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October 07, 2009

UK Chart Singles

Much has already been written about teenagers' obsession with the UK singles chart during the 1970s and 80s. I was one of those people who carried a transistor radio with me to lunch at school on a Tuesday (against the rules) so that I'd be first to know who was the new Number 1 that week.

I think our nation's love affair with pop singles has waned over the years, I know mine has. This is borne out by sales being much lower than they were. You could get to Number one in 2006 with 30,000 sales in a week - I can't find any figures right now, but it used to be a lot more.

But though physical sales have decreased, there is some hope with downloads now included in the totals, and sales are rising again.

But, I don't want to talk about sales particularly, I want to talk about quality. Are the songs in the charts actually any good? And am I even qualified to answer that question?

For many years, I've been completely oblivious of who was No. 1. Listening to Radio 1 is torture - Sara Cox, Ferne & Reggie, Chris Moyles - all talk complete rubbish in my opinion, and have me wanting to punch them after only a few seconds. "Top of the Pops" got cancelled, and since then I am only tangentially aware of what music is in the charts.

But with Spotify I realised I have a new chance to listen to what's new. Spotify allows you to listen for free to most music, and to create playlists. So I did one for this weeks charts.

Here it is.

I'm currently missing Dizzee Rascal's entry at No. 10 - but have the complete Top 9. That's enough for now, perhaps I'll extend it to the Top 20 in future weeks - these are 10 new tracks to me, but next week, some will remain in the charts, and so I can extend my reach.

So far so good. But as I said above, what is my opinion worth? Are singles just for kids? Am I too old to give any kind of judgement? The answer is yes, and no. 'Yes' because my opinion is worth as much as anyone elses - it is all subjective after all. 'Yes' because I have been interested in music throughout my life and have around 40 years of experience to draw on when judging originality. 'Yes' because I have never been scared of new genres, and I like to think I can have a stab at rating jungle/garage/rap as well as dance or pop music. But 'No' because I do come from a time when swearing, violence and misogyny in lyrics would have meant a ban of the song, and I find it difficult to get over that in what is meant to be entertainment aimed at children. And 'No' because I'm not out there in the clubs dancing to this stuff - that does make a big difference, because from what I can tell initially, the charts don't have a hell of a lot of introspective folk ballads.

So I'm going to have a stab at it, giving each song a fair chance, as casually listening to something once isn't good enough to form an opinion. I may also change my opinion of some songs as the weeks go by - this is just what happens with new music as you assimilate it and either grow to like or loathe it.

My next post will be a critique of the top 9 singles in the UK this week. I'd really welcome your input too - tell me I'm wrong, or right!

Posted by se71 at October 7, 2009 09:50 AM

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