Top of the Pops: 21/03/2019

What's this all about?

Top 40 Countdown

Number of eligible records: 7
New (39) Juice Wrld - Robbery
New (33) Wiley ft Stefflon Don & Sean Paul - Boasty
New (26) Billie Eilish - Wish You Were Gay
New (11) Dave ft Burna Boy - Location
New (9) Dave - Streatham
New (8) Dave ft J Hus - Disaster
(1) Lewis Capaldi - Someone You Loved


Missing Out
None

Record of the Year 2012: Public Enemy - Harder Than You Think

With Drum & Bass being big in the charts in 2012 and being a Drum & Bass fan myself, it would have made sense for me to pick a Drum & Bass record for my record of the year. However whilst some of those records are alright, I asked the question are any of them better than "Hard Than You Think" by Public Enemy? to which I answered no.

The record itself is actually from 2007 but didn't chart until 2012 when it was used for the coverage of the Paralympics. It was the first Top 10 for Public Enemy and was their first UK Top 40 hit in 15 years.

In an era where many rappers had gone Electropop it was good to hear that proper Hip Hop was still being made by the likes of Public Enemy. That's what makes them so great, they haven't changed their sound to appeal to the masses unlike many other musicians across the spectrum do once they become successful.

The fact it gave them a Top 10 hit perhaps showed that there was still a lot of demand for proper Hip Hop for the masses and that you don't have to go down the Pitbull or Flo Rida route to sell lots of records.

UK Singles Chart: 2012

Nobody scoring their 30th Top 40 hit in 2012 and we had the final Top 40 hit for George Michael. The ones highlighted are those who still have hits to come:

	Artist	No of Hits	New Hits
1	Elvis Presley	124
=	Cliff Richard	124
3	Elton John	69
4	Madonna	67	Give Me All Your Luvin
5	David Bowie	57
=	Status Quo	57
7	Queen	53
8	Michael Jackson	50
9	Kylie Minogue	48	Timebomb
10	Paul McCartney	47
11	Rod Stewart	45
12	Pet Shop Boys	44
13	Diana Ross	43
=	Rolling Stones	43
=	Depeche Mode	43
16	Stevie Wonder	41
=	U2	41
18	UB40	40
19	Prince	38
=	Mariah Carey	38
21	Janet Jackson	37
=	Jay-Z	37	Niggas In Paris, No Church in  the Wild, Clique
23	Tom Jones	36
=	Bon Jovi	36
=	George Michael	36	White Light
=	Rihanna	36	Where Have You Been, Diamonds, Right Now, Stay
27	R Kelly	35
28	Erasure	34
=	Manic Street Preachers	34
30	Frank Sinatra	33
=	Shakin Stevens	33
=	Morrissey	33
33	Iron Maiden	32
=	Simply Red	32
=	Whitney Houston	32
=	Robbie Williams	32	Candy
37	Roy Orbison	31
=	Bee Gees	31
=	REM	31
40	Lonnie Donegan	30
=	Beatles	30
=	Tina Turner	30
=	Duran Duran	30
=	Paul Weller	30
=	Mary J Blige	30
=	Glee Cast	30

Both Rihanna and Robbie Williams had one number one in 2012 bringing their total to 7:

	Artist	No of #1s	New #1s
1	Elvis Presley	21
2	Beatles	17
3	Cliff Richard	14
=	Westlife	14
5	Madonna	13
6	Take That	11
7	Abba	9
=	Spice Girls	9
9	Rolling Stones	8
=	Oasis	8
11	George Michael	7
=	Michael Jackson	7
=	Kylie Minogue	7
=	U2	7
=	Elton John	7
=	Eminem	7
=	McFly	7
=	Robbie Williams	7	Candy
=	Rihanna	7	Diamonds
20	Slade	6
=	Rod Stewart	6
=	Boyzone	6
=	Blondie	6
=	Queen	6
=	Sugababes	6

Kanye West now had the most consecutive years of Top 40 hits and previous X Factor winner Leona Lewis becomes joint third in most consecutive years of hits:

	Artist	Hits Every Year Since
1	Kanye West	2004
2	Rihanna	2005
3	Chris Brown	2006
=	Leona Lewis	2006
=	Ne-Yo	2006
=	Taio Cruz	2006

We had a new talent show in 2012 on the BBC to rival the X Factor called The Voice. However the winners single failed to make the Top 40. We did however have one contestant who did make the Top 40. Tyler James who had previously been in the charts in 2004 and 2005 just about reached the Top 40 with his cover of "Higher Love" making number 39. His next hit "Single Tear" did better reaching 28, but neither of these charted as high as his previous hits.

