Rock Fans' Fave Album Compared to General Public
How Do Records in a General Music Chart Differ to a Connoisseurs One
Sep 9, 2009
In April 2005 Channel Four television viewers in the United Kingdom voted for their favourite album from any genre. That chart contained several rock records that would this year appear on the Planet Rock radio station listeners' best ever album chart. This article compares the rock artists that appeared in both charts to analyse which records did better on each, and try to identify which rock albums are popular amongst the general public, and which are more for rock connoisseurs.
The Channel Four Top Forty Album Chart
The Channel Four album chart that was presented on April 17, 2005, was in fact a top fifty, but as the Planet Rock chart of August 30th, 2009 was a top forty chart only the first forty albums on the Channel Four chart have been included.
The Top Five Albums as Voted for by Channel Four Viewers were:
- Radiohead: OK Computer
- U2: The Joshua Tree
- Nirvana: Nevermind
- Michael Jackson: Thriller
- Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon
A Comparison Between the Rock Bands that Appear on the Channel Four and Planet Rock Charts
There were nine rock bands that appeared in both charts, and their albums and positions are listed below in the order they appeared in the Channel Four chart:
Band-----------------------------------Channel Four----------------------------------------------- Planet Rock
U2--------------------------------------Joshua Tree (2)--------------------------------------------Joshua Tree (32)
Nirvana------------------------------- Nevermind (3)---------------------------------------------- Nevermind (26)
Pink Floyd---------------------------- Dark Side of the Moon (5)------------------------- Dark Side of the Moon (1)
Guns N' Roses--------------------- Appetite for Destruction (9)----------------------- Appetite for Destruction (5)
Queen--------------------------------- A Night at the Opera (13)--------------------------- A Night at the Opera (22)
Led Zeppelin------------------------------- IV (17)------------------------------------------------------- IV (2)
Jimi Hendrix----------------------- Are You Experienced (19)---------------------------- Electric Ladyland (19)
Bruce Springsteen---------------- Born to Run (37)-------------------------------------------- Born to Run (29)
Black Sabbath------------------------ Paranoid (40)---------------------------------------------- Paranoid (28)
Albums That Finished Higher in the Channel Four Chart
Considering that the Channel Four album chart was for all music genres, while the Planet Rock chart was just for rock music it would be expected that few albums would appear higher in the Channel Four chart than the Planet Rock chart.
This was generally confirmed, although three albums did appear higher in the Channel Four chart: U2's Joshua Tree was thirty places higher (2 and 32); Nirvana's Nevermind was twenty-three places higher (3 and 26) and Queen's A Night at the Opera was nine places higher (13 and 22).
Possible Reasons Why Some Rock Albums Finished Lower in the Planet Rock Chart
The above albums probably appeared higher in the Channel Four chart because all three artists had enjoyed mainstream success during the 1990s in the United Kingdom, although this was also true of Guns N' Roses and Bruce Springsteen as well of course.
Other reasons may be that U2 and Queen are as popular among pop fans as rock, while Nirvana were more punk-pop than the classic heavy rock that dominated the Planet Rock chart.
Footnote: There was only one band that had a different album in each chart, and this was the Jimi Hendrix Experience, who had Are You Experienced in the Channel Four chart and Electric Ladyland in the Planet Rock chart.
You can listen to Planet Rock online and watch Channel Four online.
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