Today came the horrible, desperate news that Top of the Pops will be no more - the last show is airing on July 30th.
I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t watched it regularly in a couple of years, but then I seldom got to see tellies let alone relax for a full half hour, so that’s hardly my fault.
It’s amazing that an institution like TOTP could be brought to its knees, but I don’t buy the excuse that it’s because of MTV etc. I mean, in fairness, MTV almost never play music anymore!
I blame the musicians.
TOTP was about the live music experience. The magic of the likes of Dusty Springfield (who appeared on the very first show back in 1964) performing those songs live… Nowadays there just aren’t enough artists out there who are a real enough to pull it off. Victoria Beckham squawking into a microphone that isn’t even on doesn’t exactly count, and it certainly doesn’t inspire awe or admiration.
TOTP was something that all real artists aspired to - the pinnacle if you will. If you made it to Top of the Pops, you had made it, full stop. Nowadays it seems to have become an excuse for Simon Cowell’s latest creation to get those extra 15 minutes of fame with the mass-produced (in every sense) track they’ve released three days before christmas.
If TOTP had a choice, it might have given up long ago…
R.I.P.T.O.T.P.
