Top Of The Pops

[renegadefm]

Is it just me, or isn't it time the BBC brought back Top Of The Pops?

 

[Buenchico]

I agree with the content of this article:
https://theedgesusu.co.uk/records/2023/03/14/top-of-the-pops-is-there-any-point-in-still-requesting-its-return/

Streaming services now mean that the chart positions of songs can remain almost unchanged for week after week, rather than with songs zooming up th charts (or rapidly falling out of them) as in days gone by.

There might also not be that many bands and artists who'd want to perfom on the show anyway.  In the heyday of TOTP, getting onto the show was vital to promote new music.  These days a visible presence on streaming services is far more important.

[Ellipsis]

Try this:

https://charts.youtube.com/charts/TopShortsSongs/GB/weekly

[andy-hughes]

The longevity of TOTP was embedded in continuity.

From the earliest days of 'youth' television, it was an essential fixture in viewing schedules, and part of the fabric of youth culture.

Its demise was brought about by the fundamental changes in the manufacture and distribution of pop music - the BBC's stranglehold on teenage listening was gone, never to return, and 'charts' became meaningless with the onset of streaming.

The passing of time means that those factors which ended TOTP have only increased, making it even more dated and irrelevant now than it was when it ended, and making a 're-birth' a concept doomed to instant oblivion.

Of course, the BBC is known for its ability to try and create something it decides the public wants, with no evidence beyond its own overpaid and underdeveloped imagination, and then try and shoehorn an audience into liking it, but it fails every time, and if it tries a 'new' TOTP, it will fail again.

[jno]

it fails every time

rilly? I don't recall any huge public demand for (for instance) series about time-travelling doctors or father-and-son rag-and-bone merchants, but they did okay.

[brainiac]

As probably the only ABer who has appeared on TOTP, I have to say that its time has long gone.  Those sorts of shows would be of little interest nowadays, not least because there is little or no interest in 'the charts.'  Who knows (or cares) what is currently Number 1?  I certainly don't.

[ichkeria]

https://www.officialcharts.com/charts/singles-chart/

Can this really be the "current" Top 40? Half of those are dead, aren't they? Wouldn't be much of a show ...

 

[andy-hughes]

jno - // 

it fails every time

rilly? I don't recall any huge public demand for (for instance) series about time-travelling doctors or father-and-son rag-and-bone merchants, but they did okay. //

Both your examples are over or near sixty years ago!

Modern day BBC thinking added Jo Whiley onto Simon Mayo, it failed, he left the BBC, she went back to where she came from.

It axed Steve Wright and Ken Bruce, the latter's departure decimated Radio Two's morning listening figures, with a comensurate boost in the figures for GHR, and it has cut a swathe through local radio, destroying its entire ethos by joining vast areas of the country into one broadcast area, and then forcing unknown new presenters to replace loved local voices.

The BBC is a joke, and only exists at all because of the cushion of licence payers' money - if that is removed it will rightly sink without trace.

[elliemay1]

//As probably the only ABer who has appeared on TOTP,//

Tell us more, brainiac

[jno]

okay, I May Destroy You and Detectorists then. Where was the demand before the BBC took a punt on them?

If you're upset about the departure of presenters you like, that's another matter; but you must be aware that the government is doing its best to squeeze the Beeb financially, doubtless in the hope that if out of office they'll all get GB News gigs like Boris's.

[brainiac]

I could post the YouTube link, ellie.... :)

[elliemay1]

Please do, brainiac

[andy-hughes]

Jno, I am not upset at all, I rarely watch BBC TV, and I don't listen to local radio.

I simply resent the bone headed decision making that would not last a day in the commercial sector which is not cushioned from its endless errors with public money.

[tomus42]

Gawd elp us. AH has gone from liberal lefty hand wringer to BBC hating feral right winger pretty much overnight. Had his account been hacked or what?

[andy-hughes]

Tomus - I am unsure how you derive such bizarre conclusions from my posts.

I don't 'hate' the BBC, I merely despise its inability to sort out its radio presenters. 

And I am neither 'feral', or 'right wing', no matter what your certifiable imagination may be telling you. 

[barry1010]

You could make your own version every week, watching YouTube vids of chart music and doing your own countdown 

[Maydup]

I can't think of anything more loathesome than a revival of TOTPs. 
 

[barry1010]

I can.

[renegadefm]

I just feel that there is nothing around now like TOTP that showcases artists in the way that did. 

I grew up with it, and was devestated it ended when it did. 

To make matters worse there is no longer a Christmas special, we used to love watching that on Christmas day. 

I think the thing I miss the most is the connection between the music and the artists. For example we, I mean we as a family don't have tiktok or anything other than a tv to watch music, since the departure of TOTP I couldn't tell you what some artists look like. 

TOTP was on weekly and kept us interested weekly in music, and I was watching old footage of TOTP from the 90's recently and it struck me that the audience on TOTP are having a fantastic time, but theres simply nothing around like it anymore.

Not everyone streams, I still go out and buy the physical product, and my vinyl collection has grown a lot in the last few years. 

There is still a chart run down show, all be it on a Friday these days instead of a Sunday, something else I didn't agree with, but a chart show non the less still exists, so I just feel there should be a show on tv to reflect this. 

Am I really a minority that feels this? TV just seems so cold these days, and is the top 40 really that embarrassing these days that its not worthy of a tv show?

I realise my argument is a bit late, but I been banging this drum for many years now. 

[piggynose]

Totp, the miming show! What a joke that was!

[bednobs]

i dunno if we were watching the same totp episode this week (1995; mark goodier presenting)?  the people did not look like they were having a great time and the music was terrible!