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The Charts - The Good Old Days? |
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#1 |
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Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 5,148
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The Charts - The Good Old Days?
Anyone else kinda miss the days when songs actually moved UP the singles charts, as apposed to going in at the highest position they are going to achieve, on the first week, then continually dropping and exiting. Although occasional songs buck the trend, like OutKast's "Hey Ya", I wouldn't be surprised if in some weeks in recent years, theres been less than 3, maybe even no songs actually moving up the charts. I remember part of the interest in the charts, was wondering if a song you liked, was either going to catch the publics imagination, start building a momentum, and move up the charts, or drop further back. Now it's just checking out which position it goes in at.
I wonder if the current sitiuation, where songs are promoted for four weeks, then released, is one the reasons (as well as the shrinking difference between album and single prices, of course) that single sales are nose diving, because people simply don't want to wait four weeks for a song they like, and can download it off Kazaa or whatever, the same day they hear it. I'd hope that when online selling of singles becomes dominant, and are included in the chart, that all singles are available for purchase on the first day of promotion, and we see a resumption of a traditional, more natural chart. |
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#2 |
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Join Date: Jun 2003
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As a youngerster (a mere 15 years old) I wondered if singles ever went up and up the chart. You never see a single go up and up anymore. Its always the position in the first week of release that brings the highest position.
Plus, you never get a track that goes up and down then back up...
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#3 |
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Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: East Anglia
Posts: 235
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I personally prefer a chart with rapid changes. I don't want to see wet wet wet at the top for 15 weeks.
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#4 |
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Join Date: Jun 2003
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who does?
![]() But I don't think the chart as it is necessarily prevents that, there's just never been a song that got the public so addicted to, since. There was a 5 weeker or two last year, it could still happen. It's more the 4 weeks of promotion before release that I dislike. |
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#5 |
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Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: North
Posts: 628
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It did used to happen and the charts were much more interesting as a result.
High entries became common in the eighties for established and popular bands with large fan bases like Duran Duran, Madonna, etc... By the early nineties it was getting more and more common for record companies to market songs earlier and earlier. As an aside, this is also when TOTP began to lose its relevance and then its appeal. As the nineties wore on, the High entries became more and more commonplace, with new unestablished artists finding themselves straight into the top 10, 3, even straight in at number one (Think Whigfield was the first to hit number one with a debut single, could be wrong) All of the tension, and the drama of the charts is gone, its not quite as appealing to forecast how slowly a record will drop out of the chart. Regarding number ones though, we are getting more lengthy chart supremacies at the moment with good reason. Even when singles sales are down, the biggest sellers of the year tend to sell roughly the same amounts. As such, the bigger sellers do so by hanging around in the charts longer, and possibly staying at number one longer. Black eyed peas managed 7(?) weeks last year. Its not unthinkable that a record could take over the top spot for 10, 11 maybe more weeks again. Just hope its not Bryan Adams though! |
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#6 |
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Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Darn Sarf
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Quote:
Originally posted by Alex Young Oh, you'd have loved the sixties! The best I remember is what happened to The Beatles "She Loves You". It entered at 12, 3, then no. 1 for 4 weeks then dropped to 2 or 3 for the next 7 weeks. Then, it got back to no. 1 for 2 weeks ( 11 weeks after the first time) before being finally knocked off the top by their own next single, "I Want to Hold Your Hand". They then held the top two positions for 3 weeks over Christmas - and She Loves You was released in August, it never dropped below no. 3 for 4 complete months!!!!!!! Plus, you never get a track that goes up and down then back up...
Those were the days!
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#7 |
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Guest
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Kataan
Posts: 10,939
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singles should not be heard weeks before they are released.
1 week before release should be the limit. this would encourage sales, because the song would be fresh in peoples minds. A lot of songs I quite like at first but 4 or 5 weeks later when they are released, Ive heard them so often im sick of them. |
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#8 |
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Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 5,288
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Between Slade in 1973 and The Jam in 1980, not a single record entered the chart at number one. If you discount charity records then only five or so entered at number one in the eighties. It used to be a really remarkable achievement.
Even entering the chart in the top 5 was impressive. I used to be so excited listening to the chart rundown with DLT on a Tuesday afternoon Where did it all go wrong? You can trace it back to the Blur/Oasis battle of 94?95? That's when record companies started to understand the power of marketing, with discounts in the first week, multiple formats etc. Ever since then it became more unusual to rise to number one, than enter at number one. Which of course meant that most weeks a new record would be at number, totally devaluing the achievement. However, am I imagining things or are records in the last year or two lasting longer at the top, on average, than they did, say, five or six years ago? Also, I've noticed records starting to climb the chart again, someone mentioned Outkast, for example. Or is this a symptom of falling record sales? When do you get the most records climbing the chart? It's the week after Christmas, when record sales are at their lowest point of the year. Now WHSmith are stopping single sales and surely others will follow. It's all very disappointing.
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and surely others will follow. It's all very disappointing.