The Number Fortys: Styx - "Music Time" (Yes, Again)

In The Number Fortys, we review every song that was sitting at #40 on the Billboard chats, starting in the first week of January 1984, right around the time this writer became cognizant/obsessive about music. The seeds for the idea came from Tom Breihan's Number Ones column over at Stereogum. However, we here at k-postpunk believe that the bottom is more interesting than the top (and obscurity is more interesting than either).

Normally, the Top 40, much like life itself, is always in flux. Songs go up the charts; they come down the charts. Sometimes they go down one week but then back up the next, as if America was reconsidering--you know, maybe that song isn't so bad after all.

And sometimes a song just sits there, neither falling nor rising. So on June 9, 1984, American music listeners felt exactly the same way about Styx's "Music Time" as they had felt the week before, i.e. not very much one way or the other. So for the second week in a row, Styx's "Music Time" sat at #40.

This inertia wouldn't last for long. The following week, it plummeted to #56, one spot below something called Yarbrough & Peoples, who had a song called "Don't Waste Your Time" (I'm going to take that song's advice here). As for Styx, this song is still a 2. My feelings haven't changed. If anything, I hate it more. Let's call it a 1 then.


THE NUMBER ONE



One of the greatest songs ever made. Also one of the greatest videos ever made. Anything I could say here would only cheapen its effect.

Score: 10/10.