Posts
Perhaps the most worrying sign of pop in decline
Apart from the usual "this week's chart news" filings, Rhianna's been number one for eight weeks now, and nobody seems in the least bit interested. Even in the way that the chart was supposed to be all exciting nowadays with downloads and everything included, and yet it's delivered a number one which - let's be honest - isn't that good - that's become immovable at the top of the listings.
It's not a eight-week stretch at the top that's worrying; it's the lack of interest in that run which is alarming.
3 comments:
I was going to write something myself about this, moreso the fact that Kate Nash is number two for a second week and nobody is rushing to declare this a victory for new talent in the way they did even before the Arctics or Allen had a properly available record out. I wonder if it's partly due to the way pop has now been sifted out of the whole of prime-time television and left to T4 (and they're dropping Popworld) and the satellite music channels now increasingly geared themselves towards the newest stuff.
I'll Be Missing You back in the top 40 after last weekend's fiasco, though. Bloody hell.
re. "pop in decline" - I remain convinced that the actual quality of pop, as measured by the singles chart, is not dramatically lower than it was at most (though not all) points in the last half-century. It's just that pop defined itself, for most of its life, against something that, after 10 years of Blair, no longer actually exists. Now that it *is* the elite culture, pop is bound to seem less exciting: never has the phrase "be careful what you wish for ... you might get it" applied so perfectly to any cultural form.
But with Ash being the first visible band to accept that the days of the album filler are numbered, surely the days of a reinvigorated pop chart are only a few downloads away.
Post a Comment
As a general rule, posts will only be deleted if they reek of spam.