BACK TO THE START (The old man): So, let’s take a quick look at the 1 st 2 parts of this 10 part write up to see where I’ve landed. Well........ at least I'm much further away from becoming the old dismissive man I feared. In the 1 st part, I talked about research that strongly suggested becoming such a person was all part of a natural process. A ‘natural process’, maybe – but one that shocked and upset me nevertheless less. Death is ‘just a natural process’ too! The resear

THE START OF THE GWIM PROJECT I think its an idea to recount my ‘day 1 experience’ – listening to the very 1 st playlist of top ten singles. I had an idea in my head, probably the same idea many older people have, of what I expected to hear. I pressed play ........... and that expectation was immediately shattered with Noah Kahan's “Stick Season”..... which was #1 that week!! https://youtu.be/JKrDdsgXuso?si=ENyqSqtc9DmvbJTm It continued to be shattered with Teddy Swims “Los

Yes there’s still 3 charts left before the end of the year. However, because of the Christmas takeover of the charts due to streaming, these days by the end of November we are essentially at the end of the year chart-wise. Here’s the rest. SINGLES (OCT – DEC) (See Part 3 for Jan-Sept) The Weeknd & Playboi Carti “Timeless” I like some things about it, I like the way the vocal passes around, I like the keyboard ‘bip bip’ figure, and I like the ‘ambient’ background. But, the t

Country Music Country music's popularity has been on an upward trajectory for a decade and spiked in 2024. This article discusses this https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/this-aint-texas-country-music-renaissance-in-uk-as-genre-surges-67-in-2024/ Despite paying almost no attention, I HAD also noticed an upward trend in folk, drinking songs, sea shanties and the like. This is great for fans of country music, right?........... or wrong? I turn here to my friend Simon Ore

HOW DO THE CHARTS WORK? Since I was last properly paying attention in the late 90s, its significantly changed. And rightly so. It was purely physical record sales in my day and had been since the charts, first known as the ‘hit parade’ began. But, that no longer represents pop music consumption. In 2005, downloads were incorporated into the chart. This changed the make up of the chart as tracks other than currently widely available single releases could be downloaded. I reme

OLD ACTS AND THEIR NEW STUFF : Old acts actually tend to dominate the album chart; an obsevation I made when I co-presented my friend Simon Ore ‘s radio show in June. In that week the following old acts were all in the album chart, largely with their classic albums or best of collections. Eminem, Fleetwood Mac, ABBA, Elton John, Michael Jackson, Oasis, Queen, Linkin Park, Fleetwood Mac again, Eminem again, Green Day, Bob Marley, Oasis again, Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chilli Peppe

This part of the project evolved. To begin, I was going to ‘keep an eye’ on the album chart. Then I began to listen to albums by new artists only..... then all of them. I then started marking them out of 10 using my system that has been in place since 1996. But just a mark. Soon, I couldn't help adding little comments.... then as I got more and more into it they were more like mini-reviews. Something terrible happened during this project. In late June by phone device stopped

THE SINGLES – JAN-SEPT 2024 : Noah Kahan “Stick Season” (#1 for 7 weeks) https://youtu.be/JKrDdsgXuso?si=eVFGPGyYIstXJzNG So this was it! Day 1. Track 1 of my 1 st playlist. I had an expectation in my head of ‘today’s pop music’ – hit play.... and that expectation was immediately shattered. This was #1 in the charts that week. A nice bit of folk-pop complete with banjos and mandolins. Not a bad little number either. Jack Harlow “Lovin On Me” (#1 for 3 weeks in 2023)...

HOW'S IT GOING? : That’s the biggest surprise of all. I’m loving it. I knew I would enjoy it on some level. A ‘research project’ . Sometimes, I even quite like doing things I don’t enjoy – because you get a more tangible sense of a achievement. That’s how it started - I began with a 24 minute playlist and once I put it together and was really to press ‘play’ for the 1 st time I thought ‘I’m going to hate this............ Brilliant’. But, the surprises began right from the 1

The ‘Get With It, Man’ (GWIM) Project. Part 1 (of many) – Intro (Britpop's Death, Snobby Kev, and the Old Man I Hate): Intro Statement: GWIM? : This is the ‘Get With It, Man (GWIM)’ Project I began at the start of 2024 as I was unhappy with my lack of knowledge and engagement with new music. That’s the ‘in a nutshell’ summary. But, the whole thing came about for a few reasons. THE DEATH OF BRITPOP : To begin, we have to go back a quarter of a century. As a teenager, I was d