1990 was a year clinging to the past in a decade pretending to move forward. Greatest hits, opera gimmicks, stadium ballads from men with expensive mullets. The top ten was less a chart and more a denial mechanism. Change was coming, but you wouldn't know it from this lot.

The UK didn’t want revolution. It wanted reassurance. And it bought millions of CDs to get it.

1991 was the year before the wave hit. Grunge was coming. Rave was mutating. Britpop was tuning its guitars. But the charts? Still clinging to soft rock, legacy acts, and pain wrapped in plastic. This list isn’t rebellion. It’s retreat.

A nation in flux choosing Simply Red over change, and power ballads over noise. The revolution was happening elsewhere. The high street didn’t get the memo.