CHART BEATS: A JOURNEY
THROUGH POP

In my flashback to 1985 for this week, we saw a number of duos hit the ARIA chart. Five years later, one half of the biggest duo in the...

Music history is littered with pop partnerships — duos whose skills perfectly complement each other. So far in our trip back in time to...

After last week 's ballad-heavy slew of new singles, the ARIA chart perked up a little this week in 1990 with six new entries that...

Music can conjure up all sorts of memories and associations — a summer holiday, a first crush, a classic movie... But it takes a certain...

Rock ballads, power ballads, electro ballads, piano ballads... sometimes nothing beats an emotive downtempo number. This week in 1990, ballads of all varieties descended on the ARIA singles chart. All Heart want to do is never perform their number 1 hit again Not all the ballads were big hits, however. Some went all the way to the top 10 but others floundered much lower down the rankings. Many of them were also horrible, horrible songs. Meanwhile, blasting from its number 19

A band is much more than just its lead singer, but the departure of a vocalist usually has a more profound impact than that of any other member. Sometimes, a band can successfully make the transition to a new phase of their career when they change singers for whatever reason (Van Halen, Genesis, AC/DC); sometimes they can't (Mötley Crüe, Morcheeba, INXS). Commodores found success without their most famous member This week in 1985, a group that'd been around since the late '6

She'd ruled the charts in the second half of the '80s, but the '90s hadn't got off to a great start for Madonna with the worst...

Earlier in the year, we saw that, despite being a major hit around the world, "Easy Lover" by Phil Collins and Philip Bailey wasn't even...

By 1990, it was nothing new for a soap star to try their hand at being a pop star — and quite often the songs that would take them into...

For most of the first half of the decade, Duran Duran had been one of the biggest bands in the world — and then in 1985, the five-piece...

When you think of Detroit, one of the first things that comes to mind is Motown. Seattle is synonymous with grunge music. And this week...

For musicians, the question of what to name their band is a crucial one to get right. After all, if you do have a hit record, the last thing you want is to be lumbered with a dud name you can't change since you're now successful. King's reign on the chart was a relatively short one This week in 1985 on the ARIA singles chart, bands named after (in order) a fruit, a comic strip, a vehicle, the band's lead singer and a breakfast cereal made progress on the top 100. And finally

In the 1980s, I liked the odd bit of middle-of-the-road music as much as anyone. Phil Collins, Toto, Chicago (who we saw on my 1985 flashback this week)... it was a great era for soft rock and power ballads. But, by 1990, either my taste had moved on or they just didn't make them like they used to. Del Amitri brought sideburns back to the top 50 This week in 1990, three of the new entries on the ARIA singles chart were what radio programmers would describe as MOR. I only like

Even without the chartbusting debut of "We Are The World", it would've been a big week on the ARIA singles chart this week in 1985. Besides the charity single's arrival, seven other songs moved into the top 50 — the highest number of new entries on the chart so far that year. Cyndi Lauper always did know how to stand out from the crowd But of course, all those other new hits were overshadowed by the collaboration between a whole host of music superstars (and Dan Aykroyd) on

Unlike today, when albums sales are perilously low, back in 1990, the album was all-important — and artists would often keep an album alive over a number of years as they milked it for singles. And this was before the days of deluxe editions and revamped tracklistings, so the 10 or 12 songs on the album were all an artist had to play with. Waste not, want not — Janet Jackson made good use of her albums This week in 1990, the latest single from a female singer who really got h

Good use of backing vocalists can make all the difference in a pop song. Just ask Jason Donovan, whose voice was practically drowned out...

When it came to using other musicians' works, it was still a bit of a free-for-all in 1990. Record companies and, more importantly, the...

Most bands will forever be associated with one or two key songs — and unfortunately that means their other singles become sidelined as the years go by. Cases in point: the two new entries on the ARIA top 50 singles chart this week in 1985. Although reasonably successful in their own right, the two songs have become completely overshadowed by the bands' mega-hits. There was more to Spandau Ballet than just two big singles One band was an Australasian group that'd managed three

Guess it would've been too much to expect another week like last week on the ARIA chart. After a flood of new entries into the top 50,...

There are some songs that are so much a part of pop culture that it's hard to remember a time before they came into existence. The highest new entry on the ARIA chart this week in 1985 is one of those songs — a single that became so much more than just another hit for its rising star. Madonna went from virgin to vamp in 1985 It wasn't the only '80s classic to hit the ARIA chart this week — and it's beginning to feel like each week of 1985 offered up songs that have stood the