soundman

This week's top ten is the worst I've ever heard. Full of terrible mindless urban rap music. The Eminem tracks are crap. Tyga - Taste is tuneless rubbish. It's like a 13 year old reciting 'street' poetry over a backing beat. It's open to debate it even qualifies as a 'song'. Streaming has destroyed the quality of songs making it into the chart. Streaming generation stream awful songs. RIP chart music. :(

Wow that's amazing. I never knew that. You sure know your chart facts. :cool: Any other songs go back to number one weeks/months later?

I think the chart has got even worse (well as bad as when Ed Sheeran's entire album was in the top 20!). The current number one has been in the chart for 21 weeks! 5 MONTHS AND BACK UP TO NUMBER ONE. Shotgun rises back to number one. That's crazy. :( This sort of chart activity would have been impossible pre-internet and pre-streaming. Other than a 16 - 20 week limit for all songs eligible for streaming chart status, I cannot see any other way to improve the chart. No amount of chart stream 'quotas' will change the jukebox nature of the chart. Streaming will never equal true sales so just cap the streams - 20 weeks is enough and then the song is not eligible for chart sales. That would mean Geroge Ezra's Shotgun would have dropped out of the top 40 last week. The chart is busted, folks. Time for radical change.

Lenny Kravitz Low: :dance: :)

This new chart format change is amazing. Let's all make it even more amazing by refreshing this video a trillion times and getting it back to number one: Let's show Mr Talbot what we think of his OCC. :lol:

Well if the OCC continues to call it the Official Singles Chart then I think it's reasonable to expect some new singles in the top 40. We all know the single is more or less dead so the OCC should do the smart thing and rebrand the chart in 2018. I dunno, call it the Official Streaming Chart. Will they do that? Probably not. It's worth remembering the top 100 singles chart was never seen as the gold standard - it was the top 40. Top of the Pops on BBC1 showcased the top 40, not the top 100. Radio 1's Gallup Top 40 Sunday chart was just that, the top 40, not top 100. Same with the Network Chart/ Nescafe chart/Big Top 40 on commercial radio. It's a bit disingenuous for any chart fan to praise a new entry inside the top 41 - 100. It's not much of an achievement. Sure, some tracks may rise up the chart into the top 40 but 41 - 100 positions were never worthy of a mention on Radio 1, BBC tv, commercial radio. It's hard to get too excited by songs entering far down the top 100!

Not sure if history was made this week. Second week in a row with zero new entries in the top 40. Not sure if that has ever happened before. I do remember the first week of a new year having little or no new entries but I've never seen two weeks in August with zero new entries in the top 40. I'm pretty confident that has never happened before so chart history (of a dubious kind!) was made on Friday.

Second week in a row with zero new entries in the top 40. Not sure if that has ever happened before. The chart has never been more stagnant. 2017 may be the end of the chart as we remembered it. We've had stagnant charts since 2014 but 2017 may be the final straw. Perhaps the OCC will scrap the current format in 2018 and rebrand the chart as the Official Streaming Chart because single sales have zero impact on the top 40.

Well the chart remains in a dismal state. Ed Sheeran has gone back up to number one and is on target to become the UK's longest running number one ever with his track 'Busking In Camden Underground Station'. Er I mean... 'Shape Of You'. This week's top 40 has five new entries - four of which are by Kendrick Lamar! Nice to see the OCC is doing NOTHING to stop multiple songs by the same artist/group. You'd think Ed Sheeran having his entire album in the top 20 singles chart (a few weeks ago) would give them an incentive to do something but nope, they've done sod all about it. Oh well. Change is never gonna happen. <_<

IMHO Calvin Harris - 'Heatstroke' is quite a nice song. The chorus by Ariana Grande has a nice retro pop feel. Seems one of those hybrid tracks mixing old school pop - strong melodies - with the more 'in your face' rapping style popular in the streaming era. Heck, it's not Drake so that's another reason to like it. :D

Slide - I'm not a huge fan of rap mid-sections, but the overall song is pretty good. I heard it for the first time on Kiss Fresh (yes, some of us oldies still listen to radio!) and thought "that song is cool!"

Dircadirca wrote: Amen to what you wrote! I think 2017 is the most momentous moment (that's three m words in a row! :D ) in modern chart history. We're seeing both Spotify and the OCC chart morphing into album track charts. I think it's the most dismal time in chart history but hey, you can't live in the past blah blah blah but overall streaming has sucked the life out of the chart. The more streaming tracks available, the less variety in the streaming chart. A wonderful irony. And if you think the Spotify chart is bad, wait until this December when Ed Snoozeran and Drake release their rap/R&B version of White Christmas! :lol:

The entire history of the UK singles chart was based on singles paid for, not heard for free. Prior to streaming every single in the chart was based on units sold. It's unfair to have singles calculated based on free non-paid streams. It goes against the fundamental principle of the chart.

Gary Barlow has a role in the next Star Wars film - The Last Jedi. Strange but true! :D Take That are sort of the modern day version of Cliff Richard. Cliff had a loyal fanbase that kept him in the chart for decades. Take That fans are the same.

How to change Spotify and the OCC chart: 1 - Only 'paid for' streams count to the top 50 Spotify Chart and the OCC Chart. 'Paid for' meaning streams from the subscription model of Spotify, not the free version. The premium version of Spotify is £9.99 a month which seems good value for money. Personally if I were in charge of Spotify I'd scrap the free version but that's just my opinion. 2 - Introduce a new album tracks chart for Spotify and the OCC chart. All non-single 'streaming hits' would go in those charts thereby leaving the official UK Singles chart free of album tracks. I can't see any problem with these two suggestions. Free streams should not count to any singles chart and album tracks should not count to any singles chart. The fact the OCC is in league with Spotify and not its rival means the OCC won't implement such suggestions. The OCC should not run the official chart. In an ideal world the official chart should be the rival of the Spotify Top 50 UK chart and the Big Top 40 chart. That's how it used to be. The official chart was the rival to the Network Chart, the two charts weren't pals! But now we've got the chairman of the official chart representing/marketing Spotify acts so there is no reason for the OCC to implement any changes. Scrap the OCC, remove them from running the chart and we could get major change.