually the main reason I came to make this post was to consider Christmas music and big album releases. What little discourse there is around the charts here mostly consists of people who do not interact with the charts at all when it's business as usual but suddenly get very upset if Taylor Swift has 10 songs in the chart for a week. I've been thinking lately though that Australia has gotten extremely lethargic with discovering music in a way that transcends the way the chart is compiled. So I had a look into it and found that last year, a grand total of 69 (nice) out of the 2600 top 50 positions for 2022 were taken up by Christmas songs (also we don't have ACR so these aren't even handicapped positions. I think it's just not hard-coded into my DNA to listen to "Wonderful Christmastime" or "Winter Wonderland" when it's a stupid hot 40°C day). Furthermore this year, it's just 98 out of 2600 (I don't expect another this year I guess?) taken up by the debuts and lingering-ons of album tracks. That's with me being fairly generous and including the 6 weeks for "TELEKINESIS" which got a Hot Hits add and was Travis Scott's longest charting song this year, and also tracks like "Style (Taylor's Version)" which are only not singles in a pedantic way. All up though it's only 6.4% which is pretty meagre. Zach Bryan has spent nearly half of that with just "Something In The Orange" which is STILL climbing so we can't even argue that it's a 'should be on ACR if it existed' waste of space. For that matter, I also checked and counted a grand total of 6 songs that have peaked between #51-#55 (not including additional album tracks), two of which still could make the top 50 next year, so the age old argument of songs missing out because of this 'wasted' space isn't really applicable either. I just think it's better this way. Once you overcomplicate it with excessive rules and exceptions, you risk turning the chart into something that's simultaneously unrecognisable and also useless. Hardly anyone seems to pay much attention to Spotify's viral chart, since it's confusing and doesn't appear correlate with actual popularity, and yet that seems to be the direction the OCC is willed towards every time the chart is deemed broken. ARIA had a talk with several label heads earlier this year and the head of ARIA said something to the effect of not wanting to incorporate rules like the UK does because it merely masks the problem (in this case, of Australian artists struggling) rather than fixing it. Kylie Minogue doesn't suddenly get more listeners because she peaked at #6 instead of #19, while the lesser known acts who maybe would be getting chart space in a bygone era (Teenage Dads, DMA'S, whoever) are literal magnitudes away from the chart, so you'd have to really take a hatchet to it to get them in. Even if it does happen, it'll just slip back out of control over time because a quick-fix on the charts doesn't change the long-term issue of shifting listening trends.
December 6, 20232 yr http://i.imgur.com/B6faj0h.png Wednesday Top 40 ONLY Update Source: Music Week Missing Data: Singles 1 Wham! - Last Christmas (36,526) 2 Mariah Carey - All I Want for Christmas Is You (33,676) 3 The Pogues feat. Kirsty MacColl - Fairytale of New York (28,542) 4 Jack Harlow - Lovin On Me (27,095) 5 Brenda Lee - Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree (26,442) 6-10 6 Ed Sheeran & Elton John - Merry Christmas 7 Sam Ryder - You're Christmas to Me 8 Michael Bublé - It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas 10 Bobby Helms - Jingle Bell Rock 11-20 11 Shakin' Stevens - Merry Christmas Everyone 12 Ariana Grande - Santa Tell Me 13 Kelly Clarkson - Underneath the Tree 14 Andy Williams - It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year 15 Band Aid - Do They Know It's Christmas? 16 Dean Martin - Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! 18 Jorja Smith - Stay Another Day 19 John Lennon, Yoko Ono & Plastic Ono Band - Happy Xmas (War Is Over) ^ 20 Michael Bublé - Holly Jolly Christmas ^ 21-30 21 Chris Rea - Driving Home for Christmas ^ 22 Elton John - Step Into Christmas ^ 23 Taylor Swift - You're Losing Me * 25 Sia - Snowman 26 Paul McCartney - Wonderful Christmastime ^ 27 The Ronettes - Sleigh Ride ^ 28 Wizzard - I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday ^ 30 José Feliciano - Feliz Navidad ^ 31-40 31 Leona Lewis - One More Sleep ^ 32 Justin Bieber - Mistletoe ^ 33 Slade - Merry Xmas Everybody ^ 37 Darlene Love - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) ^ 40 Nat "King" Cole - The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You) ^ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Albums 1 Peter Gabriel - I/O (Bright-Side and Dark-Side Mixes) (13,478) [11,751 physicals, 1,270 downloads, 457 streaming] * 2 ATEEZ - THE WORLD EP.FIN : WILL (12,897) * 3 Michael Bublé - Christmas 4 Taylor Swift - 1989 (Taylor's Version) (7,942) 5 The Rolling Stones - Hackney Diamonds (6,226) 6-10 7 Cher - Christmas * 9 P!nk - TRUSTFALL ^ 11-20 11 Eminem - Curtain Call: The Hits 16 Soft Cell - Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret ^ 19 Fleetwood Mac - Rumours 21-30 31-40 31 Travis Scott - UTOPIA ^ 32 Lana Del Rey - Born to Die 34 Eminem - Curtain Call 2 39 The Corrs - Best of The Corrs ^ NO OTHER SALES INFO
