Chart Music Challenge

[Dex Sawash]

Guy at work is obsessed with the most popular _________ of right now. Plays all sorts of really terrible music for me. Won't watch a Netflix that isn't in top 10, etc.
Thought I would listen to some songs from the charts and pick one that was ok/listenable and then defend it here in this thread. I picked American Top 40 chart and dived in. Somewhere in the top 10 there was a groovy vamp but it turned out to just be a  Chic sample. Wife made me go to store with her somewhere in the 30s and I still haven't found a decent song so I've given up for this week. Will start at 40 and work down next week.

[DrGreggles]

Just had a look at https://www.officialcharts.com/charts/singles-chart/

Who ARE these people?!

I'll give it a whirl though. Let's see how far I can go until I find something agreeable.

[DrGreggles]

Just listened to the top ten.
Oh dear...

The two AJ Tracey tracks were considerably better less bad than the others so, if I had to choose one, it would be Dinner Guest.

I'll delve further down the charts throughout the day. Who knows, maybe there's a hidden gem.

What I've learnt:
There is a singer called Mabel who is Neneh Cherry's daughter.

[momatt]

Just had a look at https://www.officialcharts.com/charts/singles-chart/

Who ARE these people?!

GET WITH THE TIMES GRANDDAD!

_{I realised the charts were shit for cunts when I was about 15 so I've no idea either.  Arsed mate.}

[DrGreggles]

GET WITH THE TIMES GRANDDAD!

No

[Natnar]

Surely this was the singles chart low point a few years ago when Ed Sheeran had 16 songs in the top 20 https://www.officialcharts.com/charts/singles-chart/20170310/7501/

[daf]

I also had no idea who was in the UK charts - so I started the Top of the Pops : 2020 thread to find out - (posting the latest Top 10 & New Entries weekly on Sunday evenings). *

What I've mainly noticed is the routine use of autotune, and the phenomenal amount of swearing - I mean, how does ANY of this stuff get played on the radio?

- - - - - - - - - - -
* (as the chart is so sluggish, with the same songs hanging around for months, I've resorted to linking to remixes, live, or acoustic versions just to get a bit of variety in there.)

[Dex Sawash]

If I had read oscillations more than 2x a year I would have known that thread existed.

[DrGreggles]

I also had no idea who was in the UK charts - so I started the Top of the Pops : 2020 thread to find out - (posting the latest Top 10 & New Entries weekly on Sunday evenings). *

What I've mainly noticed is the routine use of autotune, and the phenomenal amount of swearing - I mean, how does ANY of this stuff get played on the radio?

- - - - - - - - - - -
* (as the chart is so sluggish, with the same songs hanging around for months, I've resorted to linking to remixes, live, or acoustic versions just to get a bit of variety in there.)

I thought that was a joke thread, albeit one I admittedly didn't understand.
Being out of touch with the charts is one thing, but it's quite another to have never heard of the songs or artists!

[daf]

It did originally start out as an experiment to see what an edition of the TV show might look like today by using the TOTP 'rules' *, but it soon proved to be totally unworkable due to the erratic way songs move around in the chart these days.

After a few weeks, I settled on a simple Top Ten countdown (running 10 to 1) - plus a bonus 'red button' section of New Entries (so all songs that get in the TOP 75 would theoretically be covered at least once). **

All the songs are linked to youtube videos (I try not to use the same ones in consecutive weeks) - so you can click on those if you want to hear them - That's basically it.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
* THE TOTP RULES
1. Songs allowed = Climbers & New Entries
2. Must play Number 1
3. Except for the Number 1, no songs to be repeated in back-to-back editions

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
** (the only bit of the original 'TOTP show' idea that I retained, was the ever-changing cast list of obscure or imaginary "presenters" - which is just there as a little bit of weekly whimsy to amuse myself.)

[famethrowa]

Had a quick look through the Billboard 100 and I have no idea. But this Pop Smoke fella has a bunch of songs on the list, he must be cockahoop!

Seriously though, what's the most songs on the list an artist has had at one time?

[Captain Z]

In the UK they changed the rules after the Ed Sheeran debacle so that only a certain number of tracks from an album can qualify as singles to enter the chart. I think. I don't remember exactly.

[Dex Sawash]

Had a quick look through the Billboard 100 and I have no idea. But this Pop Smoke fella has a bunch of songs on the list, he must be cockahoop!

Seriously though, what's the most songs on the list an artist has had at one time?

Does (feat. Drum Track and Vocal Fry) count?

[dissolute ocelot]

The rules are here but are among the most impenetrable things I have ever read.

https://www.officialcharts.com/media/657559/official-uk-singles-chart-rules-jan-2020.pdf

[Seedsy]

Surely this was the singles chart low point a few years ago when Ed Sheeran had 16 songs in the top 20 https://www.officialcharts.com/charts/singles-chart/20170310/7501/

What the fuck is going on here

[Seedsy]

I actually do quite like that weekend song. The 80s one

[dr beat]

Thanks daf for the TOTP 2020 thread.  I had a dip in and much of it sounds well...fine really, but also that a lot of the current Top 10 wouldn't have sounded that out of place in 2001/2002.

[daf]

Cheers!

[JaDanketies]

The Rain On Me song by Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande is good for what it is - some dance pop teen-bait.

Savage - Megan Thee Stallion is also good. I mean it's not amazing but again it's some good modern rap / hip hop. I doubt it's gonna get the accolades of Madvilliany but I don't think that MF DOOM ever scraped the top ten singles charts either.

FLOWERS NATHAN DAWE FT JAYKAE - that's a cover of Flowers by Sweet Female Attitude. It's okay too, not as good as the original.

