CHART BEATS: A JOURNEY
THROUGH POP

When people talk about female artists from the 1990s, it's usually about big ballad divas like Mariah and Celine, chart-topping rock...

It's always fun discovering that a song you like is a cover version and then going back to listen to the original. Especially when for...

If there were two things that defined the first half of the '90s it was grunge bands and vocal harmony groups. This week in 1995, the...

One of the best parts of these weekly trips back to the Australian singles chart of 1980 is seeing artists have their first hits and remembering a time when household names were up-and-coming unknowns. The first of many line-ups of The Pretenders This week in 1980, a British band (with an American singer) broke through with their third release, a song that became the first new number 1 of the decade in the UK and almost reached the top here. Still at number 1 this week in 198

It had taken Australia long enough to full embrace dance music, and then songs like the highest new entry on the singles chart this week...

So far in these flashbacks to the Australian top 50 from 1980, we've seen some of the first big hits of the decade. This week that year, all the new entries were firsts in another way. The song that changed everything for Split Enz From the first hip-hop hit to the first appearance of a influential British punk band, the debuting singles all brought something new to the singles chart. In one case, it took a locally based band all the way to number 1. Before then, Queen contin

Who's ready for the latest round of How Did That Aussie Classic Flop So Badly ? Following previous instalments featuring GANGgajang , Hunters & Collectors , The Triffids and You Am I , this week in 1995 saw the debut of another song that has gone on to become a modern classic, but which didn't chart very well at all when it was released. It's her best-known song, but "Island Home" wasn't actually a hit for Christine Anu A remake of a song that had also flopped for its origin

This week in 1980, it was a big week for new entries on the Australian singles chart, with four future top 10 hits debuting. Two of those were follow-ups to other top 10 hits by Michael Jackson and The Police, another was the latest top 10 single by a country star who'd also been there before. Eric Idle was Mr Brightside in 1980 And one was a comic ditty from one of the biggest movies of the summer of 1979-80. A song so British you'd expect it to have been a big hit in the UK

1995 was turning out to be a big year for cover versions. Already, we've seen hit remakes by Urge Overkill, Nicki French, Janet Jackson...

Who said disco was dead? This week in 1980, the dance genre that was facing a backlash around the world was proving as popular as ever in Australia — but then we were about six months behind the UK and the US at that stage. Christie Allen wasn't our number 1, but she came close Three of the week's six new entries on the top 50 singles chart were disco tracks (or disco-influenced). And given the other three were new wave tunes, it was a pretty good week for a pop fan like me.

I've talked before about covers albums being an interesting choice for artists still in the prime of their careers to make, and this week...

These days, some artists don't even bother with albums, opting to release a series of singles and EPs instead, but back in the 1970s, the album was king — and some bands didn't trouble themselves with putting out many (or any) singles. Pink Floyd were never part of the singles chart sausage factory This week in 1980, a British band that'd helped define music over the previous decade-and-a-bit entered the Australian top 50 singles chart for the first time in their career — an

There had been successful female artists in previous decades, but there was a whole army of female megastars in the 1990s, when singers like Madonna, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion and Toni Braxton regularly sold huge amounts of albums. Janet Jackson and Tina Arena added to their hit tally Two more female singers who were part of that group returned to the ARIA singles chart this week in 1995 with their latest hits, both taken from albums that did incredibly well

In "Paninaro", Pet Shop Boys' Chris Lowe listed rockabilly as one of the genres he doesn't like — there's quite a list (but what he does...

Most weekends during the mid-'90s, you could be guaranteed to find me out clubbing. (Do people still call it going clubbing?) And there was one sound that was guaranteed to get me on the dance floor (or podium, if I'm being honest). In 1995, there was nothing in the world I liked more than a Motiv8 mix This week in 1995, the latest single to boast a galloping bassline courtesy of remix team (and sometimes artist in their own right) Motiv8 debuted on the ARIA top 50, but I'd a

Husband and wife musical duos don't tend to end well. Look at Sonny & Cher and Ike & Tina Turner. But when the chemistry is right, they...

In the mid-'90s, pretty much any song you could think of was turned into a dance track — from grunge hits to big ballads to current chart-topper "Zombie". "Total Eclipse Of The Heart" almost hit number 1 a second time This week in 1995, a song that had held down the number 1 spot for six weeks in 1983 returned to the chart in a hi-NRG remake produced by Mike Stock and Matt Aitken, who'd already been responsible for a number of chart-toppers in their time. As mentioned, the un

For celebrities in 2020, multi-tasking means appearing on a reality TV show and maintaining an Instagram account. In the '70s and '80s, multi-tasking stars would do a bit of signing and a bit of acting, pop up on Blankety Blanks and Hey Hey It's Saturday , and tour on the RSL circuit. Edith Bliss: pop star one minute, kids' TV reporter the next Two of the entries on the Australian singles chart this week in 1980 came from two such multi-taskers — stars who moved from music

Most of the new entries on the ARIA singles chart came from one of the major record companies, which in 1995 were Sony, BMG, EMI, Warner,...

OK, let's get this 1980 party started for real. I wrote about the first new chart for the decade in 2018 and updated my post last week ...