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Why do people think the charts are still relevant in any such way?


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Old 16-12-2014, 14:38
Lexii-Mae
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Why do they think the music that makes the charts or that gets to No.1, is an indicator of this generations music tastes or that the music that is in the charts is the be all and end all, of the music being made today?

Let me explain something.

1) Having your music make the charts, means absolutely nothing in this day and age. All it really means, is that particular piece of music has been heard by a wider audience, that it's been played on the radio and therefore more people have heard it around the same time, meaning it's going to sell more around the same time, making it chart.

2) When you think about how many people there are in the UK and then look at the number of people who are actually buying these records, really it is actually quite a small percentage of our population.

3) There is a common assumption, that it's mainly young people and more specifically teenage girls buying this 'manufactured crap' when actually, that's not true and I'd say it's the other way round. Being young and female myself, I've known many guys that only listen to chart music and I also find that it's mainly middle aged parents, that buy and listen to most chart music.

4) Listening to and finding music to suit your tastes has become much more personal for young people. There are so many different ways to discover music, so many different genres and so many different people putting out new music each and every day, that it's become much easier to have your own individual tastes and that even if you and a friend are into exactly the same genres, the tracks and artists/producers you've discovered, actually like and have bought, will probably be different to eachothers.

5) With so many different places to discover music and the fact so many people are now uploading their music to the Internet, people aren't all going to come across the same artist or producer at the exactly the same time. Therefore, over a period of time that person may end up selling loads of their music and will gain a fan base but it's never going to make it into the Charts because not enough people will be discovering and buying that music, in exactly the same week.

6) Just because somebody may buy a couple of songs that have charted, it does not automatically mean that they have terrible taste and that they don't also listen to more obscure and 'real music' as people here, like to call it. I've seen people say things like "This generation seems to be the first generation that doesn't actually care about music and are happy to be spoonfed manafactured crap." This is such an ignorant thing to say and anyone thinking in this way, is truly out of touch with young people and music.

7) YouTube views now count towards chart positions. Many music videos today, are getting tons of hits, not because young people actually like the music, but because of the controversial and sexual content. Also if you actually click on these videos and read the comments, it seems a large proportion of the people visiting the video, have only done so, to leave a negative comment. So just because the video has lots of views, it's not an indicator of its musical content actually being popular and just goes to show how irrelevant the charts actually are, in terms of popularity amongst the young.

The charts no longer matter, having a number one no longer matters and people need to give up on all this "music today is crap" "young people today have terrible taste and are sheep" mentality.
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Old 16-12-2014, 19:55
EStaffs90
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7) YouTube views now count towards chart positions.
When did that happen? (Whilst streams may be counted in the chart, YouTube isn't one of the services included.)
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Old 16-12-2014, 20:06
ohglobbits
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Charts will always be important as a determiner of what music commercial or otherwise has made an impact but album charts are probably looked at now more than singles.
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Old 16-12-2014, 20:06
Lexii-Mae
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When did that happen? (Whilst streams may be counted in the chart, YouTube isn't one of the services included.)
Sorry, it seems I got that wrong. I've just looked it up and it's actually the Billboard Chart that uses YouTube. Doesn't change the fact that charts are pretty much irrelevant still though, because they are. I don't know anybody that listens to chart music only and I don't know anyone that thinks it's the best music around either (That includes people that listen to it)
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Old 16-12-2014, 20:20
shackfan
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Sorry, it seems I got that wrong. I've just looked it up and it's actually the Billboard Chart that uses YouTube. Doesn't change the fact that charts are pretty much irrelevant still though, because they are. I don't know anybody that listens to chart music only and I don't know anyone that thinks it's the best music around either (That includes people that listen to it)
You ask about music snobbery in another thread then refer to manufactured crap. Make your mind up and stop contradicting yourself.
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Old 16-12-2014, 20:21
my name is joe
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You ask about music snobbery in another thread then refer to manufactured crap. Make your mind up and stop contradicting yourself.
it's in quotation marks, in other words the poster is saying what people are saying
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Old 16-12-2014, 20:37
Jim_McIntosh
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Just one quibble - point 1 is a total contradiction. You can't say something means nothing and then list the things it actually means. What it means is it's popular at that time amongst the most people under whatever the current criteria are - it's as simple as that.

Popularity (charts) and how good something is (personal taste) are different things entirely. Arguments about what is good music are ridiculous as there is no real argument beyond "this is what I like and why" which is all anyone can really say and there is no argument against that really.

You could start a topic like who is the best singer and guaranteed people would be arguing about "but so and so has had this many hits in all these decades" and blah blah blah when really it should just be people listing what they like because what argument is there against what someone likes? There is no objective answer, it's totally subjective.
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Old 16-12-2014, 21:25
vauxhall1964
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I'm struggling to find any logic in the OP's post, so full of contradictions that it is. I'll say just 2 things: the album chart is as 'relevant' as it's always been as the way it's compiled has remained pretty constant over the decades. As for the singles chart, given that singles sales (ie, downloads) are at higher levels than the glory days of the singles sales in the late 70s, you could argue they are far from being unrepresentative, 'irrelevant' etc.
You just don't like what people are buying.
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Old 16-12-2014, 22:59
Hitstastic
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Personally I think 2014 has to be one of THE worst years ever for the UK #1 single.

Look at the below list:

Pitbull feat. Ke$ha - Timber
Sam Smith - Money On My Mind
Route 94 feat. Jess Glynne - My Love
DVBBS & Borgeous feat. Tinie Tempah - Tsunami (Jump)
Duke Dumont feat. Jax Jones - I Got U
5 Seconds Of Summer - She Looks So Perfect
Aloe Blacc - The Man
Sigma - Nobody To Love
Kiesza - Hideaway
Calvin Harris - Summer
Rita Ora - I Will Never Let You Down
Sam Smith - Stay With Me
Secondcity - I Wanna Feel
Ed Sheeran - Sing
Oliver Heldens & Becky Hill - Gecko (Overdrive)
Ariana Grande feat. Iggy Azalea - Problem
Will.I.Am feat. Cody Wise - It's My Birthday
Rixton - Me And My Broken Heart
Cheryl Cole feat. Tinie Tempah - Crazy Stupid Love
Magic! - Rude
David Guetta feat. Sam Martin - Lovers On The Sun
Calvin Harris feat. John Newman - Blame
Sigma feat. Paloma Faith - Changing
Jessie J, Ariana Grande & Nicki Minaj - Bang Bang
Cheryl Cole - I Don't Care
Gareth Malone's All Star Choir - Wake Me Up
Band Aid 30 - Do They Know It's Christmas? (2014)
Take That - These Days
Ben Haenow - Something I Need**

That's 28 songs that spent just one week at #1 this year.

On the flip side, Shake It Off by Taylor Swift was released to iTunes without a pre-order and despite "only" peaking at #2 in the UK charts, it's outsold about 3/4 of the songs in the above list.

Ridiculous!!!

**may spend 2 weeks at #1 but I'm not convinced it'll happen.
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