In 2007, the artist who appeared the most on the Billboard Hot 100 chart of #1 singles was Rihanna, with 8 weeks at #1 with Umbrella. 8 fucking weeks for a terrible song.
In 1997, it was Elton John. Eh. I don't like Elton John too much, but at least he' s tolerable.
In 1987, it was Bon Jovi, with Livin' On A Prayer, which is a damned awesome song. Other highlights are - Los Lobos with 3 weeks for La Bamba, U2, with 3 weeks for With Or Without You, and 2 weeks for I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. In 1987, we had Bon Jovi, Los Lobos, and U2. 3 awesome bands. And yet, added up, those 3 awesome bands had 12 weeks between them. And Rihanna gets 8 weeks with one shitty song.
In 1977, during the prime of music, Manfred Mann had a hit with Blinded By The Light, which was originally a Bruce Springsteen song. Not much to say here, the '77 chart is pretty shitty. But it's still better than the '07 chart. At least the '77 chart has redeeming qualities. The problem is, in '77, the chart only tracked singles, and not albums or album tracks. Some of the fine albums released in '77 include Animals (Pink Floyd), I'm A Man (Bo Diddley), Let There Be Rock (AC/DC), News Of The World (Queen) and Slowhand (Eric Clapton). 1977 also brought us Hotel California, a great album, with an amazing title track. Song-wise, Tom Petty released American Girl, Heart released Barracuda, AC/DC released Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, Stevie Wonder released Isn't She Lovely, Boston released More Than A Feeling, and Aerosmith released Walk This Way. All in all, '77 was a damned good year. Just not chart-wise.
And finally, 1967. The '60s were, with no question, the greatest decade for music. And the charts prove it. The Rolling Stones are on there with Ruby Tuesday. The Beatles have Penny Lane and Hello, Goodbye. The Turtles, a band no one has heard of, had a hit with Happy Together, a song everyone has heard. The same goes for The Monkees, with I'm A Believer. Aretha Franklin was on the charts in '67, with Respect.
1967 has The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Aretha Franklin. What does 2007 have? Rihanna, Soulja Boy, and Plain White T's.
I weep for the future of music.
(Updated on March 9th with more info on 1977)
1 comments:
I do believe that you have a point about that. But you must also keep in mind that music is a reflection of the culture at the time, so we must also question what our culture has turned into as well.
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