CHART BEATS: A JOURNEY
THROUGH POP

It's that time of year again — when the ARIA charts got ready to close down for the festive period. This week in 1990, the final top 50...

It's hard enough to catch lightning in a bottle once, but to repeat the feat is nigh on impossible, as a pair of singers discovered this...

What do Pseudo Echo, Wa Wa Nee, Midnight Oil and The Church all have in common? Despite a run of hits in Australia, they all only had one...

This week in 1985, something happened on the Australian singles chart that had never happened before: a new release debuted at number 1....

Just like the chart from this week in 1985 , there were also clear signs that the Christmas release period was in full effect this week in 1990. Three new singles stormed into the top 20 — all from albums that were huge priorities for the festive period. Kylie and Madonna went head-to-head this week in 1990 The three songs were also all by artists who have enjoyed decades of musical success in Australia — in fact, one of the performers had already achieved that by 1990. But

It wouldn't almost have been Christmas, would it? What else could explain the rush of big releases onto the ARIA singles chart this week...

Regular readers will know that there were a number of big hits in 1990 that I couldn't stand — "Joey", "Check Out The Chicken", "All I...

It must be pretty frustrating for artists that record the original version of a song when someone else comes along, does a pretty...

After a slow start in Australia, rap music was off and running in 1990. Two hip-hop singles had already been to the top of the ARIA top 50 by this stage in the year — and this week, a third rap song that would go on to top the chart made its debut. If there was a problem, yo, he'd solve it And what a single it was. A career-defining record that has come full circle over the years — from being loved at the time of its release to being derided shortly after and back to being

It's not always a good idea when characters from TV series release spin-off singles. Scratch that — it's pretty much always a terrible...

It used to be a proven formula: hit movie plus power ballad equals chart smash. And indeed, this week in 1990, two of the week's new...

Earlier in 1985, Scottish sweetheart Sheena Easton had sexed up her girl-next-door image and emerged as one of the year's raunchiest...

It's always been the case in music that when one act fades away, another similar artist is waiting in the wings to take its place. And to prove the point, this week in 1990, there was a changing of the guard in the hair metal stakes. Australia took a bite out of Warrant As the second-biggest band in the genre flopped with their latest release, a newer group scored their first ARIA top 50 hit single — and just like that the baton was passed. At number 1 this week in 1990 was

I was doing some reading up on the band that had the highest debut on the ARIA singles chart this week in 1985, and I came across an...

It's amazing the difference a remix can make — not only to how good a song sounds but also to its chart performance. There have been countless examples over the years of a single suddenly leaping up the chart after some studio remodelling, but the story of the song that entered the ARIA chart this week in 1990 is slightly more complicated than that. Suzanne Vega: unlikely dance music act Not only was the track in question originally released back in 1987, but it was complete

A couple of months ago, we saw the ARIA singles chart with the highest number of new entries for all of 1985. By contrast, this week that...

They might look like a cross between Fabio and Derek Zoolander but the two guys below are music royalty. Not only were they second...

Unlike songs themselves, song titles are not protected by copyright, which is why we've seen multiple songs called "Heaven", "Around The...

Just when I was beginning to despair at the state of the ARIA chart, things took a turn for the better this week in 1990. After a...

It's very rare that I like every new entry on any given ARIA top 50 singles chart, but that was the case this week in 1985 — and it's...