When Britain refused to listen

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

'Not heard it' is one of the more common comments read when the Top 40 polls are posted. Which is perhaps the most unsatisfying answer that can be given. Lots of people can say they've heard every single in the Top 40, provided they'd listened to JK & Joel that particular week. Although they may not necessarily remember all of them the next day...

But, if you 'haven't heard it', bloody why not?! I personally stopped listening to the Top 40 countdown in full around the same time as I started University - some ten years ago now. As you grow up it seems life gets more and more in the way, preventing you from having the same ease of control you may have previously enjoyed when it comes to making choices as a young viewer or listener. So far so obvious, and it seems this is the real reason why the Poptimists electorate are often at a loss to decide whether a recent Top 40 hit is good or bad based on how it sounds. There are other factors too such as the nature in which media has changed since then - dedicated music video channels, t'internet (esp. portals/filters/resources such as youtube and itunes) and downloading facilities...all things intended to make the pursuit of hearing music easier. But, it's not really working that well is it? At least, not for 'people old enough to know better' who seem to be ageing faster than the technology is progressing, and that's pretty terrifyingly fast. It's all too much. But, really, aren't these just excuses? Is this sort of reasoning good enough? Should we take it as a given that the charts are reasonably constant in terms of quality (regardless of the ebb and flow of sales figures)? Should a Poptimist be putting more effort in? It's not meant to be a chore after all.

I'm interested in any serious views people may have about the whole thing, so the question(s) be as follows:

What is your current attitude to pop (however you define it) and new music? Are you keen to hear as much of it as you can or do you prefer to revel in nostalgia (or perhaps some healthy balance of both)? Where do you turn to, specifically, now to find out about new music anyway? If you DO know every song in the top 40 any given week does this just make you a Chart Geek rather than a Pop Lover now? Do you even care about music or are you just one of those disgusting poll-fetishists I've heard about?

EH?

Comments

[cis.livejournal.com]

I used to listen to the charts of a sunday afternoon until JK and Joel came along and rendered them unlistenable: I've the same problem with daytime radio1, where the only dj I can stand is Jo Whiley and most days when she's on air I'm in classes. Often the mood will strike to listen to the radio, I'll turn it on (well, click 'listen live' usually), and either the song will be unbearable or Colin Murray will open his mouth and that'll be it. So radio for me == radio three, radio four. New chart music comes via The Hits or TMF (my house in digibox'd and most social time involves one of these two on the in background), so if it's not on one of those I just won't get to hear about it, and since I haven't been watching TV recently I'm completely out of the chart loop. Well, the UK chart loop - I'm quite good on the japanese charts, where pretty much every top20 single will have had its music video put on youtube by someone. It helps, also, that I really enjoy this one japanese chart rundown programme where they get comedians to perform songs from the top ten - and that my distance from the japanese charts means I enjoy them as an easy-to-predict game rather than something which affects me personally (as I kind of felt the uk charts did).

The splintering of media might make hearing new music, or music new to you, easier, but I think it's adversely affecting this thing 'chart pop', which kind of needs to be a monolith in order to work.

So instead I go to the backlog on iTunes, things I've bought and not listened to in full yet or downloaded and not listened to yet, or things I've listened to but not since I got the powerbook, in genres which aren't current chart pop, and I almost feel guilty for listening to 2hour dj sets (or bach partitas xd) when I could be getting through a couple of albums, and I barely ever listen to an album more than one time in a week, and I check my audioscrobbler profile to see if the weekly chart's updated, and...

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

JK & Joel and Chris Moyles combined to drive me away from Radio 1 for the first time in my life, and into the welcoming arms of Lauren Laverne. I like her so much that I now tune more regularly to XFM and find myself for the first time more up to date with indie than 'classic' pop and r&b.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

ah lovely Lauren. nice personality, shame about the playlist...

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

unfortunately all the other breakfast DJs are SO irritating that I find myself in odd position of being a music fan listening to a station which might not normally be my first choice on the basis of the music alone. Although this in turn is actually helping to alter my tastes over time.

[cis.livejournal.com]

I have never understood the need for breakfast radio! If it's good, surely you'd just want to stay in and listen to it, so you'd make yourself late? And if it's bad, surely it's unbearable? etc.

[http://users.livejournal.com/xyzzzz__/]

"It helps, also, that I really enjoy this one japanese chart rundown programme where they get comedians to perform songs from the top ten"

cor i've just had a vision for the UK equivalent of this and it wasn't a good thing.

[cis.livejournal.com]

When I say 'comedians' I kind of mean general light entertainers, who can all already sing - japanese comedy is a curious thing, very very non-abrasive, it tends to involve a general sense of sustained hilarity while not actually being at all funny. The show itself has a feel kind of like that of CD:UK?

I think the uk version of it would be amazing if we could only get it off the ground.

[http://users.livejournal.com/xyzzzz__/]

ok that sounds much better although I'm not into comedians especially after listening to their 'jokes' on 'world cup heaven and hell' on itv last night.