What a horrible, horrible year for chart hits that was

It's easy to understand because rock in 69 onward was moving towards sprawling album epics that were unsuited for radio play instead of clean, accessible tunes like Satisfaction and She Loves You.

i dunno, man. a lot of boomers' strongest memory of listening to the radio was when they used to spin Sgt. Pepper nonstop.

Imagine never having heard A Day in the Life, stumbling across it randomly at midnight, and then finding out after that it was by the lads who sang "i want to hold your time"
Radios were playing full LP's back then.

so this is why the Ace of Base writer/producer went on to rule pop music for the next 25 years

But yeah, 94 was probably one of the heaviest years of rock ever so it's understandable why Celine Dion was more in evidence on the Billboard than NIN.

*hand

>let's recreate ABBA for the 90s but they don't write their own material and it sounds like elevator music

Scandinavian excellence.

>sprawling album epics that were unsuited for radio play
False, Stairway to Heaven was the most played song on the radio in the 70s

youtube.com/watch?v=RunfFTrTq5k

They were totes going to play this at the mall when you're shopping for slacks I'm sure.

The Sign is a great song.

yeah there's a lot of periods when rock goes in directions that don't lend themselves to Top 40

"I Swear" is sappy love song kino, though

Even as pop goes that was a pretty fucking bad year.

Hot 100 is not exactly an accurate measurement of what was most popular in the 90s because many big hits were radio airplay/MTV only and therefore unable to chart.

Such as?

AM radio was mostly Top 40 vs FM radio which was newer and mostly freeform rock (aka DJs played whatever they felt like)

Though even on Top 40 you had a fair amount of psych/garage bands crossing over. Look at the Nuggets compilation. Half of those songs were big hits. It was usually just 2-3 minute 45 RPM singles by them though whereas the FM stations would play longer, heavier, often more experimental album cuts (sometimes the entire side of an LP)

There's rare places where its kinda like this still. Sometimes universities buy a few stations and put students completely in charge of them leading to some really fantastic stuff on the air. Montana, Oregon, Minnesota are the only places I personally know of doing it but I wish it was more commonly practiced.

MC Hammer - U Can't Touch This [intially released as only a 12" DJ single and then deleted, forcing consumers to buy the entire album]
Janet Jackson - State Of The World
The Cardigans - Lovefool
No Doubt - Don't Speak
Sugar Ray - Fly
The Wallflowers - One Headlight
Madonna - Into The Groove
The Fugees - Killing Me Softly
Mariah Carey - Butterfly
Mariah Carey - Forever
Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas Is You
Natalie Imbruglia - Torn [charted later outside the Top 40 when the rule was changed]
Green Day - When I Come Around
Goo Goo Dolls - Iris
The Rembandts - I'll Be There For You
Will Smith - Men in Black
Alanis Morrisette - Hand in My Pocket (and nearly every other off of her debut, which is part of the reason it sold nearly 15 million copies in America]
Nirvana - About A Girl (Unplugged)
Stone Temple Pilots - Interstate Love Song
Green Day - Basket Case
Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun
The Offspring - Come Out And Play
The Offspring - Self Esteem
Smashing Pumpkins - Today
Weezer - Buddy Holly
Sublime - What I Got
Butthole Surfers - Pepper
Garbage - #1 Crush
Oasis - Champagne Supernova
Foo Fighters - Everlong
Blur - Song 2
Smash Mouth - Walking On The Sun
Green Day - Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)
Semisonic - Closing Time
Counting Crows - Mr. Jones
New Radicals - You Get What You Give [charted in the Top 20 later after the rule changed]

FM progressive rock radio, not AM pop radio. Two very different things at the time.

And generally, from Hey Jude's release onwards, Top 40 radio started to get more accepting of songs in the 4 to 6 minute range...

At least America didn't have to put up with Wet Wet fucking Wet being number one for what seems like forever

Then again, Light My Fire was a top 10 hit in 67 and it went like 8 minutes.

They cut it down significantly for the radio though

Pop stations played the version on the single (aka the one that went Top 10), not the one featured on the LP.

It really is pretty great. I'm also partial to "The Power of Love", what a great song.

radio was big time localized back then
every station had a completely different playlist

The edit that was 2:50 was the one that was a big hit.

"Love Is All Around" and Take That's "Back For Good" both came and went here in America in the mid-90s. They were played a lot for like 3 months and then totally forgotten about.
We basically wanted nothing to do with manufactured Brit groups until the Spice Girls in like '97.

>Not liking The Sign
Pleb

She sounds like she swallowed a mouthful of peanut butter and then you also realize that the Titanic song is 90% recycled from TPOL, almost the same melody and everything.

THEY GOT GUNS TO MY HEAD
I THINK I'M GOING DOWN
I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS HAPPENING IN MY OWN TOWN!