DOCUMENTARY / THE CHART BUSTERS - FRAUD IN BRITISH RECORD SHOPS (1980)
A FILM ON
CHART HYPING IN
THE UK MUSIC INDUSTRY
IN 1980
Back when music had to be paid for, back when getting on one television show made the difference in sales, back when there were more than three labels....this film goes into the fraudulent practice of chart - hyping. Labels were encouraging record shop owners to falsify their sales of records of certain artists.
This, a World in Action film, talks to people who reveal that this is widespread, and that a few bands/artists got a leg up into the charts...this is without their knowledge, which is very serious as the organisation who compile the charts will delete and singles/albums that have any unusual sales activity - which is shit all around for all concerned.
One notable band mentioned is "The Pretenders" with their number one hit "Brass in pocket". According to one witness in this documentary that single was heavily hyped to the top. Great bit of nostalgia ...as someone who had worked in a independent record shop before they started going extinct, its nice to see those kind of places again.
Broadcast: ITV 1980