UK Singles Chart: 2014

Had I been making this post this time last year I would have said that Michael Jackson had hit final Top 40 hit in 2014, but he has since had another Top 40 hit. Therefore instead of highlighting which acts still have hits to come I have put the year they had their most recent hit instead as of the year being reviewed. There were no new acts joining the 30+ club in 2014:

	Artist	No of Hits	New Hits	Year of Last Hit
1	Elvis Presley	124		2007
=	Cliff Richard	124		2009
3	Elton John	69		2009
4	Madonna	67		2012
5	David Bowie	58		2013
=	Status Quo	57		2010
7	Queen	53		2009
8	Michael Jackson	51	Love Never Felt So Good	2014
9	Kylie Minogue	49	Into the Blue	2014
10	Paul McCartney	47		2007
11	Rod Stewart	45		2001
12	Pet Shop Boys	44		2009
13	Diana Ross	43		2005
=	Rolling Stones	43		2005
=	Depeche Mode	43		2009
16	Stevie Wonder	41		2005
=	U2	41		2009
18	UB40	40		2005
19	Mariah Carey	39		2013
=	Jay-Z	39		2013
=	Rihanna	39	Can't Remember to Forget You	2014
22	Prince	38		1997
=	R Kelly	38	Bump & Grind 2014	2014
24	Janet Jackson	37		2006
=	Bon Jovi	37		2013
26	Tom Jones	36		2009
=	George Michael	36		2012
28	Erasure	34		2007
=	Manic Street Preachers	34		2010
=	Robbie Williams	34		2013
31	Frank Sinatra	33		1993
=	Shakin Stevens	33		2005
=	Morrissey	33		2009
34	Iron Maiden	32		2007
=	Simply Red	32		2007
=	Whitney Houston	32		2009
=	Eminem	32	Guts Over Fear	2014
38	Roy Orbison	31		1992
=	Bee Gees	31		2001
=	REM	31		2005
=	Kanye West	31	Thank You	2014
42	Lonnie Donegan	30		1962
=	Beatles	30		1996
=	Tina Turner	30		2004
=	Duran Duran	30		2005
=	Paul Weller	30		2010
=	Mary J Blige	30		2010
=	Glee Cast	30		2011

Take That clocked up their 12th number one and EDM DJs Calvin Harris and David Guetta reach 7 and 6 number ones respectively:

	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	12	These Days
7	Abba	9
=	Spice Girls	9
9	Rolling Stones	8
=	Oasis	8
=	Eminem	8
=	Rihanna	8
11	George Michael	7
=	Michael Jackson	7
=	Kylie Minogue	7
=	U2	7
=	Elton John	7
=	McFly	7
=	Robbie Williams	7
=	Calvin Harris	7	Summer, Blame
21	Slade	6
=	Rod Stewart	6
=	Boyzone	6
=	Blondie	6
=	Queen	6
=	Sugababes	6
=	Britney Spears	6
=	David Guetta	6	Lovers on the Sun

Kanye West remains the act to have the most consecutive years of hits and after having hit's every year since 2008, The Saturdays have their final hits in 2014 before calling it a day:

	Artist	Hits Every Year Since
1	Kanye West	2004
2	Rihanna	2005
3	Chris Brown	2006
4	Calvin Harris	2007
5	Flo Rida	2008
=	Katy Perry	2008
=	Saturdays	2008

There was a big change in the charts midway through 2014, streaming would be included for the first time. The first number one following this change came from chart debutant Ariana Grande with "Problem" featuring Iggy Azalea.

Ed Sheeran released the single "One" which was the first from his second album. This was the Folk Pop style that Ed Sheeran had been known for. However the second single "Sing" moved away from that sound and was more influenced by R&B. That worked for him though as it gave him his first number one. He followed up with "Don't" and "Thinking Out Loud" which charted just before the streaming rules came in. After 19 weeks "Thinking Out Loud" made number one and then became the first number one that wouldn't have topped the charts if it was still just based on sales.

The song Ed Sheeran kept off number one was "You Got It All" from X Factor boyband Union J. This would be their final Top 40 hit.

30 years after the original "Do They Know It's Christmas?" was released, Band Aid were back as Band Aid 30 to record a new version of the song. It made number one, but just for one week at the end of November.

The Christmas number one went to the X Factor winner Ben Haenow with "Something I Need". This knocked "Uptown Funk" by Mark Ronson ft Bruno Mars off number one and was their for a week before "Uptown Funk" reclaimed the top spot and stayed there for 6 weeks.

No act from the previous years X Factor charted in 2014. From the 2012 series we had the chart debut of Ella Henderson who made number one with "Ghost". She followed up with the top ten single "Glow" but didn't make the top ten with her next hit "Yours".

