Another Year In Pop: 44

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

The X Factor chaps have knocked Girls Aloud off the top spot. Get used to it - they're sure to be hanging around for a while.

[Poll #1290378]

Halloween bonkers re-entry effect: as well as Jacko, Ray Parker Jr's 'Ghostbusters' is straight in at 49, and the Monster Mash is at no.60!

Bonus mistakenly downloaded track watch: Mariah and Enrique's completely separate and different (sort of) 'Hero' songs are at 80 and 93, and the Chris Cornell song from the last Bond film is at 86. Oh dear, there must be a fair few 79ps gone down the drain there!

Comments

Re: Hero confusion

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Fair enough.

I think all this Saturday night telly influencing the charts type-of-thing wouldn't seem like such a cause for evil if the songs were any cop, or indeed if the rest of the chart was good - I think the reason these tie-in songs are doing so well is because there's no competition out there (certainly not this week, PCDs excepted).

Re: Hero confusion

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I think it's a cause for worry anyway - if it really is a guaranteed way to get sales (and this seems to have consistently been the case this year), record labels will inevitably start seeing it as a key promo area, rather like getting a single playlisted or getting good reviews. This is concerning cuz it makes the playing field even less level than it was, in terms of who has the access/cash to these TV producers, and also because the musical criteria to get on this sort of programme aren't to do with quality or innovation, they're entirely to do with extreme musical conservatism and nostalgia from safe, pliant singers. Which means that if a record label is developing a new artist, or indeed an established artist trying to consolidate their position, they'll have even more reason to go for the safe musical option.

Like, say, Alesha Dixon - whose new single isn't actually bad, but it is very safe. You can't imagine Mis-Teeq songs (with all that nasty MCing!) being OKed for Saturday night TV.