the charts are stagnating again.

You are joking, I hope.

Well, there is that, but I was thinking more that they'd start hawking all types of untold shit at you in the hope that it's up your street, like 13 Senses' PR woman keeps pestering me just because they supported Embrace once.

?

just seeking a bit of clarification, that's all. apologies if i don't quite live up to your vast cranial intensity.

xpost to he of little patience

I've abandoned the semi-journalistic impulse to know EVERYTHING that's going on, and instead I'm just investigating deeper the kinds of things I'm already interested in

i can kind of understand this, because i pass over a mass of stuff without listening too, but i would be a bit afraid of my tastes settling into a rut then.

never ever give your phone number to PRs if you can help it.

but i would be a bit afraid of my tastes settling into a rut then

But Lex, don't you have a fairly well-established set of sonic preferences? (I'm not saying this is bad, I have mine after all.)

Ahem.

everybody has them

Hurrah for us.

even i've heard 'umbrella'.

Yeah but I live in the sticks, innit.

me too holmes

Not THAT far out, though?

naw. but you are probably closer to barbados than i am.

And New York.

quitney's home and uni locations are the exact reverse of mine AFAIK

it's complicated.

if you're undecided about killing yourself, the comments box here should help you:

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/music/2007/07/why_i_still_love_rihannas_umbr.html

Though the one YouTube link at the end there to "We Need a Resolution" was highly welcome.

Dorian looks very different to how i imagined - younger and snazzier

who could be embarrassed by 'umbrella'? "this country".

i'm glad 'they' failed to get Oasis 'Roll With It' to #1. people are now trying it with the Spice Girls 'Stop' so i heard the other week.

it's nearly 20 years since 'Anitina (The First Time I See She Dance)' was #1 - maybe we can all download that back to the top spot

Hahaha. Nice.

the top ten of ten years ago vs this week's:

1. Puff Daddy And Faith Evans - I'll Be Missing You
- never liked it for reasons that should be obvious (to all but the lex maybe) - certainly not as good as 'Umbrella'

2. Oasis - D'You Know What I Mean?
thing is i often do quite like big stupid epic rocky crap - this is mid-table in Oasis song league - NWA/Amen Brother drum sample = can't really hear it so whatever but it's more about the psychey guitars at the end - but probably not as good as 'Big Girls Don't Cry'

3. Gala - Freed From Desire
great tune, especially the definitive remix version by Mr Jack (who became Junior Jack according to discogs!) which is the epitomy of 1997 house music made in America (or so it sounds) for Ibiza. much much better than 'Foundations'

4. Coolio Featuring 40 Thevz - C U When U Get There
kinda cute and fun enough but what was the point of '40 Thevz'? OK but not as good as 'The Way I Are' is it

5. Ultra Nate - Free
if there was a more ambient mix where the guitar licks and strings just carried on for ages without the beat or vocals i'd like that. perhaps controversially i prefer the Arctic Monkeys single tho it's v close call.

6. Sash! Featuring Rodriguez - Ecuador
nothing to his debut single but still better than an Avril ballad, just

7. The Seahorses - Blinded By The Sun
HATE TEHM DESTROOOY (i heard 'Love Is The Law' for the first time this decade the other week), landslide win for NRQ and his ping pongs

8. Robbie Williams - Lazy Days
one of his best singles, better than 'Worried About Ray' if only because that song features the term 'tippy-toes'

9. Michael Jackson - History/Ghosts
not all that bad - comes down to whether you find Jacko scarier than the 'Teenagers' MCR whine about. MJ wins on penalties.

10. Changing Faces - G.H.E.T.T.O.U.T.
best title ever - very R Kels, the template hasn't really moved on in ten years or maybe this was just a little ahead of its time. just as sullen as emo Nats but slinkier and poutier ftw.

