If the years 1981-85 have been comparatively predictable affairs, where familiar Indie royalty regularly bagged the number one spot with occasionally mediocre singles, 1986 was when the snowshaker really flurried. Groups on tiny new labels making scratchy sounding singles could, by a combination of press recommendation, fanzine raves and word of mouth, climb to the top with enthusiasm; the underground was beginning to poke its claws into the rubber membrane of pop again.
The list of nineteen new number ones below tells a headline story not just of C86 or indiepop suddenly finding its way to the forefront, but also The Smiths continued dominance and goth's continuing allure.
1987 is where things start to get confusing and certainties begin to crumble, and the only solid scaffolding you can reliably cling on to is the continued and dogged presence of the goth scene. The best and most robust of the indiepop acts continue to make their presence felt, but the more delicate and less organised ones either inadvisably sign to major labels, or fall away. If 1986 was a free for all, 1987 is the year where any acts with slightly scrappy or flaky ideas start to become dismissed by both the music press and the public (while maintaining their core cult audiences).
Sample culture begins to make itself felt not just through the grebo bands, who have had a fine line in 3 second distorted vocal interjections so far, but through club culture as expected. The KLF emerge in their first guise to create huge music press headlines but comparatively few sales, and a smattering of club classics begin to nudge around the fringes of the chart, with the exception of one from some surprisingly old and familiar hands which goes stratospheric (and has the video to match its interstellar ambitions). Let's not spoil the surprise for anyone under the age of 45 who may be reading.
A complete playlist of all 1986's chart entries - or at least all that were available on Spotify - can be found below, with 1987's menu on the right hand side of this page.
1986 was the year I started buying Record Mirror and its multitude of charts (NME would follow a while later) and watching The Chart Show and its specialist weeks. So this blog has recently got to a time where I held in my head an idea of what an Independent Chart was about, even if the specific NME lists awaited in my immediate future. It's fascinating and some names have come up which haven't crossed my mind in decades.
ReplyDeleteYou and me both. This is where I became most aware of it all, really, but there are still a few number ones coming up which I have to admit didn't really come on my radar at the time.
DeleteThough it's come to be seen reductively in terms of 'that' cassette, 1986 was among the best years for the independent scene. Put it this way - often there were more genuinely great pop records in the indie charts than in the Top 40.
ReplyDeleteBut 1987 is another interesting year too, when the great cleaving between indie in style and indie in economics begins to occur.