Are the charts all set up?

0:00 Video number two, what's it about?

Right folks, video number two for you on are we being influenced by the music we listen to on the radio. Check out video number one, I'll put this as a response to it and also please listen and watch to all the other video responses because they've all got a certain amount of relevance. Now at the end of this particular video I'll be asking you to do a bit of your own research and you'll enjoy it, trust me. Right, video number two, what's it about? Well that guy there showed it in an earlier video, Record Mirror. Last issue from the early 90s. Now, if we go back to the 80s and we look in Record Mirror and even earlier, you will find, if you've got any copies, that in the charts there were tracks that were in those particular charts for a long time. Okay, admittedly today you will have a track that will hang around for quite a while because people genuinely like it.

But, if we go back to the early 80s, I'll give you maybe a quick idea or an example should I say. There was a band called The Fatback Band, they had a track entitled I Found Loving and it was in the dance charts for almost, I think it was one if not two years it was in there because it was a good track. If we look at the top 40 in the UK, now let me explain what used to happen in the top 40 in the UK in the 80s and even earlier. A track would say start, maybe, and this is just one example. This is not gospel how every track worked. A track maybe would get into the top 40. Maybe it would be 39, 38. Then it would slowly creep up to maybe 30, 25, maybe 10, 3, and then 1. It would get to number 1. Nowadays we just have tracks that go to number 1, to number 1, to number 1, virtually every single week.

1:50 It's straight in at number one

It's straight in at number one. Which track will be straight in at number one? It was almost, I reiterate, almost unheard of many years ago. So what's the difference? Okay, this is what used to happen years ago. The club DJs, the mobile DJs, the pirate radio stations or whoever, the underground people would hook up on a track and they thought this is cool and they'd play it. What would happen then... Thank you for watching. How did all this happen? Why is it that years ago we used to have a record start here and go higher and higher? Well, of course, like I said earlier, we used to have the people, the underground people playing those particular records. And then they would just about get into the charts. And then because they were in the charts, people would then think, oh!

3:25 They would then start to promote and play and play

That sounds interesting, and then maybe they'd buy it if they liked it. And then the more they buy, of course the higher up it goes. And then of course what used to happen is the big radio stations used to think, wow, we better do something about this because there's a record getting higher and higher. So then they would then start to promote and play and play. And in turn it would get higher and higher. Eventually it would get to number one. Now in my mind, to a certain degree, that's the right way. That's how it should happen. Sadly, that's how it used to happen and even sadder again, that's how it doesn't happen anymore because like I said in video number one, certain radio stations say we predict chart entries.

And of course they're going to predict it because they're going to play those records every single day 20 times till it's drilled in your head, till you think yes I like it, I'll buy it. Of course when you buy it then that's one little note in that particular shop and if a thousand people buy it that's a thousand clicks and away you go, it's in the charts. So what do you think? And oh yeah sorry I said earlier about you doing stuff as well. Right this is what I want you to do. I want you to listen to your charts wherever you are around the world. And I want you to make a note of what's number one. More importantly, I want you to make a note of the charts from say, if you can, from six months ago, five months ago, four, three, two and one. And look at what tracks are still in those charts. Is there a similarity? In other words, is there a track that's in the charts for say two or three months? Or is it a case that from one month to the next, it's completely different?

Because in my mind, that's wrong. Because all you're doing, you're just churning music over. Churn, churn, churn. Whereas years ago, it wasn't churned, it was enjoyed and people used to spend time listening to it. It was fantastic. My thoughts. Practice and enjoy. Thank you.

This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.