They’re Playing Our Music Here

Midday – December 16 2005

They’re Playing Our Music Here

If you thought you heard plenty of local music on the airwaves this year, you weren’t mistaken.

The annual RadioScope end-of-year airplay charts, released today, show New Zealand music dominated the nation's radio playlists with unprecedented authority this year. For proof, look no further than the Top 10 - half of them local, including four of the top five.

The re-emergence of Breaks Co-Op as a trio, complete with new sound, paid off in spades for Zane Lowe, Hamish Clark and Andy Lovegrove. With more than 12,000 plays this year, The Other Side easily tops the list, says RadioScope Managing Director Paul Kennedy.

"The song went to radio in the second week of 2005 and has virtually remained on high rotation ever since. Although it spent just three weeks at #1 on the RadioScope100, back in May, it remained in the Top 10 for four months and has yet to drop out of the Top 100," says Kennedy.

"It was an equally good year for James Reid, Matt Thomas and Hamish Gee. With both the second and third most-played songs of 2005, the feelers crossed all radio format boundaries to gain more than 10,000 plays of both Stand Up and The Fear.

"And rounding out the Top Five, one of the enduring icons of New Zealand music, Dave Dobbyn, proved with Welcome Home that he's still the master when it comes to writing songs that strike a chord with Kiwi audiences."

RadioScope tracked over 10,000 different songs, collectively representing around 2.2 million plays, on New Zealand radio during 2005. Of those, slightly over a quarter were by local artists.

Broken down by genre, the homegrown highlights are equally evident.
- On Pop radio, P-Money's anthemic collaboration with Akon, Keep On Calling, was the second most-played song of the year, just behind Jack Johnson's Sitting, Waiting, Wishing.

- On Urban (R&B/hip hop) stations, Akon helped another local artist to a strong showing as Savage made it to #18 with Moonshine. It could be said to have been Akon's year, with five songs in the Top 50, however, it was The Pussycat Dolls' collaboration with Busta Rhymes, Don't Cha, which topped the play tally.

- On Rock, the feelers secured the #1 spot with The Fear, ahead of some stiff international competition the likes of Audioslave, the Foo Fighters, Coldplay and Green Day.

- Despite two tracks in the Top Five, Adult-contemporary radio proved to be one nut the feelers could not quite crack completely, held to #2 with Stand Up, by their Warner Music labelmate Rob Thomas, who claimed #1 with Lonely No More.

- The Easy Listening airwaves were full of New Zealand music this year, the weekly RadioScope Top 40 having a Kiwi artist at #1 for nearly two thirds of the year. It was a Canadian, however, who had the most-played song of the year. Michael Buble's Home was played more than 3700 times, slightly ahead of The Other Side by Breaks Co-Op.

- In years to come, 2005 will perhaps be remembered as the year Fat Freddy's Drop broke through, as demonstrated by their NZ Music Awards and #1 Album Based On A True Story. So it is appropriate that the Wellington collective should also have had the most played song on Alternative Radio, with Flashback, and also came in at #10 with Ray Ray.

The full list of RadioScope Most Played Tracks for 2005 can be found at www.radioscope.co.nz.

ENDS

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