the charts are stagnating again.

OTM

When every single is sort of expected to debut at its highest posision, a really good song will not benefit from actually being really good. The best songs need some time to climb the charts.

Not that "Crazy" is good anyway, but still...

Maybe not many singles are being sold at the moment so it doesnt take much to be no1.
Also maybe not many songs get blanket coverage on all radio so its hard for somethings to get coverage compared to others.
Or all the other singles out are shite and no one buys them.

I guess when/if the UK eurovision entry wins, it may go wham up the chart. But who knows.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

actually yeah i agree with every word of that. but i dont think its a good sign overall for the future. next thing u know we'll have the 1998 phenomenon all over again, which was something like 7 new number ones in a row each for 1 week, each a new entry. that was a lark.

Women 'drive online music market'
Woman with MP3 player
Music download sales are booming
Technology-savvy women are driving the increase in digital music sales, according to a report.

More than three quarters of women aged 16-45 in the UK now own an MP3 player or mobile phone that plays MP3s, research by media group Emap found.

The report said women spend longer listening to music than men, discover more music and listen to more podcasts.

Sophie Watson Smyth of music magazine Q said the internet gave women the freedom to widen their musical tastes.

The digital music market is booming, with download sales up more than 150% in the first three months of the year, compared with the same period in 2005.

Women are now confidently downloading music at home and broadening their musical horizons in private
Sophie Watson Smyth
Marketing manager, Q and Mojo
Some 80% of women spend now more time listening to music than they did before they got their MP3 player - compared with 75% of men, according to Emap.

Eight out of 10 also say they have rediscovered lots of old artists and albums, compared with 72% of men.

And 72% of women say they spend more time on the internet looking for new music, 7% higher than the figure for men.

Emap said the popularity of downloading music was behind a boom in the number of women reading music magazines.

Freedom

For the first time, more women are reading are reading metal magazine Kerrang than men, while almost half of Q's under-30 readership is now female.

Ms Watson Smyth said: "The freedom afforded by new technology means that women are now confidently downloading music at home and broadening their musical horizons in private.

"Technology has changed how women approach music and we are seeing increasing numbers turning to music magazines for expert guidance and edited choice in the cluttered world."

Emap's report was based on a survey of 1,800 adults between August and September last year.

well this had been the standard for the first five years of the 00s really, if not the five before that as well. it's likely that when Barkely is toppled there will be a bunch of one weekers tho yeah.

An M Carlin of S London wrote some good stuff on 'Crazy', it's significance (projected) and position as well as it's nature as a song.

I still sort of like the idea of it as indicative of a Top 40 supernova/implosion though. The last #1 ever. Of course this won't happen. But it appeals for some reason. Probably because I really don't look at the charts anymore tho it took a long fallout period to reach this stage. No TOTP. No charts (the only way I know what they look like now is thru ILM). No radio. No magazines. I live my life without all these things now. It seems good to move on, away from them, at least for a while. It's odd, thinking about it, but seems okay. I don't miss them that much. Internet has replaced them in many ways of course.

And oh look, Razorlight are on the Radio 1 playlist two months before the release of their new single. Joy.

playlisting that far ahead so as to give singles a longer lease of life supposedly.

(nb: I think it's ok but no more; cee-lo's vocal performance deserves a better producer than boring danger mouse)

(one unrelated point i'm completely mystified on - i don't know ANYONE who downloads legally. they either download illegally, or they don't download. who the fuck are these people?)

Lex, they are the MP-She Generation. You are so out of the loop.

i am guessing you don't socialize with the kind of people who say "oh where can i download that song by snow patrol i just heard on radio 2?" and then consult q magazine for answer.

i download legally from Bleep because:

a) great, weird stuff that's hard to find elsewhere (Ryan Teague, Bibio, El Perro Del Mar, Paul D Miller, Virus Syn, rare Isolee, Fairmont, Bob McFadden and other ace people you've never heard of) unless you sift for ages

b) 50% goes to the artists

c) DRM-free, meaning you can play it on anything, and it's usually 320kbps now so the quality is as good as can be whilst still compressed and tagged.

d) this sort of thing needs support from digital music-lovers

e) i am having it off with the creators of Bleep, obv.

The Pussycat Dolls? Well done!

Sadly it wouldn't. Because the kids would think he's "old", and they seem to be more preoccupied with the age, looks and image of the performer than the actual quality of the music.

