via//chicago

np: "the sermon" - jimmy smith

alright, apologies for the lack of updates over the past week - things have been crazy hectic around via//chicago world. still debating on the direction i want to take with my Slop From the Pops weekly round-up, as BBC Radio 1 has decided to fuck with the Top 40 Chart show format and render it next to worthless. ok, that may be a little harsh, but i'm none too happy about the resulting changes. my biggest complaint is that they've decided to no longer play every week's new entries beyond number twenty. that means that any new single debuting in the bottom half of the chart is no longer guaranteed to be played on air. the top twenty is still played in its' entirety, so if a song climbs up the charts it will be played, but those one week hits that fall off a week after debuting at say, #36, might not get aired at all. and this is really unfortunate, as some of the most interesting songs, in my opinion, are the ones that peak in the lower regions. it's the lesser known songs and bands that can reach an audience this way, as the top 20 is usually overplayed as it is anyway. anyway... i'll probably continue doing my recaps, but as i can no longer hear songs past 20 that aren't played, it will most likely become just a recap of positions 20-1. its better than nothing, but i feel like a lot of good shit is going to slip through the cracks this way. oh well, i suppose this is the way of the music industry today - squeezing out the marginal artists in order to focus on the already over-exposed few superstars. ugh.