The true winners of The Voice were the judges. Will.I.Am had a number one with "This Is Love" featuring Eva Simons and "Hall Of Fame" in collaboration with The Script, the group of fellow judge Danny O'Donoghue. Jessie J also had a number one with "Domino".

Like the previous year, the X Factor winners single, which was "Impossible" by James Arthur, was released the week before Christmas and made number one before being knocked off Christmas week by the charity single "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" by the Justice Collective.

James Arthur wasn't the only contestant from this series of X Factor to have a hit this year. Lucy Spraggan had a hit with "Last Night" before being removed from iTunes by request of the X Factor producers.

The previous years winners Little Mix had their second number one with "Wings" and also had a number three with "DNA". There were three more contestants from the previous year to have hits in 2012, Marcus Collins with "Seven Nation Army", Amelia Lily with "You Bring Me Joy" and Misha B with "Home Run" and "Do You Think Of Me".

There was also the only hit from 2010 contestant Aiden Grimshaw with "Is This Love". Cher Lloyd had her final hit with "Want U Back" and Rebecca Ferguson had her second hit with "Backtrack". Proving to be the success story of that series though were One Direction who had their second number one with "Little Things" and had a further three Top 10 hits.

The last contestant standing contestant from the 2009 series was Olly Murs who had a number one with "Troublemaker" featuring Flo Rida and had another hit with "Oh My Goodness".

The 2008 winner Alexandra Burke had her final hit this year with "Let It Go" meaning the last ones standing from that series were JLS who had three hits in 2012.

X Factor judge Tulisa began her solo career in 2012 with "Young" which made number one. Her next singles "Live It Up" and "Sight of You" failed to reach the top ten and she hasn't appeared in the Top 40 since. Fellow judge Gary Barlow had his first solo number one in 15 years with "Sing".

There were no new boybands in the Top 40 in 2012, the other boybands alongside One Direction and JLS to have hits were The Wanted and McFly.

There were a new girl group in the charts though. They were called Stooshe and debuted with a number five hit "Love Me". They managed number three with their second hit "Black Heart" but only made 21 with their third hit "Waterfalls".

Girls Aloud were back in the charts one last time with "Something New" which made number two. Girls Aloud member Cheryl scored her third solo number one with "Call My Name". The Saturdays had just one hit this year with "30 Days".

The most successful act of the year from a chart perspective was from chart debutant Rita Ora. She debuted at number one as the vocalist on "Hot Right Now" by DJ Fresh. She followed up with another two number ones, "How We Do (Party)" and "RIP" and had a top ten with "Shine Ya Light".

It was the most successful year to date from a chart perspective for Drum & Bass music. After there were no Drum & Bass hits in 2011 there were 9 in 2012, a number that had only been seen in 1997 previously. Further to that, "Hot Right Now" by DJ Fresh became the first ever Drum & Bass number one, but it was the second for DJ Fresh who had the first Dubstep number one in 2011. We then had the second Drum & Bass number one from debutants Rudimental featuring John Newman with "Feel the Love".

It was a much quieter year for Dubstep but EDM was still as strong as ever. However the year did see the break up of Swedish House Mafia, who scored their first number one with their final hit "Don't You Worry Child". Swedish House Mafia member Sebastian Ingrosso made his solo debut with "Calling (Lose My Mind)" in collaboration with fellow Swedish debutant Alesso.

David Guetta and Calvin Harris had one number one each in 2012, David Guetta with "Titanium" featuring Sia and Calvin Harris with "Sweet Nothing" featuring Florence Welch. Both DJs also collaborated with Ne-Yo in 2012, David Guetta with "Play Hard" and Calvin Harris with "Let's Go".

Ne-Yo also had a number one with "Let Me Love You (Until You Learn to Love Yourself)" which was one of many examples of R&B singers still doing Electropop. There was however one actual R&B number one in 2012 which came from Labrinth ft Emeli Sande with "Beneath Your Beautiful".

Following the death of Etta James, her song "At Last" made the Top 40 having never previous been a hit. There was very little R&B in the charts overall though in 2012 mainly due to Electropop.

Rap music was also suffering with several rappers such as Flo Rida and Pitbull continuing to make Electropop with Flo Rida making number one with "Good Feeling".

One Rap act making their first Top 40 appearance in 14 years was Public Enemy with "Harder Than You Think". This tune was 5 years old at the time but charted thanks to being the theme music to Channel 4's coverage of the Paralympics and gave them their first Top 10 hit.

Following Ed Sheeran's debut the previous year, Folk Pop increased in popularity with other with acts such as James Vincent McMorrow, Ben Howard, Frank Turner, Ryan O'Shaughnessy and Jake Bugg having hits as well as Ed Sheeran himself.

