My memories of music and the charts began around 1987 and like with anything else there's going to be gaps in your knowledge in the early years. By 1995 though I was a teenager and music was my life and particularly music of that moment. One thing that therefore surprised me when I started looking at the history books was how many Top 40 hits of 1995 I don't remember. These Top of the Pops reruns go some way to explaining why.
By 1995 the days of Top of the Pops being a promotional tool for record sales appeared to be over. There was a time when many records would enter the charts outside the Top 40 then appear on Top of the Pops where many viewers would learn of its existence and buy it which in turn helped the record climb the charts. By 1995 most records would enter the charts at their peak and then start dropping down the charts in the weeks that followed.
To give you an idea of the extent of this change, of all the records that entered the charts between 41-75 in 1995 only 6 of them would climb into the Top 40. In the 2nd week of 1990 alone there were 6 records entering the charts between 41-75 that would climb to the Top 40.
What this meant for Top of the Pops was that if a record wasn't shown during it's first week in the charts then it was unlikely to be shown at all. What it meant for the charts was that the quantity of Top 40 hits grew exponentially. In 1995 we had 642 new entries in the Top 40, just a decade earlier in 1985 we had 294. Given the show was once a week with room for 9 records each show, over a quarter of the new entries that year were definitely not getting shown. At the same time there had never been so much choice in what records to put on the show.
However, instead of taking advantage of this and having a huge variety of music on the show they went in the opposite direction. Maybe I'm just aware of how much wasn't on the show, but I can't believe the number of repeat performances there was. Don't get me wrong I'm not completely against repeat performances. If a record is at 38 when it first appears and then is at 3 a couple of weeks later then by all means repeat it. If it goes from 10 to 9 then give the slot to something that hasn't been on before.
What was most ridiculous was when "Gangsta's Paradise" was knocked off the top it fell to 3, the following week it climbed to 2 and was shown again. I like the record but it had no right being on the show once it was no longer number one.
My scene in 1995 was the rave scene. We had "Set You Free" by N-Trance which originates from 1992 and "(Everybody's Got To Learn Sometimes) I Need Your Loving" by Baby D which is 1992 style, both on the show. The rave scene by 1995 was more along the lines of happy hardcore, drum & bass and techno. There were examples of these types of records entering the Top 40 that year, but none appeared on the show.
In this era of records entering at their peak it was like numbers 31-40 in the charts didn't really exist for the show. I count 6 records that were shown whilst in these positions all year, 3 of which were ones which entered outside the Top 40. They did show almost all the Top 10s though and you can't fault them for that.
On a more positive note there were still plenty of decent records on the show and I generally enjoyed watching them. Some records good to hear after all these years, others I still enjoy despite the number of times I've heard them over the last 29 years.
Then away from the music there's the whole nostalgia about better times. At the time I remember thinking how dated past decades had become but couldn't imagine the era we were in going out of fashion. Clearly the live via satellite concept hasn't aged well and some of the clothing choices and haircuts were questionable. However when you look at the state of the modern pop singer these days it definitely makes 1995 look like a golden era in that respect.
What I liked about the Top of the Pops repeats when the started them from 1976 was they taught me a lot about the charts from before I was born, much more than your 70s radio stations that play the same 10 songs. If 1995 isn't in your living memory then Top of the Pops will have taught you something, but my advice would be to look at the history books and seek out the records they didn't play on YouTube otherwise there's lots you're missing out on.
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