Yet Another Year In Pop: 1

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Welcome to YET ANOTHER year in pop! The UK charts were pretty dismal at times in 2008 - let's hope things pick up in 2009 and we can end the decade with a bang (though I expect it will be a while before Alex Burke is knocked off the top). So what sparkling new releases are going to rejuvenate and invigorate the virginal charts this frosty Monday morning?

[Poll #1325705]

Hmmmmm. There are barely any tracks in the top 75 that haven't been hanging around since at least November but patience, people! There's plenty of stuff scheduled for release later in the month (including a new Helen Love single? WTF???).

(Also: you have until 12noon GMT tomorrow to go back and tick any of the 2008 polls that you missed out or have changed your mind about!)

Comments

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

can i just say thanks to Kat for doing these posts - they are now my favourite bits of poptimists posts

(i don't agree that 2008 charts were dismal)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

What was good about them?

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

i know you didn't like them. but i did. i liked a lot of the number 1s for starters. it only went really bad right at the x end.

not a vintage year, i'd agree - but i was saddened with poptimists dissing of lots of chart fodder this year.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

One of the big problems is that only 2/3 as many songs got into the charts as in 2007! So even if the level of quality had remained exactly the same, the statement "There are less good songs in the charts this year" would have been true. And it meant the OK ones stuck around long enough to become less OK, while the bad ones stuck around long enough to be horrid. We've moved a big step towards a slow-moving US style chart, I think.

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

good point - the 'hanging around along to annoy' factor may explain a lot of what i've not liked on here. of course 'there are less bad songs in the charts this year' is also true - making it even better than ever, you novelty driven ADHD fools you! :-)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

for me it wasn't just that the songs at the top of the chart were mediocre-to-bad (though I really disliked a lot more big hits than I usually do) - it was that there was so much AWESOME music which just wasn't charting at all, for whatever reason, so I resented the ones which did make the top 10 even more than I would otherwise have done.

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

"there was so much AWESOME music which just wasn't charting" but this is always the way. the chart is that sort of a beast. the stuff i really REALLY liked this year was not going to seriously trouble mass charts - much as i would love it to. (to everyone else's dismay i'm sure)

[koganbot]

Some would stick around and grow on me, except that I never listen to British radio or watch the British video stations.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

7 or 8 "DON'T LIKE ANY"s out of 52 tells its own story, I feel (and there was some very generous ticks from me in some other weeks to avoid more of those)

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

We've moved a big step towards a slow-moving US style chart, I think.

SEVERAL big steps actually. I happen to have this lying around:



(It's for Top 75, btw.)

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

(or, to be more precise:
Nov 52 to Sep 54: Top 12
Oct 54 to Apr 56: Top 20
Apr 56 to Mar 60: Top 30
Mar 60 to May 78: Top 50
then Top 75)

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

wow that is striking

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

Yeah I just noticed this graph says that 2008 had the fewest entries in an all-75-year EVER!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I've written a big thing about this on FT - hope you don't mind me using your graph!

http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2009/01/the-strange-death-of-the-uk-charts/

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

Cool! Don't mind at all!

Actually it occurred to me after posting that it could probably make an interesting post in itself (incl discussing those other ups and downs as well), but by then it was late at night, so didn't happen.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

of my top 100 tracks, only 18 were made the top 40 altho there's probably another 22 top 40 hits i rated so i could have a top 40 top 40 of the year