Ongarboy

Am I the only one here that somehow looks forward to that more than the weekly OCC singles and albums charts? 😃

Yes unfortunately pre Feb 1994 songs suffer this unfair restriction and prevents true like for like comparisons of current vs retro hits from a total units perspective using the crude measurement of BPI certifications. The more certs a song earned pre Feb 1994, the more "start from zero again" units it needs to acquire post 1994 to earn new certifications. An example: Whitney Houston sold approx 1.6 million units pre 1994 and earned double platinum for 1.2 million sales in 1993 for one of the best selling physical singles of all time (I Will Always Love You). Instead of just adding 200k units post 1994 to earn triple platinum, she has to accumulate 1.8 million post 1994 "new" units to achieve triple platinum and which hasn't yet happened. Strangely, this is not an issue for albums as BPI appear to be able to recognise both pre and post 1994 sales for total tally purposes. I wonder why that is the case...?

I think those 2004 dates relate to to when those older songs become available for downloading and hence BPI tracking.

I dont like how on the new BPI site if an artist has collaborated with another artist for a song, you have to search separately or specifically for that duo or collaboration. The old site pulled up everything associated for the artist. Also, it seems to mostly only report the most recent (highest) certification for a song or album rather than every cert awarded like the old site did. I used to enjoy tracking the certification progress of songs or albums that way (ie how long it took to go from silver to gold or gold to platinum etc etc).

She always was the most certified albums artist in the UK. This recent cert only extends her lead further.

Surely anyone who likes this song and is a fan already would have bought the variants already long before Christmas? Do Taylor fans have unlimited amounts of money to enable them to buy variants of the same thing dozens or hundreds of times?

I think Kelly's song sounds more universally Christmassy a la Mariah (hence its more successful endurance)whereas Leona's song sounds like a love song that could be played at any time of the year and just doesn't scream Christmas in my opinion.

Both Alex Jones and James Masterson have commented that we were slightly closer to Christmas Day on the second (and third) last chart week last year so there would have been more Chrismassy consumption accordingly.

I think an issue some have with the annual Christmas invasion is that artists and labels pretty much hold off on releasing any music for the entire last quarter of each year nowadays because just as a song starts gaining traction or momentum in the charts in Oct or Nov, it then gets swallowed by the Christmas rush and has to try harder to regain that momentum again in January after a 6 week hiatus of not being played, streamed or discussed as part of the public consciousness and potential listeners or fans just move onto other more brand new music released in January. It means the non-Christmas popular music calendar has all but shrunk by a quarter. Is that a good thing?

I'm old enough to remember when the Thriller video first debuted in 1983 and being terrified by it as an 8 year old! Was really surprised to learn recently that it only peaked barely in the top 10 at #10 at the time but I realise since that the Thriller album had been out a year at that time so most people would have already owned the song by way of the album which had already sold millions at that stage.

Yes , the Whitney song from 2009. Worth watching her X Factor live performance of the Freemasons Mix version on YouTube. It was a watercooler moment back in the day..but not for the intended reasons... 😛

I think it really was only a big hit primarily in UK and Ireland. I was surprised to see it go from Gold to Platinum so quickly too whereas other more classic and recognisable Whitney hits like "So Emotional " and "Saving All My Love For You" have yet to earn any post 1994 certifications.

Whitney Houston also has Platinum records from the 80s (2) How Will I Know I Wanna Dance With Somebody 90s(5) I Will Always Love You I Have Nothing When You Believe Its Not Right But Its OK My Love Is Your Love 00s (1) Million Dollar Bill 10s(1) Higher Love

Funny how some enormously popular songs are just not on one's radar. Seeing Naive by The Kooks certified 6 times Platinum made me play it just now to hear if I actually recognised it without realising I did but nope. I'm wondering if this is the most BPI certified song I've never heard of before today? Usually, even if I've no interest in a song that is multi platinum certified, I'll still be familiar with it subconsciously as it will be somewhat ubiquitous regardless but I can't say that for this song. Possibly a generational thing as I'm more a 20th century popular music afficionado! P..S. it actually sounds pleasant on first listen! 😊

Huntr/x have declined in consumed units 2 weeks in a row. If they decline this week, they're on ACR!