UK artists seem to be a bit of a lull over the past year. It took until 15th August for a UK artist to reach number 1 (other than Last Christmas in the first week of 2024). Not counting Last Christmas UK artists only spent 3 weeks at number 1 the whole year. There was also a week in 2024 when there was no UK artist in the top 10. Also no UK artist has topped the Billboard Hot 100 in the past 2 years. Compared to a few years ago UK artists used to be a lot more dominant in the charts. What is behind this?

Americans bought out better music this year compared to UK artists, hopefully the UK music industry will do better next year.

it's tiktok. it's all international tiktok hits, with few being local.

Spotify and streaming mean many just listen to the same things everywhere in the world now, with not as much localisation as recently as the 2000s when even the English and Scottish #1s were often very different. There were always worldwide hits and international artists who smashed everywhere, but it seems inconceivable that you’d get a situation now where someone is massive in the UK or US but comparatively unknown in the other country, like Take That being one hit wonders in the States and Robbie Williams infamously failing to build a huge following over there. The 2010s/early 2020s had the likes of Adele and Ed Sheeran dominating on both sides of the Atlantic, and Simon Cowell was able to break some big UK acts stateside, but I guess there’s not been many in more recent times judging from the few modern hits I know. The dominance of TikTok hits is a good shout too, they at least do occasionally also help non-US acts like Maneskin a few years back where arguably it was both TikTok and Eurovision that helped them be so successful.

 

I think 2007 was the last time a US #1 missed the UK top 100, unless there’s been any since? It was even worse over in Ireland for a while, no Irish acts were #1 there from Hometown in April 2015 to Dermot Kennedy in November 2020, and since then at least there’s been Jazzy and Hozier!

Spotify and streaming mean many just listen to the same things

I think 2007 was the last time a US #1 missed the UK top 100, unless there’s been any since?

 

"Try That In A Small Town" from last year fortunately did not make our top 100

 

"Try That In A Small Town" from last year fortunately did not make our top 100

 

rich men north of Richmond as well

rich men north of Richmond as well

 

That one actually made the top 40, got to 23

Probably been the worst year for British music ever commercially. The chart of the year is a depressing read.

At least we had Charli XCX smashing, but it was definitely a disappointing year overall. Here’s hoping 2025 has some big surprises in store.

British artists simply haven't realised very strong material this year and we're missing the big hitters like Ed, Adele and Harry.

Things are looking brighter now with Lola Young and Charli xcx, but the first half of 2024 was pretty disastrous.

It’s been a terrible year in general for music. The quarter 4 release schedule has been abysmal and worst on record. I’ve pretty much lost interest in following the charts now.

It’s been a terrible year in general for music. The quarter 4 release schedule has been abysmal and worst on record. I’ve pretty much lost interest in following the charts now.

 

Interesting how different perspectives can be! I’d say this has been one of the best years in a LONG time, from a pop music perspective

 

British music… to be honest I hadn’t noticed but it’s true, there’s basically no “huge” UK star at the moment other than Charli, but even she is based in America.

I think for this discussion you have to differentiate between the international UK artists and the local ones. People like Adele, Ed Sheeran, Charli XCX, Harry Styles, etc, already made it big in the US 10+ years ago. The recent changes in the music industry aren't hurting them very much. It's the UK artists who never broke the US who are struggling the most as they don't get included (or even considered) on English-language playlists, like the Little Mix girls for example.

That one actually made the top 40, got to 23

 

Lol that was a stupid moment for me

It's come full circle. Before The Beatles you had more American acts than UK acts in the charts. In 1952, the first year of the charts, the only UK born acts to chart were Vera Lynn and Max Bygraves.