December 6, 20232 yr What a great hold for Cher! :cheer: If anyone hasn't got their copy of Christmas yet, now is the time. ;)
December 6, 20232 yr There are combined charts all over the world (most with a fraction of the attention UK charts get), it's not just some chart geeks keeping a relic going in the UK. The UK chart isn't perfect but I appreciate that it tries to represent as much as it can. ACR keeps fresher music high but doesn't ignore long runners entirely. 3 track rule allows an album release to have an impact without drowning other artists out. The component charts still exist for those who don't like how the official chart combines everything (and fair enough, I know we all have differing views on the effecticeness of these rules). The industry obviously still cares when they're releasing cassettes to grab the #1, it's shortsighted to say only this website cares. It is a bit of a relic though. They’ve tried to keep up with consumption whilst trying to keep the model the same. This has lead to many more chart criticisms hence new rules to shape the chart into what they think people want it to be. My point is why do we actually need a combined chart if the other charts are published anyway? They could easily just play a streaming chart on radio 1 to appeal to the youngsters and a sales one on Radio 2 for the older generation. There’s an obsession with being ‘official’ when no one knows the official charts anyway these days. I don't get why people are against old songs being on the chart. The chart is supposed to reflect what people are listening to. It's a different era to the sales one and people should just accept that. I don’t get why you think you need to shut down the opinions of others because they’re different to yours. The chart is not ‘supposed’ to reflect what people are listening to, it didn’t do that for the first 62 years of its existence, it was supposed to reflect what people were buying. Obviously consumption has changed since then which is why I suggest we should just have separate charts. I think some people struggle to face up to the fact that people’s listening habits are boring. We really don’t need to know that the same people stream the same songs week in week out.
December 6, 20232 yr Peter Gabriel has overtaken Ateez, maybe he can get that number 1 album after all.
December 6, 20232 yr Cher holding up very well in the albums i expected her to drop today, really hope Pink can stay top 10.
December 6, 20232 yr Glad to see Peter Gabriel now on track for #1 after all (unless Bublé still overtakes somehow, but I think the gap looked big enough). Looks like still no top 10 for 'Santa Tell Me' :drama: not sure why it seems to consistently be one of the top 10 Christmas songs at first but then inevitably always falls down the pecking order in the weeks where that would actually matter, I suppose it's much like how Mariah has generally always started strongest but then often ended up falling behind something else by the time Christmas arrives (used to be The Pogues, now Wham!, although Wham! move closer and closer to being ahead from the off each year now, of course they did in the official chart this year but still spent a few days behind on Spotify/the midweeks). Fans of the big vocal divas liking to get into the Christmas spirit disproportionately early for some reason? :') Hope The Pogues can hang onto #3, looks like it'll be close with Jack Harlow though.
December 6, 20232 yr I think Santa Tell Me gets strong streams initially due to Ariana fans streaming it from the off but maybe doesn’t have the same appeal with the general public (because it’s bad)
December 6, 20232 yr And Mariah with her making such a big thing of it with the "it's time" video at the start of November, and that being a known thing in pop culture now (see also: all the "Mariah is defrosting" memes)
December 6, 20232 yr Disappointing to see that DJ Play A Christmas Song isn’t even top 100 in spite of the Christmas influx. Can’t get enough of it right now and she’s been on a bit of a promo blitz.
December 7, 20232 yr It looks like only Taylor and Jack Harlow will be in top 40 with non-Christmas songs. :angry:
December 7, 20232 yr It looks like only Taylor and Jack Harlow will be in top 40 with non-Christmas songs. :angry: Don’t forget Noah kahan!
December 7, 20232 yr It looks like only Taylor and Jack Harlow will be in top 40 with non-Christmas songs. :angry: Tate McRae and Tyla and maybe Dua, Olivia Rodrigo and Mitski.
December 7, 20232 yr Disappointing to see that DJ Play A Christmas Song isn’t even top 100 in spite of the Christmas influx. Can’t get enough of it right now and she’s been on a bit of a promo blitz. She will be performing on the Strictly final on December 16th and The Royal Variety the day after so it should hopefully enter the charts then
December 7, 20232 yr (Obligatory Dirca post) Really interesting post actually - think despite all its issues the UK charts aren't too bad in their make up (except at Christmas but don't want to re-open that here). Think ours work way better than the USA and what you mention about Australia. There's enough buzz about them to keep me interested even if they're never going to be as fast as the breakneck speed of 1991-2005 say.
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