“Top of the Pops” Moves to BBC2

First, John Peel left for the big studio in the sky, and now, “Top of the Pops” has lost its spot on BBC 1 after 40 years. A revamped TOTP will show up on Sundays on BBC 2 according to the Beeb’s bosses. With viewership at 20% of what it was in the golden age of the 1970s, perhaps the show has simply outlived its usefulness. Who can really be bothered when music channels abound on TV and what’s in the charts isn’t really all that interesting?

The first clue that TOTP was doomed was the arrival of MTV in the UK. Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like the Wolf” was a silly little tune when seen live, but it remains one of the most ambitious and intriguing videos ever shot. And the fact that the musicians’ union ensured that bands had to lip synch for years made TOTP less than live. Now, when Sky Digital offers 65 music channels, and BBC Radio has expanded far beyond the World and Home Services to include Radio 1 through BBC 7, is there any space for a weekly program highlighting top-selling singles?

And of course, the top-selling single was what TOTP showed. In 1999, the UK music fans purchased 80 million singles; by 2003, the number had fallen to just 36 million. Scissor Sisters and Nora Jones have had albums that flew off the shelves, but nothing turned up in the singles chart. DJ Casper’s rather awful “Cha Cha Slide” was a TOTP feature this year, but mercifully, no one bought the album. A far better indicator of what’s worthwhile is the UK download chart.

Yet, there are those who say that the real problem isn’t the single/album/download divide, but the state of UK music. Sir Jimmy Saville, who launched the show in 1964 when everyone knew that British music was world class, took this tack. In an interview with the Yorkshire Post, Leeds-dweller Sir Jimmy said, “The secret of Top of the Pops' success is tied to the music. When the music goes down in quality so does Top of the Pops. But if the music is no good that's hardly the fault of Top of the Pops. Top of the Pops reflects what people buy.”

Moving TOTP to Friday nights in 1996 didn’t save the ratings (ITV showed “Coronation Street” opposite – clever move by the BBC, not). Putting it over on BBC2, a less popular channel, and running it on Sunday nights to coincide with the Radio 1 chart show, isn’t going to help. New presenters, new format, new channel, new day can’t make it the old TOTP the teenage world waited for on Thursdays. As painful as it is, it’s time to let TOTP go.


© Copyright 2004 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.


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