Charty Chart Chat's The Same Old Songs?

We live in a crazy busy world of 500 TV channels and pervasive advertising that hounds us on the street, in the cinema and on our cell phones. Technology is so cheaply available that every Tom, Dick and Harry can make a technically competent recording in their basement, so it's no wonder Western society is overwhelmed. The gatekeepers of culture, corporate America, control and feed the buying public's voracious appetite and short attention span. In order to keep up demand, the music industry must take risks — something that business doesn't like to do even in the good times. Its easier to back the sure thing — reissuing, repackaging and finding a new medium to exploit with safe products... DVDs to replace video tapes, as CDs replaced vinyl.

One way that the music industry keeps up with the demand for fresh musical meat is to re-introduce new versions of older material. This has been standard operating procedure since the dawn of recorded time. For example, different companies have released competing versions of the same song. Bo Donaldson & The Heywoods and Paper Lace both released "Billy, Don't Be A Hero" in the same month in the early '70s. During the same period, Canadian acts would cover American hits in order to meet Canadian content regulations. Remakes of popular songs have been included on numerous soundtracks over the past few decades. Two recent examples of remakes are Sugar Ray's "Is She Really Going Out With Him?" and Uncle Kracker's "Drift Away." The problem, though, is that the new versions are not only note for note remakes, in both cases they are noticeably weaker than Joe Jackson's and Dobie Gray's originals. It's not a shock that less talented people are looking to the past for sure-fire hits, but it's shocking how much the kids eats it up.

The one area of popular music that seems least affected by industry manipulation is non-commercial public radio, in which campus radio plays a major part in this country. Sure, the feces does rise to the top here too, but rarely. In the #1 spot are local rock phenoms, The Constantines. Their sophomore album Shine A Light remains at #1 for a third straight week, recording airplay support on campus radio stations across Canada. Last week the composite score of the album broke the 1,300 point barrier. This week, The Cons broke that record by inching closer to 1,500, with the aid of 19 Top 10 finishes, including #1s at CFCR (Saskatoon), CHRW (London) CHUO (Ottawa) and CJSR (Edmonton), with #2s at CFRU (Guelph), CFUR (Prince George), CITR (Vancouver) and UMFM (Winnipeg).

The Cons' dominance is unprecedented. Following in a distant second is Ween's Quebec remaining at #2 and Welsh quintet Super Furry Animals' Phantom Power at #3. The Weakerthans' Reconstruction Site catapults into the Top 10, moving 17 places to #4. The Dandy Warhols' Welcome To the Monkey House rises to #5, staying just ahead of Soft Canyon's Broken Spirit, I Will Mend Your Wing, which rebounds with a #6 placing. The Metric's Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? drops to #7 as does The High Dials' A New Devotion at #8 and Mogwai's Happy Songs For Happy People at #9. The other new arrival in the Top 10 is Broadcast's Haha Sound. That rounds out the group at #10.

The highest debut of the week is Frank Black And The Catholics' Show Me Your Tears arriving at #20, garnering some solid airplay at CFMU (Hamilton), CHUO, CJSR, CJUM, CKCU (Ottawa) and CIBL & CISM (Montreal). Hot Little Rocket 's Our Work And Why We Do It debuts at #27, while other notable new entries include Superchunk's Cup Of Sand at #32, 1 B.R.M.C.'s Take Them On, On Your Own at #34 and Bardo Pond's On The Ellipse at #39.

Finally, a question has been directed to the Charts headquarters from a loyal Charty Chart Chat reader from the Steel City.

Sean from Hamilton writes "Out of curiosity, would you know if the 14 weeks that Simply Saucer has currently spent on the charts is the longest amount of time that a reissue has spent in the top 50?"

Our reply: An excellent question, Sean. After a quick look through the charts for the past seven years, it was hard to find a great number of albums that have lasted on the charts for 14 weeks and none of them were reissues. The most recent reissue to chart was Pavement's Slanted & Enchanted Redux, from late 2002, and that one lasted one week. Another reissue, of an original release from the late '60s Ken Nordine's A Transparent Mask. It lasted three weeks in May 2001. So let's officially celebrate Simply Saucer's charting achievements as the reissue that has charted the longest on the Canadian campus radio Top 50 chart.