I didn't pay attention to actual sales figures until 2015, but I was aware of chart positions and the like from as far back as 2009/10.

I was deifinitely a late enthusiast as only really got interested in music and chart performance in 2014/2015. Something about the music around that time piqued my interest.

Easter 1999 was the beginning of it, when we got the long gone cable channel ‘The Box’ and age 10 I made a VHS mixtape of all my favourite songs (Cartoons, Steps etc). It really kicked off in 2002-3 when I started properly reading the charts online and downloading songs.

2007-2013 are my ‘party years’ (peaking in 2009-11 when virtually every song reminds me of mad nights out as a student), and after that there’s a gradual decline but I still know all the #1s up to and including Clean Bandit’s ‘Symphony’ in mid-2017, after which things drop off a cliff. By September 2020 I only knew one song in the entire top 92(!) of the chart, and that’s only because it was a remix of an 80s Tina Turner song - number 93 was Mr Brightside!

Admittedly since then I have heard a few others from that time, and while I’m long gone from knowing everything there’s a handful from this decade I do enjoy, though there’s nothing on my all time favourites list outside of Eurovision songs from the last eight years.

I started having a vague interest in the charts around 2004 through watching the music channels and buying CDs with my pocket money in Woolworths. This grew as I'd check for my favourite artists' placements in the chart whenever they released, such as Girls Aloud and Sugababes, whilst also scouring the HMV website for new release information!

I drifted from the charts by the end of the 00s and found my way back to them just a bit after I joined Buzzjack, mostly through following The Saturdays and the build-up to All Fired Up. I've had a keen interest ever since, my mathematical brain mixing with the huge music fan in me makes the chart a very easy and addictive hobby, even if it's not in its most exciting period right now! I've listened to the chart show most weeks from January 2013 to now.

Around February/March 2000!

I really don't know about a specific time tbh. I've always been interested in music from a young age, but I probably didn't know "charts" were a thing until I was like, 8 or something when Spice Girls started charting? Then I found out about TOTP etc... and it was pretty much from then on where I had an avid interest. I'd probably say 1999 was the earliest memory I have of starting to follow the charts on a weekly basis. Around the time Britney broke through. Then my dad would make me and my siblings video tapes of various live performances of artists/bands he knew we liked/would have an interest in from that era too. A few performances from Party In The Park 1999 (I remember The Corrs, STEPS and Geri from this), TOTP (specifically 'Sometimes'!) and various videos from MTV etc...

I can pinpoint the time I started listening to the chart - the spring of 1996 for me. Which I credit entirely to Gina G "Ooh Aah... Just A Little Bit". Top of the Pops had always been on weekly in our house and I remember songs whilst not really paying attention to where they were chart wise.

That was the record that changed it all which meant my Sundays were occupied between 4pm - 7pm. Although it took me about another year to clock that actually buying singles directly influenced what happened in the chart 🤣

I did have a period of ebb and flow from around 2003 onwards, having gaps of months at a time where I was only really tuning in when my favourite artists were charting (largely dictated by whoever was hosting at the time. Let's just say I checked out a fair bit during the God awful JK and Joel years). By 2013 I'd finally stopped listening semi regularly altogether and had made the switch to Radio 2 full time.

On 10/05/2025 at 13:51, Severin said:

I not long ago noticed that I didn't recognise nearly all of the UK numbers ones since 2010 so I made a playlist to listen to them all as it a quiz night blank spot. Can't say that I missed much.

I did the same thing myself a few years ago. It worked too as I managed to identify a Flo Rida record at the quiz and we ended up winning. Long since forgot which record it was though.

I think I had a little bit of interest in the charts during late primary school... So 99/00ish. Then started listening to the charts/taking a real interest in it on a weekly basis around 2003ish (so I'd have been 11 or 12) - I definitely remember being fascinated by the number ones in summer 2002 (Colourblind Round/Crossroads string etc)

I started seeking out sales info in 2006ish (and writing the Top 5 charts in my school planner lol)... So 15/16...

Then became a member of CHC in 2007ish (and then here) when I was 16/17 and craving midweek and sales info that was becoming less available through my old methods (think James Masterton(?) used to publish sales reports on some website, have no idea what one though haha)

EDIT: Yahoo! That used to be where his chart reports were published. When they stopped, it prompted me to search for other sources, and CHC is what I found!

