UK Singles Chart: 2016

Joining the 30+ Top 40 hits club in 2016 are Beyoncé, David Guetta and Chris Brown:

	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	68		2015
5	David Bowie	58		2013
=	Status Quo	57		2010
7	Queen	53		2009
8	Michael Jackson	51		2014
9	Paul McCartney	49		2015
=	Kylie Minogue	49		2014
11	Rod Stewart	45		2001
=	Rihanna	45	Work, This Is What You Came Here For, Too Good, Needed Me	2016
13	Pet Shop Boys	44		2009
14	Diana Ross	43		2005
=	Rolling Stones	43		2005
=	Depeche Mode	43		2009
17	Stevie Wonder	41		2005
=	U2	41		2009
19	UB40	40		2005
20	Mariah Carey	39		2013
=	Jay-Z	39		2013
22	Prince	38		1997
=	R Kelly	38		2014
24	Janet Jackson	37		2006
=	Bon Jovi	37		2013
26	Tom Jones	36		2009
=	George Michael	36		2012
=	Justin Bieber	36	Cold Water, Let Me Love You	2016
29	Robbie Williams	35	Love My Life	2016
=	Kanye West	35	Famous	2016
31	Erasure	34		2007
=	Manic Street Preachers	34		2010
=	Beyonce	34	Hold Up, Formation, Sorry, 6 Inch, Don't Hurt Yourself, Freedom, Daddy Lessons	2016
34	Frank Sinatra	33		1993
=	Shakin Stevens	33		2005
=	Morrissey	33		2009
37	Iron Maiden	32		2007
=	Simply Red	32		2007
=	Whitney Houston	32		2009
=	Eminem	32		2014
41	Roy Orbison	31		1992
=	Bee Gees	31		2001
=	REM	31		2005
44	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
=	Britney Spears	30		2015
=	David Guetta	30	Bang My Head, This Ones For You	2016
=	Chris Brown	30	Paradise	2016

No change in terms of most number ones:

	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
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
=	Tinie Tempah	7
22	Slade	6
=	Rod Stewart	6
=	Boyzone	6
=	Blondie	6
=	Queen	6
=	Sugababes	6
=	Britney Spears	6
=	David Guetta	6

Kanye West keeps his consecutive years of hits going and we have a total of 12 acts to have had a Top 40 hit in every year so far this decade including 2009 X Factor contestant Olly Murs:

	Artist	Hits Every Year Since
1	Kanye West	2004
2	Rihanna	2005
3	Chris Brown	2006
4	Calvin Harris	2007
5	Jason Derulo	2009
=	David Guetta	2009
7	DJ Fresh	2010
=	Drake	2010
=	Ellie Goulding	2010
=	Nicki Minaj	2010
=	Olly Murs	2010
=	Tinie Tempah	2010

The effect of streaming and the lack of Top 40 hits it produces was even more severe in 2016. There were just 168 new entries, the last time there was as few as that was in 1955 when it was still a Top 20.

For the first time ever, the X Factor winners song is an actual Christmas song which came from Matt Terry with "When Christmas Comes Around". However it never made Christmas number one, reaching number 3 instead.

The Christmas number one came from Clean Bandit with Rockabye. This reached number one in mid November and was still at number one by Christmas and continued to be number one into 2017 spending 9 weeks at the top.

It was the second hit of the year for Clean Bandit, who's first hit was the number 5 "Tears" which featured the previous years X Factor winner Louisa Johnson who also had a hit of her own with "So Good".

The runners up of the previous series, Reggie n Bollie had their only hit to date with "New Girl". After the career of 2012 winner James Arthur appeared to be over a year later, he was back in the charts in 2016 with the number one hit "Say You Won't Let Go". There was also a number one for 2012 winners with "Shout Out to My Ex".

With One Direction now on hiatus it was time for their solo careers. First up was the first member to leave, Zayn, who scored a number one with his first solo hit "Pillowtalk". The direction he went in with his solo material was R&B. Then came Niall Horan who reached number 9 with his Folk inspired debut hit "This Town". Louis Tomlinson went down the EDM route collaborating with Steve Aoki on his debut "Just Hold On" which made number two.

Fifth Harmony had their biggest UK hit in 2016 with "Work From Home" which made number two. However their fifth and final hit "That's My Girl" only made 26. The year ended with group member Camila Cabello leaving and we wouldn't see them in the Top 40 again.

There was a new girl group making their chart debut in 2016, M O who reached number 16 with "Who Do You Think Of".

The only boy band to have a Top 40 hit in 2016 were Take That. Their only hit of the year was "Cry" in collaboration with Sigma and was also the only Drum & Bass record of the year.

Nobody had more than one number one in 2016 but the most successful act of the year from a chart perspective was Drake. He stayed at number one for 15 weeks with "One Dance" which became joint second with Wet Wet Wet's "Love Is All Around" for most consecutive weeks at number one and was 1 week behind Bryan Adams "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You". He had a further 7 Top 40 hits in 2016.

The amount of R&B in the charts was up on recent years, but this was in part to do with both Beyoncé and The Weeknd flooding the charts with several singles following the release of their albums.

The biggest music genre of the year though was Tropical House. Most notable of these was the number one "I Took A Pill In Ibiza" by Mike Posner which started life as a Folk song but was remixed into a Tropical House song by Seeb.

Calvin Harris followed on from his Deep House record the previous year with a Tropical House record "My Way" and a Future House record "Hype" collaborating once again with Dizzee Rascal. He also had a more generic EDM hit with "This Is What You Came For" in collaboration with Rihanna.

Another genre we had in the charts in 2016 was Future Bass. This included the number one record "Closer" by Chainsmokers ft Halsey. The popularity of the mellower forms of Dance music meant that the more generic EDM music had become more mellow than in previous years. This was evident in the number one hit "Cold Water" by Major Lazer ft Justin Bieber & MO.

There was a big comeback in the charts for Craig David who had returned to make the style of music that made him big in the first place, Garage. His comeback hit was "When the Bassline Drops" which made number 10.

We also had a chart comeback for the Stone Roses who had their first hit in 21 years with "All For One". They followed this up with "Beautiful Thing". They were the earliest chart debutants to have a new Top 40 hit in 2016 having made their debut in 1989. The biggest Indie hit of the year though came from Viola Beach with "Swings and Waterslides" which was their debut Top 40 hit and reached number 11 following the death of all the band members in a car crash.

Thanks to Drake and Clean Bandit both spending so long at number one there were only 10 chart toppers in 2016. Those not mentioned yet were "Stiches" by Shawn Mendes which hit the charts in late 2015 and "7 Years" by Lukas Graham, a Danish R&B group who are yet to have another Top 40 hit.

The lack of new songs and lack of different number ones combined with individual artists like Drake, Beyoncé and The Weeknd meant 2016 was arguably the least interesting year in the charts to date. However, what the charts did have in it's favour was there wasn't any genre that spawned many more hits than other genres. Whilst Tropical House was the biggest, it was nowhere near the extent that Electropop or Indie dominated in previous years.

The charts 40 years earlier in 1976 have often been seen as a low point for popular music, but then along came Punk and things improved. Will we see something similar happen in 2017?