Btw. there are 20 singles throughout UK chart history that have topped the charts for longer than "Crazy", and there seemed to be around 10-15 singles that did also top them for 7 weeks.

7 weeks is not dramatic. It is kind of the way it is supposed to be. One new chart topper each week is a sign of bad quality, which was also the case when the likes of Bryan Adams, Wet Wet Wet, Whitney Houston, Boyz II Men and Mariah Carey stayed on top of the UK or US charts forever back in the early to mid 90s.

This is the record we need released:

Been out all night, I needed a bite
I thought I'd put a record on
I reached for the one with the ultra-modern label
And wondered where the light had gone
It had a futuristic cover
Lifted straight from Buck Rogers
The record was so black it had to be a con
The autochanger switched as I filled my sandwich
And futuristic sounds warbled off and on
Chorus :
The Black Hit Of Space
It's the one without a face
It's the one that doesn't fit
You can only see the flip
The Black Hit Of Space
Sucking in the human race
How can it stay at the top
When it's swallowed all the shops?
As the song climbed the charts
The others disappeared
'Til there was nothing but it left to buy
It got to number one
Then into minus figures
Though nobody could understand why
(Chorus)
I couldn't stand this bland sound any more so I walked towards my deck to
turn it off. All I could see was the B-side of the disc which had assumed a
doughnut shape with the label on the outside rim. I reached for the arm
which was less than one micron long but weighed more than Saturn and time
stood still. I knew I had to escape but every time I tried to flee, the
record was in front of me.
The Black Hit Of Space
Get James Burke on the case
It's the hit that's never gone
Time stops when you put it...

I download through Bleep, Beatport, Dancetracks, Kompakt and others on a weekly basis. It makes a lot more sense to buy a 320K rip of a tune for $1.50-$2.50 than to pay $12 for an import single. Plus, you can hear a big difference between a crappy 192K P2P rip and a 320K rip from a legitimate source when you play tunes on a club system.

Ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding
World Cup World Cup
Ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding
World Cup World Cup

The great thing is, it doesn't need any work.

I would like to legally download huge great 20 minute krautrock tracks. Is this possible?

so long-running No 1s are a sign of good quality (eg Wet Wet Wet in the UK), but a No 1 each week is a sign of bad quality (eg Wet Wet Wet in the US)???

is the milian single out properly yet? the milian single has made me reassess her as the greatest artist this century has yet produced.

I predict Marcello is mildly embarrassed by this in five years time. It's a pretty good song - the production is really plodding, I think, the kind of thing everyone likes a bit (whereas everyone LOVES other Song Xs, viz "Hung Up")

(xpost, obv)

I can't even see how it's bigger than something like "Hey Ya".

and then two years later you remember you awesome they were, plus with added nostalgia value.

i do actually think 'crazy' is a genuine Song X! i think the production is crap BUT compared with the bluntian acoustica and britrock revival drivel which is getting all the attention at the moment, it's veritably neptunes-esque. and for the casual consumer (who are the ones who really drive Song Xs) that's what probably appeals.

also i don't think we can overlook cee-lo's voice, that really is amazing.

when people say this song is plodding, what do they mean? the tempo? it's 'Da Funk' speed so does 'Da Funk' plod too? 'Da Funk' sounds 'madder' i suppose, 'ironically'. but 'Crazy' is a SONG. it's not meant to be 'Hey Ya', and the backlash on that was pretty severe. 'Crazy's success is a huge surprise i think, despite what Ronan says being correct re catchiness/Hornby-approval).

DM does some nice stuff with the moody strings and choiri think, esp. changing ther notes around on Cee-Lo's second verse.

Where does "Where Is The Love?" feature in all this?

There's studium mass appeal and there's punctum mass appeal.

Song Xs usually happen in the summer.

they were both song x!

('1 thing' is a Song X too)

And, alright, go on then: what was the last non cough cough "urban" Song X?

Also don't some songs have a longer radio life/period of popularity that isn't reflected by chart position?

1. Uptown Top-Ranking
2. Wuthering Heights
3. Sugar Baby Love
4. West-End Girls
5. You To Me Are Everything
6. Are Friends Electric?
7. Geno
8. You Really Got Me
9. Blockbuster
10.Everlasting Love
11. Hot Love
12. Jumping Jack Flash
13. Israelites
14. Rock Your Baby
15. Video Killed The Radio Star
16. Like A Prayer
17. Double Barrel
18. Dancing Queen
19. The Sun Aint Gonna Shine Anymore
20. Ashes To Ashes

Dr C, we need to chat.

