CHART BEATS: A JOURNEY
THROUGH POP

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About Chart Beats

Chart Beats: A Journey Through Pop has been looking back at music from the '80s, '90s, 2000s and 2010s since 2012. Run by freelance journalist and content creator Gavin Scott in Sydney, Australia.

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1980
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1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
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1995
1996
1998
Chart Recap
One-Hit Wonders
Interview

Jul 29, 2020
4 min

25 Years Ago This Week: July 30, 1995

Sometimes a song needs a well-timed re-release to find its audience, who missed it first time around. Or perhaps a remix to freshen up a...

Jul 26, 2020
4 min

This Week In 1980: July 27, 1980

Sometimes even the most floundering of careers can get right back on track with one hit single - all it takes is the right song at the...

Jul 22, 2020
4 min

25 Years Ago This Week: July 23, 1995

Like all genres, dance music has its good songs and its bad. But what exactly did anyone do to deserve the cavalcade of crap that debuted...

Jul 19, 2020
3 min

This Week In 1980: July 20, 1980

Sometimes a great soundtrack single can do wonders for an average film - especially in the '80s when movie songs were big business and...

Jul 15, 2020
3 min

25 Years Ago This Week: July 16, 1995

I'm sure I've written before about the proliferation of vocal harmony groups in the mid-'90s, but you need look no further than the new...

Jul 12, 2020
3 min

This Week In 1980: July 13, 1980

As much as I love pure pop, synthpop, R&B and dance music, I also have plenty of time for pop/rock groups. That was especially the case...

Jul 8, 2020
5 min

25 Years Ago This Week: July 9, 1995

In 1995, debuting at number 1 on the ARIA singles chart was still a rarity. Even rarer: an act managing to do it twice. In fact, up until...

Jul 5, 2020
5 min

This Week In 1980: July 6, 1980

Plenty of music acts gain a devoted following - in recent years, everyone from One Direction to Beyoncé has had a fanbase with a cute...

Jul 1, 2020
3 min

25 Years Ago This Week: July 2, 1995

There is an inner circle among one-hit wonders - those artists who achieved the ultimate in chart one-off-ness: a chart-topping single...

Jun 28, 2020
2 min

This Week In 1980: June 29, 1980

We've reached the halfway point of our look back at the Australian singles chart of 1980. And to mark the occasion... a pretty dull chart...

Jun 24, 2020
4 min

25 Years Ago This Week: June 25, 1995

Musical taste is a funny thing - one person's ear candy is another's noise pollution. And it always amuses me when I get a sudden influx...

Jun 21, 2020
4 min

This Week In 1980: June 22, 1980

A couple of months earlier, disco seemed to be on its last legs, but it's not over until the fat lady sings. Or a group of six men in...

Jun 17, 2020
4 min

25 Years Ago This Week: June 18, 1995

We've already seen a number of cover versions from 1995 in our look back at the ARIA singles chart from that year, but this week featured...

Jun 14, 2020
4 min

This Week In 1980: June 15, 1980

Australia had plenty of successful rock bands in 1980, but with the rise of synthpop and new wave, a new breed of local groups started to...

Jun 10, 2020
5 min

25 Years Ago This Week: June 11, 1995

It's rare for a family to have one superstar performer, but for two music icons to emerge from the one household is even more unusual. So...

Jun 7, 2020
3 min

This Week In 1980: June 8, 1980

From Dragon and Mi-Sex to Sharon O'Neill and Jenny Morris, many bands and singers from New Zealand have made their way across the Tasman...

Jun 3, 2020
3 min

25 Years Ago This Week: June 4, 1995

Sometimes it seemed like if a '90s dance track wasn't a flop the first time around, then it hadn't earned its right to be a success. From...

May 31, 2020
3 min

This Week In 1980: June 1, 1980

There are some acts you wish would be more successful, and others where it's a blessing they haven't had more hits. This week in 1980,...

May 27, 2020
3 min

25 Years Ago This Week: May 28, 1995

American R&B music had really infiltrated the mainstream in Australia by 1995, so much so that no one blinked an eye when the debut...

May 24, 2020
2 min

This Week In 1980: May 25, 1980

It had to happen eventually. After weeks of seeing loads of classic tracks debut on the Australian singles top 50 from 1980, we've...

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