Music Charts - What happened to them ?!

[anonymous-user]

Maybe I'm getting old, but do music charts still exist?!
I remember the charts being a big thing when I was a lad (back in the 70s), almost everybody knew who was at #1, or even the top few places! It was an important thing then.
Quite honestly I could not name 1 number 1 single or album this century, apart from knowing there were bound to be a few by X-Factor contestents or similar rubbish, during their 5 minutes of fame.

Heres a challenge:-

Name a number 1 album or single from this year, without looking it up! I bet you can't.

[vixen1700]

Jimboka said:

Quite honestly I could not name 1 number 1 single or album this century, apart from knowing there were bound to be a few by X-Factor contestents or similar rubbish, during their 5 minutes of fame.

Same here, probably the last time I knew a No.1 record was Wonderwall in '95.

I think it got to No.1...

[Whitester]

Jimboka said:

Heres a challenge:-

Name a number 1 album or single from this year, without looking it up! I bet you can't.

I really should know at least a few, but I can't name one.

[davepoth]

I can name a number 1 - the 2012 X-Factor winner. And that's exactly what's wrong with the charts.

[IanMorewood]

Lana Del Ray is number 1 in the album charts right now, MrsM bought a copy earlier this week.

[qube_TA]

There's so much more music now so there's multiple charts for each type.

Also with downloads it's impossibly screwed; the charts used to be how many copies of a 'single' or 'album' sold from Monday morning until Sunday when the record shops closed.

But now you can 'pre-order' a track from iTunes (or whatever) but the total sales are only counted when the thing is released. Therefore you can have pre-orders for 3 months, release the track just before the charts broadcast then blam! instant number one.

Also as any individual track (unless it's Pink Floyd) can be bought online there's no such thing as a single, or an album, just tracks and no-one cares any more.

when I talk to my son about music it's interesting as if he hears a track he likes he'll buy it on iTunes (or rip it from YouTube) and will play it. There's no concept really in his head of an album or even when something was made, it's just music so whether it's from the 60's or is brand new it doesn't register.

[anonymous-user]

qube_TA said:

.......when I talk to my son about music it's interesting as if he hears a track he likes he'll buy it on iTunes (or rip it from YouTube) and will play it. There's no concept really in his head of an album or even when something was made, it's just music so whether it's from the 60's or is brand new it doesn't register.

Mine are the same. I find it quite sad really, I'm sure they are missing out. Still I guess they can't miss what they never had!

[qube_TA]

for him new music = music he's just heard.

As there's always going to be more music that he's not heard, than music he has, he sees no point to paying any interest in a new release.

When I tell him tales of hearing a new song on the radio (usually Friday Rock Show), then excitedly getting the bus into town the next day to buy the new LP with my paper-round money, the whole concept is lost on him.

[bigd74]

i think the charts are irrelivent, singles used to be a promotion tool for the album that bands used to use, but now singles are free giveaway's prior to the albums release and the fact that album tracks can be downloaded and still count for the charts is just stupid, i haven't listened to them in years. plus i don't listen to 'chart' music anyway, sure i like new music but not chart music. i couldn't tell you what was in the top 20.

[Mojooo]

Back in the day - charts were pretty much a factual representation of what music people were buying as they were based on tape/CD sales.

Those days are long gone now and as there is so much variety out there I think the value of the charts has disappeared. very few songs sell 300k copies now in comaprison to 20 years ago i would guess.

[UnderTheRadar]

Mojooo said:

Back in the day - charts were pretty much a factual representation of what music people were buying as they were based on tape/CD sales.

Those days are long gone now and as there is so much variety out there I think the value of the charts has disappeared. very few songs sell 300k copies now in comaprison to 20 years ago i would guess.

I think this is very true. As a child of the 60's I used to be able to recite the top 10 every week. Times have moved on. We don't need the charts any more to tell us what is good. There are forums, even ones that are specfic to our tastes for that.

[onomatopoeia]

qube_TA said:

(usually Friday Rock Show)

Saturday rock show. I can remember driving friends home from the pub (as the sole car owner when we were teenagers, I was designated driver every weekend in my clapped out Marina) with that on when it still ran either side of midnight.

Memorable moment was Fluff dropping Mysterious semblance at the strand of nightmares in amongst a load of heavy metal early on a Sunday morning, I loved it, everyone else in the car was rather non-plussed

[Rev Limit]

They do, but are by no means an indication of the quality of the music!

[Hub]

vixen1700 said:

Same here, probably the last time I knew a No.1 record was Wonderwall in '95.

I think it got to No.1...

Number 2 I'm afraid!

I used to be really interested in the charts in the 90s to early 2000s, but am not so obsessed now. The charts still exist, but I guess people don't sit around the radio listening to them on a Sunday afternoon like they used to. The internet has made a lot more music accessible too, so it seems like there is much more out there than before.

Mojooo said:

Back in the day - charts were pretty much a factual representation of what music people were buying as they were based on tape/CD sales.

Those days are long gone now and as there is so much variety out there I think the value of the charts has disappeared. very few songs sell 300k copies now in comaprison to 20 years ago i would guess.

Singles sales are very high at the moment, download sales are actually pretty massive. Album sales on the other hand are dropping off a cliff!

[thehawk]

Jimboka said:

Maybe I'm getting old, but do music charts still exist?!
I remember the charts being a big thing when I was a lad (back in the 70s), almost everybody knew who was at #1, or even the top few places! It was an important thing then.
Quite honestly I could not name 1 number 1 single or album this century, apart from knowing there were bound to be a few by X-Factor contestents or similar rubbish, during their 5 minutes of fame.

Heres a challenge:-

Name a number 1 album or single from this year, without looking it up! I bet you can't.

Jessie J - Domino

Bizarrely the only one I can name this century, because I 'liked' her on Facebook and a status update car through saying her single had got to number one.

[Evangelion]

I don't think I can name a number one after about 1990.

(And the fact that I said 'about' shows how sketchy my knowledge was even then!)