When did you last pay attention to the UK Music Top 40?

[Guest]

I haven't listened to the charts in yonks. I think the last time I knew who had the number one spot it was probably someone like Take That - the last number one I liked I honestly wouldn't even know. Probably my favourite last number one was probably Royals by Lorde.

 

Do you listen to music in the Top 40? What was the last Number One that you remember being good?

[Section_31]

When top of the pops finished. Don't understand it now, downloads and all that bollocks plus you can get a number 1 if your nan and five mates buy it.

[Pete]

Probably the last time we won the league prior to last season. And I was 16 then. 

[Strontium]

The music charts ceased to have any relevance when they stopped releasing singles on a physical medium. Once upon a time you had to make the effort to venture into a record store to purchase a track, and that actually meant something. Nowadays all you have to do is watch a video on YouTube or stream a song on Spotify. Pointless.

 

 

[Mudface]

1 minute ago, Pete said:

Probably the last time we won the league prior to last season. And I was 16 then. 

Even earlier than that for me, probably 1986 or so. Greed fucked it up, why bother with a £2.50 single when you can get the whole album for a fiver? Plus there were weird 'loopholes' like that Iron Maiden song that went straight to number 1 despite selling fuck all, simply because it was released in Christmas week. Going straight to no 1 was really quite rare, it soon became commonplace and the whole thing collapsed in on itself.

[Pete]

3 minutes ago, Mudface said:

Even earlier than that for me, probably 1986 or so. Greed fucked it up, why bother with a £2.50 single when you can get the whole album for a fiver? Plus there were weird 'loopholes' like that Iron Maiden song that went straight to number 1 despite selling fuck all, simply because it was released in Christmas week. Going straight to no 1 was really quite rare, it soon became commonplace and the whole thing collapsed in on itself.

That was ace.

it knocked Cliff off Number one and pissed my mum and all her friends off immeasurably.  The best thing was for a Maiden track it’s really poor. 

[Harry's Lad]

Haven't bothered with the charts in over 30 years.

I hate all that manufactured shite. Girl bands, boy bands, Pete Waterman, Louis Walsh and Simon fucking Cowell at al have destroyed music imo.

It's all the same rubbish over and over again.

Anything original or decent just doesn't get airplay.

All the radio stations play the same stuff repeatedly, local radio in particular, (fucking Bauer Media).

So no, I don't pay attention to the top 40.

 

 

[Bruce Spanner]

Since birth I’ve only ever listened to industrial noise filtered through a Moog 365 proto synth with Scott Walker free styling over the top, so I have no idea what you’re taking about.

 

They have charts, for popularity? 
 

Mad.

[Mudface]

8 minutes ago, Pete said:

That was ace.

it knocked Cliff off Number one and pissed my mum and all her friends off immeasurably.  The best thing was for a Maiden track it’s really poor. 

It was funny, but it just demonstrated how easy it was to manipulate the charts by then. I remember being really excited when The Jam went straight in at no 1 a few times in the early '80s, it was a real event (and awestruck when they had 6 or 7 singles in the top 40 when they broke up). By the early '90s, it seemed it was just de rigeur for stuff to fly in at no 1, then vanish within a couple of weeks. 

[Strontium]

9 minutes ago, Mudface said:

By the early '90s, it seemed it was just de rigeur for stuff to fly in at no 1, then vanish within a couple of weeks. 

 

Ah, that was because singles would be discounted in the first week of sales. Record companies were obliged to sell singles at a certain unit cost; however the first order would often be discounted, like a buy one get one free sort of deal. So your typical CD single would retail for £1.99 in the first week of sale rather than the usual £3.99.

 

When they stopped record companies offering freebies, that was the beginning of the end for physical singles sales.

 

I used to go to HMV and Virgin religiously every Monday so I could buy the latest 12" dance singles, because I knew they'd be more expensive if I left it to a later date.

[YorkshireRed]

Probably late 80’s but I do remember registering an interest temporarily again when Blur beat Oasis to the top spot with Country House.
 