Shit, it appears you are right Marcello. Although I was only 4 in '74 so have no real time memory of the record being in the charts. I was convinced that I'd heard it was a chart topper. Ashes To Ashes can stay then.

Actually, no, replace it with Sugar Sugar or I Heard It Through The Grapevine.

(nme news :)

The track - by duo Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse - is now the most successful single released in Britain in over a decade, beating Tony Christie's '(Is This The Way To) Amarillo' which clocked-up seven weeks at number one last year.

Wet Wet Wet's chart topper 'Love Is All Around' is now ahead of Gnarls Barkley in recent chart history with its 15 weeks at number one in 1994.

http://www.nme.com/news/gnarls-barkley/23123

Amber and Alice were kinda 'unbothered' about it. So, the kids are alright.

why is christina milian not going to no 1?

Death to those who have a mortgage.

-- The Lex (alex.macpherso...), May 22nd, 2006.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

cause it's nowhere near as good as everyone on here is saying it is.

Come on! Milian for No 1!

it's going to be number one i reckon. SONG X!

sould still be their biggest hit i say. ROCKS was a 7.

tooting basement? that's not real is it?

Rhiannaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6899896.stm

make it stop!

make it stop!

why??

"Umbrella" gets actively worse and worse. At this point, I never want to hear it again, especially the fuxxing Chris Brown version.

^ this is how i'm starting to feel about 'buy u a drank'

this happened to me last year with "irreplaceable." song makes me want to crash my car.

nah, 'umbrella' is about as deserving a song as i can imagine for this kind of mammoth chart run. not remotely bored of it either.

I don't hear it that often to get irritated by it. I like it well enough.

It's more "IS THERE NOTHING ELSE?" for me.

Foo Fighters in "vereh old track makes top forty" shokka!

It somehow quietly relieves me to realise I am so out of the loop Ive never heard ANY of these songs (except for "crazy").

i would get tired of it if it weren't for that dynamite jay-z intro.

Kate Nash got jipped. Who else is next??

It somehow quietly relieves me to realise I am so out of the loop Ive never heard ANY of these songs (except for "crazy").

!

Freak Like Me is Richard X using the Sugababes to do a legitimate version of his Girls On Top mash-up We Don't Give A Damn About Our Friends - Gary Numan was fine with being sampled for the backing, but Adina Howard refused to clear her vocals, so whoever was in the 'Babes that week just covers the song. It's a very good pop record, probably technically a lot more polished than the mash-up but not as immediate.

Hung Up was huge here, amazed you've not heard this - #49 for the year in 2005 and #38 for 2006. Prominent ABBA sample, co-written and produced by JLC, possibly Madonna's best single ever.

Push The Button is a wilfully inoffensive Sugababes single, musically circular.

I dunno which Christina Milian song they're talking about, may not have heard it.

Hey Ya was ludicrously huge, here's a zillion ILX threads that mention it. Outkast's biggest single ever, off the Andre 3000 half of their split solo quadruple album. Breaks brain to conceive of you never hearing it.

S.O.S. is a big Rihanna single that samples the Soft Cell cover of Tainted Love, you might love or hate it for that.

Da Funk it's impossible you haven't heard. Daft Punk's first international single, flogged on JJJ ten years ago, dog with a boombox in the video, c'mon.

Where Is The Love is a terrible attempt at soulful relevance by Black Eyed Peas.Justin Timberlake sings on it but wouldn't appear in the video. Avoid.

A Little Less Conversation - chart-bothering remix of little-known Elvis song used in Ocean's movie.

You're Beautiful - allegedly ubiquitous post Coldplay/David Gray snorecrooner by James Blunt. I only saw it on chart TV rundowns though. Terrible.

X is by Xzibit, one of the less completely forgettable singles by Rove's non-pal. Not your thing I imagine, but thumbs up from here.

When Doves Cry though is by Prince and his gothiest hit ever. It is completely inconceivable to me that you haven't heard it, but you should check it out now anyway, pretend it's 1984, you'll love it.

Crazy In Love is a huge hit by Beyonce with a splendid guest verse by Jay-Z, built on a 70s soul/funk sample produced by Rich Harrison. It is excellent, you should check it out.

1 Thing is an even better hit by Amerie built on a 70s soul/funk sample produced by Rich Harrison. Still not your thing but so great I hope you would love it anyway.

