We hadn’t planned to watch it but we happened to flick past just as the show started and sat there, engrossed, for the entire hour. I occasionally put up with Steve wossisname if I stumble across TOTP2 as I like the mix of music, and the last ever Top of the Pops felt a bit like that. I wonder if it would’ve been better served by mixing in more older or alternative music?
Ultimately, whilst the charts are largely dominated by the singles that have been well marketed, there is still room for a Top of the Pops that covers the ‘buzz’ music. After all most people in the industry tipped the Arctic Monkeys to be big around summer last year before many people had heard of them, so why not have a program dedicated to that?
Ohh yes, that’ll be Later with Jools Holland then, or is it? I enjoy Later… but some of the acts can be a bit hit or miss, even the ‘legends’ that he gets on. Each to their own I know.
I’m glad I caught the last ever TOTP. Like most people of my generation it was a huge part of growing up, and I think it’s purely a victim of the changing cultures and wider accessibility to new music. Kids today. Don’t know they’re born!
They won’t have to sit, finger poised over the pause button, to tape the charts. They won’t hear a song for the first time AFTER it has entered the charts, and I’m not sure that’s a good thing.
For starters, where are the superstars of tomorrow? The entertainers? Have the times when a handful of bands and solo artists rise to the top left us? Or are we resigned to a future where the ‘long lasting’ music stars are those that manage to release three albums?
Anyway, I’d like to say thanks to TOTP. You influenced me more than I possibly realise and, as Sir Jimmy Saville turned the lights off, a little bit of history died.
P.S. Somehow I missed that version of Gnarls Barkeley’s Crazy, how ace was that!