CHART BEATS: A JOURNEY
THROUGH POP

Originally posted as 25 Years Ago This Week in 2013. Updated in 2018. It was a real mixed bag this week in 1988 on the Australian...

Originally posted as 25 Years Ago This Week in 2013. Updated in 2018. In the digital age, the theory is that you can buy any song you want from any era in music with a couple of clicks. The reality is a little different since there are huge gaps in what's available at online stores and on streaming services — but that's a topic for another post. Louis Armstrong was 1988's most unexpected chart-topper In 1988, however, music fans were only able to purchase what the record comp

Originally posted as 25 Years Ago This Week in 2013. Updated in 2018. As exciting a year as 1988 was for new music and emerging genres,...

Originally posted as 25 Years Ago This Week in 2013. Updated in 2018. You couldn't have asked for two songs more diametrically opposed...

Originally posted as 25 Years Ago This Week in 2013. Updated in 2018. If you're a regular reader (there are a couple of you, right?), you'll know I'm a big fan of UK music and the UK charts in general — and four of the songs we'll look back at this week were all massive hits in Great Britain. The same wasn't the case in Australia, with only one of the four reaching our top 10. Taylor Dayne's dress made it easy to take her up on her offer It always struck me as pretty random w

Originally posted as 25 Years Ago This Week in 2013. Updated in 2018. What the hell was going on in 1988? Hot on the heels of...

Originally posted as 25 Years Ago This Week in 2013. Updated in 2018. In 1988, if a song was a big enough hit in the US and/or UK,...

Originally posted as 25 Years Ago This Week in 2013. Updated in 2018. There's not much in music that's as exciting as when a new teen...

Originally posted as 25 Years Ago This Week in 2013. Updated in 2018. The biggest problem I have putting this ARIA recap together each...

Originally posted as 25 Years Ago This Week in 2013. Updated in 2018. Last week, I promised there'd be more laughs — and as Morris Minor...

Originally posted as 25 Years Ago This Week in 2013. Updated in 2018. I've never really understood the appeal of comedy records. Sure,...

Originally posted as 25 Years Ago This Week in 2013. Updated in 2018. What's this? Isn't it a day early for our look back at the ARIA...

Originally posted as 25 Years Ago This Week in 2013. Updated in 2018. Over the past few months, as I've been taking a look back at the...

Originally posted as 25 Years Ago This Week in 2013. Updated in 2018. The new entries from this week in 1988 can pretty much be divided into two categories: Aussie rock and pop music originating from Britain — and there was a clear division between the fans of each genre. In 1988, you'd never get someone who was into rock music admitting to liking a pop, dance or R&B song. Not even all those bubbles could wash Aussie rock out of the top 50 In recent years, musical genres

Originally posted as 25 Years Ago This Week in 2013. Updated in 2018. Valentine's Day, 1988 — and there was nothing I loved more in the...

Originally posted as 25 Years Ago This Week in 2013. Updated in 2018. It has to be said: the charts for the first few weeks of 1988 had...

Originally posted as 25 Years Ago This Week in 2013. Updated in 2018. This week in 1988, school holidays were coming to an end and it...

Originally posted as 25 Years Ago This Week in 2013. Updated in 2018. There we were, a full month after Christmas 1987 and the majority...

Originally posted as 25 Years Ago This Week in 2013. Updated in 2018. As I sit down to write this post, I've just returned home after seeing The Killers in concert at The Metro in Sydney. If you don't include boy bands and girl groups, they're my favourite group of the '00s (if you do, they're in fourth place) so it was a night full of some of my favourite songs from recent years. The Communards said hello to another cover version This week in 1988, four bands I liked to on

Originally posted as 25 Years Ago This Week in 2013. Updated in 2018. Three weeks is a long time to wait when you're a chart fanatic, so...