UK Singles Chart: 2011

Joining the 30+ Top 40 hits club in 2011 was the Glee Cast who had 13 hits this year to add to their 17 hits the year before, but this would be the last we'd see of them in the Top 40. Also joining the club was Rihanna who had 10 Top 40 hits bringing her total to 32. The acts highlighted are those who still have more hits to come:

	Artist	No of Hits	New Hits
1	Elvis Presley	124
=	Cliff Richard	124
3	Elton John	69
4	Madonna	66
5	David Bowie	57
=	Status Quo	57
7	Queen	53
8	Michael Jackson	50
9	Paul McCartney	47
=	Kylie Minogue	47	Higher
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
22	Tom Jones	36
=	Bon Jovi	36
24	R Kelly	35
=	George Michael	35	True Faith
26	Erasure	34
=	Manic Street Preachers	34
=	Jay-Z	34	H.A.M, Otis, Talk That Talk
29	Frank Sinatra	33
=	Shakin Stevens	33
=	Morrissey	33
32	Iron Maiden	32
=	Simply Red	32
=	Whitney Houston	32
=	Rihanna	32	S&M, All of the Lights, California King Bed, Cheers (Drink to That), Fly, We Found Love, Princess of China, Take Care, Talk That Talk, You Da One
36	Roy Orbison	31
=	Bee Gees	31
=	REM	31
=	Robbie Williams	31
40	Lonnie Donegan	30
=	Beatles	30
=	Tina Turner	30
=	Duran Duran	30
=	Paul Weller	30
=	Mary J Blige	30
=	Glee Cast	30	Telephone, Empire State of Mind, Toxic, Teenage Dream, Start Me Up/Livin on a Prayer, Singing in the Rain/Umbrella, Forget You, Hey Soul Sister, Thriller/Heads Will Roll, Loser Like Me, Get It Right, I Feel Pretty/Unpretty, Rumour Has It/Someone Like You

Rihanna also scored her fifth and sixth number ones in 2011, "Whats My Name" first hit the Top 40 at the end of 2010:

	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
18	Slade	6
=	Rod Stewart	6
=	Boyzone	6
=	Blondie	6
=	Queen	6
=	Robbie Williams	6
=	Sugababes	6
=	Rihanna	6	What's My Name, We Found Love

Rihanna also now had a run of hits every year since 2005 and Westlife had their final hit before breaking up in 2011 with "Lighthouse" which made number 11 and became their only Top 40 hit not to make the Top 10:

	Artist	Hits Every Year Since
1	Westlife	1999
2	Kanye West	2004
3	Rihanna	2005

Aside from Rihanna, there were four other acts who had two number ones in 2011. They were Bruno Mars with "Grenade" and "The Lazy Song", Pitbull with "On the Floor" in collaboration with Jennifer Lopez and "Give Me Everything" in collaboration with Ne-Yo, Nayer and Afrojack, Example with "Changed the Way You Kiss Me" and "Stay Awake" and Olly Murs with "Heart Skips A Beat" and "Dance With Me Tonight".

All five acts would also have hits that didn't chart very high, but the only one of these to also score a number two was Example with "Unorthodox" in collaboration with Wretch 32 therefore I would consider him to be the success story of the year from a chart perspective.

This year the X Factor winners song, who this time was Little Mix with "Cannonball", was released the week before Christmas and made number one. It was knocked off the top Christmas week by the charity record "Wherever You Are" by Military Wives.

The Saturdays had three hits this year, the most successful being "All Fired Up" which reached number 3. The long forgotten Girl Group making their debut this year was Parade who reached number 10 with their debut "Louder" but only made 38 with their follow up "Perfume" and that would be the last we'd see them in the Top 40.

Former Girls Aloud member Nicola Roberts began her solo career in 2011 with "Beat Of My Drum" which made number 27. Her follow up "Lucky Day" only made number 40 and that would be the last we'd see her as a solo artists in the charts. Fellow Girls Aloud member Kimberley Walsh made her only solo chart appearance as featured artist on "Like U Like" by Aggro Santos. This left Cheryl as the only Girls Aloud member to have a solo Top 40 career beyond 2011 and she had a hit in 2011 with "The Flood".

