1 KAISER CHIEFS... I really don't like Ruby
2 MIKA
3 (15) KELIS FT CEE LO
4 AKON
5 FRAY... Dave Matthews lite
6 JUST JACK
7 (24) SOPHIE ELLIS BEXTOR
8 GWEN STEFANI
9 TAKE THAT
10 FALL OUT BOY
11 (14) JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE
12 (17) GOSSIP


ALBUMS

4 (105) FRAY

EXHAUSTING!!!

I now have to trawl through You Tube to find and hear the hits because no radio station plays them (quite rightly in most cases - it strikes me the bloody majors are still at it and hyping like crazy, stupidly thinking the money is better spent on street teams buying up iTunes than in finding genuinely populist music).

We have bought three of the songs on physical here in that chart for our own usage, which is not a bad pointer I feel for the industry to look at, music made for kids and bought and enjoyed by the parents.
This is a notable change in trend this century as the younger generation are not bothered how old their favourite acts are either.
Much as I`m not an X-factor fan, they certainly create cross generation music.

JK2006 wrote:
EXHAUSTING!!!

I now have to trawl through You Tube to find and hear the hits because no radio station plays them (quite rightly in most cases - it strikes me the bloody majors are still at it and hyping like crazy, stupidly thinking the money is better spent on street teams buying up iTunes than in finding genuinely populist music).

I think you're wrong. Most of the Top 10 are there because of genuine appeal. Exposure is no longer confined to Radio airplay. In fact, I not only think you're not only wrong, I think you're lookin out of touch, which surprises me, as I didn't think you were.

To stengthen my point, record companies are only interested in week 1's chart position, but the Top 10 is looking decidely slow at changing. (Or are you suggesting record companies are changing - Now that would be hard to believe!!)

Ah Dixie, sadly I have evidence that the majors are "changing" in that they are still hyping the chart (via iTunes) but have not realised the charts have no impact at all anymore.

They are buying chart positions (and Awards) to illustrate to their bosses (and shareholders) how good they are - the bottom lines (red) don't surface until they have had their bonuses.

But I MAY be out of touch. I am 62 after all!

Having said that I had to explain to a much younger top industry exec yesterday what an AGGREGATOR is.

1 KAISER CHIEFS... I really don't like Ruby
Me neither.

2 MIKA
Love this though.

3 (15) KELIS FT CEE LO
And this, especially good.

4 AKON
Can't see what it is with this guy.

7 (24) SOPHIE ELLIS BEXTOR
Is she back? Seriously?! Oh dear.

8 GWEN STEFANI
Other than being a change from her normal stuff, this is actually a great little pop song. She's gone up in my estimation, I thought the last two rip off's were dreadful.

10 FALL OUT BOY
"This ain't a city, it's a god damn arse face".

I had to google the lyrics to find what they really are! Good tune though, very American.

11 (14) JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE
I think he's terrible now. His first songs, Cry Me A River and others that don't come to mind right now were great. He reminds me of RW, taken over his own writing and now the songs are poo.

As I said, I don't think you are out of touch. But I still don't think there is any big wholesale hyping of the charts by Record Companies - but I do think "other interested parties" are buying their artists music via I-Tunes and other digital retailers.

Fancy somebody not knowing what an Aggregator is! I thought everybody knew it was a person who worked in farming.

Chart fixing/hype or not the chart does seem increasingly redundant. I've not heard people talk about the "No1" for some time.

(It would be more surprising if the record companies weren't getting involved - directly or at arms length)

As for songs being in the chart on genuine appeal - the sales are so low it's hard to tell.

I don't think TOTP going killed it, it's more TOTP died from lack of sustenance.

PS. Isn't an aggregator a crocodile like creature found in Florida?