:thinking:

 

I mean, there is still a quarter of the year to go, but it surely feels like so far this year has offered the fewest unique Top 40 hits than any previous year to date. The continued presence of names like Sabrina Carpenter, Teddy Swims and Chappell Roan, but to name a few, are a constant, unmovable feature of the charts week in, week out. Not a week goes by when someone in BuzzJack comments on the lack of freshness in the charts, but the sheer volume of staleness. The weekly chart show of Radio 1 continues to draw in negative feedback and criticism amongst chart fans both due to the lack of promoting new and rising singles, but also for the poor overall quality of the chart show, its current host Jack Saunders and the entire management behind the scenes who seem to not care less about the impact. People always talk about ACR vs. SCR and how it doesn't solve enough of the problems we are seeing, but what will the OCC ever do about it now?

 

If this is how 2024 has been, what will subsequent years be like for chart enthusiasts... it just feels like a losing battle. :unsure:

End January 2024 was last time listening to chart show just feeling like to many song get missed and same old songs in chart or Sabrina Carpenter clog chart up i been munch happy own chart 8 years enjoy that more then official one new music just struggles

No, not when 2016 happened.

No, not when 2016 happened.

All I associate with 2016 now is Drake and probably the lengthy One Dance chart topper, but I still remember more variety and movement in the charts than what 8 years later looks like.

Maybe it’s because I’m seeing more music to my personal tastes doing so well and the album charts in particular having real female domination with studio albums but it’s not been to boring for me to follow I’d probably say this has been my favourite chart year since 2020.

 

I can see why some feel it’s stagnant etc but there’s definitely been worse years for me. 2016-2017 was the poorest chart period for me and I think we can be thankful in a sense that the UK has the three track rule. There is some work to be done with the albums chart I think though. Maybe it’s time to start thinking on if Greatest Hits albums really belong on the main album charts? Especially as they removed soundtracks I think the albums chart should now just be studio albums only.

Edited September 22, 2024Sep 22 by Jordanlee1402

Yes it's no longer a UK chart it has become a worldwide chart with music forced upon and payola. It's become absolutely void

I think it's time to change the rules. Perhaps set limits on songs, how many an artist can have and maybe make radio stations (Looking at you Heart) to stop playing songs on a loop. Maybe copy Eurovision with a jury vote and let it have say 10% of the chart? Would filter out some dead wood.

I don’t follow the singles chart much anymore. Records just seem to spend weeks in the chart with little movement and each year there seems to be less and less exciting new releases. Long gone are the days when the charts used to be exciting and fresh.

Are we in the most boring era of the charts? Probably, yes, as we all know streaming trends are a lot slower than downloads or physicals were when they were dominant. I definitely wouldn't say 2024 is the most boring year within this period, though. It's slowed down over the summer for sure but the first part of the year felt more exciting than the chart's been in ages, with a load of new artists having breakthrough hits (mostly spurred on my virality) as well as the resurgence of some classics like Murder on the Dancefloor and Unwritten.

 

After all, we've seen the likes of Djo, Teddy Swims, Dasha, Mark Ambor, Myles Smith, Chappell Roan, Shaboozey, Artemas and more score their first hits, Benson Boone and Sabrina Carpenter having big breakthrough moments, country music starting to dominate after years of being seen as chart poison, Madonna back in the UK top 10, and more. There's been some great stories around this year's chart! Compared to 10 years ago, it's a different story of course, but I think it can only fairly be compared to other years within the streaming era.

 

The only issue I have really is one that I've mentioned before, about how it feels like there's a disconnect between what radio and streaming want to push, and what actually goes viral. We've already seen Dasha, Mark Ambor and Artemas fail to receive much support for their follow-up tracks, and this isn't a new trend, it's been the case for many TikTok-fuelled smashes. The result is what feels like a smaller pool of "big name" reliable hitmakers. That said, we've seen Sabrina Carpenter rise rapidly into huge star territory after being in the industry for so long, and Chappell Roan and Charli xcx have rapidly expanded their fanbases too, so perhaps 2024 is a better year on that front too?

 

All I associate with 2016 now is Drake and probably the lengthy One Dance chart topper, but I still remember more variety and movement in the charts than what 8 years later looks like.

2016 was just before ACR was introduced so it was *much* slower than what we have now. 2015 was still relatively early days for streaming in the chart and held-back releases featured until about three-quarters of the way through the year, so the turnover was still high. 2016 saw held-back releases done away with mostly, and the trends of streaming became obvious. It was painfully slow some weeks, with the chart show (which only played the top 25 at the time) sometimes playing the same 25 songs, with maybe 4 or 5 switching places, two weeks running. This will always be my argument for why ACR isn't just helpful, but necessary.

