50 Years Is A While: Billboard Top Ten 8/31/1974 vs. 8/31/2024

I was all set to reflexively vote for 1974, but that is a pretty lame Top 10 with one or two exceptions. I like "Espresso"...no vote!

Admittedly I don't know everything on the '74 list, but the '24 list has four outright bangers (#s 4, 6, 7, 8) and another few that I won't change the station on. Definitely like this year's model better.

that 1974 list is triggering

Rufus, Roberta Flack, and Barry White are good, the other tracks are terrible

Yeah I almost hit '74 too, but I think this year's has more songs I'd be happy to hear right now (4, 5, 6, 7) than 1974 (3, 5, 9).

mid-70s was a pretty terrible time for the pop charts. "tell me something good" is an all-time classic. but so is "not like us." baseline of quality is higher this week imo.

But 3, 5, and 9 from 1974 still sound good after 50 years so good luck with that, Class of ‘24

The worst of 2024 (Shaboozy and Post Malone) is worse than the worst of 1974 (Clapton).
The best of 2024 (Kendrick) is better than the best of 1974 (Barry White)

I guess 2024 wins the tiebreaker, I don't love the Eilish or Carpenter songs but they're better than the rest of 1974.

Speaking of 1974, Sabrina Carpenter should make a record with Mary Chapin Carpenter. I'm just not sure what they could call themselves.

some funny imagined dialogue in these song titles

post malone should cover "having my baby," i'd give it a listen

"Having My Baby" is abysmal, worse than anything in 2024.

aww i doubt that having your baby is that bad...

*norman rockwell meme* i like the shaboozey song

"Having My Baby" is unacceptable

A story in 3 acts:

The Night Chicago Died
I Shot the Sheriff
Tell Me Something Good
Feel Like Makin' Love
Rock Me Gently
Can't Get Enough of Your Love
Having My baby
Wildwood Weed
I'm Leaving It (All) Up To You
You and Me Against the World

From the '74 list I'd save Roberta Flack, Barry White, Rufus, maybe Helen Reddy.

I didn't expect the '24 list to surpass it.

The Anka song is an automatic forfeit, add the Clapton and it doesn't matter who the supporting cast is, the ship is going down

*norman rockwell meme* i like the shaboozey song

I don’t hate it or tbrr the Post Malone song, I understand what they’re doing and why they’re big hits. I also think they’re kinda lazy and obvious, but lazy and obvious aren’t mortal sins for summer singles.

i have a lot of residual fondness for the original j-kwon song, and i find shaboozey's voice soothing. so i don't mind that it's on every station all the time. tho i do get being annoyed by the song, because it really is on every station all the time

It's like Hey-Ho&B

i really like the shaboozey song too

i hate post malone's elmer fudd vocals and it annoys me that the entirety of the nashville apparatus has lined up to revive his career + that it actually worked, much less that the big smash from it sounds like some generic 2010 keith urban album track

i wonder if i'm the only person on ilm who kind of likes post malone. i had made up my mind i hated him because of his fanbase but then someone i'm close to played me a few of the songs from around the time when he blew up, and i had to concede they were pretty good. also this person met him in a service job capacity and reports he was genuinely decent and down to earth. mr. malone has a ranch or something up the canyon from where i live. anyway i'm not dying to check out the new songs but i'm sure i'll hear them at some point? not really in my wheelhouse atm.

i did finally hear the shaboozey song and tbh it makes me wonder if the "depresso #1 hit" phenomenon has finally jumped the shark.

Is that by Sabrina the Teenage Witch Carpenter?

what is wrong with post malone's fans? i just like very little of his music

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

“Having My Baby” is a show stopper, I can admit that. A “pro-life” song in the wake of Roe v Wade. Kind of ugly.

That damn baby would be 50 now, with probably questionable politics.

"The seed inside ya baby, do you feel it growin'?"

What a gross song. Looking at Paul Anka circa '74 doesn't help the case.

https://img.youtube.com/vi/SFHWl-ZyRAg/0.jpg

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Correct.

Nothing on the 2024 chart is as good as "Tell Me Something Good", but nothing on the 2024 chart is as awful as "Having My Baby". The outlier on the 1974 top ten is Jim Stafford -"Wildwood Weed", the only entry here where I'd never heard of either the song or artist, so I had to listen to it. It's kind of annoying but also kind of amusing; I miss the times when an oddball like this could make the Top 10.

The top five this summer was full of oddballs ("Million Dollar Baby").

To some extent, but somehow "Million Dollar Baby" doesn't jump out from the crowd the way "Wildwood Weed" does, which doesn't sound remotely like a typical mid-'70s pop song, whereas MDB fuses numerous current and retro strands of R&B, Southern trap, and various pop/r&b styles into something catchy and somewhat off the beaten path, but not something that would make me wonder if the pop radio station I heard it on had changed formats if they played it.

So by mid-November 1974 the whole top ten had turned over, with Lennon's "Whatever Gets You Through the Night" at #1--while the 2024 top ten still has 6 six of the same songs from the list we polled.