Watching the reruns starting in 1976 I could understand why. Brotherhood of Man were number one week after week with the god awful "Save Your Kisses For Me" and there were some long forgotten songs on the show that were laughably bad.
It was a time when early 70s movements such as glam rock were fizzling out but punk was yet to come along and bring music into a new era. It wasn't all doom and gloom though, bands like ELO were releasing great records but there were a number of Top of the Pops episodes where the only decent song was the ELO one.
Thinking about it though it wasn't just 1976 where music took a downturn. In fact it started a trend of music taking a downturn in years ending with 6.
1986
Many consider the big four of 80s pop to be Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Culture Club and Wham! but by 1986 all four had their best days behind them.
Wham! went their separate ways in 1986 and whether you liked them or not this left a gap in the pop world. Culture Club and Spandau Ballet meanwhile had seen their popularity dwindle. Both had been absent from the charts in 1985 and the longevity of their 1986 hits suggests they were yesterdays news by 1986. Duran Duran did manage to make the Top 10 with their only 1986 hit "Notorious" but this was a turning point of making the Top 10 most of the time to failing to reach the Top 10 most of the time.
In the synth pop world you had the likes of OMD and Ultravox having their final hits of the 80s which had nowhere near the impact their early 80s hits had.
Whilst the music that was big in the early 80s was no more it was also a time before the Stock Aitken & Waterman dominance of the late 80s had kicked in.
Topping the charts were novelty records such as "The Chicken Song" by Spitting Image and "Every Loser Wins" by Eastenders actor Nick Berry. There were also universally hated songs such as "Lady In Red" by Chris De Burgh and "I Want To Wake Up With You" by Boris Gardner.
1996
Admittedly this is more a personally view than a universal one. Don't get me wrong there were a lot of good things about 1996 but it was nowhere near as good as 1995 which was the best year I lived through.
Historically it had been the norm for a record to enter the lower reaches of the charts and then climb its way to number one. By the end of 1994 just 38 records had gone straight to number one. In 1996 alone 19 of the 24 number ones that year went straight in. In fact simply going up in the charts had become a bit of a rarity.
The ultimate low for me in 1996 was one of the records that did climb to number one, the Spice Girls debut. It's not just the Spicemania that came with it. There's the long lasting damage it did to pop music. They proved you could sell any old rubbish with the right marketing so that's exactly what people did thereafter.
2006
One of the positives of records entering the charts at their peak before quickly exiting the charts was the increase in quantity of Top 40 hits giving you more to choose from.
By 2006 though the landscape had changed. People were downloading records instead of buying CD singles and this got factored into the charts, something the charts have arguably never recovered from.
As a consequence we went from 598 new entries in the Top 40 in 2005 to 465 in 2006. Still a decent number but was the beginning of a downward trend and only leaving room in the Top 40 for the commercial fodder and not the good stuff.
The most significant event of 2006 though was the end of Top of the Pops. Viewership had already been in decline but the move to Sunday nights was the final nail in the coffin. For me personally I'd gone from always knowing what was number one to rarely knowing.
2016
By 2016 downloading was old hat, streaming was the way people were consuming music. The inclusion of streaming in the charts lowered the quantity of Top 40 hits even further.
In 2016 there were just 168 new entries in the Top 40 which at the time of writing is the lowest there's been in a single year in the Top 40 era.
It wasn't just the small quantity of new entries overall, it was also the large quantity of new entries from individual artists. Historically 4 new entries in a year from a single artist was considered a lot. In 2016 Drake had 8 and Beyonce and The Weeknd had 7 meaning even less variety.
One of Drakes records spend 15 weeks at number one but barely anyone noticed. Many people don't even know the song in question and whilst I have heard it I couldn't hum it.
2026
There's still time for music to turn the corner this year but I wouldn't hold my breath.
We're comfortably over halfway through the year and it's still not clear exactly what 2026 music is. A big factor here is that for 23 weeks this year a song that first charted in mid-2025 has been number one and it's a song I've never knowingly heard.
It's still possible that this year will have the fewest new entries in the Top 40 era. The highest new entry (not re-entry) this week is "9-5" by Dolly Parton, a song that's 46 years old that didn't chart the first time round.
We've also had "Human Nature" by Michael Jackson charting for the first time. Not only does this not put new music in a good light but it's also ruining chart history because the well known songs that never charted are now charting.
No comments:
Post a Comment