CHART BEATS: A JOURNEY
THROUGH POP

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About Chart Beats

Chart Beats: A Journey Through Pop has been looking back at music from the '80s, '90s, 2000s and 2010s since 2012. Run by freelance journalist and content creator Gavin Scott in Sydney, Australia.

Dec 17, 2020
5 min

25 Years Ago This Week: December 17, 1995

And so our look back at the ARIA singles chart of 1995 draws to a close with the final top 50 for that year, which featured two new...

Dec 10, 2020
5 min

25 Years Ago This Week: December 10, 1995

Songs shooting straight into the top 10 had become more commonplace by the mid-'90s. This week in 1995, a song entered the chart within...

Dec 3, 2020
4 min

25 Years Ago This Week: December 3, 1995

I don't tend to get political on this blog. In fact, a decade ago I was fairly oblivious to politics and wouldn't have been able to tell...

Nov 26, 2020
4 min

25 Years Ago This Week: November 26, 1995

Remember when singers stuck to the melody? By 1995, that style of singing had become decidedly old-fashioned as vocal gymnastics came to...

Nov 19, 2020
3 min

25 Years Ago This Week: November 19, 1995

Pop music is a fickle thing. One minute you're topping charts around the globe, next minute you're not. This week in 1995, a Swedish pop...

Nov 12, 2020
4 min

25 Years Ago This Week: November 12, 1995

I have a love-hate relationship with YouTube. (Perhaps you could say that when it comes to YouTube, love and hate collide...) Obviously,...

Nov 5, 2020
5 min

25 Years Ago This Week: November 5, 1995

There's no such thing as a sure thing in music. But the female singer who charted with her debut solo single this week in 1995 was as...

Oct 29, 2020
4 min

25 Years Ago This Week: October 29, 1995

Who's ready for another game of Remixed, Remade & Remodelled? Yep, this week in 1995, a bunch of songs were given another chance at...

Oct 22, 2020
4 min

25 Years Ago This Week: October 22, 1995

Over the years, I've developed a formula to my ARIA chart recaps. I start off with a little themed introduction to the week, mention what...

Oct 15, 2020
4 min

25 Years Ago This Week: October 15, 1995

When you're a fan of a singer or group, it can be a huge disappointment when they release something you don't like. Sometimes it's music...

Oct 8, 2020
5 min

25 Years Ago This Week: October 8, 1995

There was a proven formula to landng a long-running chart-topper in the early '90s: ballad + movie tie-in = multiple weeks at number 1....

Oct 1, 2020
5 min

25 Years Ago This Week: October 1, 1995

You've got to love a chart battle. Record company marketing teams certainly do. But I must say I've been swept up in the past when two...

Sep 24, 2020
4 min

25 Years Ago This Week: September 24, 1995

As if to prove my point last week that pretty much any song was fair game for a dance cover in the mid-'90s, this week in 1995, two new...

Sep 17, 2020
4 min

This Week In 1995: September 17, 1995

In the mid-'90s, pretty much any song or artist was fair game for a cheesy Eurodance cover. Often, faceless studio acts would take a big...

Sep 10, 2020
4 min

This Week In 1995: September 10, 1995

The B-side used to be an important part of music. Even in 1995, when they were more likely to be bonus tracks on a CD single or...

Sep 3, 2020
3 min

This Week In 1995: September 3, 1995

Australians can be stubbornly resistant to successful international artists when we want to be. Even if they notch up one smash hit after...

Aug 26, 2020
4 min

This Week In 1995: August 27, 1995

If you're a regular reader, you'll know I had little time for grunge and "alternative rock" in the '90s. But there's an exception to...

Aug 19, 2020
5 min

This Week In 1995: August 20, 1995

Of all the odd things to occur during the life of Michael Jackson, his short-lived marriage to Lisa Marie Presley must be among the top...

Aug 12, 2020
3 min

25 Years Ago This Week: August 13, 1995

In the mid-'90s, it seemed like dance acts were trying to outdo each other with the bizarre and unexpected things they could turn into...

Aug 5, 2020
4 min

This Week In 1995: August 6, 1995

Sometimes it just takes one song to change everything. This week in 1995, a new entry on the ARIA singles chart threw out the rulebook...

Chart Beats has launched its first podcast: A Journey Through Stock Aitken Waterman, which is working its way through every single produced by Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman in chronological order. Each episode, hosts Gavin Scott and Matthew Denby cover a handful of tracks, discussing the stories behind them, debating whether they were as big as they deserved and speaking to some of the talent involved.

Chart Beats subscribers have access to exclusive content, including extended interviews and extra discussion we can't fit in the regular episodes. Click here for more info.

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CHART BEATS: A JOURNEY THROUGH POP

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