2005: The End? - December

We've reached the final month of the year and to be honest I'm not sure I've found when in 2005 chart music took a big downward turn. I will however review December in the same way I've reviewed the other months.

I begin by seeing what appeared on Top of the Pops as always and I can often guess what was shown and what wasn't. It tends to be overly commercial music or BBC friendly shite they want to inflict on us. Going through the list in alphabetical order, no acts beginning with A or B were shown but then we get to C and we have Charlotte Church on the show and then to D it's David Gray. I was however surprised to get to J and find James Blunt wasn't shown. Normal service resumes with Jamie Cullum, Katie Melua, Kelly Clarkson and KT Tunstall all on the show.

One has to go down to M to find the first and only new entry this month to be shown on Top of the Pops that I actually like which is "Be Without You" by Mary J Blige. I remember acknowledging we were lacking in decent new R&B records but that one was an exception. 

In the rap world the ever reliable Eminem scores a point with "When I'm Gone" after which he does pretty much go away for a few years which was another nail in the coffin of new music.

The best record though comes from the dance music world with "What Else Is There?" by Royksopp. The dance records are a bit thin on the ground and the only other points come from Braund Reynolds with "Rocket (A Natural Gambler)" which gets half marks. The rest is just cheesy nonsense.

Another act bidding farewell to the Top 40 for a number of years is Blink 182 with "Not Now". It's far from their best but good enough for half marks. Likewise, Alkaline Trio the main band of future Blink 182 member Matt Skiba gets half marks for "Mercy Me".

The final worst record of the year goes to Mariah Carey with "Don't Forget About Us". Having gone down the R&B route in 2005 with help from Jermaine Dupri, this was a return to the usual dreary nonsense we're used to from her.

Here's a list of the records with the best on top, worst at the bottom and the good ones in green, OK ones in amber and rubbish ones in red (and in no particular order):

Score: 12%

Here's a look at the chart:

We've made it to the end of the year with December being the worst month. It does look like the Top 40 is getting worse as the year goes on but there are 2 issues here. First of all the 2 best months are in the second half of the year. Secondly we already know there's a slump in quality as we get to Christmas time.

I therefore can't really conclude when in 2005 the charts died if they even did this year. There's only one thing for it. Join me next week for 2006: The End?

2005: The End? - November

With Kate Bush, Billy Bragg, Eurythmics, Status Quo, Madonna and Bananarama all having Top 40 hits this month one could be forgiven for thinking this is 1985 rather than 2005. Unfortunately all of them except Bananarama left their better music in 1985. Like their other hit in 2005, I think Bananarama had improved and they get half marks once again.

In August I purposely didn't pick Goldfrapp for best record because I knew a better one was coming later in the year. Well here it is, "Number 1" is probably the best single Goldfrapp ever released.

The indie/garage rock genre was still the most prolific though to a lesser extent than earlier in the year. Just one of those records made it onto Top of the Pops which was "Wicked Soul" by Kubb. I thought what the fuck is that? Never heard of the song or band, but I wasn't missing out on much.

There is however one decent record from that genre which is "Local Boy" by Rifles. I remember that video of an old man going into one side of the pub by himself whilst a crowd of young people are watching the band in the other room. Back then I would have been one of the young people watching the band, these days I'd probably be the old man. Happens to most of us.

I'm not a big fan of 21st century Green Day but one exception is "Jesus Of Suburbia". I still think of that as my idea, when I was in a punk band heavily influenced by Green Day I wrote a 10 minute long song with different sections, my band mates dismissed it as a terrible idea but here's Green Day doing the same thing.

Onto the dance, rap and R&B and there's not much to say really. We have a terrible remake of "Pump up the Jam" and "Ai No Corrida" in the dance world that gets no points. R&B has a past his best Craig David, a probably at his best but not very good Ray J and a dreary record from Corinne Bailey Rae.

The only record that gets a point in the rap world is "Can I Have It Like That" by Pharrell & Gwen Stefani, with the latter making perhaps the smallest contribution a featured artist has ever had on a record, she simply speaks the words "you got it like that". 

All that remains is to pick the worst song which is "Wake Up" by Hilary Duff. I believe she was some Disney actress come singer and those sort of records just make me angry.

