A New Decade In Pop: Week #5

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

No change to last week's top 5 (apart from Glee Cast moving closer to the top spot). As the singles chart is clearly in such an awful state and not the most successful it's been in years or anything, the powers the be have decided to shake things up by having two charts per week. Yes that's right - the midweeks are now going to count as proper charts. Whether or not this will translate into extra polls is yet to be seen...

[Poll #1519591]

Haiti charity single watch: Jay-Z, Rihanna and U2 mention Haiti in the title and get to #41, Coldplay's 'A Message' slopes in at #88 after they played in on the telethon; for the same reason Beyonce's Halo climbs 70-odd places up to #45; Justin Timberlake and chums bash out Hallelujah to get to #91, Jennifer Hudson Lets It Be at #97.

Poll reminder: Voting closes tomorrow for the final heat of 2004 - the first four are streaks ahead but the last qualification spot is most definitely up for grabs!

Comments

[rechabite.livejournal.com]

The charts are so tedious at the moment that I can't even be bothered to cast my vote this week, let alone waste three valuable hours on a Sunday listening to them.

Making midweek charts available is a desperate measure but in order for the charts to improve at all the book has to be rewritten:

(a) Outlawing aggressive marketing techniques so that things get to number one on merit and genuine popularity rather than reflecting that week's best strategies.

(b) Laws passed to force more eclectic mix of music on radio. We can't have a situation where there are four stations which will only play "club bangers" and a dozen stations which play nothing except inoffensive MoR. No wonder music's being strangled in this country. The new Sade single/album for instance are both brilliant but in the current climate they stand no commercial chance whatsoever. Compare and contrast with the supposedly narrower-straited Billboard lists which meanwhile manage to get Ke$ha and Vampire Weekend to number one.

(c) Bring back Top Of The Pops on peak time Saturday BBC1, big budget, aimed at family audience and totally impartial. Jonathan Ross is leaving; you've got plenty of funds available. Don't let Cowell have it all his own way.

(d) Change the stupid Victorian laws on business rates so that record shops don't have to keep closing. Don't let HMV and the supermarkets have it all their own way.

(e) Also for record shops: stick to what you know, i.e. music. Not DVDs or merchandise but music. The audience is out there; they still want to own tangible records as well as simply downloading music. You might be surprised how well you do.

In other words, the inconvenient truth is that lots of long-standing, cosy set-ups are going to have to be demolished for anything to survive, let alone prosper. Is the industry up to it?

[koganbot]

Timbaland ft. Katy Perry "If We Ever Meet Again": AutoTuned and double tracked, Timbo and Katy sound like... a college glee club - which drains tune and Katy of all character. NO TICK.

Rihanna "Rude Boy": The least intense track on Rated R still sounds like a whirl of hydrochloric acid in comparison to the rest of the chart's pale goo. TICK.

Young Money ft. Lloyd "Bedrock": To complain that Weezy sounds half-assed would seem to miss the point, since Wayne's shtick is to show us that he can offhandedly work wonders with any old crap. But after 10,000 times the routine loses its freshness, and the other rappers sound half-dead. Lloyd's OK on the hook, but is overwhelmed by the surrounding drabness. NO TICK.

[koganbot]

(I didn't interpret that story as saying the midweeks would be counted as proper charts, just that they would count as a proper radio show.)

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

"Rude Boy" is where Rihanna's bounce-back intersects with Britney's -- a dizzying sense of abandon. Britney's album could have been called Big Blackout: Songs About Fucking. It might also be the only time Rihanna smiles on her album, except maybe for when she drives through her ex's house strapped into a car bomb and watches him explode. Big TICK, the other two aren't even close.