Ignition (Remix). I bought the album to hear it because of this thread. The combination of the two on the album is one of the greatest musical events of the century. You'd probably hate it. But read the thread.

I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor is young person's energetic rock music by the Arctic Monkeys. It is not shit, unlike most everything else that fits that description on JJJ's playlists last year, but you're not missing anything.

Love Is All Around was a Wet Wet Wet cover of a Troggs song from some early-90s romcom, maybe Four Weddings and a Funeral. Tedious.

Everything I Do I Do It For You was by Bryan Adams and from some other movie a couple of years before. It's very awful

Buy U A Drank is typical of T-Pain's work, an R&B singer who uses Autotune as a stylistic effect rather than to correct minor errors, but all the time, as part of his style, unlike Cher's Believe. His material is generally slightly tongue-in-cheek, self-mocking sleazy loverman stuff. Fun but utterly disposable, but he's utterly aware of the latter himself. The title tells the story.

Irreplaceable is a rather good break-up-but-I'm-strong-and-moving-on-despite-it-all song performed by Beyonce and written by Ne-Yo. Has a great hook, and a remix with a verse by Ghostface. Give it a listen, you might appreciate right about nowish.

I skipped Dr C's list because I really really assumed you must have too.

great rundown, energy flash!

Yes, bloody impressive, amost swaggartian.

indeed

"I dunno which Christina Milian song they're talking about, may not have heard it."

the godhead 'dip it low', prolly.

Okay if Rihanna was to just go on and on and break Bryan Adams' record, would anyone outside ILM, Popjustice and the BBC Entertainment site actually notice?

i don't think the long run is a sign of stagnation. it felt more stagnant when there were 52 no. 1s a year.

i would get tired of it if it weren't for that dynamite jay-z intro.

waaht - way to praise the weakest link in the chain. it's so pointless.

nah it seemed pointless at first but it's so important and integral to the song's greatness. he's like a town crier sent out in advance to ready everyone for the impending splendour of the song. plus, gives one time to get to the dancefloor innit.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sarcasm

xpost

hahahahahaha

no lex, it's shit. the song is brilliant, but fucking hell jay almost ruins it.

can't believe Fergie is number 2 with THIRD single from last year's album

he's like a town crier sent out in advance to ready everyone for the impending splendour of the song.

he is doing the job of a radio dj.

there's no way jay almost ruins the song. even if you don't like it it's easy enough to ignore! and it's not it itself which is good, it's the way it gives you time to prepare yourself.

love the lovely fergie ferg, happy she's doing well. it's cos she's supporting timberlake right now innit

nah it seemed pointless at first but it's so important and integral to the song's greatness. he's like a town crier sent out in advance to ready everyone for the impending splendour of the song. plus, gives one time to get to the dancefloor innit.

i wouldn't say it's integral - the song would be fine without any male vocal presence ala 'Irreplaceable'. i do like the idea of putting a little rap at the start as announcement/warning but not if he's not going to re-appear again later on in the song - and the rap itself seems uninspiring and phoned in (as with several other Jay-Z appearances on tracks over the years inc. 'beware of the boys' and the linkin park stuff)

i would actually quite like it if kate nash topped the charts for 8 straight weeks; it would give me carte blanche to never take any sort of singles chart seriously ever again, and be pretty vocal about it too.

possibly Madonna's best single ever.

he's like a town crier sent out in advance to ready everyone for the impending splendour of the song.

offtm

steve it's all about the increase in satisfaction gained from both you and your dancing partner being ready, umbrella in hand, on the dancefloor for the line "you had my heart", rather than scrambling for position midway through the first verse

i mean obviously it's the least good bit of a song with no actual bad bits

i don't have a dancing partner :/
also i don't think i would ever dance with an umbrella - leave that to the aphex twin

kate nash = borderline crush of shame

"lil miss sunshine" makes up for the pointlessness of the intro.
It seems almost a certainty that Timbaland and Keri Hilson(!) or Groove Armada and Mutya will knock Rihanna off if not this week then next week, but I don't mind Umbrella's dominance at all. We've had the wettest summer in history and this song is the perfect soundtrack.

a-m and i did some rather wonderful contemporary interpretative dancing to 'umbrella' centre stage in the vip tent of the wild in the country festival the other weekend

timba and keri?? i love that song alone amidst the dreck which is the rest of the timba album, doesn't seem very number one-ish though. groove armada and mutya does, though it's not as good.

kate nash = just jack without the testicle

dare i ask what louis thinks of 'umbrella'?

off to youtube it is!

actually, i think i might be able to appreciate it. i've discovered, during my work as a chart-pop reviewer for my radio station, that it's possible to give a song a great review even if it isn't my sort of thing, if it does its job well and provides a decent pop experience. i've been known to hand out 5-star reviews to the likes of norah jones and the rapture on this premise. i will admit, quite a lot of stuff still gets one star and a devastating putdown.

