Eric_Blob

Yeah that's true. And there have been a few others. Friendly Pressure by Sunship. The MK remix of Blue Jeans. Murder on the Dancefloor even though it was massive across Europe, Sophie never broke through in the US and that still managed it. So it could happen but it's unfairly rare. The upcoming Halloween playlists are just going to be songs/artists famous in the US for example.

I've come to terms with the fact that no UK-centric pop music is ever going to have a revival or ever appear in the Spotify top 200 lol.

No idea, but maybe it's a lot higher combined as the original probably gets almost as many streams.

Wow I was thinking about Alicia Keys - Un-Thinkable just a couple of days ago, and now it's in the chart. It's another Pocketful on Sunshine, it wasn't a single in the UK but was a hit in the US.

I think the phrase you guys are looking for is "adult contemporary" (or "easy listening'). Almost all the #1s fit into that category now. Only recent one that comes to mind that doesn't is Dior. But I think that kind of music has always been the most popular. Adele and Ed Sheeran were the biggest artists last decade for example, Taylor Swift maybe for this decade, and before that you had artists like Take That, James Blunt, Dido, etc reach incredible heights.

Opalite and Rein Me In were both post-album singles that reached #1 this year though? Most of them don't reach new peaks anymore, but some do. And you have ones like Levitating, Save Your Tears, Watermelon Sugar, Perfect, etc, which did really well in the streaming era. And loads of others which don't reach new peaks but hang around a lot longer in the charts than they otherwise would have due to the extra playlisting, music video, etc, that comes with being a single.

I would not have expected Chico and Jason Derulo to do a song together. Hopefully a Cheeky Girls and Taio Cruz collab is on the way. :)

Maybe Patient Zero can be the first song with zero in the title to peak at #0!

I heard it for the first time in ages in a restaurant a few days ago. Such an anthem!

Zara Larsson had one with Lush Life and Midnight Sun too.

That's my 2nd most-played Lana Del Rey song after the MK remix of West Coast haha (which is also fantastic). So pleased more people are listening to it.

Ah. I guess he could've chosen not to play at all. A lose-lose situation from his perspective. If he had his way they both would've continued performing as normal, but he explicitly wasn't given that option unfortunately. Hopefully after it's all finished they can find a venue that allows them to perform together, even if just to make a statement.

It's highly unlikely it was Ed Sheeran's decision imo. Probably his management or the organisers or the venues who banned Macklemore, so I'm not sure how much of the blame he deserves, if any.

It could be artists coming on and off discovery mode (which boosts you in autoplay, Spotify radio, etc.). Although maybe not because this would be a regular occurrence if so.

I'm surprised it only just now got Silver, if anything.

Apparently the chart was compiled by asking DJs what songs they'd played in clubs during the week, and then adding it all up. But apparently almost all the DJs were lying every week. They conspired to try and have the #1 on the chart change every week, amongst other things.

I think most songs probably are using AI already. Obviously most of you are thinking in terms of AI vocals or lyrics or instrumentals. But in terms of mixing and mastering I'm pretty sure it must be being used in most songs and none of us would be able to tell. Even the singers probably wouldn't know because they just send the song over to a producer and the polished product comes back as has always happened. Even if the singer is sitting in the studio while the song is being mixed, it can just show up on the DAW like a normal plug-in, so they wouldn't even be able to tell from watching. And on top of that producers might be downloading and experimenting with new plug ins and the latest effects and technologies and might themselves be using AI without knowing. Yeah you can easily tell AI vocals or lyrics, but you can't tell AI automation or AI compression or AI EQ easily. So it's impossible to really ban it from the charts. And some songs which may be artistically incredible with real instruments and heartfelt lyrics and vocals, but if an AI noise gate was used to get rid of background noise during the recording, does that make it evil, or slop or ban-worthy from music charts?

Well I think people are going to bars and clubs a LOT less than even just 10-15 years ago. I'm not sure about concerts and festivals, but I think there's a lot of people who want to go to them so they can post that they've been on their social media so they might not have declined. And silent discos have been a thing for a long time, where everyone dances together but with their own music playing in headphones, so maybe something like that? I agree though pop music probably won't truly ever end because there will be things like adverts, football chants, viral videos, etc, where large numbers of people will be hearing the same songs, which I can't see how they'd go away.

I've joked before that one day songs that are stuck in your head or that you sing in the shower, etc, will one day be counted and included in the charts. But I think more realistically, the next advancement will be personalised AI-generated music, where for each user it goes through your previous listening habits and generates songs just for you that tailored to be exactly the type of music you listen to the most.

Has their ever been computer game music making either chart before? I can think of some that sampled video game songs, like Hotline Bling by Drake and Freak Like Me by the Sugababes. And Ayo Technology by 50 Cent which has an instrumental that sounds like a GameBoy song lol.

A song called Boston at #1 on the radio airplay chart and a band called Boston at #1 on the TV airplay chart! Sadly only like 5 of us are ever going to know about that marvellous coincidence!

Maybe you're right. Although they did have songs like Don't Start Now, Yes And, Abracadabra, Blinding Lights and others which are basically house songs which were hits. In the 00s they started coming out towards the end of the decade. SOS by Rihanna getting all the way to #1 was super impressive in 2006 when it was basically a dance-pop song in a non-friendly environment. But by 2008/2009 they were becoming quite common so maybe this is the weaker decade although we will see over the next few years. I did think at the time that perhaps I'm Good being such a big hit might have caused a resurgence of that kind of music but it seems to have been a one-off. Obviously here in the UK we almost always have dance songs in the charts no matter what.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that! It is another one that had a piano ballad remix which would have helped it a lot too.

In the United States in the 00's when dance music was notably absent from the charts, Heaven and Every Time We Touch were the only two dance top 10s in like a 7 year span or something (unless you count Hung Up by Madonna as a dance song). He did really well to do that. Although both songs have piano ballad remixes which helped get a lot more airplay in the US.

I agree. They seem to have done it in response to Ed Sheeran having 9 songs in the top 10 (or an artist having most of their album high up the charts in general). But really nobody cared when Rihanna had 5 songs in the top 40, or when Michael Jackson had 10 in the top 100. I personally, instead of the 3-song rule, would've done an artist's 2nd top song has it's sales multiplied by 0.9, their 3rd top song's sales multiplied by 0.9*0.9, their 4th top song by 0.9*0.9*0.9, and so on. Maybe the multiplier would have to be lower than 0.9. The Ed Sheeran week was the most extreme example, so whatever multiplier would've given him a non-controversial number of top 10s that week. I think if he got maybe 5 in the top 10 it might've gone relatively unnoticed and not got complained about in the media and by the public.