1979_in_British_music

1979 in British music

1979 in British music

Overview of the events of 1979 in British music

This is a summary of 1979 in music in the United Kingdom, including the official charts from that year. 1979 saw the beginning of several trends in British music. Electropop reached number one in both the singles and albums charts in the form of Gary Numan and Tubeway Army, and synthesiser bands began to gather momentum which would come to dominate music in the early 1980s. The first rap hit in the UK came from the Sugar Hill Gang. The 2 Tone movement also emerged, with early work from bands such as The Specials and Madness. Disco music was still the most popular music of the year, although it showed signs of dying out in the year's later months. 1979 remains the year when physical-format singles hit their sales peak in the UK.

Quick Facts List of years in British music ...

Events

Charts

Number one singles

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Number one albums

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Year-end charts

1979 appears to be the only year since 1977 for which "full year" year-end charts do not exist. The British Market Research Bureau (BMRB), which compiled the official UK charts from 1969 to 1982, used a cut-off date for the collection of sales data sometime in early December each year, in order for the "end of year" chart to be published in the year's final issue of Music Week and to be broadcast on BBC Radio 1. However, from 1977 to 1982 BMRB produced updated charts a few months later which included the missing final weeks' sales for each year.

No updated chart appears to exist for 1979, so the tables below include only sales between 1 January and 8 December 1979. The two singles most affected by the lack of a full year chart are the records that were at number one and number two for the final three weeks of the year, "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" by Pink Floyd and "I Have a Dream" by ABBA: neither of these records appear in the end of year list for 1979.

Best-selling singles

[3]

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Best-selling albums

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Notes:

  1. Reached number 5 in 1978
  2. Reached number 9 in 1981
  3. Reached number 4 in 1977
  4. Reached number 1 in 1980
  5. Reached number 6 in 1978
  6. Reached number 3 in 1978

Classical music: new works

Opera

Film and Incidental music

Musical theatre

Musical films

Births

Deaths

See also

References

  1. [1]
    Zachary Woolfe, "Richard Rodney Bennett, British Composer, Dies at 76", New York Times, 30 December 2012
  2. [2]
    The Independent, 13 May 2003
  3. [3]
    "Top Singles 1979". Music Week. London, England: Spotlight Publications. 22 December 1979. p. 27.
  4. [4]
    "Top Albums 1979". Music Week. London, England: Spotlight Publications. 22 December 1979. p. 30.
  5. [5]
    Hampton, Wilborn.Hugh Wheeler obituary, New York Times, July 28, 1987.
  6. [6]
    "Patto". Alexgitlin.com. 1979-03-03. Retrieved 2013-06-15.
  7. [7]
    'Hugh Ottaway', The Musical Times, Vol. 121, No. 1643 (January 1980), p. 48
  8. [8]
    The Glasgow Herald, 25 January 1980
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