 

I think it's time to change the rules. Perhaps set limits on songs, how many an artist can have and maybe make radio stations (Looking at you Heart) to stop playing songs on a loop. Maybe copy Eurovision with a jury vote and let it have say 10% of the chart? Would filter out some dead wood.

There's already a 3 song limit for primary artists in the chart, it's been that way for 7 years (a change that was prompted by Ed Sheeran having 9 of the top 10 two weeks running). Heart's impact on the chart is minimal, likely to only inspire downloads and they don't have much of a say in the chart most weeks. I'm not sure a jury could really work for the chart on a weekly basis but it's very much at odds with the purpose of the chart, in my view. I wouldn't see a need for that.

All I associate with 2016 now is Drake and probably the lengthy One Dance chart topper, but I still remember more variety and movement in the charts than what 8 years later looks like.

 

There was practically no variety whatsoever and everything would move a maximum of 3 places up or down every week.

I think 2024 has been great so far? So many big artists releasing singles/albums and other artists having a surge of success. Beyoncé, Ariana Grande, Billie Eillish, Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa, Hozier, Zach Bryan, Tyla, Benson Boone, Teddy Swims, Chappell Roan, Charli XCX, Sabrina Carpenter, Linkin Park etc.

 

 

I think 2024 has been great so far? So many big artists releasing singles/albums and other artists having a surge of success. Beyoncé, Ariana Grande, Billie Eillish, Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa, Hozier, Zach Bryan, Tyla, Benson Boone, Teddy Swims, Chappell Roan, Charli XCX, Sabrina Carpenter, Linkin Park etc.

I agree - 2024 has been as exciting a year as we’re likely to get in the current era of the charts.

And there have been the fun resurgences like Sophie, Mason, Natasha and Nsync too.

I think 2024 has been great so far? So many big artists releasing singles/albums and other artists having a surge of success. Beyoncé, Ariana Grande, Billie Eillish, Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa, Hozier, Zach Bryan, Tyla, Benson Boone, Teddy Swims, Chappell Roan, Charli XCX, Sabrina Carpenter, Linkin Park etc.

 

The domination of Sabrina and Chappell (I love pop girls but they don’t do it for me) is tiring though. I wish someone else would get a shot

Definitely not as bad as 2016, agreed with the above that most of the hits sounded similar - that tropical house style that has dated so horribly, music from 2013/2014 sounds a hell of a lot fresher than many 2016-2018 hits to my ears.

 

The chart was incredibly dull and slow as stated, and actually it's probably my least favourite year for music since I started following it in the 90s. Even outside of the tedious charts I wasn't finding the usual amount of stuff I loved.

 

2008 I recall being very slow and boring too but it was interesting in the respect that there were a lot of big breakthrough acts who are still popular now, with that soul pop sound in vogue, and also the resurgence of Eurodance and it weirdly doing well in the album charts too (Scooter, Ultrabeat, Darren Styles with a long running top five album). But the chart was definitely more boring than the 2009-2014 era that followed.

I’ve loved this year so far!

2021 was way worse.

it could be worse Shaboozy has been #1 in US for 11 weeks with the same song at least Sabrina has spread it out over 3 here. Ultimately it has got stagnant a few times but overall a good year with a lot of new artists and albums emerging

Edited September 22, 2024Sep 22 by Liam sota

I do think things have slowed down since the spring but it's still been a very exciting year for chart watchers. We've seen a ton of rising stars who had been bubbling under for years and TikTok is giving us some interesting finds lately (Tommy Richman, Shaboozey, more recently letting Surf Disco emerge from the indie depths, etc.)

 

Y'all would have an aneurysm looking at Billboard, "Lose Control" is still in the top 10 stateside :lol:

There was actually a period in this year where things were actually quite rapid and fun to watch on the chart. Big releases from Beyonce, Taylor, Kanye, Ariana, Sabrina, Djo, Hozier, Posty, Eminem etc... debuting very high or hurtling up the chart in a couple of weeks. I think we actually reached a point where there was only one song in the top 10 that had been on the chart for more than 10 weeks or something and the likes of Too Sweet and I Like The Way You Kiss Me were going to ACR at exactly the right time.

 

It didn't last very long unfortunately. We are now back to the the tedium that is largely unavoidable in the streaming era.

It's certainly been intriguing reading your replies so far. I knew if I put this question out there it would be a talking point. I'm not disregarding the quality of the music that has been in the charts in 2024, but it's simply a lack of turnover and whilst I don't have the statistics so far, I would ask anyone here who does to post for the last 10 years how many unique songs have featured in the official UK Top 40 per year, and yes this would include Christmas songs too.