Though great in its day, the world does not need the return of a weekly half-hour ghetto for pop music
BBC Four is hosting a Top of the Pops night this Friday. From then on, the classic Thursday night slot will see episodes screened weekly, from that equivalent week, starting from 1976. Which, of course, is great: everyone loves a good Pan's People montage and the chance to see vintage Madonna clips. Except, of course, that's not where it will end. Next thing you know, it will have inspired another Facebook group, another Twitter hashtag and another guileless attempt to bring the thing back. Not in my name.
Top of the Pops was great and necessary in its day, but the world has changed. Think about what this campaign actually suggests: the return of a weekly half-hour ghetto for pop music, based around the singles chart, predicated on the idea that this is the only place for people to hear their favourite songs. Now, that couldn't fail to look anything other than totally foolish.
In his forthcoming book Retromania, Simon Reynolds examines how the present is so ashamed of itself that it's driven to obsessing about its recent past to the point where there isn't actually any past left.
It's why a grunge revival has been predicted every two years since grunge actually ended, and it's why people are still slavishly demanding a Top of the Pops comeback. But Top of the Pops isn't Doctor Who, a programme so ingenious it can survive the test of time. It belongs to an era when music was dominated by only a few artists, who were tightly product-managed. This was a time when Sunday afternoons were spent taping songs off the radio, and waiting until Thursday evening to see them performed on TV felt like a real event.
The internet has obviously played a significant role in the ubiquity of pop, but even in the dusty old world of television, there's more access to music than ever before. It's everywhere.
The BBC plays Florence and the Machine to plug Lark Rise to Candleford. Rihanna can waggle her arse on The X Factor and create a national panic. When promoting her single Don't Hold Your Breath, Nicole Scherzinger performed it on Dancing On Ice, Loose Women, T4, Lorraine, The Hot Desk, The Crush, Let's Dance for Comic Relief and Freshly Squeezed.
Meanwhile, William McKinley High seems a far more interesting backdrop to hear the songs of Katy Perry and Bruno Mars. At least you know none of it's real. And as more of us go digital, there's about three dedicated channels for every musical genre.
It doesn't help that the internet, with its obsession with search terms and short sharp shocks, has so far failed to generate the compelling alternative to music television it has so much potential for. And yes, there certainly is a space for a dedicated pop show with songs and performances that actually feel exclusive, creative access to stars with wit, personality and credibility, rather than the label-funded puffs that pass for interviews on 4Music. I'd be more than happy to executive produce such a show it any networks are listening. But that programme wouldn't be Top of the Pops, and it would sully a great institution to try calling it that.
But if you really need evidence of why Top of the Pops should stay dead, just watch it on Christmas Day. It's fun then, but it would be painful on any day when you're not drunk by lunch. Does this once great colossus really deserve the indignity of having Adele performing Someone Like You every week until June 2013? Really?
In 2011 pop music is an inventive, high-concept fantasy playground, where Nicki Minaj becomes a samurai warrior , where Lady Gaga is paraded inside a giant egg, and where Biffy Clyro play at being pirates. But it's a world with no place for Top of the Pops. Let it go.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/mar/30/lets-stop-top-pops-revival
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