CHART BEATS: A JOURNEY
THROUGH POP

Soundtrack hits were a chart staple during the 1980s, with many of the decade's biggest and best songs coming from movies. The 1990s saw...

Cover versions are tricky things. Get them right and they can provide you with major chart success. Get them too right and they will...

Reggae hits always seem to come in clusters. In 1993, the charts were dominated by the likes of Inner Circle, Chaka Demus & Pliers, Shaggy, Snow and UB40. A decade earlier, there'd been a good number of reggae songs in the ARIA top 50 throughout the year as well. Reggae hits are like buses — you wait ages for one and then two come along at once Take this week in 1983, for example, when two reggae tracks entered the singles chart at once. One was a posthumous hit by one of the

Last week, we saw that the key to continued success for a rock band in 1991 was to look forwards and not backwards — trying something new...

All these years later, it's easy to forget just how successful some '80s bands were. There's a tendency to dwell on the couple of massive...

Today is the anniversary of the first ever ARIA chart. Or, to give it its original name, the Countdown Chart (authorised and endorsed by the Australian Record Industry Association). As announced by Molly Meldrum on Countdown, it was available in record stores on July 4, 1983, but since my posts have always coincided with the dates on the official top 50 printouts, I'm marking the landmark by counting down the full chart now. Before we crack on with the chart, the question has

New jack swing. Hip house. Grunge. Techno. With all the new genres infiltrating the top 50, how was an old fashioned pop/rock band...

Second albums are so notoriously difficult they've got a syndrome named after them — and the band behind the highest new entry on the...

It's the oldest trick in the book — giving a song already readily available on an album a sprucing up for single release. Occasionally, a single remix is totally unnecessary and can do more harm than good, but for every song that should've been left alone, there are plenty more that benefit from being given a makeover. I was shocked how different the single version of "Shocked" was This week in 1991, an artist known for her three-and-a-half minute pop gems released a single t

What would the '80s have been without one-hit wonders? Some of the decade's best songs — and some of the worst — came from acts that only visited the top 50 once. This week in 1986, three of the new entries on the ARIA single chart were the only hits for the artists concerned. Boys Don't Cry were responsible for the only "country" single I like One of the songs was a novelty pop track that reached the top 10 (and is therefore included in my list of ultimate '80s one-hit wonde

If we're to take a lesson away from the new entries on the ARIA chart this week in 1991 it's this: if you leave a successful band for a solo career, it's helpful if the band bore your name (or the pseudonym you use as a musician). The Injectors ended up on the junk heap as Johnny went solo This week in 1991, two male artists debuted with their first singles away from their former groups — and the one with better name recognition was significantly more successful than the othe

So far, 1986 hadn't let the side down when it came to big soundtrack hits — with singles like "When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going", "Live To Tell" and "Absolute Beginners" all reaching the top 10 in the first half of the year. This week that year, two songs from an essential '80s film debuted on the ARIA top 50 to add to that tally. The film's ending might've been problematic, but there was no faulting its soundtrack Although neither single reached the top 10, the

After the deluge of new entries over the previous two weeks — 16 in total! — it was inevitable that the ARIA top 50 singles chart would...

Music videos really were inventive in the 1980s — and a key component of many clips that are now considered classics was the use of...

Having observed the success that cast members from Neighbours and Home And Away had enjoyed on the ARIA singles chart over the past few...

What a year 1986 was for music and what a week it was this week that year, when eight new songs entered the ARIA top 50 — and I love...

Sometimes I struggle to find a topic that neatly sums up what was happening on the ARIA chart in the late '80s or early '90s. Then, there are weeks when I'm spoilt for choice — like with the top 50 from this week in 1991. In 1991, MC Skat Kat was out, Keanu Reeves was in Do I talk about how the week's highest new entry marked a major change in musical direction for the singer in question? Or discuss celebrity cameos in music videos? Or videos that reenact movies? Songs that g

So far in our trip back to the hits from the mid-'80s, we've seen a number of songs with a conscience — charity records, political...

Ray Parker Jr vs Huey Lewis & The News. Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams vs Marvin Gaye's estate. Vanilla Ice vs Queen and David Bowie....

A couple of weeks ago , we saw the chart debut of one of my all-time top 5 Australian bands. This week in 1986, another of my favourite...