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I counted at least 15 US acts in last week's UK top 40 and as you say, there are no UK acts in the Billboard Top 100.
I think this discrepancy is due in part to US radio stations' airplay policies. Stations in the US are loathe to play most records before they've had at least some minor success in the charts. This explains why many tracks take several weeks to climb into the top ten and a record entering at number one is virtually unprecedented. US chart positions are also partially defined by airplay. In the UK, Marketing is the key. If you've got a big record company behind you then getting a top ten record is no problem, even if it's rubbish and even if noone has ever heard of you before.
US stations have an awful lot more to say in what gets played and consequently what is sucessful in the charts. When similar US and UK groups turn up, they'll usually go for the Americans. If you look back at UK acts that have had number ones in the US over the past few years they've mostly either been impossible to avoid (The Spice Girls) or from film soundtracks (Seal's Kiss For A Rose for example) - a handy way of getting a track noticed with the need for airplay.
I think what the UK is missing is huge name artists. Acts successful in the past in the US like Culture Club and Duran Duran were massive 'larger than life' characters. They were mobbed wherever they went over there and they didn't need airplay to get their records noticed. There hardly seem to be any acts like that around these days and I think that's mainly due to the nature of the UK music industry.
A number of years ago the album charts were becoming so overrun by compilations that a seperate chart had to be created for them. Maybe the same should be done for manufactured/garage artists in the singles chart
I think this discrepancy is due in part to US radio stations' airplay policies. Stations in the US are loathe to play most records before they've had at least some minor success in the charts. This explains why many tracks take several weeks to climb into the top ten and a record entering at number one is virtually unprecedented. US chart positions are also partially defined by airplay. In the UK, Marketing is the key. If you've got a big record company behind you then getting a top ten record is no problem, even if it's rubbish and even if noone has ever heard of you before.
US stations have an awful lot more to say in what gets played and consequently what is sucessful in the charts. When similar US and UK groups turn up, they'll usually go for the Americans. If you look back at UK acts that have had number ones in the US over the past few years they've mostly either been impossible to avoid (The Spice Girls) or from film soundtracks (Seal's Kiss For A Rose for example) - a handy way of getting a track noticed with the need for airplay.
I think what the UK is missing is huge name artists. Acts successful in the past in the US like Culture Club and Duran Duran were massive 'larger than life' characters. They were mobbed wherever they went over there and they didn't need airplay to get their records noticed. There hardly seem to be any acts like that around these days and I think that's mainly due to the nature of the UK music industry.
A number of years ago the album charts were becoming so overrun by compilations that a seperate chart had to be created for them. Maybe the same should be done for manufactured/garage artists in the singles chart
Posted: 10:42 Apr 25 2002 