All of Jay's guest appearances bore me lately. He should just call his next album "Still Rich as Fuck," because that's basically all his verses are about now, and that was a lot more fun to listen to coming from a guy scrapping his way to the top than from a guy who owns a basketball team.

timbo and keri at number 4 with cd release 2 weeks to go. groove and mutya at number 16 with cd release 2 weeks to go. Timbo and keri seems more likely, even though it doesn't sound number oneish (whatever that means).

Roman Abramovich is phoning in an intro to the next Beyonce single.

But Louis The Rapture are great!

I've not heard Umbrella either.

kate nash looks kind of girlish.

she is a girl

lex, this song has extremely noticeable distortion guitar. how has it passed the censor's scissors?

actually, it's a lot better than quite a lot of the chart singles i've heard recently. nice keyboard work, decent tune, the occasionally interesting vocal sample, and the aforementioned guitar. not bad!

actually, i was complemented by a man from the distributing company for my Rapture review. i have to say, the song was a heck of a lot better than I expected, and my review reflected my enthusiasm.

http://www.stylusmagazine.com/reviews/the-rapture/pieces-of-the-people-we-love.htm

maybe R Kelly and Usher can be #1 - it's probably not out until 2009 but the video is quite funny. song is quite bad tho, makes you wish they were just having an actual argument, swearing etc.

meanwhile i'll never understand how the same people who would take me to task for not having heard obscure old music, will proudly boast not only that they haven't heard the biggest current radio hit around, but that they're not interested because modern pop music simply isn't good enough for them any more

i mean, it's not as if i listen to radio ever, but do you not have the slightest curiosity about what the new single from a woman with a proven track record of great singles sounds like?

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Mark WILD" <m✧✧✧@wild✧✧✧.c✧✧>
To: "'A.J. Mill'" <sa✧✧✧.m✧✧✧@cur1✧✧✧.c✧.u✧>
Subject: FW: check this out
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2007 11:38:45 -0000

We liked this reaction to The Rapture. Kudos to whoever wrote it!

_____

From: Kr1st3r Gr33r [mailto:kris✧✧✧@wild✧✧✧.c✧✧]
Sent: 14 March 2007 15:45
To: D4v1d B4rcl4y; M4rk W0rk W41nwr1ght; D4v3 R0b3rts
Subject: check this out

Look at this reaction from one of the student radio stations to the new
Rapture single:

The digitised, skeletal percussion that opens 'People Of The Pieces They
Love' provides the framework for a magnificently minimal four minutes' worth
of electronic pop. With vocals that don't ostentatiously slather themselves
all over the song, the synth textures are allowed to dominate, and this is
where it becomes apparent that unlike most charting disco-pop bands. The
Rapture actually put some sort of an effort in creating a subliminally
enjoyable experience, a subtle and nuanced creation that relies as much on
the modulation of tone as the sexuality of its lead singer. Not to say that
the song doesn't have any immediacy to it; far from intellectualising the
whole process into soulless beat-making the Rapture start POTPWL with the
simplest of three-note baselines, gradually adding short, unobtrusive guitar
samples, backing vocal chants and wobbling synth lines until the vibrating
tension reaches an apex and the live drums can kick in, again without
massive fanfare but pungently enough to raise the track another level. The
bassline throws a couple of curveballs, the synths fragment into a brief
outro, and the song ends without fuss. The Rapture, on the strength of this
song, aren't here to sloganeer or jump on any passing fad, they're here to
give us music that we'll enjoy, music that bears repeating, and above all
music that does all the right things. 5 out of 5. CUR, CAMBRIDGE

*bask*

Not really, Alex, because my tastes at the moment are diverged massively from chart pop / r'n'b, and with no direct interface with chart pop I've no motivation to keep up for the sake of keeping up. I've abandoned the semi-journalistic impulse to know EVERYTHING that's going on, and instead I'm just investigating deeper the kinds of things I'm already interested in.

Also Louis totally beware of PR people 'praising' you. Just, y'know. Watch out.

