UK artists dominate High 10 singles of 2022 for first time since information started | Harry Types

For the primary time since year-end charts have been launched greater than 50 years in the past, British artists have made up the whole lot of the yr’s 10 hottest songs within the UK.

Topping the most important songs of 2022 within the UK was Harry Types’ omnipresent As It Was; Ed Sheeran had two songs on the checklist, whereas new artists similar to south London songwriter Cat Burns and Scottish dance duo LF System rubbed shoulders with Kate Bush, whose 1985 single Operating Up That Hill topped the UK singles chart for the first time last year after being featured within the newest sequence of Netflix drama Stranger Issues, having initially peaked at No 3.

Leon Neville, British Phonographic Trade (BPI)’s director of analysis and perception referred to as it “astonishing” that British artists have been dominating given the worldwide competitors created by streaming. “This excellent achievement is a testomony to the wealthy music expertise that continues to emerge from throughout the UK’s nations and areas, fuelled by the eagerness, funding and expertise of UK report labels.”

Nevertheless, solely the singles by Types and LF System have been truly launched in 2022; except for Bush’s 80s hit, the rest of the High 10 was launched in 2020 and 2021. The chart illustrates the long-tail impact of streaming: Warmth Waves by Glass Animals was launched two years in the past, however topped the US singles chart in early 2022 after a record-breaking 59-week climb to the top spot.

It additionally reveals the advantages of getting a celebrity on a remix: Nigerian pop star Fireboy DML launched his track Peru in summer time 2021, although it discovered wider success when he launched a model with Ed Sheeran six months later; Burns’ Go steadily grew on TikTok from its debut there in 2020, which led to a refreshed model with Sam Smith launched this summer time. All variations of the identical track – with newly recorded visitor verses or remixes – rely in the direction of the unique’s chart putting.

The British singles sweep is simply one of many booms reported for the UK music scene in 2022 by the BPI. The UK’s recorded music consumption has greater than doubled prior to now 5 years, and elevated from 147bn audio streams in 2021 to 159bn in 2022.

Greater than 3bn audio streams have been generated every week in 2022 on common: often, it takes 1.3m streams to interrupt into the UK High 40 and a mixed 7m audio and video streams to safe a No 1 single. Final yr, 159m albums or equal streaming items have been consumed; this yr’s determine is 166.1m.

The High 10 albums of the yr was additionally dominated by previous releases and biggest hits compilations. Solely Types’ Harry’s Home, at No 1, and Taylor Swift’s Midnights, at No 3, have been launched in 2022. Ed Sheeran’s =, Olivia Rodrigo’s Bitter, and the Weeknd and Little Combine’s respective biggest hits collections have been launched in 2021; comparable older compilations from Eminem, Elton John, Fleetwood Mac and Abba crammed out the remainder of the checklist.

Shopper possession of albums has usually plummeted, with digital downloads down by 18.9% from 2021 and bodily albums – on CD, vinyl, cassette and different area of interest codecs – down by 13.1% general.

Nonetheless, bodily gross sales proceed to supply the vast majority of No 1 albums, accounting for 38 out of 52 weeks in 2022. One bodily sale counts as one unit; to calculate album-equivalent gross sales from streaming figures, the Official Charts Firm takes the 12 most-streamed songs from one album, down-weighting the highest two songs in step with the remainder – to keep away from hit singles skewing an album’s efficiency – after which divides the full streams by 1,000 on premium, paid-for companies, and 6,000 at no cost, ad-supported companies.

Vinyl gross sales grew for the fifteenth consecutive yr, reaching a excessive of 5.5m items – the best since 1990, when the checklist was topped by Phil Collins’ … However Severely. In contrast to within the streaming-dominated singles and general albums charts, eight of the High 10 titles have been launched in 2022, led by Swift’s Midnights, Types’ Harry’s Home and Arctic Monkeys’ The Automobile.

CD gross sales proceed to plummet, from 14m in 2021 to 11m, a drop of 19.3%. Swift, Arctic Monkeys and George Ezra’s 2022 album, Gold Rush Child, offered vital figures on the format. Whereas cassette gross sales account for a tiny a part of the general market, the format has continued to develop, up 5.2% to 195,000 items, dominated by Florence + the Machine’s Dance Fever, Muse’s Will of the Folks and west London rapper Central Cee’s 23.

The share of the market occupied by unbiased report labels grew for the fifth consecutive yr, from 26.9% in 2021 to twenty-eight.6% in 2022. The largest new unbiased album was Arctic Monkeys’ The Automobile, which was overwhelmed to the highest spot by Swift’s dominant Midnights in October however achieved 120,000 items; their Domino label mates Moist Leg’s self-titled debut was considered one of 9 unbiased albums to prime the UK albums chart in 2022.

1 Harry Types – As It Was
2 Ed Sheeran – Dangerous Habits
3 Fireboy DML & Ed Sheeran – Peru
4 Cat Burns – Go
5 Ed Sheeran – Shivers
6 Kate Bush – Operating Up That Hill
7 Glass Animals – Warmth Waves
8 Misplaced Frequencies and Calum Scott – The place Are You Now
9 LF System – Afraid to Really feel
10 Sam Fender – Seventeen Going Beneath

1 Harry Types – Harry’s Home
2 Ed Sheeran – =
3 Taylor Swift – Midnights
4 The Weeknd – The Highlights
5 Olivia Rodrigo – Bitter
6 Eminem – Curtain Name: The Hits
7 Elton John – Diamonds
8 Fleetwood Mac – 50 Years – Don’t Cease
9 Little Combine – Between Us
10 Abba – Gold – Best Hits