Blinding Lights by Weeknd is probably gonna be the biggest song this year. There's certainly nothing bad about it. My fave song by him is The Hills though, and that's totally different to what he produces nowadays. Say So by Doja Cat is probably the same, too. I think I would rate them if they weren't overplayed.

A couple of good songs after the top 40 too.

I watch a lot of music television while I work and the gf loves Catfish, which is marathoned on MTV literally every day, so there's lots of chart music in our house. Currently listening to Radio 2. I certainly don't think chart music today is worse than it was when I was younger.

[momatt]

I certainly don't think chart music today is worse than it was when I was younger.

This x1000.

Chart music has always been mostly rubbish and occasionally good.  We just remember the better stuff, so it seems like it's getting worse.

[DrGreggles]

I'm guessing that the last time I heard (or was aware of) any chart music would have been when I listened to Radio 1, which was when Mark & Lard were on.

The good songs (to my ears) were rare, but really stood out.

[daf]

Thanks daf for the TOTP 2020 thread.

New one up now - decided to move it to fridays - so it's hotter off the press!

[JaDanketies]

Currently watching the Official UK Top 40 on MTV Music, turned it on at number 33 which is Tones & I - Dance Monkey and this is also a good song with a good music video

might update this post on an ongoing basis

number 32 is a cover of "I love you baby" but it's kinda removed all the good bits from the original track

Fake Friends - PS1 -  this was good too, it sounded like the dance music that came out 15 years ago except for it had a donk on it, the music video was making some point about social media but I wasn't paying attention

AVA MAX - Kings and Queens - dance pop teen bait with a catchy chorus. Theres a guitar solo in it that sounds like something you'd hear on an old Atari game, which was cool

Heaven on my Mind - Becky Hill & Sigala - I bet this would be good on MDMA

[daf]

Currently watching the Official UK Top 40 on MTV Music, turned it on at number 33 which is Tones & I - Dance Monkey and this is also a good song with a good music video

Only got to Number 4 in the US, but it was number one for 11 weeks in the UK in 2019, and even bigger in her native Australia :

"Dance Monkey" also holds the record for the longest time at number one across Australian singles charts, with 24 weeks (including 21 consecutive weeks from August to late December 2019)

Makes that Wet Wet Wet marathon look like a fuss about nothing!

[JaDanketies]

Only got to Number 4 in the US, but it was number one for 11 weeks in the UK in 2019, and even bigger in her native Australia :

Makes that Wet Wet Wet marathon look like a fuss about nothing!

That's crazy - half a year at number one! Eat your heart out Bryan Adams

Wiki also says in the US "it also became the first top-five hit solely written by a woman in over eight years"!

And it "broke the record for the most weeks spent at the top of the UK Singles Chart by a female artist when it remained at the top of the chart for an eleventh week. The previous record of ten weeks was held jointly by Whitney Houston's version of "I Will Always Love You" in 1992–1993 and "Umbrella" by Rihanna and Jay-Z in 2007.

[JaDanketies]

Okay can't modify my old post any more:

Juice WRLD - Wishing Well - so this is like that emo rap / trap music that the kids listen to these days. When I first heard this genre of music - fentanyl mumble-rap - I hated it, but now it's grown on me. Certainly doesn't sound like anything I used to listen to when I was a youngster.

This poor fucker died from an opiate overdose when he was like 21, which reminds me of fellow fentanyl-rapper Mac Miller, who was my breakthrough into the whole genre. I checked him out the day I learned about his death, expecting to hate him. Here's someone showing how complicated his bassline for What's the Use is. 

Juice WRLD's overdose death as well was when the feds searched his plane and he swallowed a deadly amount of his stash in an attempt to avoid getting arrested. It's such a  rich 21-year-old-idiot kind of way to die. :(

Sam Fischer - This City might be your kind of thing if you like men with nice voices singing emotionally with acoustic guitars

Chris Brown is on now. The guy makes me feel physically ill. He does not deserve a career. I wouldn't be upset if he was still in jail for what he did to Rihanna. Also his music is garbage

[JaDanketies]

so I took a break to do the Insanity workout with the gf as our baby was taking his daytime nap but I managed to catch up with it on MTV Hits.

I've noticed that some of these music videos don't really seem like they should be on the telly before 9pm - maybe nobody cares about that so much any more? In Dinner Guest by AJ Tracey the guy is huffing a balloon throughout much of the video - I guess it's not explicitly nitrous oxide.... and in Rain on Me by Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande the video starts with Gaga getting stabbed in the leg by a falling knife, and she's got a bloody stabwound for half the video.

Needless to say, I threw a chair threw the TV and sent MTV the bill.

It's playing some song by Roddy Rich now, he's pretty good and is at number 3. It reminds me of seeing loads of people slagging off this woman covering Roddy Rich's The Box while actually trapped in a box and using the box as an instrument and me thinking that she was really cool and talented.

Number 2 - Jason Derulo - garbage imho like all of his music. What's notable about this one, for old folk like me, is that the music video was just some lyrics popping on the screen with a moving background, which is something I see quite often these days. Who would've thought that music videos wouldn't be an essential one day - and this was number 1 last week!

No 1 this week is Joel Correy and I don't have much to say about this either. 5/10.

[daf]

I've noticed that some of these music videos don't really seem like they should be on the telly before 9pm -

The latest one by 6ix9ine with Nicki Minaj - Trolls - is pretty fruity.

Can't see that one getting an outing on CBBC's 'Morning Bangers' any time soon!

[JaDanketies]

The latest one by 6ix9ine with Nicki Minaj - Trolls - is pretty fruity.

Can't see that one getting an outing on CBBC's 'Morning Bangers' any time soon!

wow she's certainly got some boobs, that music video makes that pretty clear

not sure why Takeshi69 gets an n-word pass

[daf]

Is he not black then?

Bloody hell - that's a bit off!