Here's a list of the records with the best on top, worst at the bottom and the good ones in green, OK ones in amber and rubbish ones in red (and in no particular order):

Score: 14%

Here's a look at the chart:

The scores gone back down but still slightly better than June. 

2005: The End? - October

By October 2005 I'd more or less got out the habit of watching Top of the Pops given it was on a Sunday night. I was more likely to be found down my local pub taking part in a music quiz. I was however still watching the music channels regularly a remember a lot of the new entries this month.

I remember kid rapper Lil Bow Wow now being an adult simply named Bow Wow and making a record that I particularly liked. In fact it's good enough to be the best new entry of this month. The only other American rap record was "Gold Digger" by Kanye West, which I tried to like but didn't.

There was also a British rap record I was surprised to find myself liking which was "Shake A Leg" by Roll Deep. Tim Westwood, who only really championed American rap music seemingly found it good enough to appear in the video.

More surprises was a Ricky Martin record I actually liked, with a change in style and featuring Fat Joe. We also had a Liberty X record I didn't mind, though it was more of a Revered Run record with Liberty X singing the chorus. Even Mariah Carey had a record I didn't mind. Good production from Jermaine Dupri who also sang the chorus, the only bad thing about it was Mariah Carey singing the verses.

I remember finding myself enjoying some of the reggae on the music channels and one of those records was "Welcome To Jamrock" by Damian 'Jr Gong' Marley, the son of Bob Marley.

Dance music wise it was generally quite good, just lacking somewhat in quantity. The Prodigy were in the Top 40 with remixes of "Voodoo People" and "Out Of Space". The former was a drum & bass makeover which worked well but the latter was terrible and ruined the original.

The Prodigy remixers Pendulum were in the charts with their debut "Slam/Out Here" which wasn't my cup of tea. Not as bad as some of the drum & bass in the charts these days but at the time it was the commercial rubbish end.

Bob Sinclar did "Love Generation" which I would put into the a bit commercial but decent enough category. Basement Jaxx had a solid effort with "Do Your Thing" and X-Press 2 had half marks with "Give It".

We've had Erasure records in the Top 40 in 2005 longer after their commercial peak. Now it was the turn of Andy Bell with a solo record which may just as well have been and Erasure record which I mean in a good way.

The modern era has seen numerous collaborations between dance producers and pop singers and it looks like the seeds were being sewn here. There's Dannii Minogue & Soul Seekerz with "Perfection" which is anything but. Then we have the truly terrible "We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off" by Da Playaz & Clea, the latter being the group whose members failed to get into Girls Aloud. That was just the 2nd worst record though.

The worst was "What Hurts The Most" by Jo O'Meara. It had the same level of credibility as S Club 7 but was 100 times more boring. She never troubled the Top 40 again.

Speaking of former cheesy pop group members, we had the final Top 40 hit for Lisa Scott-Lee with "Electric". It came off the back of her MTV reality show "Totally Scott-Lee" where she decided if she failed to make the Top 10 with her next single she'd quit music. That's what happened at least solo career wise. Thinking about it, this was the show I used to watch on a Sunday night before going to the music quiz at the pub.

Whilst early 2005 brings back memories of me becoming disillusioned with modern music, this month has the opposite effect.

Here's a list of the records with the best on top, worst at the bottom and the good ones in green, OK ones in amber and rubbish ones in red (and in no particular order):

Score: 29%

Here's a look at the chart:

Well this makes me question whether the charts really did die in 2005. Whatever way you look at it we have the best month of a year that could even give some 90s charts a run for their money. 

2005: The End? - September

For the 3rd month in a row we have slightly more new entries from the rap/R&B camp than the indie/garage rock camp. This time though we have one more indie/garage rock record appear on Top of the Pops than rap/R&B. Part of the reason was because Oasis scored a number one so they had no choice but to play that. They also played the only record from that genre that scores any points in "Rebellion (Lies)" by Arcade Fire which gets half marks.

One of the R&B records they played was the one which is the worst record this month. It's the Rihanna debut single "Pon De Replay". I made a real effort to like this one, she was a new signing for Def Jam. This was the label that gave us Public Enemy amongst others. Eventually I thought who am I trying to kid, this is shit. Not only is her voice dreadful, she's inspired a whole generation of female singers to sing just as badly.