Since then I’d struggle to answer the question, on any given week, as to what is the current No.1. I’d hedge my bets by responding; “something shit”. Most weeks that would be about right. 

 

[Trumo]

Probably in the mid-90s. Not because the music was especially decent back then (as ever, most of it was absolute cack) but because where I worked on Sunday afternoons, they used to have the radio on. Some weeks it was local radio (so Dr Fox pretending to like Robson & Fucking Jeromeor Take That), and others it was Radio 1. I remember the week of the Oasis v Blur 'chart battle', even the news was only going on about those two, so it was as if sales of other songs were not being counted, or they just didn't bother to put them on sale. Ah the days of Our Price and Virgin Megastore!

[Section_31]

55 minutes ago, Stront19m Dog™ said:

The music charts ceased to have any relevance when they stopped releasing singles on a physical medium. Once upon a time you had to make the effort to venture into a record store to purchase a track, and that actually meant something. Nowadays all you have to do is watch a video on YouTube or stream a song on Spotify. Pointless.

 

 

Spot on that. Also, buying an album is a lost art now. Albums on vinyl used to be smaller than on CD so the quality of the songs that made the cut was higher, they'd also often be complete stories and the album artwork was part of it.

 

As CDs and then streaming became the norm it became more a case of cherry picking what you liked, dipping in and ignoring the rest, also less exposure to new music and songs that you might not normally have chosen to listen to.

[johnsusername]

It's shite. Cockneys on council estates singing shitty r and b in West Indian accents. The state of British music. 

[easytoslip]

Early 70s sagging school on the Ralla I suppose,Radio Some of it was good though. 

[Elite]

Never been interested.

[Juniper]

Probably the mid 90's 

 

Not paid attention to the charts since around then.

[sir roger]

At the risk of becoming trendy at 60 I download the top 40 from Sky most weeks to play it on my tablet on the treadmill, so can inform you troglodytes that Cardi B and somebody else I can't remember are top of the charts.

 

All a bit different from using a cassette recorder and two twitchy fingers to record it back in the day.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, sir roger said:

At the risk of becoming trendy at 60 I download the top 40 from Sky most weeks to play it on my tablet on the treadmill, so can inform you troglodytes that Cardi B and somebody else I can't remember are top of the charts.

 

All a bit different from using a cassette recorder and two twitchy fingers to record it back in the day.

Ha! Indeed the current number one is "WAP" by Cardi B featureing Megan Thee Stallion. (Yes, I've never heard of the cunt either)

[Mudface]

20 minutes ago, sir roger said:

At the risk of becoming trendy at 60 I download the top 40 from Sky most weeks to play it on my tablet on the treadmill, so can inform you troglodytes that Cardi B and somebody else I can't remember are top of the charts.

 

All a bit different from using a cassette recorder and two twitchy fingers to record it back in the day.

Don't punish yourself so much...

[Bjornebye]

The last charts of the 90's. Was it the lords prayer by cliff richard that won? Imagine came 3rd as a re-entry? Nothing mattered after that. 

[Scott_M]

Was “Take A Look Around” by Limp Bizkit number 1 or 2?

 

Anyway, then. 
 

2000?

[Mudface]

1 minute ago, Scott_M said:

Was “Take A Look Around’ by Limp Bizkit number 1 or 2?

 

Anyway, then. 
 

2000?

It was fucked beyond belief way before then. Sadly.

[Scott_M]

1 minute ago, Mudface said:

It was fucked beyond belief way before then. Sadly.

That was the last time I cared anyway.

 

What year was RATM Xmas #1? 2011?

Probably the last above shit song to top the charts (and obviously it’s well above shit, it’s fucking great).

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Scott_M said:

That was the last time I cared anyway.

 

What year was RATM Xmas #1? 2011?

Probably the last above shit song to top the charts (and obviously it’s well above shit, it’s fucking great).

Was that released to stop one of the x factor winners from getting Christmas number 1?