Chances are you're not very good at listening to the chart show any more, mainly because you’re old and also because you have no idea who Mike Mago (real person, in the charts now) is. But, once upon a time, weekends were all about one thing. No, not Gladiators on a Saturday night - although that was super great - what you were really waiting for was the Official Chart Show; every Sunday from 4-7 PM like clockwork.
Now though, there's a chance that the chart show it might move from its regularly scheduled slot due to that fact that singles and albums are now set to be released on a Friday rather than a Monday. This means the chart show might now be a Thursday thing, which is definitely not A Thing because if it moves that's definitely means we're old and one day soon we'll be like 'Remember listening to the chart show on a Sunday?' and some young person will be like 'Wait the chart show used to be on a Sunday? Weird'. And we'll curl up into a little ball and sob for our forgotten youth. Until that point though, let's all remember together the joy that was waiting to find out how Mis-Teeq were set to place in comparison to Ja Rule and Ashanti.
It birthed the DIY playlist
It seems mental now in that at one time if you liked a song and thought, ‘ooh I’d like to listen to that’ that you had to wait until it came on the radio or head down to your local Virgin Records store and pick up the CD version. Simpler times. Cue you with a tape in your boom box mastering the art of pressing the ‘record’ and ‘stop’ buttons at just the right time to get as much of Christina Milian and Romeo’s Gravy and as little of Vernon Kay or DJ Spoony talking as was humanly possible.
Number one mattered SO HARD
Considering your weekends consisted of sitting in the park with your mates and waiting for boys to come and talk to you, it was nice to finish your weekend with an actual bit of excitement like would Will Young’s Evergreen finally end Enrique Iglesias’s Hero’s monstrous reign as number one? The tension was abundant. Plus, whatever was number 1 got played on Sarah Cox's breakfast show on Monday morning so if it was a good'un you were guaranteed at least one song you liked on the bus ride to school.
That thing when you wanted your song but they wouldn’t play your song
Perhaps the cruellest trick the Official Chart Show could play was when you knew your song was coming up (What About Us – Brandy) but for whatever reason they’d inexplicably skip like five songs and only play 10 second snippets. Not ideal for your taping plans.
It was a really good way to avoid your parents
HOW annoying were parents during your teenage years? Always like, asking you questions about your life (jeez) and checking you'd eaten properly (FFS). Thankfully the chart show provided three solid hours of time when it was totally OK to sit in your room alone or tell your parents to shut up and stop talking in the car. Liberty X trumped parents every time.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.