Behind my ‘Weekend Diversion’ posts

It’s Sunday, and that often means a “Weekend Diversion” post about pop music, though the next one isn’t until next week. However, one of the important resources for those posts had a significant anniversary this week, and that’s definitely worth noting.

This past Friday, May 2, the official New Zealand music chart turned 50. The very first song to be listed at Number One was “Yesterday was Just the Beginning of My Life” by Mark Williams (it’s available to watch on NZ On Screen, however, that may not be viewable in all countries, at least not without using a VPN). I never heard the song until I came to New Zealand, and even then it was kind of by accident: 20 years after it went to Number One, it wasn’t exactly cool anymore. It didn’t chart in any other country.

Because the official chart is so (relatively) young, it charts, so to speak, a LOT of New Zealand pop culture history as it happened. For example, it documents the first single entirely in Te reo Māori, “Poi E”, which I talked about way back in 2010. The Aotearoa Music Charts site has published a a “50 Iconic Chart Moments” infographic, which provides insight into part of NZ’s pop culture history over the past 50 years—even without being eve vaguely familiar with the songs.

The official NZ music chart provides the local context for my “Weekend Diversion” music posts, and that’s incredibly valuable to me—and interesting, too. Like all bloggers, I have many, many resources to refer to when writing my posts, but this one has been very important. And acknowledging its 50th birthday on the day of the week on which I often celebrate pop music seems to me to be utterly appropriate. Happy Birthday, NZ Music Chart! And happy NZ Music Month, too.