Edited May 12May 12 by Juranamo

Early 1999, when MTV Europe became available in my flat. Possibly my first chart was the week, when Geri debuted at # 2 with "Look At Me".

Lost any interest after Christmas 2009 chart.

Edited May 13May 13 by Last Dreamer

10 hours ago, My Random Music said:

I did the same thing myself a few years ago. It worked too as I managed to identify a Flo Rida record at the quiz and we ended up winning. Long since forgot which record it was though.

The only downside is having to admit you know what Flo Rida sounds like

About 1989 aged six because I'm old.

In charts in general around 2000-2001 when I was 12 but in UK charts from 2006 when they used the chart show on one of my local radio stations in Russia for a couple of years :’)

Genuinely as long as i remember but I think 2003 possibly was like my earliest real memories! Definitely recall the 2003 Christmas chart being a memory for me as I was pretty sad at the time Sugababes settled for #10 with Too Lost In You and I remember following the charts when Kylie was at #1 with Slow too as I was obsessed with that video as a child.

Even now I go to check the charts as soon as it nears 6pm but I don’t get as much a chance to listen to the charts live with having an office job. I make exceptions during weeks I have strong feeling a favourite of mine is going to do well though 😆

Back in the sales only era I didn’t follow the midweeks closely until around 2009 (just in time for Gaga). I think the first midweek chart I followed was when Saturdays had their first Flo Rida blocking from a number one.

(Still miss sales only era so badly although New Music Friday is a change I like for the better!)

Edited May 13May 13 by Jordanlee1402

97 a little bit having some awareness of a countdown show in the car but still wasn't really clued up an awful lot. Top Of The Pops was when I really became accustomed to the movements and songs coming into 98. I fell off following much of what was happening in the charts from 03-05 and then came back in 06 listening every week for many years after and begun writing the charts down and reading the mids etc online and on radio 1 website.

I first remember having a vague interest in the charts around 2003 (I would say around the time Where Is The Love? was dominating) and being someone who enjoyed reading/learning lists I kept an eye on the top 10s at least thereafter (of course the big Xmas #1 battle that year was an interesting one to follow) but it wasn't until 2004 that I actively started listening to the Chart Show (it was the week Lola's Theme went to #1, still such a vivid memory!)

After that I would tune in and out of shows but would never generally tend to listen to the entire show until 2014 when I also began to comment along on this forum's weekly threads and since then I've always tried to listen to every show in full although very rarely live as I work on Fridays.

Nowadays I download the chart shows and usually listen to them in bits across the following week. When I do miss a week because of holidays etc. I tend to just fast forward to interesting parts or new entries. I feel at this point it's an interest I'll never let go of.

I've been following the charts since 1986

1998 to 2007 use have cd or cassette in singles chart then off bit start listening agin July 2015 agin went Friday then stop listening agin since January 2024. Without official chart would not done my own chart witch enjoy why more slow official chart

2008 - I was 9 years old. Buckle up for story time, lol.

Like every kid at the time I was obsessed with Hannah Montana. I would watch with my aunt and she would tell me the references the older musicians I would miss - this is also how I discovered who Dolly Parton was and felt like an indie snob at primary school because I was the only kid that knew her as musician in her own right and not just ‘Miley’s aunt’. After that I started getting into movie musicals - I’m still not sure why my perhaps thought appropriate Christmas gifts for a 9 year old would be DVDs of Cabaret, Grease & Rent but hey ho. Then actual popular acts at the time - Beyoncé, Britney, Girls Aloud, The Pussycat Dolls.

Because of my love for PCD, my parents would let me watch X Factor in 2007 because it was highly publicised that Nicole Scherzinger would be the guest for Sharon Osbourne's judges home that year, then started watching on my home accord was confused by how the would always mention “record sales” and “number one at Christmas” etc then would start watching the top ten chart show on The Box music channel to understand this and then just watched all the time ever since. My first time feeling disappointed in the charts was Britney’s ‘Piece of Me’ getting stuck at #2 in January 2008.

Didn’t actually realise it was a chart show on radio 1 until the Christmas #1 race in 2008 and not looked back ever since.