The only record from the rap/R&B camp to get any points is "Playa's Only" by R Kelly & The Game. It was taken from "TP3" reloaded which is quite possibly the newest R&B album that I own.

It was better in the dance music world but that was in part to do with recycling of older tunes. There was "Insomnia 2005" by Faithless, a decent enough remix 10 years after it was first released. Then we had "Doctor Pressure" by Mylo & Miami Sound Machine, a mash up of "Drop the Pressure" by Mylo and "Dr Beat" by Miami Sound Machine.

We also had "Jacques Your Body (Make Me Sweat)" by Les Rythmes Digitales, originally released in 1997 but given a new lease of life from being featured on the Citroen C4 advert. Sticking with car adverts, there was also "Singin in the Rain" by Mint Royale that was on the VW Golf advert. This one just gets half marks though.

The best record though comes from Transplants with "Gangsters and Thugs", which could be described as a blend of punk, rap and drum & bass. 

Here's a list of the records with the best on top, worst at the bottom and the good ones in green, OK ones in amber and rubbish ones in red (and in no particular order):

Score: 15%

Here's a look at the chart:

Maybe August was one last swan song and now the end is near.

2005: The End? - August

August was a pretty quiet month by 2005 standards with just 35 new entries in the Top 40 which was the lowest so far. That was a good opportunity for the majority to appear on Top of the Pops, but that never happened with just 16 appearing.

It was also quieter for the indie/garage rock genre where I count 8 records of which 3 appeared on Top of the Pops. 2 of those appearances came from Supergrass and Super Furry Animals, both 90s bands having their final Top 40 hits. The only points the genre gets is half marks for "Fuck Forever" by Babyshambles, a record I did not know but it's not bad.

The most likely source of points though were from dance, rap and R&B so let's look there.

We'll start with the best record which is "Feel The Vibe (Til The Morning Comes)" from a pre-Swedish House Mafia Axwell i.e. when he was actually good. Another contender for best record was Goldfrapp with "Ooh La La" but I know they have a better record later in the year which is likely to be best record for that month. The final point in the dance music world is the cheesy but fun "Fading Like A Flower" by Dancing DJs & Roxette.

The remaining dance records came from Martin Solveig with "Everybody", not my cup of tea but better than the future EDM rubbish he'd put out. There's Uniting Nations with "You & Me" which I was surprised to find wasn't on AATW records which tells you everything. Finally there's "Little Love" by Lil Love, a pre EDM Alex Gaudino doing something that's not that bad but not exactly good.

Rap wise there's points for Eminem and Snoop Dogg with singles taken from their 2004 albums. We also have the worst record which is "9 to 5" by Lady Sovereign. A British rapper making her debut and just sounds a complete joke of a record.

R&B wise it's just the one point for "Obsession (No Es Amor)" by Frankie J which had been a hit the previous year for 3rd Wish and both versions featured rapper Baby Bash.

Bucking the trend by improving with age was Bananarama who were back for the first time in 12 years with "Move in My Direction" which I actually don't mind. I can't say the same for fellow 80s group Madness whose cover of "Shame & Scandal" shows they were way past their best.

Here's a list of the records with the best on top, worst at the bottom and the good ones in green, OK ones in amber and rubbish ones in red (and in no particular order):

Score: 24%

Here's a look at the chart:

We have the best month of the year so far, I wasn't expecting that. What I will say is the smaller quantity of new entries this month compared to previous months means each good record carries more weight which will help the score.

2005: The End? - July

It was July 2005 when Top of the Pops moved to Sundays and I got out of the habit of watching as a result. 

I count 1 more record from the rap/R&B umbrella than the indie/garage rock one. Top of the Pops had twice as many of the rap/R&B records on the show than the indie/garage rock ones.

There had been no rap records enter the Top 40 in June, but July was more than making up for it. There were 2 records I distinctly remember from artists I'd never heard of before than I felt I should like but didn't. Those were "Roc Ya Body (Mic Check 1 2)" by MVP and "Gasolina" by Daddy Yankee. When Jeremy Clarkson presented Top of the Pops he put in earplugs for the latter and for the first time I found myself agreeing with Jeremy Clarkson about music.

We also had "Diamonds From Sierra Leone" by Kanye West, again a record I felt I should like given how much I liked his first album but I just couldn't get into it.