1997: 5 (snatching a draw from the jaws of defeat)
2007: 5 (a better top 5 than 97's but let down by the rest)

can we talk about "beautiful girls," the one with that 'SUICIDAL, SUICIDAL' chorus? it is on the radio a million fucking times a day, and it is SO DISGUSTING. i mean, i'm in a bus with my campers (yes, i'm a camp counselor LOL) and these 8 year olds know all the words to this song, going, 'suicidal, suicidal' and i just have no fucking idea how to tell them that it isn't really...well, suicide shouldn't be catchy? why do i object to it so much, other than its crassness?

it is well-produced, and has some nice weirdo doo-wop infuences that are sort of sweet. but...

You'd have loved when "Theme from MASH" was number one, then.

was gonna say. i think i remember asking someone (my mum maybe) what suicide meant.

I still expect Mr Lynskey to look like this; http://www.woodland-trust.org.uk/celebrities/images/ljoseph.jpg

It seems downloading has caused the charts to go slower. For some reason, people seem to wait longer before they download a song than before they buy the single.

Of course, the unnaturally fast UK charts of a few years ago were a result of this stupid policy to let singles cost less in their first week than in the rest of its life, meaning a single's highest chart position would usually be an indication of how well people liked the previous hit from the same act.

Yes, but that was to make the record 'ship' faster.

If all the sales happen in one week, the distribution of the single would happen once only.

Now, it's back to how stuff'd move around the chart, like the sixties, almost!

I think it's a good thing. The fast turnover of the late 90s was pointless, and gave very little space for the better songs, which would usually develop over time rather than race into the charts in their first week.

It seems downloading has caused the charts to go slower. For some reason, people seem to wait longer before they download a song than before they buy the single.

--

that can't be right can it? i'm prepared to believe it but it can't be 'right' right?

i think southall and matt dc are kind of right. umbrella is a good song, very good but it doesn't seem like a 9 week smash. it doesn't seem to have the all ages appeal of the likes of "crazy" or "i don't feel like dancing", the stuff that straddles radios 1 and 2. it's definitely in the blockbuster bracket of "sexyback" and "maneater" but neither of them spent so long at number one. i guess you'd have to see the sales figures but it's hard to know if it's the song itself or just paucity of competition that's giving it such a long run. if it's the song itself i guess that the big selling point is that it sort of combines the attributes of a "banger" and a "ballad" but by that reasoning “my love” would have been number one for nine weeks. possibly.

How am I right?! My entire contribution is along the lines of "not heard it, more into postrock than chartpop"?!

you are right in that it's very easy not to be aware of its existence.

Aha.

well it would be be if you preferred postrock to chartpop but otherwise waht

but by that reasoning “my love” would have been number one for nine weeks. possibly.

second single off released album, not released in Summer iirc, nowhere near as 'epic' sounding as 'Umbrella'.

it just doesn't seem very pervasive, admittedly when i come to think of it i have heard it in shops and a couple of tv idents. this measure the success of a song by how many times i hear it in a week idea may not be very useful tbh thou. also rihanna doesn't seem to be in the press that much. not being british puts her at one remove and she has yet to be a beyonce style megastar. possibly kind of hard to write broadsheet articles on. she was at live earth wasn't she?

Yes, she was in Tokyo.

gnarls barkley were hardly megastars either

but perhaps a lot easier to write about

Definitely. They had the whole 'first download #1' thing as well as being ex-celeb / trendy producer.

not easier to write about either, unless you need a gimmicky angle entirely unrelated to the music in order to profile an artist

and i'm aware that many do need this hook, but that's not my problem, and nor should it be yours

sure, i agree but as you say lots of writing does work this way. it's the paris/jarvis thing, the press often needs a gimmick to get in. i don't how this stuff works, is this to do with how articles are pitched?

it deserves to be number one for this long.

okay maybe not 9 weeks - it doesnt mean much beyond being a great song, but maybe thats enough these days.

"http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/music/2007/07/why_i_still_love_rihannas_umbr.html";

thats one of the worst pics of rihanna ive seen.

That eh eh eh bit of Umbrella unfortunately reminds me of the eh eh eh bit in Zombie by the cranberries, after which there's no hope for the song.

I miss CD UK and TotP. It is like chart pop is another genre that you have to keep up with, rather than just being the default that's always there.

Now that strikes me as a very salient point. What's chart pop's presence on mainstream TV now? There isn't really any, is there?