Remember years ago I predicted that the hyping of the chart (which I started in the 70s but which then lost all control and sense when all the majors piled in) would mean the chart lost any importance or significance?

I said only the No1 would mean anything and soon that would only be the Xmas no1?

Well, it's now happened. Nobody knows or cares what the No1 is - usually it's a meaningless and ordinary major label hyped priority that few hear and none care about. The Jepsen woman was No1 for weeks with virtually nobody hearing her tune or knowing her name. Replaced by Tulisa with her dreadful Young which nobody heard - everyone knew Tulisa only because of some TV reality show judge panel. Now Rita Ora is No1 on the midweeks with RIP. Hum it.

Hum? Hmmmmmm

As I watch the collapse of the significance of the chart hand in hand with the depraved fading of executive standards at labels I despair for our once great music industry.

Ghastly radio programming replaced music with inane chatter. Top of the Pops was rightly cancelled when viewing figures collapsed - why? Because the chart no longer reflected popularity; merely priorities.

Incidentally, anyone reading this with an ounce of interest in our industry will want to ask the question based on my first sentence here - why was it OK for me to hype titles but nobody else to?

The answer is - I simply based my hype on whether a track had true potential for mass popularity. The corporations looked at company profits which they equated to artistes and albums. Financially sensible but practically stupid. There are very few genuine artistes and even fewer albums (soundtracks, hit collections and concepts generally the exceptions).

So I hyped real hits. The other wankers hyped priorities which they believed, usually wrongly, would create artistes and album sales.

Well one could say: that was then and this is now.

The 1960's altered everything and execs and promotion people before then would have been up in arms at the changes. Remember Eddie Rogers on Good evening and other music programmes?

What we've got now is this old model/new model twaddle.

"fading of executive standards at labels" - should to go up in neon lights. Too many people in it for reflected glory or, as per 70's - in it for the ligg.

Only one answering comment on this - yet 544 views; seems the industry still reads but doesn't have opinions; which precisely proves the sad point.

let it go, the chart is not relevant anymore, it has gone the way of listening booths and flexi-discs. Why the BBC continue to use it as a guide being an impartial public broadcaster is beyond me. tickets to the Brits and aftershow party invites for Reggie and Fern should be outlawed. BTW I read they are now bringing in a streaming chart, a chart based on no sales or income! It beggars belief.

There is a world of music away from the charts, filled with musicians and not pop stars. I suggest you leave the charts to the machinations of the majors taking money from pre-teens and concentrate on the real thing.

JK, you need to turn this message board into a blog for new music and future stars. let people comment, let them upload and link and stream and get a real opinion. Message boards are finished too. ROTD is too far up its own arse to be the only gatekeeper

Last month over 3000 votes - from over 20 countries including UK, USA, Canada, South Africa, Indonesia, Australia and China - were cast in the FAB Chart Easter Poll, so it looks like music charts can still capture the capture the imagination a few people. It seems to be mostly among kids though. Maybe that's the new Teenybop chart.

Maybe the way music charts are packaged needs an overhaul.

I thought it was dead about ten years ago when with minority of people downloading and burning cds and selling burnt cds for a few quid to friends etc. Now nearly everyone downloads albums or uses Spotify which will now be used to help monitor the charts.

I think we're missing the main reason why - it ceased to be relevant when TOTP was axed. Even your parents would know what was No.1 thanks to that show.

Radio 1 is to blame too, tuned to it by accident this morning and heard about 30 seconds of the worst cr@p imaginable. Over-produced bleeping & farting synths with some girl "singing" the same pointless phrase over & over with no discernible melody.

Just checked the playlist, who the f**k are most of these artists?!

www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/playlist/

"Over-produced bleeping & farting synths with some girl "singing" the same pointless phrase over & over with no discernible melody."

That's what many people aged 9-25 like.

There's drivel everywhere unfortunately, not just on cloistered Radio 1.

Jonathan King's Crystal Balls wrote:
I think we're missing the main reason why - it ceased to be relevant when TOTP was axed. Even your parents would know what was No.1 thanks to that show.

I think it's the other way round: TOTP was canceled because the charts were no longer relevant.

The mainstream is now just another market niche.

Here's a first analysis of the new UK streaming chart:

"In the move from music ownership to music access, how might popularity evolve?

Anyone expecting to see a radical change in listening habits may be disappointed.

The first ever weekly top 100 chart of streamed plays, released by the UK’s Official Charts Company on Monday, is broadly similar to the chart of downloads purchases and, therefore, the overall singles chart."

Streamed music chart has short long tail

Notcyrilshane wrote:
"Over-produced bleeping & farting synths with some girl "singing" the same pointless phrase over & over with no discernible melody."

That's what many people aged 9-25 like.

There's drivel everywhere unfortunately, not just on cloistered Radio 1.

Most people aged 9-25 like a variety of music. It's that some people seem to think we shouldn't have brains or likes of our own. If you give people a choice of either rubbish or rubbish they will mostly choose rubbish.

Notcyrilshane wrote:
"Over-produced bleeping & farting synths with some girl "singing" the same pointless phrase over & over with no discernible melody."

That's what many people aged 9-25 like.

There's drivel everywhere unfortunately, not just on cloistered Radio 1.
Agreed, Radio 2 plays some terrible new music too but my experience of that age group isn't so.

Yes you get the hoards of sheep, you always do but I have also found from research on the net that this age group aren't interested in this pap and searching out other music, particularly on Youtube. They're not interested in what Radio 1 have to offer. Just ask JK and Alex Day.

I find the same when speaking with friends children and family members of that age group too.

Unfortunately Radio 1 are as much to blame for the hype as the labels, plenty of back scratching going on.

How long have I been saying that the charts are no longer relevant and a number one is all but meaningless to a career except for the photo op?

I think it was a Beyonce record that was the benchmark of this where the lowest number of sales in history to have that record go in as number 1. The number was in the 50,000's (correct me if I am wrong)


The whole theater of the absurd circus comparing Katy Perry to the Beatles recently as far as chart performance was the most ridiculous thing I'd ever heard or seen.

...But the public buys it because they simply don't understand it isn't the same thing.

Perception is reality in 2012. This is why Cowell can now have Britney Spears (a desperate throw the net for ratings ...no pun intended) along with a D-list Disney Channel non-talent whose career is dead (trying for the tween vote) co-hosting the next edition of American X-factor.

I think Cowell and LA Reid, both of whom I've known for at least 15 years, are completely off their meds, or more likely they are no longer record executives but TELEVISION executives.

They can push a record to number one from TV exposure and it will fall off the charts in two weeks.

"In an environment where singles sales are booming, the chart still is very relevant," says the Official Charts Company:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-202955

Well they would wouldn't they?