Rock Triumph Part2 (Slight Return)

On Tuesday I posted a rant about how rubbish the charts are and how there is no rock in them. This jeremiad was, of course, based upon a number of dubious assumptions, and I was well aware of this at the time, hence the promise of more to follow

Part One: The Charts
Basing any argument upon the charts is a risky business, especially if it involves a sample of one, as it it did yesterday. There was plenty of rock around in 1970 (leaving aside any argument about whether it was any good), but the No. 1 at the start of the decade was Two Little Boys by Rolf Harris.

Furthermore, the charts by their very nature privilege certain types of music - what might be uncharitably described as "lowest common denominator tripe", novelty records, Cliff Richard Christmas songs, Eurovision Song Contest entries... It is in fact relatively rare for there to be a preponderance of even slightly radical music, even at times when rose-tinted memories might lead us to think otherwise.

It's proved more difficult than it used to be to track down UK historical charts, which suggests that the Official Chart Company have flexed their legal muscles in terms of the intellectual property. This wouldn't be so bad if they published the information on their own website, but I can't find it. The information is still out there, though.

Lets look at some old charts. Since I have been whinging about the charts of August 2012, I'm going to look at the charts at the start of August at 5 year intervals back to 1967, prior to which the music isn't of that much interest to me. I had not looked at these prior to starting the exercise.

This is nothing like a scientific examination, just a peg to hang my ruminations on, but perhaps some of it will prove interesting and even informative. We may even find some good music....

August 2007
Timbaland, Rihanna and Beyonce everywhere, but a much stronger roster of rock/alt/indie entrants. Stronger in number, anyway. There's some dreadful old guff in here.

2 - Kate Nash, Foundations
6 - Hoosiers, Worried About Ray
8 - Avril Lavigne, When You're Gone
14 - My Chemical Romance, Teenagers
15 - Plain White T's, Hey There Delilah
16 - Arctic Monkeys, Flourescent Adolescent
19 - Manic Street Preachers, Autumnsong
22 - Green Day, Simpsons Theme
26 - Jack Penate, Torn On The Platform
28 - Kings of Leon, Fans
33 - Reverend & The Makers, Heavyweight Champion Of The World
40 - Klaxons, It's Not Over Yet

Klaxons vs knife missiles. Guess who wins.

August 2002
The Top 5 is a ghastly car crash: Gareth Gates, S Club Juniors (lock and load, baby, lock and load), now forgotten reality show screw-up Darius, Shakira, and Dutch dance muppets Scooter. For anything matching our critiera, we have to delve further down into the depths of the chart. It's still pretty dire, and thinner ont he ground than in 2007 even, but we manage to pull something worthwhile out of the bag at the end...

14 - Linkin Park, High Voltage / Points of Authority
18 - Chad Kroeger (ft. Josey Scott), Hero
23 - Bryan Adams, Here I Am
25 - Red Hot Chilli Peppers, By The Way
29 - Doves, Pounding
36 - Primal Scream, Miss Lucifer

Primal Scream: Shake the baby!

August 1997
Concentration of rock acts definitely increasing again, though again the very upper reaches of the chart are pretty sorry viewing: Puff Daddy, Backstreet Boys, Boyzone, Peter fecking Andre... But this a lot more solid, and there are a couple of actual classics here*.

5 - Meredith Brooks, Bitch
8 - Oasis, D'You Know What I Mean? **
15 - Verve, Bitter Sweet Symphony
19 - U2, Last Night On Earth
22 - The Seahorses, Blinded By The Sun
23 - The Levellers, What A Beautiful Day
28 - Hanson, Mmm Bop***
30 - Paul Weller, Brushed **
32 - Morissey, Alma Matters
37 - The Rembrandts, I'll Be There For You***
40 - Reef, Yer Old

* By which I mean the Levellers (though I don't much like it myself) and Verve.
** We'll leave aside my rant about why I hate Oasis (and Paul Weller) for another time: despite my personal prejudices, these definitely fit the selection criteria.
*** Thin gruel, I know, but these are at least bands, playing instruments and stuff.

Seahorses, a band who made absolutely no impression on me. A bit drippy, but it counts.

August 1987
The time machine surges ever backwards... and it's not pretty. 

1 - Los Lobos, La Bamba
3 - Heart, Alone
7 - New Order, True Faith*
13 - Beastie Boys, She's On It*
16 - Def Leppard, Animal
28 - Marillion, Sugar Mice
31 - Motley Crue, Girls Girls Girls

* You could argue about genre classifications here, but I'd regard these as within the "indie/alternative" sphere sufficiently to count them. There are some other marginal judgments in this chart I've taken the other view on.

Fewer qualifying songs than the '97 chart, interestingly. Also, the last three in the list are "old-style" rock bands, which have disappeared from the more recent charts. There's a real "fallow" feeling here.

But of course there is this, and it makes up for everything:

True Faith: August 1987 just won the internets.

