CHART BEATS: A JOURNEY
THROUGH POP

It must have been the warmer weather and the fact that party season had begun, because suddenly dance tunes were doing well on the ARIA...

A few months earlier, Bananarama had taken a former number 1 hit, "Venus" by Shocking Blue, back to the top of the chart for seven weeks....

This week in 1983, a future superstar made her first appearance on the ARIA top 100. The single — her second — didn't progress very far,...

It's one thing for a Eurodance act or even an American house outfit to misappropriate vocals and pretend some pretty model (or two) is actually singing, but that kind of thing just doesn't fly in Australia. Except for that one time it did, on a song that debuted on the ARIA singles chart this week in 1991. At least Keren Minshull got a look-in on the UK artwork for "Love You Right" A dance record crossed over from the clubs to the top 50, eventually going all the way to numbe

When a band takes a break, those that actually end up making a comeback are invariably changed when they return. That was never more the...

As well as being a great 12 months for music, 1983 was an important year for developments in computers. Apple's Lisa desktop, Microsoft...

In the 1980s, talking about sex in music had often resulted in songs and/or music videos being banned for being too risqué. To get away...

As great as it is when artists move with the times and develop their sound and/or image, it's sometimes nice to be able to rely on those...

Every summer needs a party anthem. A song like "Love Shack" , "Funky Town" and "Ice Ice Baby" that dominates the number 1 spot, and provides the soundtrack to long evenings and beach holidays. This week in 1983, the party anthem for the summer of '83/'84 debuted on the ARIA singles chart. Super-tight pants? Tick. Gaudy shirt? Tick. Grinning back-up dancers? Tick. Lionel Richie's party was good to go The singer behind the tune had good reason to party. His solo career had g

By November 1991, it'd been more than four years since Michael Jackson had released his last album. Of course, given the fact he lifted...

I've talked before about songs that become inextricably linked to the movie scenes they play during. If ever there was a case of song...

What a week it's been, right? As luck would have it, today's look back at the ARIA singles chart from 1983 allows us to draw a neat...

To say Jimmy Barnes and John Farnham had dominated the Australian music scene in the late '80s and early '90s would be a massive...

What do Men At Work, Culture Club and Bruce Hornsby And The Range have in common? They were all the recipients of the Grammy Award for Best New Artist — the only groups to receive it during the '80s. Bruce Hornsby And The Perms might've been a more accurate name... We've seen the first two of those bands in recent flashbacks to 1983, and this week in 1986, Bruce Hornsby And The Range made their debut on the ARIA chart with a song that would top the US chart in December. A so

Between them, they'd pretty much defined pop music since the '60s, paving the way for countless other acts and recording numerous songs that would go down in history as classics. So, it was a pretty big deal for Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson to collaborate musically. Macca and Jacko teamed up again in 1983 This week in 1983, the second single from the superstar pair was as well received as the first one had been a year earlier. The bonus: this time, the song on which the

It had happened twice already — once in 1985 and again in 1988. And so Australia was pretty much due for another record to debut at...

Hear that sound? A perfectly formed pop nugget that is never equalled? Yep, it's one-hit wonder time on this week's look back at the ARIA singles chart from 1986. A two-hit wonder and a one-hit wonder Of this week's five new entries, three are by one-hit wonders, one is the first single from a two-hit wonder, and the other has to go and spoil things for everyone. Also this week in 1986, it was the final week at number 1 for "Venus" by Bananarama , which spent its seventh wee

Our family didn't own a VCR until around 1986. I can't remember exactly when it was but we got a free copy of The Last Starfighter on video when we bought it, so whenever that was a new release in Australia. John Belushi had passed away by the time The Blues Brothers reached the top 10 Back in 1983, home video was really starting to take off in Australia. In fact, a movie that had been in cinemas in 1980 was released on video in 1983 — and, as a result, its soundtrack rose

Australia had taken its time getting into hip-hop music and, up until mid-1991, the big rap hits had pretty much been the obvious ones....

Between them, Elton John and Madonna released more than 60 singles during the '80s — 25 of which made the Australian top 10. It's only understandable that a few of those hits would have become overlooked in the ensuing decades. Two of the most forgotten hits by two of the biggest acts of the '80s This week in 1986, a future top 10 single by each prolific performer debuted on the ARIA singles chart, but I'd wager neither are among the singers' most popular — or most remember