Let's Have A Look At What Songs Are Being Played On The Radio At The Moment

Not that you didn't know already, but there's a thing on the internet called Compare My Radio. What it does is collect all the plays of songs that radio stations across the UK have made in the past 30 days and puts them into charts for the sort of people who like that sort of thing. Let's have a look at what it says at the moment.

Synchronicity!

All of Azealia's plays were, unsurprisingly, for '212'. It's some radio edit. But what of the yet to be released and seemingly hoped to be forgotten 'Shady Love' with the Scissor Sisters? Well that's had just one play in the last month. Oh well.

'Interesting'!

Madonna's first single from 'MDNA', 'Give Me All Your Luvin'', is only her seventh most played song on UK radio in the past month. Admittedly there are a few other versions of it with alternate names further down that take its tally ahead of some of the Top 6 but we can gloss over that. One of those in the Top 6 is a new song however, 'Masterpiece', which is also in the UK Airplay Chart Top 40. Funny that, because it's better. A glance further down the Compare My Radio list will show that second single 'Girl Gone Wild' is nowhere to be seen at all. Again, 'funny'.

Political!

It may have only been around for less than a month but it looks like the only people currently prepared to play 'iLL Manors' are the apolitical BBC. It's a shame, because it's an important song. For once we have a multi-platinum popstar talking about some of The Things That Matter in a very considered way. It's a brilliantly incisive, insightful and coherent record presented as an angry-at-the-world, stream of conscious diatribe that only needs to be held against the assorted efforts of Barlow and co for it to be obvious just how much it's been lacking. Mainstream musicians don't seem to have much to say for themselves these days, even if some think they do; Plan B is a much needed exception. This would make for a very exciting - and possibly - sound the hyperbole siren - iconic Number One single.




Nostalgic!






As far as songs about music go, Saint Etienne's new single 'Tonight' is up there with the best. Detailed ruminations on it are available on request, but one of the main things to be taken away from it is its incredible wistfulness, especially the "wish it could always feel this way, and life would never be the same" line that couldn't be any more poignant: you don't necessarily realise it while you're living it, but pop is a moment in time. (Not that pop ever actually ends, but you get the idea.) Unfortunately radio stations have decided that it's just TOO amazing to be played regularly, and as such have rationed it to only six plays in the last month. A wise decision, you'll surely agree.

The Facts* Of Pop: No. 1 - Busted Caused Landfill Indie

Busted were to blame for Landfill Indie. This is a fact*.

In September 2002 Busted released their debut single, 'What I Go To School For', and it went straight in at Number 3. The following years saw them experience huge success, right up until their split in January 2005. The likes of Son Of Dork and The Noise Next Door tried, but ultimately failed, to fill the gap they left and that, seemingly, was that.

Only a few months after the split The Kooks had their first Top 40 hit with 'Eddie's Gun' (?), and a year after that they had become a major commercial proposition along with countless others including but not limited to Razorlight, Hard-Fi, The Courteeners, The View, The Twang (remember them?), The Fratellis, The Wombats, The Enemy, The Pigeon Detectives and Joe Lean And The Jing Jang Jong. Actually maybe not Joe Lean And The Jing Jang Jong but you get the idea.

And why did this happen? Well it follows (or seems to follow) that fans of Busted during their pomp - 10-14 year olds - were, by 2007 - probably the height of Landfill - aged 14-18. Thanks to Charlie and co they had decided that they wanted guitars in their pop music and, being slightly older, had also decided that they didn't want to be told it was pop music, even though that's exactly what it was. It's the kind of training school hipster philosophy that Radio 1 employ to this day.

Thankfully, that period has long since passed, proving itself to be something of an ephemeron (yes, 'ephemeron'). A new generation of teenagers have arrived and, like most previous ones, are, in the main, pop fans. Even if pop now means Guetta House. Hurrah.

*Not a fact per se, or even a fact at all, but apparently it's good to be assertive with these kind of things so that's what's it's going to be. If you like, it could also be elaborated on to explain the even more fleeting mainstream popularity of emo. Or, conversely, not.