I think it would've been completely unrecognizable. It would've had such a massive knock-on effect. The radio and MTV playlists would've changed to reflect the streaming artists, singles would be completely different too with album tracks being able to be streamed. The artists themselves would've released different music. Some artists we know and love may not actually ever have been signed.

I expect the late 90s and early 00s period would be less colourful, with long-running No.1s probably including I Don't Want To Miss A Thing by Aerosmith, How Do I Live by LeAnn Rimes, Yellow by Coldplay and, of course, Mr Brightside by The Killers. The pop bands would have had very few No.1s, but maybe some of the really giant hits pop still would have succeeded, like No Matter What by Boyzone, and You Raise Me Up by Westlife (as both hung around for ages), but it's hard to say as this assumes that TikTok and social media were also around and different things would have gone viral? Without that, who can really say what might have happened if you have one factor but not another etc...

 

You could also think about what would today be like if streaming had never materialised? I'm sure pure pop and dance would be a much bigger deal right now, and the charts would be far more fluid of course, less bogged down by Christmas in December and all the rest. Probably less country stuff doing well, and rap would not have dominated the late 2010s and early 2020s in the way it did. You could argue the sales charts paint a picture of what it might have looked like, but I disagree with that because obviously if streaming had never come in, pure sales would be much higher and different things would be doing better.

Was Mr. Brightside really popular right away in 2004? I think it has more long-run build up behind it. The album reached #1 in winter 2005, half a year after Mr. Brightside charted.

 

 

I think it definitely would have changed when genuinely popular long running hits were beaten by novelty or short lived hits. I think Wonderwall would have beaten out Robson & Jerome for instance - partly because people didn't buy the R&J songs for the music, they were attached to the personalities, and genuinely everyone was listening to the Morning Glory album so it would have dominated. The Spice Girls would probably have been #1 for most of the second half of 1996 too.

 

I'm not convinced things like Mr Brightside would have made #1 - it wasn't like it was ever remotely close, and is more a case of becoming more and more popular over time. Maybe Somebody Told Me could have done it as that was released at a time when they began to get much more popular.

 

I suspect dance and alternative would have suffered just as much as some of the pop acts, sadly, like the #1s from Chemical Brothers or Manic Street Preachers etc that peaked because of concentrated fan base purchases. But I don't think it would have given us many new number ones, more a case of other #1s lasting much longer and a slower turn over of songs at the top.

 

Oh and I suspect Robbie Williams would actually have been even more successful than he already was.

For some reason the band/scenario that comes to mind is Atomic Kitten

 

Streaming would have made their initial minor hits even more minor. I doubt they'd have therefore been given the chance with Whole Again and therefore they'd have been barely a footnote

was it 'Reach For The Stars' by Michael Cregg by any chance? That was such a good read!

Yes!

Chumbawamba - Tubthumping would have been #1 for 9 weeks.

...things like this - Tubthumping would still have been up against Men in Black and I think the latter would still have been huge so I'm not convinced streaming would have made any difference to its peak. If anything Men in Black would probably have been even bigger with the potential for people copying the dance on social media etc, the film definitely would have had a Deadpool style impact.

Let's just all be thankful that it wasn't a thing :D

would have been different but not necessarily worse

I much would have preferred Alanis at #1 or Torn or Wonderwall or Bittersweet Symphony or Common People

than A1, 911, Billie having 3 #1s... and especially I 'd rather Westlife on zero #1s than on 14 :D

I don't think 'Real To Me' is a song that really connected, it simply got to #1 on hype.

And this is the case for many of the No.1s in the late 90s/early 2000s, a lot of them only got to No.1 because of name/label manoeuvring and they failed to really connect with the gp - hence why they would fall so quickly. This is one reason why I like streaming a bit, it kinda shows the hits that are really sticking around.

And this is the case for many of the No.1s in the late 90s/early 2000s, a lot of them only got to No.1 because of name/label manoeuvring and they failed to really connect with the gp - hence why they would fall so quickly. This is one reason why I like streaming a bit, it kinda shows the hits that are really sticking around.

I think it's more nuanced than that. Singles would have a good 6 or 7 week run in to release where all the promotion took place, and because it was all about the first week position the promotion would be frenetic in that week with all the promo pretty much done when it was over (except maybe a totp performance on the week it entered the charts). This all drove sales to weeks 1 and 2 and then a decline, hence the wider GP might not even be aware of them especially if they didn't listen much to the radio. The multitude of music channels on TV and radio also diluted the effect of any individual show to propel an act or song into the public consciousness like totp had done since the 60s until the early 90s.

