Old songs on the UK charts

[Shoat]

Yes it's difficult to begrudge the Chemical Brothers - this would actually be Go's first week in the top 20

But Lush Life clogging up the top 10 all year is serving nobody. It's also exposing the weakness of how "ACR" is applied - a song needs to decline more than 3 weeks in a row to be downgraded. A current song going through its normal lifecycle will find that very difficult to avoid, but it's becoming increasingly impossible to shift a stable oldie like Lush Life which only needs to a score an increase of 1 "sale" once every few weeks to stay around forever.

The idea that Lush Life isn't on ACR, whilst songs released as recently as February are is faintly ludicrous.

 

[funky]

They can keep playing with the weighting all they like and they'll never keep up with it - as streaming normalises and it's user base broadens, the amount of old songs being listened to en masse and regularly - especially if the platforms keep offering up the same songs on their main playlists week in week out - increases and isn't going away.

Separating the charts into new and old is the only way to use the charts to celebrate, recognise and promote new music - the LITERAL point of the chart's creation - again.

 

[lolly]

Yes, I've often thought of ways you could apply different ratios after a certain period or after specific decreases etc, but it all feels so arbitrary and doesn't really address the underlying problem. I think separating old tracks out of the singles chart is the easiest way to do it.

Perhaps with some rule to allow songs that haven't had much of a chart life before to have a period before that kicks in, which kind of already exists anyway, in that rule which states no song can hit ACR unless it's already had 9 (?) weeks on the chart.

 

[passthatdutch]

I'd even suggest extending the rule to a song having to have 9 weeks top 40 before it hits ACR to stop low peaking songs that take a long time to be hits automatically entering a legacy chart if more than a year old... but yeh, the whole thing is a minefield.

No wonder there are so many acts that can sell out arenas like the O2 these days with barely a top 40 hit or 2 to their name!! Yet any random band with a rabid fan base can bag a number 1 album.

 

[hyperwoof]

We need to activate the Reynolds Girls to call out all the old dross again and Sort Out The Charts For Thee Kidz. Come on girls - pop your zimmer frames down and lets get to it!

 

[VV]

The old songs are the only thing that makes the charts interesting at the moment though. Who wants to see a top ten full of songs that have spent their 36th consecutive week in there?

I bet nobody minded when 'Into the groove' and 'Running up that hill' were hits again.

 

[octophone]

Lush Life is a banger, mind you. Ace then, ace now.

 

[octophone]

Yes it's difficult to begrudge the Chemical Brothers - this would actually be Go's first week in the top 20

I agree there's a difference between something previously neglected getting its flowers and an old hit being a hit again, that's entirely fair.

 

[Agneeta]

Hated Lush Life then, love it now.

I have been reassessing 2010s lately away from the decade it soundtracked and a lot of is better than I recall.

 

[Sheena]

The old songs are the only thing that makes the charts interesting at the moment though. Who wants to see a top ten full of songs that have spent their 36th consecutive week in there?

I bet nobody minded when 'Into the groove' and 'Running up that hill' were hits again.

But these came back because of genuine rediscovery by a new generation- essentially a reissue.

Lush Life just features on every playlist-a-going and is being kept buoyant by being autoplayed in hairdressers across the country. I still cannot believe the chart powers that be haven't done something about songs actually being chosen vs autoplayed/playlist played.

 

[hyperwoof]

I won’t lie - Kate Bush felt like a Fuck Yes moment - but equally that it could happen at all does point to the fact its all a bit broken.

 

[Sheena]

I won’t lie - Kate Bush felt like a Fuck Yes moment - but equally that it could happen at all does point to the fact its all a bit broken.

I disagree with this entirely- it's exactly what would have happened in the 80s with a Levi's ad and was a genuine "hit". No one is denying Lush Life is a hit but, like the Christmas mess, its current longevity is by default.

 

[octophone]

Which came first, Lush Life being a hit again or Larsson's new material doing well?

 

[Agneeta]

Which came first, Lush Life being a hit again or Larsson's new material doing well?

As far as I can tell it was pretty simultaneous. Lush Life was part of a meme, she embraced it, just as new material was coming out. The stars aligned for R ZARA.

 

[hyperwoof]

I disagree with this entirely- it's exactly what would have happened in the 80s with a Levi's ad and was a genuine "hit". No one is denying Lush Life is a hit but, like the Christmas mess, its current longevity is by default.

so its more a catalogue sales thing then? that there is a list of consistent songs people always want to listen to - which also explains the likes of ABBA living in the album chart for decades - the stuff people would have played in their car on a CD and would have generated no more sales but Spotify and such have skewed that?

 

[VV]

I think the charts have been an absolute mess for a while now. For example, I don't a Spotify playlist listened to passively in the background should count the same as someone actively seeking out a song and listening to it.

 

[Agneeta]

Absolutely mad at the moment

02 Wonderwall - Oasis
03 Three Lions - Lightning Seeds
20 Vindaloo - Fat Les
24 Beatles - Hey Jude
26 Waka Waka - Shakira
27 Sign of the Times - Harry Styles
29 Total Eclipse of the Heart - Bonnie Tyler
31 Don't Stop Believin - Journey
33 Billie Jean - Michael Jackson
35 Sweet Caroline - Neil Diamond
37 The One That Got Away - Katy Perry
39 On the Floor - Jennifer Lopez
41 Lush Life - Zara Larsson
42 Mr Brightside - Killers
45 Unwritten - Natasha Bedingfield
46 Dancing on my Own - Robyn
53 Beat It - Michael Jackson
61 Do You Mind - Kyla
66 Beauty and a Beat - Justin Bieber
69 Dreams - Fleetwood Mac
78 Go - Chemical Brothers
80 Iris - Goo Goo Dolls
87 Milky - Just the Way You Are
89 Human Nature - Michael Jackson
93 Riptide - Vance Joy
96 Everywhere - Fleetwood Mac

26/100(!)

 

[octophone]

At least the football related ones will vanish (apart from Wonderwall, probably) and the effect from the Jimmy Savile of Motown's biopic is wearing off.

 

[Agneeta]

If the world cup wasn't on, Dancing On My Own would be back in the top 40 in it's 11th(!) week.