Frankenstein would be proud! (The Charts)

Member Name: jennystevenson

Product:	The Charts
Date:	26/03/01 (48 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Success for the pop factory, fond memories of my youth.

Disadvantages: What happened to the interesting music?

Frankenstein would be proud...in other words, the workers at the pop cloning factory have succeeded in their evil plan to take over the UK charts with their manufactured money making clones. I haven't gone mad (I hope) I'm just tired of bland pop followed by more bland pop all trying to outdo each other.

I've heard that the percentage of UK music in the US charts is decreasing rapidly. Personally, I think the folks over in America have got some sense and I'm not surprised UK acts fail to grab the attention of the US charts if all they hear is pop pap.

Media Influences
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Ooh the media, now there's a powerful tool. Hype, hype and a bit more hype and the younger generation are whipped into a frenzy about the latest boyband/girlgroup and once they're hooked, the media and record companies feed their habit so they're begging for more.

Radio stations and their playlists makes up for a huge influence over the charts. Take a popular pop group, say S Club 7 for example, each time they release a new single, most radio stations slap it on repeat day in day out until it's etched in your memory. Hardly fair for the up and coming groups from different genres that are trying to get a foot in the door, only to be greeted with one or two plays in the wee small hours if they're lucky.

Pop magazines! I remember them and they're still going strong, except there's tonnes more these days, all look pretty much the same and all seem to circulate the same faces on the covers week after week.

TV! Unless you're blessed with satellite TV, you're stuck with Top of the Pops, CD:UK, the Pepsi Charts and a rare chance to see Later with Jools Holland. Apart from the last one, the others are basically the same. Spot a pattern with radio and magazines yet? So not only can you hear them on the radio and read all about them in Smash Hits, lucky you, you get to see them m
iming on TV!

Childhood Memories
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OK, I admit it, I was once a young teenager who listened to the charts religiously every sunday and constantly pestered my mum to buy me the latest Five Star single (did I really say that?). I know we tend to look back on our youth through rose tinted specs, but I'm convinced that there was a much wider range of music back then. I also remember acts staying in the charts and getting to number one over a longer period of time instead of popping in and out for a quick visit.

Slow Down!
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Back to those Americans...it's more of an accomplishment to get to number one in the US as singles tend to stick around in the charts much longer over there and when someone actually gets to the top spot, they're more likely to stay for a few weeks instead of a quick weekend break.

Alas, here in the UK, I'm not sure whether getting to number one means that much anymore. On one hand, I really would rather avoid another incident like Whitney Houston warbling at number one for what seemed like an eternity, but on the other hand, one week at number one seems a bit pointless. It's only March and I've lost count of number ones already.

OK, people may disagree with this but one or two weeks at the top is a bit of a joke in my opinion as it gets boring very quickly and it just means that the manufactured beasts keep churning out the same old pap to get their next fix at number one.

There's life beyond pop
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I've said my bit on pop pap, so now it's onto other music genres. Various genres of music get their turn of popularity in a crop rotation kind of way. Every few years, a trend hits the music scene and a thousand and one bands get lumped into the same category. Whilst they may benefit from high sales during their moment of glory, they can just as easily fade into the background once the media gets bo
red of them.

Remeber the casualties? The word "Britpop" makes me come out in a rash. I've no idea where this term originated, but it became a platform for UK indie groups to enter the world of charts and success. Oasis, Blur, Elastica, Menswear, Cast, Pulp, Lush, Sleeper, Echobelly...the list goes on. How many of them survived and what happened to the rest? The poor things got discarded like a toy that's lost its novelty factor. Instead of bands being recognised for their individual styles, they were all thrown into the Britpop cauldron.

As with any trend, it's a breeding ground for a lot of trash. A lot of Britpop acts weren't actually much cop, but they did well because of what they were classed as. The same can apply to other trends such as Trance music, garage or even "nu-metal". Limp Bizkkit at number one? Hmmm...I'm not celebrating.

Hey, Look on the bright side!
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Now that I've moaned like a fish wife about the charts, I'd like to say that as much as I detest the charts and how they're influenced, it REALLY doesn't matter to me anymore, I don't REALLY care about the charts.

Yes, it's a pain hunting through record stores desperately trying to find ANYTHING on a band I've got my eye on, but in this new millenium, thankfully we have other forms of listening to and hearing about the less commercial side of music.

The internet is a great resource for music, videos, interviews etc. on just about any group or style, regardless of whether they're chart worthy or not. You've also got a good chance of finding other people with similar tastes to you.

All wrapped up
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Is there any place for the charts anymore? No, not in my opinion anyway. There's so much more life elsewhere, so get out there and discover the interesting, more creative and fresh talent. They are ther
e, it just means you need to search hider to find them.

Now, what was that I just heard on the radio? The Tweenies you say?

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