PREDICTIONS

(I write this on: 12th September 2010, after doing 20 posts on no.1s, because I only just thought about writing something like this. i hope that’s not cheating, and don’t care anyway HAH)

Here are some of my pre-conceptions about the history of no.1s and what I might write:

– There are about 1,200 of them, so far.This means that including new ones that happen from now on, I should finish this project or whatever in about five years, so 2015

– Lots of people (e.g. Ian Macdonald, author of the best book ever) say 1966 was a very good year for pop, full of creative new songs. I think that’s true, from the ones I can think of. However, I think probably the best average score will be a bit later, maybe around 1981, when new wave stuff starting charting well. Because: novelty songs/oldies/oddities got to number one pretty frequently even to the days beyond punk’s year zero (which btw, I don’t believe in at all). By the mid-to-late eighties I think the manufacture-y pop is back in charge til the present. HOWEVER, i think that I remember 1996/7 being a good time – not because of brit-pop, but just a few flukey good songs from all genres

– The worst time is probably the very early years, or maybe the late eighties, or maybe the very recent years (2006-2008, i think its maybe recovered a bit now). Its hard to judge, cos what is top is not necesecesarily a full representation of the chart as a whole. And the chart is by no means an adequate representation of an average musical taste, or the mood of the nation, or whatever

– I would expect song times to get progressively longer up until about 1970, and then level off, maybe getting a bit shorter after 1985-ish. i dunno

– I would expect some of the best scoring artists to be: The Beatles, the Beach Boys, Pet Shop Boys, Rihanna, Girls Aloud, Lonnie Donegan, and some one-hit wonders which were good. This is not really a prediction, because I pretty much already know what bands I like.

– The most popular theme is obviously love, but some other recurring themes will, I think, be: animals, politics, character studies, holidays/travel/ethnic-y themed stuff, and instrumentals

– I will have learnt more about pop music, and I will hopefully learnt some new words for ‘good’, ‘nice’, ‘bad’, and ‘annoying’. I might have learnt how to spell LEARNED