Eric_Blob

They "sound like each other" because they both sample Bronski Beat! I honestly thought everybody knew this lol.

My guess is 2002. I don't think any of the others will get to #1 except perhaps Jess Glynne.

Brilliant to hear that George Michael is back in the charts! :wub: I hope it's Freeek! An amazing song.

I agree with you to some extent. Especially the point about how some artists seem to make songs specifically to be play-listed everywhere on Spotify. For example there were millions of songs a couple of years ago that seemed to be based on Lean On which was annoying. However, before then radio stations seemed to have just as much impact as the Spotify playlists do. I watched again, and again, and again the situation where Capital FM started playing a song and it would shoot up iTunes fast. You could see it with pre-orders and the fake cover versions, but it was most obvious with post-album singles or the international singles that weren't held back. And singles that Capital FM decided not to playlist would usually not do much. A common pattern was that songs which were only supported by Radio 1 and not Capital FM would often debut at around #16 and spend 2 weeks in the top 40. The only other ways I could think of to get a song to do well in the charts without Capital FM would be if it got used on TV a lot (e.g. in adverts or talent shows), in movies, or there were sometimes cases of a music video being released and being able to boost a song enough to get top 40 without any airplay. (Also, many artists clearly made music specifically for Capital FM and its equivalent stations in other countries like Z100, etc, which is not that different to the problem we have today of artists making songs specifically to be put in as many Spotify playlists as possible). Also, I want to point out that of course there were exceptions. Jar Of Hearts somehow sold bucketloads without being played on either Capital FM or Radio 1 as far as I remember. Pass Out managed to debut at #1 with only Radio 1 support (although Capital ended up playing it a huge amount after its release for about 18 months which gave it an extremely long chart run lol). Radio has less impact now, but it's been replaced by Spotify playlists now unfortunately. I would have hoped with streaming at least the charts would become more organic, but that doesn't seem to have happened, it seems people at the top of the music industry will always try and find a way to control what songs get fed to people. I would say the charts seem more accurate now though, on balance. I think it's because a lot of people who never legally downloaded music weren't included in the charts back then, but now many of them actually use Spotify or Apple Music. I know it's something everybody discussed a lot, but there were some songs that I would hear all the time, for months (and no, NOT from my friends) that never made the top 40, and I refuse to believe some of those songs were at best the 83rd most popular song in the country in its most popular week or whatever. It just doesn't make any sense. Whilst I appreciate people in different parts of the country, different ages, different lifestyles, etc. listen to different music, so nobody really can get a good picture of what's popular through the whole country solely based on their personal experiences, there's a massive difference between back then when a song that seemed to me to be everywhere peaking at #76, and today when it peaks at #13. Some of the songs that were originally just on lots of Spotify playlists (Cheerleader, Lean On, Firestone), I would say have become popular in their own right. But yes, I'm sure there are quite a few smaller chart hits in recent years which won't be very well-known outside of Spotify users.

Thanks for your hard work, but nobody cares about the Royal Family. Dappy and Disclosure are much more important.

About royalties, the artists don't always get them straight away. They can sometimes have to wait up to 12 months to get royalties apparently. For example, some of the money Enya got during 2017 could have been from something that happened in 2016. Also, I don't think the royalties from streaming are very much. Enya might make more money from royalties via her songs being used in movies, TV shows, adverts, radio airplay, plays in restaurants and shops, etc. I'm not sure exactly, but I think that makes the artists more money from those kinds of things than from streaming. Except a special few cases like 6ix9ine for example. For example, Zedd - The Middle might be making a lot more money than some bigger hits right now, because it's being used in an advert (and does better than average on radio as well). I'm surprised Zayn is the poorest out of the One Direction members. What is he doing with his money? He should probably be the richest. We will probably be reading newspaper articles in 30 years time about how he's broke and living on the streets lol. And why wouldn't Jessie J have £18 million? I would have expected slightly higher, if anything. (Also, a bit of a tangent, but I like Enya. Why does she have this reputation for being boring? People like Sinead O'Connor and Annie Lennox are what I would consider boring). Great to see Mick Jagger has made so much money off the back of T.H.E! :)

Candyman's peak is a bit mis-leading I think. It was much more successful in the charts than your average #17 hit in 2007, even in its original run.

2002 is like this decade's version of SOS by Rihanna. SOS referenced lots of 80's hit songs in its lyrics, whilst 2002 references late 90's/early 00's hits songs in its lyrics. Childish Gambino's song can be interpreted in a million ways. In the US, Republicans will consider it a song about black on black crime, Democrats will consider it a song about gun violence. I like Childish Gambino, but I think he actually played it safe by making things so vague. I think it could have been a hit at the time. If you listen to it closely, it follows the same formula as songs like Only Girl and Firework, especially in the chorus. Childish Gambino had a song years ago which was "track of the day" on Radio 1 or something like that. I remember it got a good boost on iTunes from it but I can't remember the name of it. One of my favourite songs from him is Sober. Another one of his songs that I like is Heartbeat. A lot of people think Macklemore - Can't Hold Us rips off Heartbeat. I think it's a bit of an over-exaggeration, but they do sound similar if you listen. There are a few mash-ups on Youtube.