August 1982
In many ways this is the most fascinating of all the charts. There's little outright rock here, and that from dinosaurs (Pink Floyd) or hair rock recidivists (Survivor), but there's a lot of things that I had to think about whether to include them (Bad Manners? Haysi Fantayzee?? Ex-members of The Specials performing Gershwin classics???). Punk may have come and (largely) gone, but it has left a quirky, restless pop music which retains enough interest to merit inclusion. It wouldn't last, of course....

1 - Dexy's Midnight Runners, Come On Eileen
4 - Madness, Driving In My Car
6 - Kid Creole & The Coconuts, Stool Pigeon
8 - Trio, Da Da Da
9 - The Stranglers, Strange Little Girl
10 - Japan, I Second That Emotion
12 - Survivor, Eye Of The Tiger
13 - Bad Manners, My Girl Lollipop
14 - The Belle Stars, Clapping Song
18 - Steve Miller Band, Abracadabra
19 - Visage, Night Train
25 - Haysi Fantaysee, John Wayne Is Big Leggy
27 - Fun Boy Three, Summertime
29 - Associates, 18 Carat Love Affair
33 - The Clash, Rock The Casbah
35 - David Sylvian & Ryuichi Sakamoto, Bamboo Houses
39 - Pink Floyd, When The Tigers Broke Free

Haysi Fantaysee -possibly one of British pop music's crowning achievements. (Cough.)

August 1977
I thought this might be interesting. Disco is in full swing, with Donna Summer moaning orgasmically at No. 1, but there's a gratifylingly strange mix of old dinosaurs, new punks and wierdos squalling away in the lower reaches...

6 - Emerson Lake & Palmer, Fanfare For The Common Man
11 - The Sex Pistols, Pretty Vacant
14 - The Stranglers, Something Better Change
17 - Jonathan Richman, Roadrunner
18 - Bob Marley & The Wailers, Exodus
21 - The Jam, All Around The World
26 - Fleetwood Mac, Dreams
27 - Television, Prove It
28 - Dave Edmunds, I Knew The Bride
30 - The Stranglers, Peaches
37 - Mink De Ville, Spanish Stroll
39 - The Ramones, Swallow My Pride

OK, I have a ghastly confession to make. One of these records was the first single I ever bought. It's in one of these two videos. Can you guess which one the idiot 13-year-old bought?

Choose wisely, young Jedi. Oops.

August 1972
It's Glam Time! A middling selection of 60's hangovers, Glaswegian hard men in spangly suits, kiddie fiddlers in waiting and space hippies.

1 - Alice Cooper, School's Out
6 - Hawkwind, Silver Machine
7 - Gary Glitter, Rock & Roll Parts 1 & 2
12 - David Bowie, Starman
16 - The Who, Join Together
17 - The Sweet, Little Willy
18 -  The Electric Light Orchestra, 10538 Overture
21 - Slade, Take Me Bak 'Ome
37 - The Move, California Man
38 - Procul Harum, Conquistador

Hawkwind, complete with dancing petrol pump attendant.

August 1967
Ground zero, in some ways, with an eclectic selection from a time of great creative fecundity. Yet even here, only 15/40; rock clearly has never actually dominated the charts. There's always a Humperdinck there to frustrate you...

1 - The Beatles, All You Need Is Love
2 - Scott McKenzie, If You're Going to San Francisco...
6 - The Turtles, She'd Rather Be With Me
7 - The Monkees, Alternate Title
10 - Pink Floyd, See Emily Play
13 - Procul Harum, A Whiter Shade Of Pale
18 - Desmond Dekker & The Aces, 007
22 - Amen Corner, Gin House
28 - The Alan Price Set, The House That Jack Built
29 - The Hollies, Carrie-Anne
32 - Cat Stevens, A Bad Night
34 - Jeff Beck, Tallyman
36 - Traffic, Paper Sun
39 - The Who, The Last Time / Under My Thumb
40 - Troggs, Hi Hi Hazel

 The Sun is a paper, but the sun is NOT paper, Traffic. Hippy fail!

What does all this tell us?

Firstly I think its clear that the charts are not a particularly reliable method of gauging the health of contemporary music. Even at times when recollection tells us that popular music was in a creative ferment, a significant proportion of the chart entries will always be disposable pop, crooners and balladeers (in 1967, the king of the heap in chart positions wasn't The Beatles, but Engelbert Humperdinck), dance music, media tie-ins and novelty records.

Even allowing for this, and the fact that weekly charts are inherently a very variable measure, it seems from the above that there is a distinct phasing effect. Sometimes rock is in better health than others; the 1987 and 2002 charts look pretty tired, but 1992 and 2007 are rather better catered for.

Nevertheless, the impression of a downward trend is not dispelled, and I'll have a think about this next time....

EDIT: Soundcloud link retired 2/1/2013. Also, "next time" seems to have been indefinitely delayed...