Anyone else agree that the current chart is total crap?
The Madonna/Justin single sounds like an expensive buy - pay the hot producer Madge, get a hit - and has that awful late 90s video - spend the money Madge, you've got it.

Sam Sparro? More corporate crap. Black and Shit I say.

September? Bad dance from 15 years ago; Scandinavian photocopy music.

Estelle? OK but that same old rap, same old beat, same old duet, same old melody, same old manufactured rubbish.

Flo Rida - that same bloody beat again... for God's sake is there only one rhythm these days? And yet again that predictable, predictable rap.

At least we had some decent hits with Duffy and Leona (a real hit if the only one she'll probably ever have) and fat little Adele chasing her repetitive pavements and Black Kids (I liked that)...

But the current crop are really crap. Which indicates low sales. When sales dip the shit rises to the top.

You know what? I agree with you but I bet most visitors to this board haven't even heard most of the hits you allude to. I visit here and the Rope and the ROTD and the quality of posts has really deteriorated in the area of music.

I notice you have more topics on the other board and I think most visitors are more interested in US elections and miscarriages of justice and TV shows and food and social issues.

Some interesting views on all those.

The other sites really suffer through concentrating on music. Posts are moronic at best. No serious discussion about music.

The industry is falling apart and one of the main reasons is that there are so few people in it who know or care about the sounds.

Where are those who listen and still care?

Hi Toby;
I personally believe that all subjects talked about here fall into the entertainment category and if the music is having a less than good period, there is no need for the conversation to falter.

Charts? What are they .... ?

Hmm...

Madonna/Justin - sounds like a bad rehash of "Flash" by Queen with all that "we've got four minutes to save the world" stuff.

Sam Sparro - anyone, even me, could have done this on a basic Argos synth set; push button A, insert preprogrammed sound B, and I don't think this was what the punks had in mind when they said anyone could do it.

September - standard issue Eurodance; fodder for dodgy Fulham winebars.

Estelle - have to disagree with you about this one JK; I think both single and album are great and she's got a fair point about the disparity between exposure for black and white music in the current media (I'm afraid the whipped-up passion for all those Brit School wannabes has passed me by entirely).

Flo Rida - they bring a whole new meaning to the word "dull."

What strikes me about all of these, and too many other records, is that, with the possible exception of Estelle, none of these records sounds as though they HAD to be made, as though the artist had something to express within the song.

My favourite "single" of the moment - "Machine Gun" by Portishead; sounds like nothing else by anyone ever and it won't be everyone's cup of char but at least they are doing something different.

The best music is now being made outside the chart :

New Bands worth hearing :

MINUS IQ
FOXCUBS
EDUCATED ANIMALS
THE GRAMS

ROAD TO V BAND LIKELY TO WIN THIS COMP

IMPERIAL LEISURE

MTV "Get Seen and Get Heard" BAND I WANT TO WIN

THE VOLT


ACOUSTIC ACTS WORTH CHECKING

JESS MORGAN ( Amazing voice - twice that of Adele and Duffy !! Seriously amazing live )
GARETH ICKE ( wonderful vibe and recent finalist in the Unsigned comp )

Loads of good stuff out there - the charts have died.

I'll add a band I saw tipped on here to your list, Fitzpain:

www.myspace.com/fitzpain

Does anyone really care about the charts anymore? I think not. "Hits" and great music? I think so.

Charts as irrelevant as physical copy in the new era.

It's probably just habit that makes me check the charts on ceefax every Sunday evening. It's years since I actually listened to the rundown. The last time I tried the sounds were so repetitive that it became quite agonising. Then I dropped into the 'Official Top 40' show The Hits channel (Freeview TV) when Kenny Rogers' 'The Gambler' was in, only to see them skip over it because they didn't think it really fit with all the rest.

I like to think the charts are not dead, just sleeping. Although I don't think they'll ever recaprure the old glory days.

Well, I think you've nailed the problem there - the suffocating demographics of the modern media programmed to iron out anything that's remotely different or doesn't "fit in" with a notional audience which actually doesn't exist (see also my previous rant about Pick Of The Pops which ruthlessly eliminates anything from any given year which doesn't fit in with what a Sunday Radio 2 audience expects, whether it's Donald Peers or Altern 8).

Sorry guys, but I have to disagree....
The charts may not have reached the peak of the late 1960s and mid 1990s (in my view when they were at their absolute zenith), but I think you have singled out some particular current dross, and not really done the same for other periods.
There are some great bands in the charts these days, The Enemy, The Courteneers, Guillemots, Pigeon Detectives etc, and even some pop records by the likes of Sugababes and Girls Aloud have excellent production.
And isn't it great that a single (after 10 years of immediately hitting top spot and then disappearing rapidly), now climbs to number one and stays there for longer than seven days!

Like 'broadside', I disagree with the idea that the charts are in a worse state than recent years.

As someone who was a teenager during the mid-90s (peak? I guess you're entitled to your opinion broadside), I have never seen charts as dynamic as those of recent years. Nor have I seen such perfect throwaway pop as Rihanna, Timbaland, Basshunter, September or production value gold akin to recent Sugababes and Girls Aloud* releases.

*Admittedly, the latest Girls Aloud release 'Cant Speak French' is dire but like the post-umbrella Rihanna tracks, the fact that album-filler material can find its way into the charts is refreshing.

I must say that I have bought some excellent new singles recently though, although they , as is the curse of anything I buy, seem not to be making it huge.
I adore Terra Naomi and We are Scientists.

Well, after broadside and poster27, it may be that we are simply suffering the dreaded "they didn't make it like this in our day" disease!

Having said that, Dale Winton played the chart from 1970 yesterday and it was awful - full of rubbish (some gems though - Bridge Over Troubled Water... Spirit In The Sky...)

Over the weekend, we have developed a Classic Gold listening habit over brekkie.

Where on earth are they finding this stuff?
I`m hearing minor obscure hits from the 80`s all the time, very nostalgic and indeed enjoyable but are they a lower PPL rate to play or something?

I seem to recall that one of our posters was a Classic Gold guy and we would love to know how the station works.

The other thing I noticed this morning, was when they played a Gloria Estefan track.
She always had a superb band and they worked very hard, but on "The Rythm(?) Is Going to Get you", it actually sounds like a bunch of loops and samples.
Obviously very high profile and a wonderful lady(gorgeous), but did they actually really recoup or live on the credit that the high budget industry supplies?

I`m sure Tony James has a view on this issue.

1981 wasn't much better, and that's one of my all-time favourite years

The year of Adam and the Ants, the Human League, "Ghost Town" and "O Superman" and he plays the flipping (sic) Nolans!

Oh dear, 1981 was the year of Oh Superman, Birdie Song and Stars on 45!! But it did have the wonderful Shakin Stevens, dear old Cliff and the spine tingling Vienna by Ultravox.

and it was those gems that made the all difference. They are still around but do not, generally, make the charts anymore.