I actually think such a list would be VERY different (except One Last Time and perhaps a few of the older ones).

Hopefully this time the Radio 1 DJs won't be criticising the song every time they play it!

I don't really remember 6 Words either, but I must have listened to it. I THINK it was a drum & bass sort of song? I actually talked with Wretch 32 once on a Spotify chat room. It was around 2012 I think, I can't remember much about it, but by coincidence saw him say on Twitter that he was doing an event with Spotify, and I already had Spotify so I thought I'd go. I was surprised because there was only about 10 of us who turned up. I can't remember what it was exactly, but basically we were all in a chat room with him within Spotify and could talk as much as we want. He seemed quite bored to be honest, for example he was typing short replies to everybody, but maybe it's just his personality, I don't know. I can't remember what we talked about, but I was there for the whole hour. I was probably just telling him how much I like each of his songs lol. My favourite of all his songs I think is Off With Their Heads with Devlin. So Epic! p_2gooyT7Zw

During Freshers Week for my 2nd year at university Animals and Look Right Through were the two most popular dance songs. People from all different parts of the UK already knew both songs! And iirc that was quite a while before they were released on iTunes. So neither of them debuting at #1 was a big surprise to me. I was just happy that Blurred Lines didn't get banned at my university. Poor Robin Thicke, he didn't know what he was getting himself into when he recorded that song. :lol:

I know all the bolded ones! I remember some of the others as well by the titles but can't remember what they sound like. And Alex Day with his 50 versions on iTunes haha. Sad that I can't remember the Wretch 32 song because I love his music (and especially considering I remember the PARADE song of all things...). I think I might know Blackout but I'm not 100% sure. I was actually doing work experience for Andreya Triana's record label (Ninja Tunes) when Breach - Everything You Never Had was out! I had to go around the city putting posters up everywhere lol. I still have one of them in fact! I was pretty chuffed when it went top 10, although I'm sure it wasn't anything to do with me. Also, I think it's a great song, but I will admit it was a surprise top 10. Jack was a MUCH bigger song, but Everything You Never Had is a lot more radio friendly for sure. I saw a while ago that Andreya Triana had one of her own songs playlisted on Radio 2, so she had some more success after this song.

I honestly can't believe the real version of Payphone managed to sell 34,000 copies. It was such a terrible song.

I hate threads like this. It seems like everybody is just listing out my favourite chart hits. :( In response to the post above, I don't think Martin Garrix - Animals is forgotten, nor would I say it was a surprising #1. It was really popular for months before it even came out iirc. I don't get the fuss over it though. Maybe the fact that he was a child when he made it impressed people? It's OK I suppose, but I wouldn't say it's outstanding. However, I think it's his signature song and he's more-or-less built the rest of his career on the back of it. There was a similar song called Turn Back Time by Sub Focus around the same time which I thought was much better than Animals.

I think Gangnam Style is the biggest song of the decade. I can't think of any other song that has been "bigger" since then. 2nd I would say Blurred Lines, 3rd Uptown Funk, 4th probably something like Someone Like You, Despacito or Shape Of You

Nice song, but these are the guys who made the beat for Black And Yellow, R.I.P and What's My Name! They could do better.

His Elton John cover did nothing. His collaboration with Taylor Swift, End Game, flopped. It's been a terrible year for Ed. I feel sorry for him. I would argue Anne-Marie is saving Ed Sheeran's career. Much like how Christina Aguilera saved Maroon 5's career.

This was the song I listened to after I heard the news. I liked this song around the same time as I joined this forum! Scott Mills (I think) used to play it most weeks on a weekend dance show he did on Radio 1, and it was on one of AATW's Clubland albums as well. I don't know if I'll stick around. I'm just really bored at the moment. It's a sunny day so I'm not going outside.

I just checked and you're right?! :o I legitimately thought she was about 12. My apologies. Well, she should be doing better then. She's not doing badly though.

She's a lot like how Justin Bieber used to be. When he was younger he had an absolutely massive profile, but didn't do so well in the charts. When Ariana reaches adulthood I think she will see a lot of success.

Little Boots and Owl City?!?!?! What is this? 1996?!?! (And thank you to the mods for reducing my warn bar down to zero)

In the past I would've changed it by playing the new entires in the top 75 and missing out the long-running top 40s, but with ACR it might not be necessary, I'm not sure.

All of you need to listen to Bullion - Loop The Loop

It probably will one day, but Drake and Lady Gaga both broke through in 2009. Drake has done pretty well considering.