My Random Music

My view is that many artists are known by many people for just one song and that is their signature song. If you only know one song by an artist then that means you probably have no interest in them and will therefore never listen to them. In some cases a signature song is one that's hated by the fans because it's one for the masses rather than the purists such as "More Than Words" by Extreme or "Wind Of Change" by the Scorpions.

Ike and Tina Turner have some great songs, my personal favourite is "I've Been Loving You Too Long". Can take or leave Tina Turner as a solo artist though.

OK you will get people on Spotify or equivalent to listen to a signature song for the first time. Is a signature song the same as most popular or most listened to song though? They can obviously be the same song, but if for example it turned out that something like "Headlong" was the most listened to Queen song I'm still going to think "Bohemian Rhapsody" is their signature song.

The subject is signature songs which in theory shouldn't need discovering because they're already well known. Maybe there's something in it for the more modern artists, but take The Beatles for example, you can't measure the popularity of their songs by listens on Spotify. They weren't even on Spotify for a long time, but there's a big chunk of people listening to The Beatles in physical format and we'll never know what songs they're listening to the most.

By looking at Spotify streams/YouTube views etc you're just replacing one misleading thing (the chart position) with another. There have been numerous times I've listened to a song on YouTube and read in the comments that people are there because it was in a film, on an advert, someone sang it on X Factor etc. But I would also say that being a bands signature tune can be a reason not to listen to it on Spotify/YouTube etc. For example I've listened to Queen on YouTube many times but I've never played "Bohemian Rhapsody" because I've heard it so many times in my life.

Don McLean had two number ones, but "American Pie" wasn't one of them. Always seems to catch out the contestant on Popmaster when the name either of Don McLean's number ones question comes up.

OK makes sense, I didn't buy many singles around then. One that I still have that's still got the price sticker on is "On A Ragga Tip 97" by SL2 which is £3.99 but I remember buying that after hearing it in the Top 40. The only times I really bought singles were if I didn't think there would be an album (there wasn't an SL2 album for example) or if I didn't like the artist enough to buy the album but liked that particular song.

Here's a couple that haven't been mentioned yet: Tina Turner - What's Love Got To Do With It (Bucks Fizz) Aswad - Don't Turn Around (Tina Turner)

I started by removing the ones I absolutely detest and found myself left with 10. I only really like the first 4 and find 5 and 6 OK. +12 Aaliyah - More Than A Woman +10 George Harrison - My Sweet Lord +8 Eminem - Lose Yourself +7 Nelly feat. Kelly Rowland - Dilemma +6 Eminem - Without Me +5 Elvis vs JXL - A Little Less Conversation +4 DJ Sammy & Yanou feat. Do - Heaven +3 Ronan Keating - If Tomorrow Never Comes +2 Christina Aguilera feat. Redman - Dirrty +1 Daniel Bedingfield - If You're Not The One

When did that happen? I remember CD singles going down to £1.99 as standard because sales were dwindling around the mid-00s but don't remember CD singles being that cheap prior to that and there were definitely CD singles I bought in the first week though admittedly I never bought that many.

I would have thought the most obvious one to put on the list is the Sex Pistols.

A lot of records in that era had already been played to death by the time they charted. I also remember in the latter days of Top of the Pops they would mostly have songs that were yet to chart. Therefore most people who have decided they're going to buy it would have waited a while until they got that opportunity so inevitably they buy it in the first week of release.

In the year 2000 my local Our Price at the time turned into a V Shop and did away with cassettes completely. I used to have hundreds of cassettes which were mostly rave tape packs. I ended up getting rid of my non-tape pack cassettes and buying on CD. Then I converted my tape pack cassettes to MP3, I was going to keep the tape packs but got so irritated playing them when converting I decided to sell them on Ebay instead. Only made around £1 or £2 per pack but managed to sell them all, unfortunately Fantazia bought some of them and they were selling old tape packs on their website for ridiculous prices.

I wonder if a number of Spice Girls fans had moved onto All Saints by this point, they were also a girl group but their music was a million times better.

12:Roger Sanchez - Another Chance 10:DJ Pied Piper - Do You Really Like It 8: Shaggy feat. Rikrok - It Wasn't Me 7: Daniel Bedingfield - Gotta Get Thru This 6: Rui Da Silva feat. Cassandra - Touch Me 5: Jennifer Lopez - Love Don't Cost A Thing 4: 5ive - Let's Dance 3: Robbie Williams - Eternity / The Road To Mandalay 2: Limp Bizkit - Rollin' 1: So Solid Crew - 21 Seconds

I remember 2009 being a particularly poor year for chart music. I don't think the number of Top 40 hits I actually liked hit double figures. However the record you have at number one is one that I do like. I would probably put "Show Me Love" at number one, not just because its one of many decent 90s hits being ruined but also because Laidback Luke was someone I'd previously rated as a DJ, his "Windmill Skill" mix from 2003 is excellent but there he was making generic EDM rubbish.

I agree with the above post, I've only ever heard one Glass Animals song and to me it's pop music with guitars. Alternative and rock probably will make a come back one day, I remember at the turn of the century it was said that nobody wants to play the guitar anymore they want to be DJs. Then 5 years later the charts were full of guitar bands.

I wouldn't say any of the newer artists (by that I mean from the last 15 years or so) have been lost to streaming. I remember in 2010 being called old fashioned for buying a CD because everyone was using Spotify by then. Those who have faded away were probably going to anyway. It would be more logical for artists who had their heyday before streaming existed to be lost to streaming. There's plenty of acts who had successful chart careers in the 20th century who are still releasing new music that doesn't have a hope in hell of making the Top 40, but then these artists Top 40 careers were over before streaming counted. As for the Swedish influence, that's probably true but as songwriters the Swedes ruled the pop charts long before Spotify.

My first memories of music and the charts etc were in 1987 and the first record to have a big impact on me was "It's A Sin". I've been a fan ever since, though as a grunger in the early 90s and a raver from the mid to late 90s I kept it a secret. When they played at Creamfields in 1999 though I figured there's nothing wrong with admitting to liking them so I've made no secret of it ever since. Last saw them play at Radio 2 in Hyde Park a couple of years ago, had to sit through a Westlife set before they came on stage.

I never listened to that one. I'm not 100% sure it was Radio 1 as I was in someone else's car, but number one was "Smells Like Teen Spirit" so given that's number two on that list it probably was Radio 1.

It's a terrible website. I keep my own spreadsheet for the charts, just using the website once a week to get the new information onto my spreadsheet is painful enough. Everyhit.com was a good site, but that had errors in it too for example none of Bruce Dickinson's solo hits are on there.

I used to think The Beatles were overrated until I saw what the charts were like before they came along. Also when I was younger I tended to hate anything that was popular. The best Beatles song for me would be "Tomorrow Never Knows". I think the term "ahead of its time" is overused, but this really was ahead of it's time.

I remember it coming second in the best songs of the millennium countdown on Radio 1 I think on NYE 1999. It's a great record and "Blue Lines" is one of my favourite albums of all time.