When did the top 40 most closely resemble your music taste?

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I figure for me it would have been around '88-'91, when heaps of Aussie indie bands were getting popular and also when I was into dancey stuff. There would have been weeks that I liked perhaps up to half of what was in the charts.

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Monday, 13 January 2003 00:56 (twenty-three years ago)

I would have to say the mid 60's to late 60's. When else could Twink swindle his way into the charts?

― mallory bourgeois (painter man), Monday, 13 January 2003 01:10 (twenty-three years ago)

1982? Loads of Duran Duran. And considering I actually listened to Top 40 radio with a voraciousness I find mind-boggling now, probably a whole lot more dodgy.

― kate, Monday, 13 January 2003 01:16 (twenty-three years ago)

1990. still my favourite pop year ever bar none.

behaviour and violator, prince and de la soul, depeche mode being
the world's biggest stadium pop band, 1-hit wonder dance smashes left right and centre, bety boo, s'express, deee-lite, happy mondays, stone roses, 'pictures of you' by the cure, 'loaded' by primal scream,
massive attack's first single 'daydreaming',
the 'deep heat' compilations,
ride and lush, 'world in motion' going to number 1,
'vogue' going to number 1, the sundays' 'reading writing...'
'killer' by adamski, 'ghetto heaven' by the family stand,
'only love...' by st. etienne, 'what time is love' by klf...

i think i might start crying if i carry on.

― piscesboy, Monday, 13 January 2003 01:17 (twenty-three years ago)

when heaps of Aussie indie bands were getting popular

who they? did they chart?

― gaz (gaz), Monday, 13 January 2003 01:42 (twenty-three years ago)

Vogue poo fluid

― naked as sin (naked as sin), Monday, 13 January 2003 01:46 (twenty-three years ago)

Clouds, Falling Joys, Died Pretty, Go Betweens, Hummingbirds, to name a few, all had top 40 albums..

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Monday, 13 January 2003 01:48 (twenty-three years ago)

The 70's. But it might be more accurate to say that my taste my closely resembles the top 40 of the 70's than that the 70's top 40 most closely resembles my taste.

― Rockist Scientist, Monday, 13 January 2003 01:52 (twenty-three years ago)

Brilliant question, which I'll need to think about a bit before I answer.

― Mark (MarkR), Monday, 13 January 2003 01:52 (twenty-three years ago)

Spring 1990. At some points, I reckon I really liked 7 or 8 songs in the top 10, maybe more.

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Monday, 13 January 2003 02:07 (twenty-three years ago)

This probably decreased for me toward the end of the 70's, when I seemed to be liking less top 40 and began to be drawn to underground stuff; though disco was a brief exception.

― Rockist Scientist, Monday, 13 January 2003 03:26 (twenty-three years ago)

its funny, back in the late 70's, early eighties I would probably have been a card carrying alternative/leftfield only kind of guy butat the same time I actually knew what was on the charts in detail.

Now I wouldn't have a clue whats in the charts, but I'm pretty sure if I paid attention I'd find a few things I know and like...

― gaz (gaz), Monday, 13 January 2003 03:31 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't remember too well the dates, but I guess 90-92 is about right. I was 12-14.
Dee-Lite, Depeche Mode, Young MC, Technotronic(!), INXS, B-52s were all on the radio and on MTV with a fair amount of consistency. I can remember all the respective videos with a disturbing amount of clarity. Sugary dance music and pop rap styles were in as I recall and it was all full of weird noises and clothing. For some reason I latched on to INXS, possibly because they had this marvelous backcatalog that the others didn't (and I don't think I was ever particularly charmed by dm's lyrics, even if the production did turn my ear). Also, while they didn't chart much in the states, I remember videos by The Farm, Charlatans UK and Happy Mondays that had a pretty strong effect on me. Bizarre?

Prior to that I'd have to say 85-86, but at that time I was, what, 7-8 years old? I didn't have a clue except that country was boring.

Since 1993 I don't think I've really ever truly enjoyed more than one song at a time that was on pop radio, and never enough to actually run out and buy the album. If I lived in the UK that would probably be quite different, obv.

― Tom Millar (Millar), Monday, 13 January 2003 03:34 (twenty-three years ago)

Going by this page, probably 1976 (with "More Than a Feeling", "Magic Man", "Trampled Underfoot", "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Don't Fear the Reaper", and "Love To Love You Baby" all charting) but 2001 offers very stiff competition. Maybe they're almost even, I don't know. I have a feeling that if a 2002 list was available there, it might win. 1971 gets points just for the presence of "Your Move". 1981 must have been a bizarre year. I mean, I'm OK with Journey and Loverboy and even Foreigner have moments but didn't people think there had to be some sort of limit? Did you know that Styx had two of the top 40 songs of 1991?

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Monday, 13 January 2003 05:07 (twenty-three years ago)

Maybe this isn't in the spirit of the question, but I guess about 1982-84 (I was 9-11 years old) cuz all I listened to was top 40. In retrospect, tho, I still listen to plenty of that stuff now -- prince, abc, dexy's, adam ant, duran duran, madonna, and loads and loads of other new wave singles.

― scott pl. (scott pl.), Monday, 13 January 2003 05:08 (twenty-three years ago)

1967 was great!

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Monday, 13 January 2003 05:22 (twenty-three years ago)

1996, which was about two or three full years before I started paying attention to music.

― My name is Kenny (My name is Kenny), Monday, 13 January 2003 05:25 (twenty-three years ago)

Probably 1979.