From the 2011 series, Little Mix had two hits which both made number six, "Word Up!" and "Salute". From the 2010 series, One Direction failed to have a number one in 2014 making, the first year of their chart career they failed to do so. They only just made the Top 40 with their first hit of the year "Midnight Memories" which made 39. Their biggest hit of the year was "Steal My Girl" which made number three. From the 2009 series, Olly Murs had a couple of top five hits with "Wrapped Up" and "Up".

The end of 2014 brought us the first act from the US version of the X Factor to chart in the UK. This was Girl Group Fifth Harmony with "Boss" which made number 21. By this point the US version of X Factor had already been cancelled.

There were no number ones from Girl Groups in 2014 and the highest charting single from a Girl Group was "Braveheart" by Neon Jungle which made number four. They also had a number seven with "Welcome to the Jungle" but didn't make the top ten with what would be their final hit "Louder".

There was one Girl Group making their chart debut in 2014 who were called GRL. Their debut was a collaboration with Pitbull with "Wild Wild Love" which made number six. They followed this up with "Ugly Heart" which made number 11 but then shortly after that group member Simon Battle died and that would be the end of their chart career.

Boyband MAD had their third and final hit in 2014 with "Shotgun" which would be their highest charting at number 30. After saying farewell to the chart career of McFly in 2013, they were back in 2014 as part of McBusted with members of Busted and had their only Top 40 hit with "Air Guitar".

The most successful act from a chart perspective in 2014 was debutant Jess Glynne. She had two number ones as featured vocalist on "Rather Be" by Clean Bandit and "My Love" by Route 94. She also had a number two with "Real Love" which was another collaboration with Clean Bandit and she had a number six with "Right Here".

If we looked at individual genres of music then the one with the most hits in 2014 was once again Electropop. However there were more hits from all Dance Music genres combined, though it could be argued that some of the EDM tunes could also be considered Electropop.

We were seeing more Deep House and it's sub genres Tropical House and Future House in the charts in 2014.

Duke Dumont, who'd had the first Deep House number one the previous year, had the first Tropical House number one in 2014 with "I Got U" which was in collaboration with chart debutant Jax Jones. We then had "Waves" by Mr Probz which was remixed by Robin Schulz which made number one. Robin Schulz also remixed "Prayer In C" by Lilly Wood which made number one and was the first Top 40 hit where Robin Schulz was a credited artist.

With Deep House itself we had "Hideaway" by chart debutant Kiesza which made number one. There was also the only Top 40 hit to date for Secondcity, "I Wanna Feel", which made number one. MK made his Top 40 debut with "Always" ft Alana which was a remix of a record he originally made in 1992. Ten Walls became the first act from Lithuania to have a UK Top 40 hit with "Walking With Elephants".

The man who is credited with pioneering Future House, Oliver Heldens, brought us the first Future House record to chart with "Gecko (Overdrive)" which featured vocals from Becky Hill who was a contestant on The Voice and made number one. He had another hit with "Last All Night (Koala)".

The year brought us two Drum & Bass number ones which both came from chart debutants Sigma. The first of these was "Nobody to Love" and the other was "Changing" which featured vocals from Paloma Faith.

Whilst 2014 was probably the biggest year for Dance Music there had been for around a decade, it was also the year one of the DJs who was there at the beginning died, Frankie Knuckles. Following his death, "Your Love" made the Top 40 for the first time having failed to make the Top 40 when it was first released.

Meanwhile Indie Music which had been the big music genre in the charts at the expense of Dance Music a decade earlier had very little presence in the charts in 2014. The Kooks were back after 6 years away but their comeback single "Down" was inspired by R&B. Their follow up "Around Town" was more Indie sounding. Also back after 6 years away were the Kaiser Chiefs with "Coming Home" and after 5 years away was Jamie T with "Zombie". None of these acts have returned to the charts since at the time of writing.

One sign that Electropop may have started to lose it's grip was some of the R&B singers who were doing Electropop like Usher, Chris Brown and Jason Derulo were now going back to doing R&B records. We also had the number one R&B record "The Man" by Aloe Blacc

Similarly we were seeing Grime artists going back to doing their Grime roots with "That's Not Me" by Skepta ft JME and "Rari Workout" by Lethal Bizzle ft JME & Tempa T.

Now we've reached the mid-point of the decade, in some ways not much has changed since 2009. This was when artists across several genres turned to Electropop and all the varieties of Dance Music merged into EDM. It is still predominantly Electropop and EDM, but as we are seeing artists go back to their roots and seeing more distinctive styles of Dance Music it does seem like a change is just around the corner. Will it come in 2015?