Also Louis if you like that you'll LOVE the !!! album.=, which is like The Rapture's last album stretched out on psychedelics.

thanks for the tip...but what are these dangers you speak of?

is the danger that thoughtless praise will be received well but an intelligent criticism will be rejected by PR companies?

You are joking, I hope.

Well, there is that, but I was thinking more that they'd start hawking all types of untold shit at you in the hope that it's up your street, like 13 Senses' PR woman keeps pestering me just because they supported Embrace once.

?

just seeking a bit of clarification, that's all. apologies if i don't quite live up to your vast cranial intensity.

xpost to he of little patience

I've abandoned the semi-journalistic impulse to know EVERYTHING that's going on, and instead I'm just investigating deeper the kinds of things I'm already interested in

i can kind of understand this, because i pass over a mass of stuff without listening too, but i would be a bit afraid of my tastes settling into a rut then.

never ever give your phone number to PRs if you can help it.

but i would be a bit afraid of my tastes settling into a rut then

But Lex, don't you have a fairly well-established set of sonic preferences? (I'm not saying this is bad, I have mine after all.)

Ahem.

everybody has them

Hurrah for us.

even i've heard 'umbrella'.

Yeah but I live in the sticks, innit.

me too holmes

Not THAT far out, though?

naw. but you are probably closer to barbados than i am.

And New York.

quitney's home and uni locations are the exact reverse of mine AFAIK

it's complicated.

if you're undecided about killing yourself, the comments box here should help you:

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/music/2007/07/why_i_still_love_rihannas_umbr.html

Though the one YouTube link at the end there to "We Need a Resolution" was highly welcome.

Dorian looks very different to how i imagined - younger and snazzier

who could be embarrassed by 'umbrella'? "this country".

i'm glad 'they' failed to get Oasis 'Roll With It' to #1. people are now trying it with the Spice Girls 'Stop' so i heard the other week.

it's nearly 20 years since 'Anitina (The First Time I See She Dance)' was #1 - maybe we can all download that back to the top spot

Hahaha. Nice.

the top ten of ten years ago vs this week's:

1. Puff Daddy And Faith Evans - I'll Be Missing You
- never liked it for reasons that should be obvious (to all but the lex maybe) - certainly not as good as 'Umbrella'

2. Oasis - D'You Know What I Mean?
thing is i often do quite like big stupid epic rocky crap - this is mid-table in Oasis song league - NWA/Amen Brother drum sample = can't really hear it so whatever but it's more about the psychey guitars at the end - but probably not as good as 'Big Girls Don't Cry'

3. Gala - Freed From Desire
great tune, especially the definitive remix version by Mr Jack (who became Junior Jack according to discogs!) which is the epitomy of 1997 house music made in America (or so it sounds) for Ibiza. much much better than 'Foundations'

4. Coolio Featuring 40 Thevz - C U When U Get There
kinda cute and fun enough but what was the point of '40 Thevz'? OK but not as good as 'The Way I Are' is it

5. Ultra Nate - Free
if there was a more ambient mix where the guitar licks and strings just carried on for ages without the beat or vocals i'd like that. perhaps controversially i prefer the Arctic Monkeys single tho it's v close call.

6. Sash! Featuring Rodriguez - Ecuador
nothing to his debut single but still better than an Avril ballad, just

7. The Seahorses - Blinded By The Sun
HATE TEHM DESTROOOY (i heard 'Love Is The Law' for the first time this decade the other week), landslide win for NRQ and his ping pongs

8. Robbie Williams - Lazy Days
one of his best singles, better than 'Worried About Ray' if only because that song features the term 'tippy-toes'

9. Michael Jackson - History/Ghosts
not all that bad - comes down to whether you find Jacko scarier than the 'Teenagers' MCR whine about. MJ wins on penalties.

10. Changing Faces - G.H.E.T.T.O.U.T.
best title ever - very R Kels, the template hasn't really moved on in ten years or maybe this was just a little ahead of its time. just as sullen as emo Nats but slinkier and poutier ftw.

1997: 5 (snatching a draw from the jaws of defeat)
2007: 5 (a better top 5 than 97's but let down by the rest)

can we talk about "beautiful girls," the one with that 'SUICIDAL, SUICIDAL' chorus? it is on the radio a million fucking times a day, and it is SO DISGUSTING. i mean, i'm in a bus with my campers (yes, i'm a camp counselor LOL) and these 8 year olds know all the words to this song, going, 'suicidal, suicidal' and i just have no fucking idea how to tell them that it isn't really...well, suicide shouldn't be catchy? why do i object to it so much, other than its crassness?

it is well-produced, and has some nice weirdo doo-wop infuences that are sort of sweet. but...

