You know, I was just thinking about this the other day. Back then, the Stock Aitken & Waterman bandwagon was in full steam until house music rode into town and stole the show. There was just as much bad music around then as there is now. I think the difference is that now there's no unified cause for people to support as a reaction to the mainstream and ultimately there's not enough people bothered to make a difference.... someone start the next revolution, quick.
...and as for the X-Factor, no more than glorified "Opportunity Knocks" for the 21st century. We've been here before you know.
...And while I'm at it, here's a top 40 singles chart from October 1988. The same month Mike Pickering was playing out some ace music at Nude at The Hacienda (see Music section for a taster)
Apart from from a couple of obvious exceptions, doesn't make for inspiring listening does it?
1 Black Box - Ride On Time
2 Jive Bunny & The Mastermixers - That's What I Like
3 Technotronic featuring Felly - Pump Up The Jam
4 Sydney Youngblood - If Only I Could
5 Milli Vanilli Girl - I'm Gonna Miss You
6 Rebel MC & Double Trouble - Street Tuff
7 Billy Joel - We Didn't Start The Fire
8 Erasure - Drama!
9 Wet Wet Wet - Sweet Surrender
10 Belinda Carlisle - Leave A Light On
11 The Beautiful South - You Keep It All In
12 Cher - If I Could Turn Back Time
13 Living In A Box - Room In Your Heart
14 Richard Marx - Right Here Waiting
15 Fresh 4 featuring Lizz E - Wishing On A Star
16 Tina Turner - The Best
17 Curiosity Killed The Cat - Name And Number
18 Bros - Chocolate Box
19 Chris Rea - The Road To Hell (Part 2)
20 Sonia - Can't Forget You
