I do think this weeks top 40 (as in, according to todays mid weeks) is probably the worst in a long time.

The top 40 has been going downhill since about 1998 in opinion, the charts have been cluttered with too much r'n'b and pop-rap tunes which quite frankly don't deserve to be hits. Im a fan of old school rap and r'n'b from the 80/90's and prefer those genres to not heavily populate the charts.
I believe the classic indie pop, basic pop and dance days are long gone, songs sort of lack melody's these days.
The charts peaked for the last time around 1994-1996, an example:

http://www.chartstats.com/chart.php?week=19960406

boyzone beat gorillaz to the no1 album spot today, both new entries.

i spose cos its mothers day its why boyzone got the top spot- at least i hope that's the reason.

I predict Boyzone's album will drop down the chart. Ronan Keating got a 2 weeks number 1 album last year around this but it was never a big seller and dropped out the chart pretty quick. Only sold a mere 200,000 copies.

Gorillaz will sell more in the long run

Ellie Goulding's album fell from 1 to 16

and marina and the diamonds have divebombed to 39 after only 3 weeks in the chart.

i'm wondering if these two acts have been overhyped?

starryeyed still number 4.

I think Ellie has been overhyped but Pixie was a victim of an album that went out the chart quickly and her album is selling fantastically these days. It hasn't left the top 20 in about 2 months.

I have a feeling Marina may the dark horse out of her and ellie.

Maybe I'm cynical but it looks like the album is timed to coincide with Mother's Day rather than "Steo's birthday" although I know they're in the same week...

I thought they weren't cashing in initially but I'm starting to change my mind. Their careers have been given a huge boost by Gately's death.

The charts are about popularity, not quality. You can't dictate to people what they should and shouldn't like.

for people who think the charts are not as good as they used to be... its a thing called Old Age... it happens to us all

I can recall when, listening to the chart countdown, you would at some point hear a good few catchy, enjoyable songs. There has always been a homogeny in the charts, but the "sameness" is now much worse IMHO.

Usually, if you heard a song or two you hated on the radio, you would keep listening because the odds were that you would soon hear a song you liked. That's not the case these days.

the charts should have been scrapped years ago, round about the mid 80's when the corparations wreastled control from the artists.
i'm not going to argue the music was better years ago(pointless) it's the lack of variety that depresses me. TPTB have largely followed a path of 'thats been successfull, find me another one' wheather it was good or bad is largely irrelevent it sold. i think it highly unlikely that an act similar to the Wurzels for example(make up you're own minds wheather this is a good thing) could ever top the charts now as they did in the 70's given the narrow paramitares of mainstream music at the moment. this might sound odd but i'm sure i benefited from having a wide variety of music in the charts even if i thought some of it was $%£* at the time.