Update: Looking after number one

In a short update to my inexplicably popular post published last week on the prospect of Canadian artist Drake beating Bryan Adams' record for the longest stay at the top of the UK singles chart (16 consecutive weeks); I am pleased to report that 'Everything I Do (I Do It For You)' retains the record it has now held for almost 25 years.

Last Friday, when the latest chart was announced, the track 'Cold Water' by Major Lazer, Justin Bieber & MØ was a new entry at number one, with Drake pushed into fifth place!

This development of course leaves music executives and other commentators free to make no changes to the way the charts are compiled. I still haven't heard the Drake track, and I can confidently assert that the new chart-topper will also pass me by. But the quality of any number-one hit is unimportant; what matters is that any weekly number one should be — by any measure — the highest-selling track of that week. Any other approach surely makes a mockery of pop music and cheapens the achievements of all those who hit the top spot before streaming changed everything.