Girl power is charting a new course, and the hits are on parade

“WHY”, a friend asked me the other day, “don’t you write about what’s number one in the charts?” The charts? Huh? Do they still exist? “Sure", he said, “start with Billboard."

I remember the Billboard Hot 100 from time when circular plastic objects still mattered. The original Billboard chart, Hit Music Parade, was published on 4 January 1936, with “A Little Bit Independent” by Fats Waller as its first number one. As a young teenager, I used to listen religiously to the hit parade, and I vividly remember running to the record shop after school every Thursday to get a paper copy of the Top 40 and see how my favourite songs had fared. “Yeah! ‘Radar Love’ still number one," I’d shout to my friends.

But those were the 1970s, and I thought the idea of charts had become obsolete with the arrival of digital music. I was wrong. The charts are still there. In fact, a quick internet search shows there are probably more than ever, scattered all over the musical and geographical landscape. Every subgenre has its own top 10, from metal to hip hop, from alternative to country. Most of the streaming platforms have their own charts. And every country has a hit parade, often more than one. The South African one is called Filtr, and it's compiled by 5FM, based on votes from  listeners...

DEEL