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Jul 1, 20155 min read
This Week In 1990: July 1, 1990
Music and sport don't often mix — and when they do, it's usually a disaster (think Jacko, Gazza, Shaquille O'Neal). But every so often, a...
Jun 30, 20154 min read
This Week In 1985: June 30, 1985
When people talk about Madonna's image changes, they're usually referring to how she'd routinely go from blonde to brunette and back...
Jun 24, 20155 min read
This Week In 1990: June 24, 1990
Over the previous decade, there had been the odd rap hit on the Australian chart. From Blondie's "Rapture" (number 5) and "The Message"...
Jun 23, 20155 min read
This Week In 1985: June 23, 1985
Many of the bands that have featured in my look back at the Australian charts of the late '80s had careers that extended well beyond that...
Jun 17, 20155 min read
This Week In 1990: June 17, 1990
Nancy Sinatra. Natalie Cole. Miley Cyrus. Daughters of musicians themselves becoming hit artists has been going on for decades, but in...
Jun 16, 20156 min read
This Week In 1985: June 16, 1985
Gay rights might have made leaps and bounds in the three-and-a-bit decades since 1985 (when same-sex relations were still illegal in half...
Jun 10, 20155 min read
This Week In 1990: June 10, 1990
Periodic reinventions are a necessary part of any pop act's career — and no one knows that more than the singer who went through her...
Jun 9, 20156 min read
This Week In 1985: June 9, 1985
When is a hit song not a single? It happens all the time these days — for example, when album tracks flood the singles chart upon the...
Jun 3, 20154 min read
This Week In 1990: June 3, 1990
It's always fun to discover a song you always thought was originally performed by the artist who had a hit with it was actually a cover...
Jun 2, 20154 min read
This Week In 1985: June 2, 1985
They'd been on the market for a couple of years, and by 1985, compact discs were starting to show signs of becoming the music industry...
May 27, 20157 min read
This Week In 1990: May 27, 1990
Sometimes artists never do any better than their debut hit, but often, performers move on to a long and varied career — and the initial...
May 26, 20154 min read
This Week In 1985: May 26, 1985
Music talent often runs in families — and over the decades, several groups of siblings have taken on the charts. Some, like The Jacksons...
May 20, 20154 min read
This Week In 1990: May 20, 1990
In my flashback to 1985 for this week, we saw a number of duos hit the ARIA chart. Five years later, one half of the biggest duo in the...
May 19, 20154 min read
This Week In 1985: May 19, 1985
Music history is littered with pop partnerships — duos whose skills perfectly complement each other. So far in our trip back in time to...
May 13, 20155 min read
This Week In 1990: May 13, 1990
After last week's ballad-heavy slew of new singles, the ARIA chart perked up a little this week in 1990 with six new entries that...
May 12, 20154 min read
This Week In 1985: May 12, 1985
Music can conjure up all sorts of memories and associations — a summer holiday, a first crush, a classic movie... But it takes a certain...
May 6, 20154 min read
This Week In 1990: May 6, 1990
Rock ballads, power ballads, electro ballads, piano ballads... sometimes nothing beats an emotive downtempo number. This week in 1990,...
May 5, 20155 min read
This Week In 1985: May 5, 1985
A band is much more than just its lead singer, but the departure of a vocalist usually has a more profound impact than that of any other...
Apr 29, 20154 min read
This Week In 1990: April 29, 1990
She'd ruled the charts in the second half of the '80s, but the '90s hadn't got off to a great start for Madonna with the worst...
Apr 28, 20153 min read
This Week In 1985: April 28, 1985
Earlier in the year, we saw that, despite being a major hit around the world, "Easy Lover" by Phil Collins and Philip Bailey wasn't even...
