So tonight was the last night of Top of the Pops. Now while many will be cheering from the sidelines about its demise, it was very sad to see the Sir Jimmy Saville (jangle, jangle) switch off the lights of Studio 3. For me, TOTP was a consistent part of my life and a good barometer of popular culture throughout the decades. I get misty-eyed remembering crashing out in front of the Xmas round-up-of-the-year, stuffed with turky and pudding, and waiting for my favourite artistes to appear.
A lot of people have said that the advent of the multi-channel TV and mobile phones and the Internet have been responsible for the lack of interest in the show, but I think it has more to do with the empty-heads who were left holding the baby. They had a format which they didn’t know how to drag forward into the 21st century and it was silly because TOTP was always event television. It was about getting the biggest bands of the day on the screen and having some fun and that spirit was in decline throughout the 90s when pop music decided it wanted to be taken seriously.
Who can remember seeing their first glimpse of a pop video (Bohemian Rhapsody) or Bowie in space alien mode or the very first appearance of gender-bender Boy George (is it a boy or a girl?). Mods, rockers, hippies, punks, new romantics, goths, grunge, baggies, Brit-pop, rap, dance, even folk have had their moment on the TOTP stage and was the platform for getting the teenagers of Britiain growing/cutting/dyeing their hair, adopting a new fashion trend or inspiring them to pick up a musical instrument.
Unfortunately, popular culture in Britain today is no longer based around music. Where are the great musical trends gone? The last one was possibly Brit-pop and now it seems that our youth are more moved by reality TV, mobile phones and MySpace. This means that popular culture is now on the decline. Where are the great individuals that coloured our youth? Where have the Bowies, the Boy Georges, the Pistols and the Dylans gone? The great teen spokespeople have been replaced by the Crazy Frog and Coldplay – what a sick fucked up world we live in. And so it seems that music is no longer the potent force it used to be and the world is a duller place for it. I still remember seeing my first punk in Oxford Street when I was about eight years old. It was my birthday treat to be taken into London by my grandparents and I still remember him with his black spiky mohican. Once there was individualism, now it is follow the flock with our kids wanting to be anonymous and don the hoodie of invisibility.
What does this have to do with TOTP, you say? Well I would say that the programme was a barometer of the time and because there is no youth culture to speak of now – just a series of consumer trends – when the youth culture dries up, so must the programming. With the TOTP brand being so strong and the archive being so far-reaching, it wouldn’t surprise me if ITV or Sky bought the licence to the franchise and kick-started the show again on one of their digital channels, especially as last-night’s finale got a projected 4 million viewers – not bad for a Sunday night on BBC2, eh?
It is a real shame that they axed the show because it could have still had an audience. But heck, the BBC can spend our money on yet another dull reality TV show and shovel “I Am A Consumer Slut” and “Look At My Fat and Unruly Kids” down our throats for five-nights-a-week. Cheap TV = dull TV. Top of the Pops took effort to make and so it had to die. R.I.P – you will not be forgotten. And I will bet my left testicle that it will rise phoenix-like from the flames before you can say “Doctor Who’s Third Series”.

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