How many number one singles in 2024 came from independent record labels?
How many of you can honestly claim to have a solid grasp of who’s number one since Top of the Pops was canned in 2006? And do you care? Since the loss of the 40-odd-year British institute, the coveted chart hierarchy is a remote and woolly thing, becoming ever-unmoored from the consciousness of the TikTok pop consumers, the Bandcamp musos, and everyone in between.
Bagging a number one is still a big deal for the artist, however, and still holds sway within the music industry. While not at the forefront of a fan’s mind when listening, the Official Charts Company is still feverishly compiling sales data and chart numbers as diligently as ever, branching out into specific charts for dance, hip-hop, and rock and metal.
The UK Singles Chart is the big one and naturally has little history of boasting independent cuts reaching the top spot. It’s been a busy year for the corporate giants, as always, though. Pop sensation Sabrina Carpenter won three consecutive number ones with ‘Espresso’, ‘Please Please Please’, and ‘Taste’, breaking a record for the female solo artist with the most combined weeks at number one in a year, boasting 21 in total.
Festive favourites made an almighty comeback too, with Wham!’s ‘Last Christmas’ fighting off Mariah Carey’s unkillable winter monster from ’94, garnering 12.6million streams and a best seller of the week owing to its limited run of anniversary zoetrope vinyl and picture discs.
“37 years to get to Number one, 39 years to Christmas Number one, and then like London buses, they all come along at once,” Wham! co-founder Andrew Ridgley declared to Official Charts. “I’m especially pleased for George; he would have been utterly delighted; his fabulous Christmas composition has become such a classic, almost as much a part of Christmas as mince pies, turkey and pigs in blankets.”
Wafting away the nostalgia hits, it appears 13 different songs peaked at number one last year, and their label origins offer little surprises nor predict any new changes for the industry.
So how many number one singles in 2024 came from independent record labels?
Frankly, none. No artist reached number one in the UK who could claim a completely independent operation in the industry. The three new singles released last year that might claim such a feat are Gigi Perez’s ‘Sailor Song’, Gracie Abrams’ ‘That’s So True’, and Jack Harlow’s ‘Lovin’ on Me’, all on Island, Interscope, and Atlantic respectively. Having been swallowed by Universal Music and the latter swelling into the corporate echelons itself, the little indies just don’t have a show.
While indie labels, by their nature, haven’t measured their success solely by chart performance, the absence of artists outside the commercial behemoths could cast a disconcerting spell on a grassroots music culture already striving to survive a fraught minefield of cost-of-living and dismal streaming revenues.
But it begs the question: Will the charts ever hold such monolithic sway again in an age of atomised scenes and online communities? Whatever the answer, go support your local band and attend a grassroots gig as soon as possible.
