With this week's announcement of a new online music show after the weekly chart run-down on a Sunday afternoon, rumours were sent flying about the return of the much adored music television show Top Of The Pops.
The show which ran for over forty years was ended in 2006, although this year made a comeback with a Christmas special. However it was announced today that the new online BBC show to be presented by Reggie Yates has nothing to do with TOTP. Sources close to the show have thoroughly denied that the new show will in any way mirror the old favourite music show that many of us grew up with. However the show is said to feature interviews with those in the charts, backstage footage and music videos, striking a similar chord to what TOTP's used to be, except the live performances which are what made it so unique.
Ben Cooper, Controller of BBC Radio 1 has said “I hope that this will be to our young listeners what listening to the chart and waiting to record your favourite pop songs was for another generation”. However the question lingers how original the content will be when Adele and Bruno Mars have been in the chart for the last year with both their latest offerings, and Ed Sheeran won't budge further down than the number three spot.
With both The Maccabees and Enter Shikari looking to make number one in mid-week listings on the release of both their third albums but finding themselves in fourth position come the weekend, it would seem that chart music might make for a very repetitive showing. Lana Del Rey, M38 and Etta James do also all feature in this weeks Top 100, the rest however is a repeat of the same names with different singles.
While it is definitely time for a new type of music show, is this really the right way to go about it?
The music channel seems to have died a very slow death over the last few years with many being shut down or replaced with spin off's of already existing channels, making the internet a rather appealing place to launch a new music platform. Looking back a generation TOTP, Gonzo, and T4's Freshly Squeezed were the go places for exciting, new music content. However with two out of three defunct and Freshly Squeezed not nearly the same without Simon Amstell and Alexa Chung, there is a massive gap for a new music programme, just perhaps not one that runs around a chart that is stagnated with the same acts week in, week out.