We had a comeback this year from Blue with "I Can" which was also the Eurovision entry for the UK. The boyband to start the comeback trend, Take That, had a couple of hits with "Love Love" and "Kidz" but neither made the top ten. McFly had just the one hit in 2011 with "That's the Truth" which only made number 35.

The Wanted had their second and final number one with "Glad You Came" and also had a number two with "Lightning" and a number three with "Gold Forever".

X Factor boyband JLS had their fifth and final number one with "She Makes Me Wanna" and also had a number two with "Take A Chance On Me" and a number 8 with "Eyes Wide Shut".

There was a new X Factor boyband making their chart debut in 2011. One Direction who finished third in the previous years series scored a number one with their debut "What Makes You Beautiful" and followed up with the number three "Gotta Be You".

Cher Lloyd who finished fourth on the previous years series also reached number one with her debut hit which was "Swagger Jagger". She followed this up with the number four single "With Ur Love". Runner up Rebecca Ferguson made number 10 with her debut "Nothing's Real But Love" and winner Matt Cardle scored a number 6 with his second single "Run For Your Life".

From the 2009 series of X Factor, Jedward had their second and final hit with "Lipstick" which made number 40. Stacey Solomon scored a number 27 with her only Top 40 hit which was a cover of "Driving Home For Christmas".

The bulk of the number ones in 2011 were either Electropop or EDM which were also the dominant styles of music in the charts in general.

The first UK Funky to reach the Top 40 charted at the beginning of the year which came from Katy B ft Ms Dynamite with "Lights On". Every other Dance record in 2011 could either be classed as EDM or Dubstep with genres like House and Trance seemingly obsolete from a chart perspective.

We had the first ever Dubstep number one in 2011 which came from DJ Fresh ft Sian Evans with "Louder". The other Dubstep number one of the year was "Promises" by Nero.

There were two British rappers who debuted in 2011 who also scored number ones. After N-Dubz had their final Top 40 hit with "Stuttering", Dappy scored a number one with his debut. Wretch 32 had a number one with his third hit "Don't Go" which featured Josh Kumra. Professor Green also scored his first number one in 2011 with "Read All About It" which featured Emeli Sande.

R&B was once again taking a backseat due to R&B singers doing Electropop, but there were R&B hits from Beyoncé, Chris Brown and Jason Derulo in addition to their Electropop hits.

Snow Patrol returned to the charts with an Electropop song with "Called Out In the Dark". They followed up with the more Indie sounding "This Isn't Everything You Are" which would be their final Top 40 hit.

Following the break up of Oasis, the Gallagher brothers started their post-Oasis careers. Liam Gallagher formed the band Beady Eye and they had their only Top 40 hit with "The Roller". Noel Gallagher formed the band Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds and debuted with "The Death of You and Me" and followed up with "AKA What A Life".

Their was however very little in the way of Indie Music in the Top 40 and no Indie hits made the top ten. Alternative Rock was also seemingly at an end chart wise with just the Foo Fighters having their final hit with "Rope".

Whilst we may have been saying goodbye to the electric guitar we were perhaps saying hello to the acoustic guitar with the debut of Ed Sheeran. He made number three with his debut "The A Team" and followed up with the number four "You Need Me, I Don't Need You" and number five "Lego House".

Staying on the more mellow sound of Pop music, Adele scored her first number one with "Someone Like You". She also had a number two with "Rolling in the Deep" and a number 11 with "Set Fire To the Rain".

After 2010 seemed to bring the death of instrumental music, we had one instrumental hit in 2011 with "I Giorni" by Ludovico Einaudi. The tune was originally from 2002 and it charted thanks to Greg James playing it on Radio One.

Tony Bennett returned to the charts after a 46 year gap to become the first 50s debutant to chart in the 10s with "Body Soul" which was a collaboration with Amy Winehouse which charted following her death. For the first time since the 60s and 70s respectively we had no 60s or 70s debutants in the charts in 2011.

A criticism many people over a certain age have always had with "modern music" is it all sounds the same. By 2011 though they might have a point. For a start we have around half the quantity of Top 40 hits to what we had 10 years prior and at the same time we have an excessive number of hits from the same artists like the 13 from Glee Cast or 10 from Rihanna. This doesn't leave much variety.

Further to that we are seeing more instances of rappers, R&B singers and DJs collaborate on an Electropop or EDM record and seeing very little of the genres these artists were originally doing.

Will we get more variety in 2012 or will it be more of the same?