CHART BEATS: A JOURNEY
THROUGH POP

It was a great week for rock bands with female singers this week in 1991, with three new entries on the ARIA singles chart coming from...

The great thing about the charts in the '80s was that you really didn't know what was going to crack the top 50 next. Pop acts were incredibly diverse — as demonstrated by the new entries on the ARIA singles chart this week in 1986. Fright wigs ahoy. Sigue Sigue Sputnik shot up the ARIA chart in 1986 From a glammed up synth-punk band to a rockabilly singer, an art pop collective to a couple of pop/rock groups with flamboyant frontmen, there really was something for everyone.

When would it end? This week in 1991, the megamix craze that had resulted in a string of chart hits since the late '80s produced its biggest single yet. John Travolta was back in the chart for the first time in 13 years And like the Jive Bunny records that I blame for resurrecting the medley genre, the future chart-topper delved way back into the past for its inspiration, combining three top 40 hits from 1978 — including a number 1 single. The number 1 single this week in 19

In 1985, we'd heard her first musical change of pace, but this week in 1986, pop's mistress of reinvention debuted her first major image...

It might be stating the obvious, but a lot can change in a couple of decades. In 1991, one of the artists making their top 50 debut on...

I don't like novelty singles. That won't come as news to regular readers who know my feelings about songs like "Five In A Row" , "Stutter...

Having back-to-back number 1 hits is not unusual — plenty of acts have done it over the years. An artist having two consecutive number 1...

Michael Jackson turning into a zombie, Madonna kissing an African-American Jesus, a-ha's Morten Harket pulling a woman into an animated...

Some artists make a huge splash with their debut single (and then sometimes struggle to live up to it), while others take a while to...

A lot can change in two years, especially when it comes to pop music. This week in 1986, four bands returned to the ARIA top 50 with...

As great as it was that Australia was so readily embracing dance music by 1991, it was often disappointing to me which club tracks made...

This week in 1986, my favourite group of all time entered the ARIA top 50 with their debut single. Of course, they weren't yet my favourite group of all time — that'd take a few more years and several more singles. But it was a promising start. It was second time lucky for Pet Shop Boys with "West End Girls" Except, of course, this wasn't really the start. The song dated back to 1984 and had already been released once (at least in the UK). And, the pop duo had charted in the

There's a British quiz show called Pointless, which is kind of like the anti-Family Feud. Instead of contestants coming up with the most...

Cover versions. Where would pop be without them? Other than the odd tropical house remake, you don't get so many of them these days, but...

Sometimes a band is just bubbling along, minding its own business, when one of their songs explodes and changes everything for them. That...

It wasn't that unusual for a song that reached number 1 in Australia during the 1980s not to do so well in the US. But, it was rare when...

Nearly every lead singer of a group thinks they've got what it takes to be a solo star — and many that try it have great success on their...

In my look back at the ARIA singles chart from decades past, we've seen songs like "Sounds Of Then (This Is Australia)" and "Throw Your...

Sometimes it can take a while for a song to catch on and become a hit — and often the delayed attention can be down to the track's use in an ad, on a TV show or in a film. None of that is out of the ordinary. But, something happened on the ARIA singles chart this week in 1991 that was pretty unusual. Chris and Helena's beachside romp helped "Wicked Game" become a hit Two of the week's new entries were songs that owed their belated success to separate projects created by direc

What is it with actors thinking they can also be pop stars? (Of course, the same can be said of singers thinking they can act, but let's...