The Charts: Classic Or Dud

in canada, nobody cares about the charts. the only chart that ever has any effect on people is the muchmusic (our mtv) music video charts, and that's all horribly rigged and not a real representation of _music_ anyway. in canada and the united states, the singles market is practically dead. it's all album sales here, though that doesn't stop anyone from shelling out the cash for the album when they're only really interested in 'the hit' (one thing i find despicable about north american consumers). although this may be the case, we still have regular top 40 charts here (and they're dreadful, anybody like creed?) but i think rigged just enough to give a slightly broader spectrum of music a chance. i haven't looked at a u.k. chart in months but it's pretty dire fluff. you poor souls.

what i lovelovelove! about the u.k. and its approach to charts and radio play is that the english appear to be very fickle and transitory in their taste. one day a particular song will be big, hit #1 and be played to death. then it will be completely forgotten and the next song(s) will take the stage. in a more singles-based market this makes a lot of sense. this kind of forced turnover happens everywhere as a result of record company machinations, but in the u.k. there is such a complete, utter purge of everything not- quite-current the level of the listener. the british as people (it would seem) are far more interested in having a bit of fun and dancing to a nice little pop song and then forgetting about it and going on to the next thing. in canada people have a more 'go-down- with-the-ship' mentality ... we never quite get rid of this awful chart music -- it hangs over us like a grotesque 4/4 marionette with a narcoleptic puppeteer.

why do i like the u.k. chart system if i don't like the music? i'm not a big fan of chart pop at all, but i would rather hear up-to-the- minute pointless fluff then slightly dated pointless fluff. i also love listening to the current trends in mainstream production and hearing how underground influences are seeping into the mainstream (like when two-step beats started appearing in more standard pop). the best thing for me, however, is that once a song has outlived its usefulness in u.k. chart land i'll NEVER HAVE TO HEAR IT AGAIN.

turn on the radio in canada and you're still bombarded with early 90's bryan adams, 80's zz top, wall-era pink floyd (*shudder*), rush, supertramp, foreigner and god knows whatever else. so many people here have not changed their hairstyle since 1985. believe it. it's gross, and for some reason, liking this awful, dated music and hair is a source of pride for many canadians. must be the french influence there.

enjoy your charts. if it's transitory commercial music not made for a lifetime of listening, we must assimilate whatever cultural or technological relevance it may have and MOVE ON. in that respect the u.k. has the most darwinist chart system on earth and for that i love it.

At this point, a Most Downloaded chart would be the most interesting, I think.

I happily download music I like, but I doubt the RIAA would suddenly say, "All those who don't buy the CDs raise your hands".....

Since today's US charts seem to be ruled by Limp Bizkit and such ilk, I wonder whether it's really a matter of personal taste....or is it more that a group of people decided to buy an album, just because the charts call it popular?

Despair for fellow independent thinkers....

the "charts" constitute the average person's main method of exposure to music, by hearing the songs on radio and in clubs. in that respect, people do buy the limp bizkit album because simply because it's on the chart. can we really fault that? if there are no other avenues for music to be presented, can we blame someone for making what they think is an informed choice?

unfortunately, the charts are rigged. who buys the records? young people, and a lot of them aren't actually buying that crap. there's thousands and thousands of sweaty kids getting down right now to some angular indie rock band in the american midwest. i've never heard of this band, but maybe they'll show up on jade tree in a year or two. how do all those sales on college campuses and record shops figure into the charts? they don't. same with the amazing new house music we've not heard of yet that's getting people really high at clubs. people are out there loving new stuff. people love music and they're curious about it. but there's no reflection of this in mainstream charts because it's a three-ringed circus of record companies, radio stations and media conglomerates.

it's sad to me, but i guess not everyone finds music as important as we do. i guess most people don't think about the politics of music enough to really concern themselves with whether or not the charts are accurate. can we really fault people for being ordinary?

Pete talks utter nonsense here. And this the reason I wuv the charts.

So I was thinking about that. Obviously reading the Guardian every day doesn't make Momus a conformist, anymore than listening to the charts every week makes me one. So what exactly is it abt a newspaper that fills me with the same kind of rage that he feels towards the charts?

The only thing I came up with was this: I'm a working writer, and just arbitrarily exposing myself to someone else's agenda — random to ME but yes, perhaps not to them — can be very extremely derailing and distracting; I get annoyed at things that just happen along (the current events that "everyone"s talking about") and then can't focus on what I'm really trying to work on. So I deliberately DON'T read newspapers: and I rationalise this self-cocooning by telling myself that I'm missing nothing, because it's ALL peabrained halfbaked cliche anyway — what the fuck could I possibly learn from it? And I don't have to read it to know it.

Momus is a working musician: possibly quite a lot of anti-chart arguers here are. Maybe working musicians hate the thing I like about the charts — the intrusion of the unexpected, finding you like something you would prefer to hate, because it fucks with your head exactly where you have to be careful about what you let in. Creativity is about being selectively closed-minded: not a bad thing so much as an unavoidable thing. I try to manage and play with my prejudices — when I'm aware of them — so that they push me in unexpected ways. (So yeah, the fickle swiftness of the UK charts IS a bonus there: it's kind of a handy map of "Things a lot of people think they like which they probably won't for long" => I quiz myself: Do I? Could I?)

Right, I'm off to buy some anadin extra, some coffee and the paper. For the Guardian Guide you clowns: Television is where it's really at!

The US charts are the exact opposite of this. They are everything you know already. You don't even have to look at them to know what's there.

listening to this on iplayer now
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/documentaries/riseandfallofthecharts.shtml

https://variety.com/2019/music/news/rolling-stone-launch-own-music-charts-challenge-billboard-1203207480/