 

So nothing embedded because, promotion wise, it was all done after the entry week. Also because the chart move quicker there were more acts around scoring hits so competition was far more in your face and people moved on to their new favourite single pretty quickly.

 

Each era has its issues it's just about preference and what you grew up with really.

Solo Spices would have been absolutely HUGE

I didn’t grow up on the 70s/80s but still think their charts are more authentic than the late 90s until 2007 when downloads saw the return of the rising single again.

Also need to ask: What actually changed from pre-digital era to digital in 2005/2006? The chart runs of the singles became longer because the availability wasn't an issue, but I don't think anything else changed overnight radically there.

 

So, had streaming occurred in the late 90s/early 00s, I don't think the changes would've been THAT significant there either.

Songs became available more often sooner so less of a pent up demand and cds sales became less quite quickly so there was held back songs and songs rising up the charts too. By 2011 the industry seemed to have moved against this for the most part and downloads became pent up releases like old physical releases but then the new music Fridays came in industry wide so songs were all oaos following that. Between 2011-15 though songs held back meant so many lost sales because of technology so people could illegally download them or get them in different ways so the industry knew that it was pointless hold back singles. We even had the ridiculous situation where copy cat songs were released and selling on iTunes before official release as the copy cats knew they could make £££.

Also need to ask: What actually changed from pre-digital era to digital in 2005/2006? The chart runs of the singles became longer because the availability wasn't an issue, but I don't think anything else changed overnight radically there.

 

So, had streaming occurred in the late 90s/early 00s, I don't think the changes would've been THAT significant there either.

The other great difference was the rise of youtube etc. Why buy a song when i can listen to it for free whenever I want. That happened in 2005 and also impacted on sales. Prior to that you had to own a copy to hear something when you wanted it. Even broadband helped to slow the charts down by making songs not only avaliable at all times but also less torturous to get access for those that remember pre broadband in the late 90s early 00s

A lot of the long running top 10 hits of the era would do so tenfold so the likes of Wonderwall, Return Of The Mack, Killing Me Softly, Mysterious Girl, I Don't Want To Miss A Thing, Un-Break My Heart etc... would spend about 30 weeks in the top 10.

If we're assuming ACR wasn't in place, Bryan Adams would have been number one for about a year :lol:

Better Off Alone is one of the few songs that would likely have actually been #1 but didn't manage it already, that genuinely was more popular than a lot of the songs that beat it

Looking at the 1999 No.1s, I'd guess that the following still would have made it to the top, taking out the charity singles, with the assumption that they wouldn't do much on streaming just as they don't today.

 

The Offspring - Pretty Fly (For a White Guy) (feels like something that would do well on streaming)

Britney Spears - ...Baby One More Time (huge cultural impact would still be huge)

Mr Oizo - Flat Beat (would probably have gone viral with the ad)

Backstreet Boys - I Want It That Way (pop classic)

Shanks & Bigfoot - Sweet Like Chocolate (not so sure on this, but it was a huge song)

Baz Luhrmann - Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen) (could have definitely seen this going viral as it was so quotable)

Vengaboys - Boom Boom Boom Boom (this is still genuinely popular today, but even so, would it have gone all the way to No.1 at the time?)

ATB - 9pm (Till I Come) (this was undeniably huge)

Ricky Martin - Livin' la Vida Loca (global hit, nothing would change here)

Ronan Keating - When You Say Nothing at All (Notting Hill might have helped this to No.1)

Lou Bega - Mambo No. 5 (A Little Bit of...) (another global hit that would have been big in any era or consumption model)

Eiffel 65 - Blue (Da Ba Dee) (ditto)

Christina Aguilera - Genie in a Bottle (Britney and Christina's success still would have happened)

 

And then maybe Flying Without Wings and Robbie's She's The One but it's a bit difficult to tell how they would stream.

 

I think you could add some of TLC's No Scrubs, Shania Twain's That Don't Impress Me Much, Alice Deejay's Better Off Alone, Eminem's My Name Is and 2Pac's Changes to the above list, and maybe something like The New Radicals' You Get What You Give or Sixpence None The Richer's Kiss Me. Clearly that would add up to far too many No.1s for a streaming environment, so some of the above probably wouldn't have made it.

 

Christmas No.1 would have been some sort of successful turn of the millennium campaign (maybe John Lennon's Imagine as it got to No.3 anyway), or if it was a Christmas song, maybe Slade or Wizzard. Wham! hadn't had their resurgent popularity at this point, and Mariah was in a bit of a wilderness period where it was initially a huge hit in 1994 and came back to prominence in the early 00s.