Remembering the disastrous American version of ‘Top of the Pops’
Top of the Pops remains one of Britain’s most iconic music shows. Over its five-decade original run on the BBC, legendary performers like The Rolling Stones, T. Rex, David Bowie, The Smiths and even The Beatles made appearances on the show. As one of the original beacons of modern music, Top of the Pops became both necessary viewing for legions of impressionable kids and a badge of honour showing that an artist had “made it”.
The format was simple: count down the week’s top 20 (eventually 40) songs according to the official UK Singles Chart. Sprinkled throughout the countdown would be “live” performances from some of the week’s highest climbers and most exciting new acts. Almost everyone lip-synced on the show, but it was common enough practice at the time that it didn’t really affect the overall quality of the programme and even led to some truly memorable Top of the Pops moments.
By 1987, Top of the Pops had been going strong in Britain for over 20 years. As is usually the case, America had a slower time catching onto British trends and waiting until the middle of the ’80s to start hopping onto the idea that Top of the Pops was a good idea. CBS was the network that ultimately had the idea to bring Top of the Pops to the US, but the show turned out to be flawed from the beginning.
For one, America already had its own version of Top of the Pops: Dick Clark’s American Bandstand. Nearly identical in format, American Bandstand was actually a precursor to Top of the Pops, having first aired in 1957. The nationally aired version of the show would officially end in 1987 before running in syndication for an additional two years. However, even the declining ratings of American Bandstand were still beating those of the American Top of the Pops.
American Bandstand wasn’t the only programme that catered to the countdown/live performance format. Soul Train, another similar music variety show, was popular throughout the 1970s and ’80s. Largely focused on black music like R&B, soul, funk, and disco, Soul Train catered to an audience that was far removed from the middle-of-the-road content featured on American Bandstand.
The truth was that most Americans weren’t watching their countdown programs: they were listening to them. The most popular was American Top 40, a radio show hosted by Casey Kasem and broadcast to pop music stations across the United States. American Top 40 still broadcasts, now hosted by Ryan Seacrest. There was far too much competition for Top of the Pops to stand out.
Another mitigating factor was the popularity of MTV. Why be told your favourite new music when you could discover it on your own? MTV’s format of simply letting the videos play and letting the audiences decide what was good or not became revolutionary in its time, so much so that it began to steal the spotlight from countdown shows and negate the necessity of seeing bands play live on those programmes. Why watch a band lip sync when there’s a cooler-looking video already available?
Ultimately, the American version of Top of the Pops only lasted half a year before CBS decided to pull the plug on the show. Little of the failed programme survives today, but you can check out an episode featuring INXS playing ‘Need You Tonight’ down below.