The only rap record to get full marks was "Ghetto Gospel" by 2Pac ft Elton John. This reminds me of listening to Galaxy FM on my phone so I can only conclude it was being played long before it charted. I can picture myself walking down the street I lived on listening to it, but by July I'd moved house. Or maybe my memory is playing tricks on me.

R&B wise it's a big fat zero. The presence of Lil Jon on "Girlfight" by Brooke Valentine made me try to like it, but her voice just didn't go with the music. As a result this was a strong candidate for the worst record.

The winner for worst record is Charlotte Church with "Crazy Chick". Basically we have a famous child singing hymns who becomes an adult and goes off the rails like a lot of famous children do. Then she tries to make "proper music" but fails spectacularly.

Dance music wise I count just 4 records again. We have "Say Hello" by Deep Dish which is the best record. An example of me starting to prefer a bit of house music over the harder side of dance music.

Then there's "NY Excuse" by Soulwax, a great record. Daft Punk have the pretty average "Technologic". Finally there's the Euro cheese "Nasty Girl" by Inaya Day which is terrible.

On a more chill out vibe we have "Only This Moment" by Royksopp and "Make Things Right" by Lemon Jelly, both decent records.

Here's a list of the records with the best on top, worst at the bottom and the good ones in green, OK ones in amber and rubbish ones in red (and in no particular order):

Score: 19%

Here's a look at the chart:

We're back up to the same level as May, maybe the charts haven't died just yet.

2005: The End? - June

Whilst indie/garage rock was the leading genre in terms of number of new entries in the Top 40 for June it was a lower proportion than previous months of 2005. This was maybe seen as a good thing by Top of the Pops because none of those indie/garage rock records appeared on the show.

None of those records get full marks but 2 of them get half marks which come from The Magic Numbers with "Forever Lost" and Arcade Fire with "Power Out". I thought both were North American but turns out The Magic Numbers are British. I already knew that Arcade Fire are Canadian. 

My music taste though was dance, rap and R&B so lets see how those genres fared.

There's just 4 records I'd consider to be dance, 3 of which are dance versions of older records. There's "Shot You Down" by Audio Bully's ft Nancy Sinatra, I suspect all Nancy did was sing the original song. Then there's DJ Sammy doing a euro cheese version of "Why" by Annie Lennox and Groove Coverage doing a euro cheese version of "Poison" by Alice Cooper. Finally there's "U Don't Know Me" by Basement Jaxx which sounds like it's trying to rip off "Strict Machine" by Goldfrapp and nowhere near as good.

It's a big fat zero for dance music then, but what about rap? Well that's also a big fat zero because there aren't any rap records.

Up to R&B to deliver then. We have the quantity but not really the quality. We have "N Dey Say" by Nelly which is my best record pick and is taken from his R&B album "Suit". The only other one to get full marks is "Hollaback Girl" by Gwen Stefani.

The only other record overall in this batch to get full marks is "Kiss And Say Goodbye" by UB40. Quite an appropriate title for their final Top 40 hit which was also their 40th Top 40 hit. It follows that tried and tested UB40 formula.

All that remains is to pick the worst record and for that I go back to the R&B records. It's "1 Thing" by Amerie, a record that sounds like it's trying to recreate the past but failing. The problem is singers like Amerie are part of the reason why modern music is shit. 

Amerie beat off competition from Crazy Frog, but at least Crazy Frog was supposed to be shit.

Here's a list of the records with the best on top, worst at the bottom and the good ones in green, OK ones in amber and rubbish ones in red (and in no particular order):

Score: 13%

Here's a look at the chart:

Well June was a truly dreadful month. Was this the month that chart music died?

2005: The End? - May

A bigger proportion of Top 40 hits in May appeared on Top of the Pops compared to previous months with nearly half of them appearing. Once again we had more indie/garage rock records than any other genre but the bulk of them didn't get an appearance on Top of the Pops.

One such record that didn't appear was this months worst record which is "You're Speaking My Language" by Juliette & The Licks. This was actress Juliette Lewis making a garage rock record which translates as the genre has now become so commercial they're all jumping on the bandwagon, even non-musicians.

A number of these indie bands such as Athlete, Bloc Party and Maximo Park would get slated on the MTV comedy "Strutter" and rightfully, I too thought they were terrible. I have however given a half mark to one record that got slated which was "In the Morning" by The Coral which I don't find too bad.

