1970s Music Dominates Radio Station Top Albums

Classic Decade of Rock by Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Deep Purple

Sep 4, 2009

Analysis of the Planet Rock radio station listeners' top forty albums shows that 1970s albums dominated the chart because of musicians like Robert Plant and Jimmy Page.

The Planet Rock radio station announced in early August that they had added 35,000 weekly listeners over the previous quarter, taking their weekly listening figures to over 700,000 people for the first time; there were also five million hours listened to per week for the first time.

Over 12,000 listeners voted for their favourite album over the month in a station poll, and at the end of August the top forty rock albums list was announced. This article analyses the data to determine the most successful years and decades in the list, as well as identifiying the oldest and youngest albums in the chart.

Most Successful Years in the Planet Rock Chart

Two classic albums by Deep Purple helped 1972 to stand out as the sole year with five entries in the top forty, and therefore the most distinguished year in rock history as voted for by Planet Rock listeners.

Similarly, Black Sabbath released two albums in 1970 and this helped that year into joint second place.

Most Successful Decades in the Planet Rock Chart

As the years chart suggests, the 1970s was the most successful decade. It had twenty-six entries, which is well over half the total entries. Every year in the 1970s had at least one entry, with 1974 and 1977 the least successful with only the single album.

Bands like Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple provided multiple 1970s entries, and there were also the only entries in the top forty list from distinguished musicians such as Queen, Rainbow, Bruce Springsteen and the Eagles.

The 1980s had the second highest number of entries, but no band had more than one album represented. As shown in the years chart, 1987 was the classic year of the decade, with albums by Guns N' Roses, U2 and Def Leppard making the chart.

The Oldest and Youngest Albums in the Planet Rock Chart

Although the 1960s and 1990s are both represented on the list with three entries each, this does not mean the chart spans forty years, as the oldest album dates from 1968 and the youngest from 1991, meaning a total time span of twenty-three years.

The oldest album on the chart is Jimi Hendrix's classic 1968 opus, Electric Ladyland, while the youngest is Nirvana's 1991 masterpiece, Nevermind. Metallica's eponymous album and Pearl Jam's Ten were also released in 1991, but appeared a month later according to discographies.

Henrix's Electric Ladyland was released a year earlier than Led Zeppelin's first two albums.

The copyright of the article 1970s Music Dominates Radio Station Top Albums in Classic Rock Music 70s-90s is owned by Marc Latham. Permission to republish 1970s Music Dominates Radio Station Top Albums in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.