SOURCE TOP2000 DATABASE
Music from the 1960s and 1970s is gradually disappearing from the Top 2000, NPO Radio 2’s year-end hit list that starts again on Wednesday. In the first editions, nearly two-thirds of the two thousand songs came from these decades; now it’s only 28 percent.
This trend, which many fans of sixties and seventies music will lament, can be largely, but not entirely, explained by the passage of time. The first edition of the Top 2000 was organised in 1999 to mark the turn of the millennium. Over 650 songs in this year’s edition had not yet been released at that time. However, among the remaining songs, the sixties and seventies have also lost ground.
Despite the new additions to the Top 2000, the songs in the list are, on average, getting older. In the first edition, the average release year was 24 years earlier; for the upcoming edition, it’s 32 years. The two oldest songs on this year’s list are “Love Me Tender” and “Blue Suede Shoes” by Elvis Presley, both from 1956. Of the ten songs on the list that were released this year, “Europapa” by Joost Klein ranks the highest (position 139).
The decline of the sixties and seventies is also clearly visible in the highest regions of the list. In 1999, the entire top ten came from these decades. A year later, Guns N’ Roses’ “November Rain” became the first song from later years to enter the top ten. This year, only five songs in the top ten are from the seventies, while the sixties have disappeared entirely.
de Lange, P. (2024, December 23). Top 2000 niet meer gedomineerd door nummers uit de jaren zestig en zeventig. de Volkskrant