We had more rap and R&B on Top of the Pops than indie music which on paper sounded a good thing. It was a mixed bag though. Rap wise the ones I liked were all from 2004 albums I own which was "Signs" by Snoop Dogg, "Mockingbird" by Eminem and the double a-side "Get Low / Lovers And Friends" by Lil Jon. 

R&B wise the only one I liked was "Lonely" by Akon. The rest was really pop music under the R&B tag plus Stevie Wonder being far past his best.

One has to look to the dance music to find the best record which is "In My Arms" by Mylo. I liked it so much I made it the ringtone on my phone.

Elsewhere we have "So Many Times" by Gadjo featuring Alexandra Prince which I enjoyed listening to at the time, "Blue Water" by Black Rock featuring Debra Andrew which is decent and "Believe" by The Chemical Brothers which was different but good.

The last of the Elvis re-issues also came this month with "A Little Less Conversation" which I like. Cliff Richard was also in the charts with "What Car" and I've forgotten how that goes already.

Here's a list of the records with the best on top, worst at the bottom and the good ones in green, OK ones in amber and rubbish ones in red (and in no particular order):

Score: 19%

Here's a look at the chart:

Slight improvement over April but only a half mark in it.

2005: The End? - April

I must have had enough of listening to Galaxy FM on my phone by April 2005. The only new entry in the Top 40 that month that reminds me of that time is "Let Me Love You" by Mario which is also the only R&B record that month which I like.

It was a time when a friend who was also into rap and R&B was telling me there wasn't much in the way of new music taking his fancy. He reluctantly said the best R&B record of the moment was "It's Like That" by Mariah Carey. I will concede it's probably the most convincing R&B record she's done, but not for me. Sounds like it could be a Beyonce record which is never a good thing.

Rap wise there are 2 records which get full marks, but I regard both as 2004 records because they were taken from 2004 albums that I own. There's "Caught Up" which turned out to be the final  Top 40 hit to date for Ja Rule. There's also "Hope" by Twista, though I do prefer the album version which has a Cee-Lo singing the chorus rather than Faith Evans.

I was getting back into dance music more but not really the records getting in the charts. It was a bit thin on the ground dance record wise, but the only one I truly like is "Robot Rock" by Daft Punk. There's also half marks for "Give Me Your Love" by XTM & DJ Chucky presents Annia, the less known but just as cheesy follow up to "Fly on the Wings of Love" but good fun nonetheless.

Other dance records are "I Like The Way" by Bodyrockers which has always irritated me, "So Much Love To Give" which is an AATW records cheesfest by Freeloaders who were N-Trance under another name, "I See Girls" by Studio B which is just commercial crap, "Adagio For Strings" by Tiesto which is an example of why trance has a bad name and "Avalon" by Juliet which is too vocal heavy for my liking.

Once again indie/garage rock is the genre with the most records and includes "Neighbourhood #2 (Laika)" by Arcade Fire which gets full marks. There's also a few indie records which get half marks.

Picking the best record is a tough choice because none of the records with full marks are what I'd call stand out. That was what was going wrong with music really, some solid records but nothing that made me think wow. I'm going to pick "Robot Rock" by Daft Punk.

Picking worst record is also difficult because of the sheer quantity of crap. I'm going to pick "Shiver" by Natalie Imbruglia mainly because she was being portrayed as a serious musician, but she wasn't.

Here's a list of the records with the best on top, worst at the bottom and the good ones in green, OK ones in amber and rubbish ones in red (and in no particular order):

Score: 18%

Now we're 4 months in I think now is the time to feature a graph to show how the years progressing:

We started consistent but now the fall begins.

2005: The End? - March

After going through this next batch of records I can quite confidently say I got a new phone in March 2005. On that phone I could listen to the radio, so I started listening to Galaxy FM on it. This was short lived though once I'd had enough of hearing the same songs every day plus all the adverts. Several of these were Top 40 hits that month.

As a result there are several records that never appeared on Top of the Pops but I am very familiar with. Once again indie/garage rock is the most prominent genre, but only 14 of the 65 records fit that category. Obviously none of them got played on Galaxy FM but they had more presence on Top of the Pops. There's 2 of these records I like which come from New Order and Bravery and both are more of the electronic variety.