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 13 January 2003 05:48 (twenty-three years ago)

Actually a Journey-dominated Top 40 would probably be good.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Monday, 13 January 2003 06:00 (twenty-three years ago)

1983, perhaps. I was a child (read: under 10 years old) and MTV just came to our cable box and everything I heard either came of a transistor radio, TV, or from a cassette. Music was pretty much what I lived for.

Was it just in Pittsbugh or was electro really immensely popular everywhere else? "Jam On It" by Newcleus ever make it into the charts? That was my favorite song of 1983.

― Douglas Mosurak (mosurock), Monday, 13 January 2003 06:13 (twenty-three years ago)

I haven't actually investigated this, and there was admittedly lots of awful r&b going on, but in my listening lifetime it's hard to imagine beating late '98-early '01 for pure now pop pleasure. Consider:

Can I Get A..., Are You That Somebody, Still Not a Player, I Will Remember You, Adia, I Want it That Way, Genie in a Bottle, What A Girl Wants, All Night Long, My Name Is, Silly Ho, Back That A** Up, Party Up, Rosa Parks, Steal My Sunshine, All the Small Things, Believe, Say My Name, Jumpin Jumpin, Big Pimpin, Forgot About Dre, Shake Ya Ass, (Hot S**t) Country Grammar, Stan, Cowboy Take Me Away, Independent Women Pt. 1, Music

― gabbneb, Monday, 13 January 2003 06:48 (twenty-three years ago)

*sigh* Before I was born. I am definitely out of my right time.

― LCD (Ms Laura), Monday, 13 January 2003 06:58 (twenty-three years ago)

Next Week

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Monday, 13 January 2003 07:09 (twenty-three years ago)

1984 is and probably always will be the best year for top 40 in my lifetime. Before my lifetime - pick a year from Ike's first term. After my lifetime - 2235 will make 1965 sound like 1975!

― James Blount (James Blount), Monday, 13 January 2003 08:23 (twenty-three years ago)

1986-88, and 2002.

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 13 January 2003 09:46 (twenty-three years ago)

With hindsight, 1990, although at the time I was 11 and didn't really care. For an actual at-the-time rush, god, I've never paid much attention to the charts, but 1997 was when I listened to the radio most.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Monday, 13 January 2003 09:49 (twenty-three years ago)

piscesboy is making me misty eyed.

― michael wells (michael w.), Monday, 13 January 2003 09:51 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't know, now? never? *shrug*

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 13 January 2003 09:58 (twenty-three years ago)

right now for nash trash, need to think for the pop muzik

― anthony easton (anthony), Monday, 13 January 2003 10:33 (twenty-three years ago)

Around 1991, probably... Pump Up The Volume, Vogue, Dub Be Good To Me, World In Motion, all within a few weeks of each other. Absolutely marvellous.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 13 January 2003 12:21 (twenty-three years ago)

pump up the volume was 1987, matt.

― michael wells (michael w.), Monday, 13 January 2003 13:43 (twenty-three years ago)

World in Motion was 1990

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 13 January 2003 13:53 (twenty-three years ago)

I would guess early-mid 70's (Bowie, Cockeny Rebel Gary Glitter, Mud, Roxy Music, Suzi Quatro, Slade, Sweet, T-Rex, Wizard....)

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Monday, 13 January 2003 14:11 (twenty-three years ago)

For me it was 1998 with Cornershop's "Brimful of asha", Air's "Sexy boy", Stardust's "Music sounds better with you", Fatboy Slim's "Rockafeller skank", Public Enemy's "I got game", Beastie Boys' "Intergalactic", Bran van 3000's "Drinkin in LA", great tunes !

― Sami (Sami), Monday, 13 January 2003 14:19 (twenty-three years ago)

The year I discovered it

Every Breath You Take JUST beat out Total Eclipse of the Heart in the year-end countdown... Safety Dance, Dr. Heckle and Mr Jive, Major Tom (Peter Schilling), Cum on Feel the Noize, Dirty Laundry, etc

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 13 January 2003 14:27 (twenty-three years ago)

I think the early to mid 1970s fit my taste best as it is now. But today's charts are a much better fit for my taste as it was then.

― David (David), Monday, 13 January 2003 14:29 (twenty-three years ago)

I somewhat slavishly followed the charts from 1984 through 1987. After that, there were periods where music I liked was in the charts but my tastes were driven much more by Rolling Stone's dance and college charts. I've been listening to the charts again the past couple of years and, although there's a lot of good stuff there, I find it depressing how STATIC they are.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 13 January 2003 15:24 (twenty-three years ago)

If you're talking about liking the majority of stuff that's actually in the charts (rather than what you remember through nostalgia-tinted specs) then it's got to be 81-82 when I was about 13.

Was anyone else sad enough to write down the charts as they came on the radio on a Tuesday lunchtime? (And I even used to draw graphs showing records going up and down over the weeks.)

― James Ball (James Ball), Monday, 13 January 2003 15:36 (twenty-three years ago)

ten months pass...

1966-67 and mid 80s

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 21 November 2003 23:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Btw. if I have to pick one year, 1983 is it. At least originally, but from what I have discovered afterwards, 1967 comes pretty close too.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 21 November 2003 23:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Being 16, I can't say I have much knowledge of the Top 40s of any era, though I would estimate that at some point in the 80s the Top 40 would appeal to me quite a bit. Don't ask me when exactly. Whenever everybody was copying The Cure (I imagine this happened?). I would have liked that.

― Stupid (Stupid), Friday, 21 November 2003 23:28 (twenty-two years ago)

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