The UK's Most Played Pop Songs Of The Past 5 Years Are...

almost interesting thing about this:

less than half of the aforementioned songs got to #1

two longest-running #1s, 'Umbrella' and 'Crazy' not up there

A good reason why the charts should never be measured on airplay only methinks

wait wait wait

how, considering in 2005 I lived in Canada where cancon legislation means we get an overload of our own shitty radio pop/rock, did I not ever hear this Daniel Powter song? I even worked at HMV at the time for chrissake, so surely I would've been subjected to it... maybe he just didn't make it on our own charts? maybe I have a selective memory?

I did manage to go a few years without ever hearing that James Blunt song, though.

"Daniel Powter's track Bad Day has been the most played song in the UK over the last five years, the society that collects royalties says.

Kelly Clarkson's Because of You was the second most played"

This is a little bit like when ppl realised the Beautiful South had become Britain's biggest selling band without them noticing, but at least they had had some profile.

daniel who's bad what?

I don't think I've heard Because Of You!

Or indeed the Corinne Bailey Rae song.

Do ALL the commercial radio stations have the same playlist? That would explain a few of these songs. Get played on R1,Virgin and Commercial Radio and you're laughing.
Please NEVER EVER have a chart based on airplay.

There's a charity shop I visit twice a week, without fail, spending perhaps 30 minutes or so in the shop, total (for the two visits). They always have Virgin FM, Heart FM or something similar blaring out and the one song that is almost guaranteed to come up EVERY TIME I'm in there is the Take That one. I'm not exaggerating. Gary Barlow's PRS royalties must be colossal.

Some of the others mentioned above have been featured regularly as well but it's the Take That which is the killer for me (when I hear it opening up for the thousandth time).

i like half the songs and hate the other half

These songs are generally much better than the crap that sells to the kids. About time a huge airplay element is reflected in the charts.

less than half of the aforementioned songs got to #1

two longest-running #1s, 'Umbrella' and 'Crazy' not up there

Airplay reflect the taste of the album buyers. There are way more of them than of the single buyers.

Airplay reflect the taste of the album buyers.

What? Airplay reflects the taste of record labels, PR companies, and radio conglomerates.

Airplay reflects how fucking boring most radio stations are by playing a limited amount of songs all the fucking time.
Charts should be based on what people are buying, not airtime bought by record labels.
x-post

the crap that sells to the kids

Geir = 100 years old?

Airplay reflect the taste of the album buyers.

Tell it to Scooter and Darren Styles

plus Rihanna's album is surely one of the biggest sellers of the last year

another thing: considering this is accounting for the last FIVE years, how come all the songs in the top 10 are all from the last 2 and a half years?

wouldn't songs from the 2 and a half years before that have been played just as much during that time (if not so much since)? or are daytime playlists just shrinking further and further?

oh 'Leave Right Now' is from that time - but you'd think it would be more evenly spread across all five years

I think the playlists may be shrinking. I spent a week last summer driving around the UK and listened to A LOT of radio. It seemed impossible to ever hear more than 10 different songs in a day. (Although to be fair I may be counting the 5 snow patrol songs that were in rotation as one song, but still).

"Bad Day" is my least favorite song of the last 20 years.

"Because of You" I could hear daily (in the supermarket) and not mind.

the james blunt song is far worse than bad day

Of course radio stations playing a lesser and lesser number of songs is no good thing. But as for buying place? Why wouldn't the people behind Rihanna buy as much space as the people behind more grownup oriented acts?

This is rather mainly a matter of the listeners' taste. But it is always safer to play somebody that everyone is indifferent towards (such as Katie Melua, or James Blunt before people got really sick of him) instead of something that some people may love but a large number of particularly somewhat older listeners hate (rap, R&B, boybands, dance and metal in general).

I've never heard "Bad Day" on the radio, but I have heard it all the time in stores, fast-food restaurants, etc.

You also need to consider that the popularity of typical album acts isn't reflected in the singles/tracks lists if they go by downloading and singles sales alone. For instance, acts such as Coldplay, Travis, Norah Jones and Katie Melua are a lot more popular than the singles/downloads statistics may suggest, as most of those who are into those tend to buy full CDs rather than singles/tracks.

bad day is used in a tv advert here.

Daniel Powter was all "Oh I'm sick of this song and I'm about much more than this" when it hit.

Oh, and of course Geir is right about the mass/commercial radio tending towards the indifferent. Witness this list, which is bereft of anything actually worth hearing again and again...

Note that this is seen as a general reason why New Kids On The Block faded towards the end of their career. Their music was in reality quite inoffensive and indifferent and fitted heavily into radio. But at the height of their popularity there were so many people who hated them to such a degree they would change the station once a NKOTB song came on the air. Which is why radio stations stopped playing them altogether.

Steve - there are a lot more radio stations in the UK than there were two years ago. The playlists may also be shrinking, I dunno - it's a long time since I listened to Magic or Heart.fm or whatever to check.

This is just a reflection of the increasing tunnel vision of UK radio stations, all of whom are chasing the same narrow audience demographic rather than trying to find (or invent) a new one. It doesn't surprise me that "Crazy" and "Umbrella" do not appear, since these stations operate on what is essentially a racist basis to cater for people who only like black music when it's 30-40 years old or whitened to Corinne Bailey Rae levels.

Internet nerds surprised normal people like different records to them shocker.

Yes, "internet nerds" not "normal people," take them out and gas them, they are UNMUTUAL!

Idiot.

The People like those two records cited.

The radio stations don't, or are a feared they might lose listeners.

Is the point, right?

See, if you like "Umbrella", chances are you might not be interested in buying a sofa, right?

(is wrong, obviously...)

The radio stations probably fear they'll get the "wrong" sort of listeners.

I would expect if you're driving your kids to school/driving to work in the morning listening to interesting music would divert your attention from the road and possibly cause serious accidents.

Steve - there are a lot more radio stations in the UK than there were two years ago.

there are? like what?

whitened to Corinne Bailey Rae levels

Please stop criticising black artists for not being black enough, I know you think it's terribly progressive but it's actually kind of insulting.

there are? like what?

LOL Internets FM

Please stop being a tedious, canting bore (xp).

http://www.mission.net/venezuela/caracas/images/caracas2.jpg

Note that this is seen as a general reason why New Kids On The Block faded towards the end of their career. Their music was in reality quite inoffensive and indifferent and fitted heavily into radio. But at the height of their popularity there were so many people who hated them to such a degree they would change the station once a NKOTB song came on the air. Which is why radio stations stopped playing them altogether.

This is rubbish. They were a tween-orientated boyband - nobody expected them to last more than 3 years or so anyway.

Hang on, are you saying Geir posted something rubbish?

Musical taste has absolutely nothing to do with racism, thus the preferred format of Virgin Radio is not racist. They will play Lenny Kravitz, they will not play Justin Timberlake. Thus, not racism.

I can't believe the mods delete C+P lulz but let this fucking shit stay on the site

They were a tween-orientated boyband - nobody expected them to last more than 3 years or so anyway.

Westlife are still around, 9 years on from their breaktrough. And I guess partly because they are more musically MOR than any boyband before them - thus fitting perfectly into any MOR format.

Westlife got next to no airplay beyond Magic FM