One good thing I will say about the charts this month is that it has a wider variety of genres than you could ever imagine these days. The top record could legitimately be placed in both the dance and rock genres. That record is "Daft Punk Is Playing At My House" by LCD Soundsystem.

Just narrowly missing out on best record is another dance/rock crossover one in "Lift Me Up" by Moby. It was used for ITVs coverage of the Formula 1 and takes me back to a time when Formula 1 was still worth watching.

Elsewhere in the dance music world, recycling of older records was the order of the day. We have Fatboy Slim's take on "The Joker" which I recall being one of the better records doing the round on the music channels. 

There were 2 rip offs of "Waiting For A Star To Fall" going head to head. We had "Star To Fall" by Cabin Crew which was out and out cheese and "Falling Stars" by Sunset Strippers which was more tolerable but not worthy of full marks.

Then we had Groove Cutters doing "We Close Our Eyes" which was dreadful and LNM Projekt featuring Bonnie Bailey doing Fleetwood Mac's "Everywhere" which I don't mind even if I did hear it every 5 minutes on Galaxy FM.

Finally in the dance music recycling world we had Styles & Breeze do a commercial dance version of their own happy hardcore composition "Heartbeatz". I'm not keen on the happy hardcore tune so I'm not going to like this one either.

It was a low key month for rap with "Let's Get Blown" by Snoop Dogg & Pharrell being the only record from the genre and gets full marks. Nelly had "Over And Over" from his R&B album "Suit" which features country singer Tim McGraw. I like that record but think now is a good time to point out Tim McGraw tried to crack the UK market after this with his own single "Live Like You Were Dying" which flopped. 

Quite a few R&B records in this Top 40 but most are crap. One good one is the debut for Akon, "Locked Up". On the other end of the scale was the debut for John Legend who I see as a prime example of R&B going shit.

More re-issues for Elvis Presley but this time none get any marks. A re-issue I do quite like is "Is This The Way To Amarillo" by Tony Christie. The fact it stole the limelight at Comic Relief that year and pushed the god awful official Comic Relief single by McFly to the shade.

Lot's of strong contenders for worst record this time round but my pick is "Black Horse And The Cherry Tree" by KT Tunstall. It's supposed to be real music but in reality it's just lowest common denominator worm fodder that isn't even catchy.

Here's a list of the records with the best on top, worst at the bottom and the good ones in green, OK ones in amber and rubbish ones in red (and in no particular order):

Score: 21%

2005: The End? - February

We had 50 new Top 40 hits in February 2005 and once again quite a significant number I can't remember. 20 of them appeared on Top of the Pops. I count 13 which fall under the indie/garage rock genre but the only ones that made it onto Top of the Pops were Doves and Embrace which is just about as boring as it gets. 

That said none of the other indie records are to my liking either. Amongst them was a double a-side from 2 different bands, Amsterdam and Ricky. Neither troubled the charts again and the latter isn't even properly on YouTube, just a video of it being played whilst the band get interviewed. 

Sticking with the guitars, there's 2 boy bands with guitars who could be described as poundland Busted or McFly. There's Freefaller who were led by Marcus from Byker Grove who were terrible. Then there was Noise Next Door with "Calendar Girl" which was a bit of a guilty pleasure at the time but can't say I enjoyed listening to it this time round.

Like mentioned previously though my music taste at the time was dance, rap and R&B so let's look at these.

It's full marks for Lemon Jelly with "The Shouty Track", Lovefreekz with "Shine" which heavily samples "Shine A Little Love" by ELO, and Commander Tom with "Attention" which is a bit cheesy and could do without the vocals but I do quite like it. Not getting any points is "Destroy Rock & Roll" by Mylo which is the only track on the album of the same name that I don't like. Then we have generic Euro cheese from Angel City with Sunrise which gets no points.

Rap wise, I've picked the double a-side "Roll Call / What U Gon' Do" by Lil Jon as the best record. It's from the "Crunk Juice" album which I was listening to a lot at the time. We also have Lil Jon featuring on "Let's Go" by Trick Daddy which is another good record. Just missing out on best record is "Like Toy Soldiers" by Eminem which is one of his best records in my opinion.

Getting half marks are Xzibit and Cam'ron, both solid but unspectacular records which could have done without the female singers on the chorus and examples of newer music becoming less inspiring. Getting no points are The Game and LL Cool J, never could get into the former and the latter has always been a bit pop for my liking.

