The one-hit wonder that dominated 1988 with five weeks at number one
It’s interesting when you look through different decades just how much music changed. In the 1980s, while popular genres like rock were still doing well, it was mainly a time when people just wanted to party.
Of course, there were a lot of other genres that were doing well in the ‘80s, but it mainly saw a real rise in music that people could move to. Disco was doing well, pop music was on the rise, and clubs were essentially filled with music lovers who wanted nothing more than to dance. With this trend in mind, a formula began to emerge on how people could be commercially successful within music.
The result was the rise of a number of one-hit wonders. There are so many great songs from the ‘80s that were made by artists who seemingly put out one big tune and then vanished off the face of the Earth. The truth is, dancefloors can only be filled by a certain song for a certain amount of time, and so once the hype had died with certain tracks, they stopped getting played and the artist who made it disappeared.
Take a year towards the end of the decade – the ‘90s are just teetering on the edge, and pop music continues to cement itself as the best-selling genre in the world, and when you look through the number ones that rose to the top of the charts throughout 1988, there are some made by bands who we are still familiar with today; however, a lot of them are artists whose names have been lost in the sands of time.
Don’t get me wrong, if the track starts, you’ll still hum along, but it’s unlikely you’ll be able to say who it was by. This is no slight on those artists, the fact is that in the ‘80s, people were living through the age of the one-hit wonder.
In fact, the best-selling single of 1988, which spent a whopping five weeks at the top of the charts, is still an incredibly recognisable song, but the artist who put it out hasn’t done a great deal since. Dance floors still may well be filled the moment the first few seconds of the track plays, but the band are hardly selling out stadiums any time soon.
So, what is the one-hit wonder that spent five weeks at the top?
In 1988, Yazz & the Plastic Population released their hit song ‘The Only Way Is Up’ – yes, that one, you’re humming along already, aren’t you… As soon as the track came out, people all over the UK set out on a mission to purchase it – it became the best-selling single of that year and spent a solid five weeks at the top of the charts, and while the song didn’t travel a great deal, as it only managed to reach number 96 in the US, it’s still a commendable achievement.
Why was it so popular? Well, first and foremost, it was incredibly fun and catchy – you only need to listen to the track a few times, and you already have an idea as to what the words are, and that bouncy 4/4 rhythm is the perfect time signature for pop, but the band would also attest that the positive message behind the track also helped it gain popularity. When speaking about the song, Yazz said that it was all about hope and getting through hard times.
“There is a really heavy sentiment to that song,” she said, “It’s about being down-and-out and on the dole but not worrying about it; keep on doing what you want to do because you can get through in the end. It’s exactly what I’ve done to get here now.”