You'd have loved when "Theme from MASH" was number one, then.

was gonna say. i think i remember asking someone (my mum maybe) what suicide meant.

I still expect Mr Lynskey to look like this; http://www.woodland-trust.org.uk/celebrities/images/ljoseph.jpg

It seems downloading has caused the charts to go slower. For some reason, people seem to wait longer before they download a song than before they buy the single.

Of course, the unnaturally fast UK charts of a few years ago were a result of this stupid policy to let singles cost less in their first week than in the rest of its life, meaning a single's highest chart position would usually be an indication of how well people liked the previous hit from the same act.

Yes, but that was to make the record 'ship' faster.

If all the sales happen in one week, the distribution of the single would happen once only.

Now, it's back to how stuff'd move around the chart, like the sixties, almost!

I think it's a good thing. The fast turnover of the late 90s was pointless, and gave very little space for the better songs, which would usually develop over time rather than race into the charts in their first week.

It seems downloading has caused the charts to go slower. For some reason, people seem to wait longer before they download a song than before they buy the single.

--

that can't be right can it? i'm prepared to believe it but it can't be 'right' right?

i think southall and matt dc are kind of right. umbrella is a good song, very good but it doesn't seem like a 9 week smash. it doesn't seem to have the all ages appeal of the likes of "crazy" or "i don't feel like dancing", the stuff that straddles radios 1 and 2. it's definitely in the blockbuster bracket of "sexyback" and "maneater" but neither of them spent so long at number one. i guess you'd have to see the sales figures but it's hard to know if it's the song itself or just paucity of competition that's giving it such a long run. if it's the song itself i guess that the big selling point is that it sort of combines the attributes of a "banger" and a "ballad" but by that reasoning “my love” would have been number one for nine weeks. possibly.

How am I right?! My entire contribution is along the lines of "not heard it, more into postrock than chartpop"?!

you are right in that it's very easy not to be aware of its existence.

Aha.

well it would be be if you preferred postrock to chartpop but otherwise waht

but by that reasoning “my love” would have been number one for nine weeks. possibly.

second single off released album, not released in Summer iirc, nowhere near as 'epic' sounding as 'Umbrella'.

it just doesn't seem very pervasive, admittedly when i come to think of it i have heard it in shops and a couple of tv idents. this measure the success of a song by how many times i hear it in a week idea may not be very useful tbh thou. also rihanna doesn't seem to be in the press that much. not being british puts her at one remove and she has yet to be a beyonce style megastar. possibly kind of hard to write broadsheet articles on. she was at live earth wasn't she?

Yes, she was in Tokyo.

gnarls barkley were hardly megastars either

but perhaps a lot easier to write about

Definitely. They had the whole 'first download #1' thing as well as being ex-celeb / trendy producer.

not easier to write about either, unless you need a gimmicky angle entirely unrelated to the music in order to profile an artist

and i'm aware that many do need this hook, but that's not my problem, and nor should it be yours

sure, i agree but as you say lots of writing does work this way. it's the paris/jarvis thing, the press often needs a gimmick to get in. i don't how this stuff works, is this to do with how articles are pitched?

it deserves to be number one for this long.

okay maybe not 9 weeks - it doesnt mean much beyond being a great song, but maybe thats enough these days.

"http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/music/2007/07/why_i_still_love_rihannas_umbr.html";

thats one of the worst pics of rihanna ive seen.

That eh eh eh bit of Umbrella unfortunately reminds me of the eh eh eh bit in Zombie by the cranberries, after which there's no hope for the song.

I miss CD UK and TotP. It is like chart pop is another genre that you have to keep up with, rather than just being the default that's always there.

Now that strikes me as a very salient point. What's chart pop's presence on mainstream TV now? There isn't really any, is there?

Gentrification, "Coffee Table", the 90s, Broadsheets, False Consensus and "The New Punk Rock"

I keep reading this thread title as "the charts are staggering again" and thinking Britney was spotted drunk or something.