R&B wise I do quite like "Ain't Nothing Wrong" by Houston. We have "Only U" by Ashanti which was really her last big hit, not bad but jumping on the guitar bandwagon a bit much for my liking. Then we have quite possibly the worst R&B group to ever exist in Destiny's Child with the absolutely dreadful "Solider" which gets my pick as the worst record.

More Elvis rereleases were in the chart including "Wooden Heart" which is the best Elvis record I've heard.

Here's a list of the records with the best on top, worst at the bottom and the good ones in green, OK ones in amber and rubbish ones in red (and in no particular order):

Score: 21%

2005: The End? - January

2005 was the year I really started to lose interest in mainstream music. When I did my best year search for the charts I found every year after 2005 was worse than it and only 2 years that preceded it were worse. It was the year Top of the Pops was moved to Sundays before it was laid to rest a year later. It was also the last year I bought a CD single which was of a record that never made the Top 40. There was also very little to inspire me on the music channels and I found myself more drawn to the more retro channels like Magic and Smash Hits.

It gave me and idea, when exactly in 2005 did it go wrong and why?

I've therefore decided to look at every Top 40 hit of the year and do my usual thing of rating good, OK or rubbish. I'm going to do this month by month and come up with a percentage score as not all months will have an equal number of Top 40 hits.

OK let's start with January where we had 40 new entries so like going through a Top 40. The first eye opener is just how many records I don't remember. This was a time when I watched Top of the Pops every Friday I wasn't going out. Thanks to the list of Top of the Pops appearances on the Popscene website I can see that only 13 of these records were shown on the show. Furthermore the lowest charting single to appear on Top of the Pops made number 9.

At the time I would describe my music tastes as dance, rap and R&B so there's a good place to start. We have the last Top 40 hit from Roni Size with "No More" which I'd say is the best record that month. The only other drum & bass hit of the year was the debut for Pendulum, so we're basically seeing the end of the golden era for drum & bass in the charts about to make way for the crap era.

We also have solid efforts from The Chemical Brothers with "Galvanize" and Narcotic Thrust with "When The Dawn Breaks". What isn't so good is a pointless 2005 version of "The Key The Secret" by Urban Cookie Collective and that terrible idea of taking a dance classic in "Strings of Life" and sticking some crappy vocals on it resulting in "Strings Of Life (Stronger On My Own)" by Soul Central & Kathy Brown.

This was an era where DJs were going out of fashion and guitars were coming back in. This was reflected in the Electroclash genre which was a form of dance music with instruments. We have "E Talking" by Soulwax who started off a rock band and got more electro as time went on and are pretty good in my opinion. Then there's Scissor Sisters with "Filthy/Gorgeous" which isn't my cup of tea, nor is "Pornography" by Client.

Sticking with the guitars in concept, I remember indie music being big at the time but I count 14 of the 40 hits as being part of the indie or garage rock genres. Only 3 of those made it onto Top of the Pops, the yawnfest that is "Wires" by Athlete, the way past their best Manic Street Preachers with "Empty Souls" and "Cutt Off" by Kasabian which actually isn't bad. I also managed to find half points for "Evil" by Interpol and "Alive And Amplified" by Mooney Suzuki, neither of which I was familiar with beforehand.

Rap wise it's all from the UK with "Colossal Insight" by Roots Manuva which is OK and the grime record "Pow! (Forward)" by Lethal Bizzle which is pretty awful.

R&B wise we have a solitary record which is the chart topping Crunk&B record "Goodies" by Ciara & Petey Pablo. I really made the effort to like this record at the time but could never get into it and after hearing it again I still can't.

Erasure have a hit with "Breathe" which isn't as good as their earlier material but still just about worthy of a point. We had the re-releases of Elvis number ones which were a mixed bag.

I've already mentioned Roni Size as being the best record so what remains is for me to pick the worst. Lucie Silvas is a name that sounds like she should be a dance singer, but she isn't. She made dreary music that was just about as bad as it got at the time. It's therefore her record "Breathe In" which is the worst of this lot.

Here's a list of the records with the best on top, worst at the bottom and the good ones in green, OK ones in amber and rubbish ones in red (and in no particular order):

Score: 21%