CHART BEATS: A JOURNEY
THROUGH POP

After the terrible effort we saw last tme, the ARIA top 50 singles chart more than made up for it this week in 1990. With eight new...

Lady Gaga excepted, they just don't make pop stars like they did in the '80s anymore. Flamboyant fashion sense, overblown egos, outrageous antics... these were the key ingredients for a music star. Oh, and vocal ability — although that wasn't always crucial. Watch out, here Pete Burns comes! This week in 1985, three larger-then-life performers who could only have come to fame in the '80s hit the ARIA singles chart with their latest offerings. All three were frontmen for bands

I'm just going to get this out of the way at the start — this week in 1990 was a terrible one on the ARIA chart as far as I was...

It's an important career move to get right — when should the singer of a successful band go solo? In the last few weeks, we've seen singles by Jimmy Barnes (Cold Chisel), Don Henley (Eagles), Jim Diamond (Ph.D) and John Fogerty (Creedence Clearwater Revival), who all did very well with their solo efforts. He might have had the moves, but Mick Jagger didn't have the hits This week in 1985, the vocalist for one of the biggest groups of the rock era unleashed the first sing

For some musical acts, chart success is a breeze, while others have to slog away making slow progress towards their first top 40 hit....

When we looked back at the ARIA singles chart from 1985 last week , it was all about the guys, with new entries exclusively from male artists. This week, women get a look-in, with debuts from two of the decade's most recognisable female voices, Cyndi Lauper and Alison Moyet. Despite the title of her single, Alf was far from invisible on the ARIA chart The two singers sounded quite different — both vocally and musically — but their careers did share one thing in common: the

After last week 's rock-fest, order was restored this week in 1990 on the ARIA singles chart with the new releases coming from a more diverse array of genres. Included among the debuts were two cover versions that topped the British chart. Sinéad O'Connor changed the face of her music career in 1990 In Australia, the two remakes would have very different chart fortunes — one would go on to be the year's biggest single and make a star out of its previously little-known perform

It was a bad week for female performers this week in 1985, with the new entries on the ARIA top 50 singles chart performed exclusively by...

Just when the ARIA chart was starting to look diverse, along comes a big old rock week. Yep, there's not a house synth or rap beat among...

If you've looked around this blog at all, you may have noticed I have a bit of a thing about one-hit wonders — especially when acts are...

Second chances don't come along that often — but this week in 1990, several songs were given another opportunity to become hits on the...

Image was everything in the '80s and this week in 1985, an artist who'd previously been known for her squeaky clean, girl-next-door look...

What an odd collection of songs we have to talk about this week! Some pop, some dance, some Aussie rock and the debut of an artist who...

One of the things that annoys me most about retro music television programming is that the same old hits get wheeled out over and over —...

I've always been more a fan of pop singers than rock chicks — and the divide between the two grew ever wider in the 1990s with less...

A few years back, when music was in the throes of a major '80s revival (think La Roux, Goldfrapp's Head First , Little Boots, Fischerspooner), there was one trend from that decade that didn't really enjoy a resurgence: the power ballad. Sure, songs like "Someone Like You", "Wrecking Ball" and a fair few Ryan Tedder compositions have given it a shot over the past few years, but for me, they've all lacked that certain something that defined an '80s power ballad. Future solo sta

One of the most exciting things about the Australian charts from 1990 onwards is that information about positions 51 to 100 is readily available. Well, exciting for chart geeks like me, that is. For some reason, when ARIA took the compilation of the charts in-house in mid-1988, they didn't reveal any positions outside the top 50 until the start of 1990 — although I've been able to find those out for the purposes of this blog. Even Bros, Kylie and Jason couldn't help Band Aid

For the past couple of years, I've been taking a look back 25 years to what was happening on the ARIA top 50 singles chart — and I've reached 1990 with those posts. But, 2015 marks three decades since one of the most important times in music history. Spurred on by the overwhelming success of the highest new entry on the chart this week in 1985, the music industry pulled together like never before in the name of charity. Band Aid changed the face of music as 1985 began So it

Happy New Year, chart fans. This week in 1990, it was not only a new year but also the dawn of a new decade on the ARIA chart. Of course, music didn't change dramatically overnight — or even in the three weeks it had been since the last chart. But big developments were just around the corner — I'm thinking grunge, techno and MC Hammer. John Waite transformed from a mid-'80s pop star into the lead singer of a '90s soft rock band Fittingly, the highest new entry this week in

Originally posted as 25 Years Ago This Week in 2014. Updated in 2019. As 2014 comes to an end, so too does our look back at the ARIA top...