No One Admits To Singing, Writing, Producing Nation's No. 1 Song

landslide win for NRQ and his ping pongs

waht

what are your 11 favourite songs of the moment, fuck

i think 'my love' is less likeable than 'umbrella'. i think it's a sad thing that cynical bullshit like 'don't feel like dancing' is deemed more family-friendly now. 'umbrella' is the only actual song out of the ones acrobat named. do people no longer value that?

grace jones 'pull up to the bumper' (12")
prince 'i feel for you'
ciara 'oh'
rihanna 'umbrella'
television 'see no evil'
nico 'i'll keep it with mine'
bass-o-matic 'fascinating rhythm'
...
oh BOTHERED

Ban That one guy that hit it and quit it.

Ban Don Derun.

good effort brau

typing out most recently played off itunes is not what ilx is for.

if i MUST discuss popular music with you year after year it helps to establish occasionally an understanding of your preferences in the contemporary domain of said medium.

i basically have a preference for things i hear and like. fortunately most bands do something to piss me off before i need to hear them. this saves time.

i basically have a preference for things i hear and like

illuminating

18 weeks - Frankie Laine, I Believe (1953)
16 weeks - Bryan Adams, (Everything I Do) I Do It For You (1991)
15 weeks - Wet Wet Wet, Love Is All Around (1994)
11 weeks - Slim Whitman, Rose Marie (1955)
10 weeks - David Whitfield, Cara Mia (1954)
10 weeks - Whitney Houston, I Will Always Love You (1992)

Source: Official UK Charts Company

ella, ella, ella, ey-ey-ey

7 weeks at number 1 for Mark Ronson in the Uk.

8 long weeks for Drake at number 1. 8 weeks!? longest run for a single in 9 years.

How does it go?

I can't remember the last time I paid attention to the charts... probably about 10 years ago or something. I always took more notice of the album chart, too.

It's been a minute for me, too. Are Wilson Phillips and Boyz II Men still a thing?

they're triple dating.

did "the sign" finally fall off the charts?

There's a special hell somewhere where that fucking Bryan Adams song is still number one, I'm sure.

this is nuts

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-36794105

Drake's single only topped the sales-only chart in the first three weeks of its reign. It's only the inclusion of streaming data (where 100 plays count as one sale) that has given him a lock on the number one spot. And that's something that's starting to worry the music industry, because now that the charts measure consumption rather than purchases, they have practically ground to a halt.

In the first six months of 2016, there were 86 new entries in the UK singles chart. Ten years ago, that figure was 230.

I noticed the other week that the top eight singles in the UK didn't change (not even order) over two weeks, which is... strange.

ten years ago the number of new entries only spending one week on the chart was probably also super high, so no use pretending the chart was problem-free then either. even 'big' hits would frequently enter at their peak and spend a pitifully short time in the top 10 for the majority of the digital music era until recently.

it's pretty common for the industry to have to adjust how it works its product after the charts undergo semi-radical methodological revisions. when soundscan and broadcast data systems numbers were first implemented for the hot 100 in 1991, the main finding was that, on the radio and retail sides, the strongest hits were both breaking much faster and sticking around much longer than would have been reflected by the old survey-based methodology. in order to keep 'playing the charts' as an effective means of marketing singles, some in the industry tried a bizarre series of strategies to try to manipulate the new methodology in their favor. others realized they could market songs to radio, and their parent albums to consumers, without the assistance of singles retail whatsoever. the result was that the hot 100 was both more and less representative of the current state of pop singles consumption for the greater part of the entire 1990s decade. by the time things were 'figured out' (around 1999) and the charts started seeing decent turnaround of singles that were actually popular, not just popular because labels wanted them to appear as such, the singles retail market was in its death throes due to the combination of unsustainable strategies the labels had assumed during those years.

i think this time around the industry won't have to bumble around as long to figure it out. or at least i hope. (they may very well kill the digital downloads market, though. r.i.p. itunes!)

Ed Sheeran. Number 1 AND 2 for 5 weeks straight.

His music's always been piss and shit, tbf.

Interesting thread here:

In a fitting end to the 2010s, Jeff Bezos is responsible for the last Number 1 Single of the year, Ellie Goulding's "River" (by Joni Mitchell).

Here's how:

1. You can't find it on Spotify, Apple, Google.
2. That's because - aside from Youtube - it's Amazon exclusive.

and...

— dan barker (@danbarker) December 28, 2019

wow, hadn't heard anything about that! Crazy story!

it was posted in the system glitch thread

https://www.billboard.com/charts/decade-end/hot-rock-songs

that's pretty grim. i can only handle about four of the top twenty.