2003: The Good Old Days? - April

2003 has yet to be convincing as the good old days for the charts but there is one thing of note. When I see the list of new entries I know what the majority of them are. This certainly wasn't the case in the later years I've looked at.

Aside from pop the music prominent genre in April is dance music so that's where we'll start. I feel like Scooter had a new entry ever other month around this time and they can often be relied on for a point. This month is no exception with "Weekend". We also have the Top 40 debut from Goldfrapp with "Train" which is also a reliable full marks. 

The only other points from the dance music world is half a mark for Planet Funk with "Who Said (Stuck In The UK)". The rest is cheesy vocal trance and Eurodance , a far cry from 1999 when a lot of the charting trance records were decent.

This is perhaps why I was more into rap and R&B at the time. From the rap world we have solid efforts from Snoop Dogg with "Beautiful" and Nas with "I Can". The Roots have an interesting record with "The Seed (2.0)" that's rap with instruments and a funky groove and is good. There's a remix of "It's Tricky" by Run DMC which is alright, not as good as the original. No points for Eve with "Satisfaction" or Jay-Z with "Excuse Me Miss".

R&B is a bit more thin on the ground. Just a couple of alright records from Mario with "Just A Friend" and Aaliyah with "Don't Know What To Tell Ya". Then there's another abysmal attempt from Mariah Carey at doing R&B with "Boy (I Need You)".

The best record though is a mix of punk, rap and drum & bass. It's "Diamonds & Guns" which was the Top 40 debut for Transplants whose members included Tim Armstrong from Rancid and Travis Barker from Blink 182. 

In 2001 we had the group Hear'Say formed on the TV show Popstars. In 2002 they were finished but then in 2003 we had the solo careers. OK make that solo career as only Kym Marsh managed one. Her debut "Cry" came out this month and is the worst record. 

Here's a list of the records with the best on top, worst at the bottom and the good ones in green, OK ones in amber and rubbish ones in red (and in no particular order):

Score: 23%

Here's a look at the chart:

It's back to the original story of 2003 i.e. not quite as good as 2004. Still 3 months to change that story though.