The Helping Haiti version of Everybody Hurts has gone straight in at number one in the UK music charts, racking up 453,000 dales in just six days. This makes it the most successful charity single of the century, despite it not actually being very good.

I have mixed feelings on charity records. They raise money for good causes, which is great, yet a lot of them rely solely on that factor to sell, not actually being any good. And they always sell well, regardless of quality.

The UK music charts may mean less now than they used to but they’re still an indicator of what’s hot on the popular British music scene right now. This week’s Top 10 singles and Top 10 albums are listed below.

Helping Haiti with the charity version of R.E.M.’s Everybody Hurts has unsurprisingly entered straight in at number one on the singles chart, knocking Owl City to number two in the process. And surely no one can bemoan this, with all the money raised going to help the victims of the Haiti earthquake. Brilliantly. Jedward’s debut single, Ice Ice Baby, fell out …read more

If you’re not British and have never heard of Jedward before then prepare to bring your dinner up. The novelty act of this year’s The X Factor have released a single. It’s a mash-up of Queen and David Bowie’s Under Pressure, and Vanilla Ice’s Ice Ice Baby. And it’s terrible. Unsurprisingly.

We’ve had Darius, we’ve had the Cheeky Girls, and now we have Jedward. All acts from a reality TV show who have defied belief in getting as far as they do on the show before releasing a few pointless and utterly crap records after they were finally booted off.
This isn’t …read more

The UK music charts may mean less now than they used to but they’re still an indicator of what’s hot on the popular British music scene right now. This week’s Top 10 singles and Top 10 albums are listed below.

This week’s singles chart has seen Owl City hold off the challenge of Jedward – that awful twin beast of baloney from The X Factor – for the number one spot. The fact that Jedward can’t even make number one with help from Vanilla Ice doesn’t bode well for their future career. Timbaland and Katy Perry jumped 14 places to number …read more

As someone who covers the U.K. music charts every Sunday, I’m intrigued to hear that the midweek placings are to be revealed to the public for the first time from later this year. They’ve always been available to the music industry, but now the public will get to hear them too.

There’s no doubt the music charts mean less now than they used to. The way we consume and listen to music has changed, with file-sharing and streaming services muddying the waters considerably. But the charts are still the best indication of what’s popular.

The UK music charts may mean less now than they used to but they’re still an indicator of what’s hot on the popular British music scene right now. This week’s Top 10 singles and Top 10 albums are listed below.

This week’s U.K. singles chart sees Owl City retain the number one spot with Fireflies, while Iyaz and the cast of Glee swap places in two and three. There are still two versions of Don’t Stop Believin’ hanging around in the top 10 (don’t do it, Joe). Alica Keys and Jay-Z are the big climbers, with Empire State Of Mind (Part …read more

The UK music charts may mean less now than they used to but they’re still an indicator of what’s hot on the popular British music scene right now. This week’s Top 10 singles and Top 10 albums are listed below.

This week’s singles chart has seen Owl City topple Iyaz from the top spot he grabbed last week. Fireflies is Owl City’s first U.K. number one, despite the American singer-songwriter having released three albums. Iyaz only dropped to number two, while the Glee cast climbed to number three with their rendition of Don’t Stop Believin’. The only new entry in the …read more

The UK music charts may mean less now than they used to but they’re still an indicator of what’s hot on the popular British music scene right now. This week’s Top 10 singles and Top 10 albums are listed below.

Last week saw Iyaz come from nowhere to grab the top spot. This week has seen him remain at the top, seeing off Owl City who are straight in at number two with Fireflies. In a rather bizarre twist of fate, Journey have remained at number six with the original Don’t Stop Believin’, while the Glee Cast have entered the singles …read more

The UK music charts may mean less now than they used to but they’re still an indicator of what’s hot on the popular British music scene right now. This week’s Top 10 singles and Top 10 albums are listed below.

Iyaz has come from nowhere to take the top spot on this week’s singles chart with his debut release, Replay. Iyaz narrowly beat Sidney Samson ft. Wizard Sleeve with Riverside (Let’s Go) which entered straight in at number two. Florence and The Machine and The Saturdays both climbed, while Joe McElderry and Cheryl Cole both dropped out of the top ten …read more

We’ve already detailed what the top 10 singles and albums of the noughties were, but now it’s time to see what the top-selling singles and albums of 2009 were. Sales figures for the year have also been released today, and that brings mixed tidings.

Overall, album sales in the UK were down by around 3.5 percent to 128.9 million, continuing a longterm trend which the music industry blames on illegal file-sharing. 16.1 million of this total were legal downloads.
Overall, single sales were up a whopping 32.7 percent to 152 million. This was explained by way of an increased number of downloads, …read more