I seem to remember, around 1974/5, at dinner time at school going off with a few pals and a radio to find out what the new chart was. I'll have been about 14 at the time and in my first band. I think this coincided with "Bohemian Rhapsody" making a mockery of the "if it's longer than 3 minutes it'll never get played on the radio" mantra.

I wonder if any school kids these days pay any attention to the charts (they'll get updates on their mobiles I presume) and why.

In theory, social networking could be full of people talking about music and the charts but I see no evidence of that. I DO see evidence of acts pushing hopeless tracks thinking vigorous networking will compensate for what the tracks lack.

Most discussion of music seems to be amongst the more mature linking to youtube clips of older acts.

Only 20something women are apparently remotely buying downloads & cluttering up the charts every week & Radio One, has less than 1 million listeners for it's Top 40, compared to 2.5 million for Independant Radio's Big Top 40 Show, that is pretty fixed by the stagnant Heart & Capital playlists. The age range of these shows is like 12 to 25. No one over 25 buys single downloads, apparently & the chart doesn't mean a thing. Unfortunately the Album chart will also go that way, very soon....

Sadly I predicted it years ago; the industry has rendered the chart useless and insignificant.

It was a great marketing tool and a brilliant programming tool and currently it's neither.

Sad because I remember it as great fun, kids with dreams in the provinces trying to work out how the business worked with no parents who knew anything about A&R, contracts, publishing, rights ... their parents were most likely nurses, dockers, train drivers, truck drivers ...

I still wonder how much money the UK DOESN'T earn from its music industry anymore since it let the rest of the world muscle in on a scene it dominated?