The decline of Indie Music was still evident but we did have a return to the charts after 9 years for Blur with "Under the Westway". There were also debuts for Everything Everything with "Cough Cough" and Bastille with "Flaws".

We had a couple of unlikely collaborations between older and newer artists. Brian May collaborated with Dappy on "Rockstar" and Mick Jagger collaborated with Will.I.Am and Jennifer Lopez on "T.H.E (The Hardest Ever)".

Aside from the Electropop dominating the charts there were two notable number ones that were completely different. The biggest number one of the year was "Somebody That I Used To Know" by Gotye ft Kimbra and we also had some K-Pop in the charts for the first time with Psy making number one with "Gangnam Style".

To sum up 2012 would be lots of Electropop and EDM, the rise of Drum & Bass and Folk Pop and the fall of Dubstep and a minimal amount of other genres. Indie dominated the charts for 5 years from 2004-2008, Electropop has dominated since 2009, will it continue to dominate for a 5th year and if so will it be the last?

Top of the Pops: 14/03/2019

What's this all about?

Top 40 Countdown

Number of eligible records: 10
⬆ (29) Kehlani ft Ty Dolla Sign - Nights Like This
⬆ (22) Little Mix ft Ty Dolla Sign - Think About Us
⬆ (14) Lauv ft Troye Sivan - I'm So Tired
⬆ (3) Mabel - Don't Call Me Up
New (34) Sigrid - Don't Feel Like Crying
New (32) Swarmz ft Tion Wayne - Bally
New (18) Roddy Rich ft Chip & Yxng Bane - How It Is
New (6) Jonas Brothers - Sucker
(1) Lewis Capaldi - Someone You Loved


Missing Out
⬆ (21) Lewis Capaldi - Grace

Happy Hardcore: What went wrong?

One day in the summer of 1998 I was spending the day in Leicester where I came across an independent record shop. I went inside and saw sections for many varieties of Dance Music but there wasn't one for Happy Hardcore. When I asked if they sold any Happy Hardcore they laughed and said no. At the same time I picked up a flyer for the next Hysteria event, arena 1 had Drum & Bass and arena 2 had Garage, but there was no Happy Hardcore.

Although Happy Hardcore had been ridiculed by many before then, I didn't really know what the state of things was at the time. Although the internet existed I was yet to use it myself. The 2 major magazines to cover Happy Hardcore, Dream and Eternity has ceased to exist whilst M8 had stopped covering it. Club Nation on ITV which did feature Happy Hardcore had now been replaced by Club@Vision which seemingly didn't, although they did feature a Dreamscape event later that summer. My only source of news really was the Helter Skelter newsletters.

Personally speaking in 1998 I started to widen my music tastes and the Happy Hardcore I was buying was more backfilling my Helter Skelter collection thanks to their offers rather than buying new stuff.

Once the tapes from the first Helter Skelter of 1999 were available I bought them. As it had been a while I was intrigued to find out how the music had evolved, but playing the DJ Vibes tape first like I always did, it began with a tune from 1996 and that wasn't the only tune on the tape I already knew. Then I played the Force & Styles tape and there was very little on that I'd never heard before. It seemed like the music hadn't really evolved at all.

By 1999 several of the bigger events such as the Pleasuredome and Vibealite had ceased to exist. DJ Eruption who founded United Dance was now making House Music with the Ruff Driverz and sold United Dance to Slammin Vinyl who made it more of a Drum & Bass and UK Garage event with Happy Hardcore being demoted to the smaller rooms. Hardcore Heaven had also been sold to Slammin Vinyl with it's founder DJ Seduction retiring that year. Helter Skelter announced that their new years eve event of that year would be there last and there were also rumors Slammin Vinyl would be calling it a day, so it was pretty much all on Dreamscape to keep it going.

As it turned out Slammin Vinyl didn't call it a day and Dreamscape who were now owned by Terry Turbo decided to drop Happy Hardcore from their events.

Away from the lack of events though, it would be the same dozen or so DJs you'd see on the line ups of all the big events in 1999. Within that there was some segregation. Helter Skelter would have Ratpack (Old Skool) and Mark EG & M-Zone (Hard Trance) as part of their Happy Hardcore line-up. Then you would have Trancecore/Freeform DJs like Sharkey and Billy Bunter which I guess you could describe as Happy Hardcore trying to be taken seriously.

The bigger problem though was of the remaining big name DJs, Seduction retired, Vinylgroover moved onto Hard House, Slipmatt moved onto House and Force quietly called it a day. Ok that's only 4 DJs but when it's been reduced to just dozen or so anyway then its quite a lot.

Another observation is that of the DJs that remained, it was only really Dougal and SY who had made their names before the scene split of 1994 but most, if not all, of them were established by 1995. None of the Happy Hardcore DJs from the final Helter Skelter of 1999 played at the first Helter Skelter in 1989 but most of them did play a Helter Skelter in 1995.

