It used to be the best marketing tool in our music business as well as indicating which projects deserved greater investment and continuing development.
Now it means nothing to anyone and only the Number One provokes a small amount of media coverage.
Doesn't anyone care?

If it didn't die a long time ago. The Singles Charts, Radio One and TOTP were all critically linked and when one fell it brought the others down too. It's not just my age telling me that the whole of the pop media is a pale, thin shadow what it used to be in the 1970s.

I still recall the words of one kid in the early 1980s who said that when he was "little" pop stars were superstars, but "now" they are "just like everyone else". As sung by the Rezillos - "Everybody's on Top of the Pops".

For a while, this new open house world of pop was exciting; but it soon developed the same drabness as Russia after the fall of the Romanovs. Everyone being equal became a bore.

There was a slight revival of the old pop enthusiasm brought about, in no small way, by The Spice Girls and Hanson, but soon we fell back into the doldrums.

Pop music, and the charts, needs to be fuelled by notable individuals who will enthuse about the music to the extent of Jimmy Saville or DLT. Presenters and Performers need to be, once again, larger than life. There was a time when, if three Radio One DJs walked down a high street together it was a Main Event. Now, who'd even know or care?

Remember when Tiger Feet sold 9 million? Remember how it sparked a new dance craze? Remember how the kids talked about it in class, and listened to their radios under the bedclothes at night? Pop music was dynamite!

Okay .... the point is, yes sales of singles have diminished dramatically. Most kids have more money and go straight for the albums section. They know that if you buy one album, it will include maybe 5 singles and cost no more than 2. There's no real incentive to buy singles, and no enthusiasm to create any incentive. Singles are mainly used as promos for albums.

It's going to take a dramatic change of attitude, all round, to revive the Singles Chart.

There's no real incentive to buy singles, and no enthusiasm to create any incentive. Singles are mainly used as promos for albums.I personally believe that digital singles will change this. Labels still need to get their act together and provide the kids with what they want WHEN they want it. Kids want to be the first to get a new in tune, if it's being released 3 months down the line a lot won't wait, they'll get it illegally.

I still recall the words of one kid in the early 1980s who said that when he was "little" pop stars were superstars, but "now" they are "just like everyone else". As sung by the Rezillos - "Everybody's on Top of the Pops".I think televising the process of building a pop band/artist was the final nail in the coffin as far as this goes. Yes, everyone knew that it was manufactured but it didn't matter... maybe people still believed that these people were something special? But then when it was opened up for the world to audition, suddenly these people _are just bods off the street.

The gutter press doesn't help either. All they want to do is uncover the shit and bring them down. I remember when it was more positive, yes they would tell you about their past but end with how well they've done to put it all behind them.

I think a decent, clever, accurate guide to POPULARITY is incredibly useful both to US (we all tend to want to believe in our own projects and need regular reality checks) and to the media (who really IS getting attention?) which, eventually, means better music sells and is played.
A good chart helps weed the garden.

JK, your Pop-I idea is good but I think it has a few flaws:

- Doing it by snail-mail seems dated to me.
- Getting people to fill anything in like that is always a problem, particularly every week. It becomes a chore.

I like the way LastFM works (if my understanding of it is right). You download a plugin for media player, winamp etc. Then every time you play a song it's sent to their database, this is totted up for their chart.

If radio was more interactive and you could choose what you want to hear and music was streamed, not downloaded and kept, this method would be great.