2002: The Good Old Days? - October

October 2002 was perhaps an early indication that the charts would become dominated by indie music in the middle of the decade. Indie is the most prolific genre accounting for nearly a third of the new entries.

We have an indie record that gets full marks which is "Formulae" by JJ72 which was their final Top 40 single. There's also a half mark for The Coral with "Dreaming Of You".

The best record is a tune from 1996. Nakatomi were a Dutch happy hardcore act and they charted in Holland with "Children Of The Night" at the time but didn't chart in the UK until 2002. It was the first time since the mid-90s that we had and happy hardcore record in the Top 40 and we've not had one in there since.

There's another dance record from the 90s getting full marks which is "Cafe Del Mar" by Energy 52. Originally coming out in 1996, this was just one of many remixes we've had of the record since. 

It's one of the better months for dance music from around this time. When I say better I mean the vocal trance isn't as annoying, but still not worthy of points. There's half a point for instrumental trance record "Reload" by PPK which is basically "Resurrection" with a few tweaks making it not as good.

Just the one decent rap record which comes from Irv Gotti and a bunch of artists on his Murder Inc records with "Down 4 U". There's also half a point for Ludacris with "Saturday (Oooh Oooh)".

Just the one decent R&B record too which comes from Nelly & Kelly Rowland with "Dilemma". I think that Nelly does R&B better than rap and it looked promising for the start of Kelly Rowlands solo career, but in the end it turned out a load of crap like her Destiny's Child days.

What's left is the worst record which goes to Las Ketchup with "The Ketchup Song". I know it's supposed to be shit but at the same time I heard it a lot and found it really irritating.

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: 25%

Here's a look at the chart:

I had the feeling the score would be around 25% before I even saw the list of records. Improvement is needed if we are to declare 2002 as the good old days.