One thing I haven't mentioned yet though is the music itself. One of the main criticisms of Happy Hardcore from day one was that it was kids music. As a kid myself in 1994 I can't really argue with that. The DJs themselves though weren't much older than me, Dougal was only 18 at the start of 1994 as was Hixxy and Styles. Vinylgroover was just 17.

By the year 2000, the younger DJs had hit their mid-20s, the older DJs had hit their 30s and even the kids like me who were too young to go raving in 1994 had now reached adulthood. Had I been 25 in 1994, would I have got into Happy Hardcore?

Obviously I can't answer that question, but what I do know is that Happy Hardcore did eventually enjoy a resurgence in popularity and I didn't like the new stuff. To me it was just sped up Clubland type nonsense, but then Clubland was popular amongst the teenagers so I can see why it was like that.

When you hear what the DJs of yesteryear have to say there is a common theme going. They generally say they liked the breakbeat sound but weren't so keen when the kick drum came in. Many conversations I've read amongst 90s ravers on the internet would agree, I would agree myself. The obvious question there then is why move away from breakbeat in the first place, particularly as it was the music they were making?

Well my theory is the reason they decided to go down the kick drum route was Holland. The Happy Hardcore DJs of Holland were enjoying huge success in Holland with their kick drum sound so presumably the DJs of the UK thought they could do the same over here. It didn't work though and the ones into breakbeat started to lose interest. That coupled with the fact people liked Happy Hardcore for being ridiculous and when they tried to make it more serious it was no longer fun.

Top of the Pops: 07/03/2019

What's this all about?

Top 40 Countdown

Number of eligible records: 10
New (40) Dave - Black
⬆ (36) Camelphat ft Cristoph & Jem Cooke - Breathe
New (31) YNW Melly - Murder on my Mind
⬆ (15) Blueface - Thotiana
⬆ (13) Khalid ft Disclosure - Talk
⬆ (10) Tom Walker - Just You And I
New (8) Pink - Walk Me Home
⬆ (2) Calvin Harris ft Rag n Bone Man - Giant
⬆ (1) Lewis Capaldi - Someone You Loved


Missing Out
⬆ (24) Lewis Capaldi - Grace

My 25 Favourite Albums: Joey & Norman Jay - Good Times

In the 90s Norman Jay was one of many House DJs who's name you would hear quite often. I didn't know an awful lot about him at the time other than knowing he was one of the DJs who was there at the beginning of the Rave scene in the 80s.

Then I learnt that him and his brother Joey had a sound system at Notting Hill Carnival called "Good Times" which he'd been doing since the start of the 80s. Obviously House Music didn't exist back then but it's probably fair to say he was playing the sort of music that would influence House Music later on.

In 2000 Joey and Norman Jay released "Good Times", the first of several compilations of the sort of music you would hear from the sound system. It was a variety of styles of music including House, Soul, Funk, Reggae and Hip Hop. When I bought this album you could probably say it covered all the styles of music I was into at the time which is likely the reason it made this list.

The "Good Times" sound system was named after the Chic record of the same name, but it does not feature on this compilation. Instead it opens with "Open Up" by Chic, perhaps not their best known tune but not exactly obscure either, many would at least recognise it if they heard it. That pretty much sets the scene for the rest of the compilation, there's no anthem bashing but there is at least some degree of familiarity in several of the tracks.

The highlight of CD1 comes later on when the excellent "Runaway" by The Salsoul Orchestra appears. Ok I admittedly I only knew the Nuyorican Soul version prior to owning this album but I love that tune and the original isn't that much different. Then comes "Too Blind to See It" by Kym Sims, again an excellent tune.

CD2 begins with the Masters at Work remix of "Thank You" by Bebe Winans which is one of those tunes you can just listen to all day, despite being over 10 minutes long I always feel I could listen to it for longer when it ends. Overall I'd say I prefer CD1 but CD2 does have other great tunes on it such as "Hanging on a String (Contemplating)" by Loose Ends.

Despite the fact I've lived in London some time now, I've never actually been to Notting Hill Carnival. I have however seen Norman Jay DJ elsewhere and he was good.

I think what makes this album worthy of a place in my Top 25 is variety. It came in an era where genres of music were getting more segregated, and if you find yourself only having time to listen to one album do you really want to restrict yourself to one genre?

Another reason is that it works very well as an album, you can listen to all the tracks individually elsewhere or on other albums but the best way to appreciate this album is to listen from beginning to end, or at least one of the CDs all the way through.

Like I've already said this is the first of several "Good Times" compilations and the other ones are also great, but I've picked this one simply because generally speaking the first one you hear is always the best.