UK acts disappear from US charts

NEW YORK (Top40 Charts) - Something is not going well in the UK musical scene:
for the first time in more than 38 years, there are no UK acts in the top 100 singles chart in the US.
Craig David's Seven Days has just dropped out of the Billboard rundown, leaving the singles chart totally free of UK music stars, reports Music Week magazine.

The first UK act to enter the charts there was the Caravelles single You Don't Have To Be A Baby To Cry which entered the charts at number 84 in October 1963.
Since then British musicians have maintained at least some presence on the countdown, until now.
The news comes despite an increase in interest in UK acts in the US.

Impact

Coldplay, Gorillaz, Radiohead and Dido have all made successful breakthroughs into one of the world's toughest markets.
However the difficulty in making an impact can be highlighted by Robbie Williams. The singer is arguably the biggest star in the UK, and he has had success in Europe and Australia.
Dido was a success in the US before breaking the UK. But he has struggled to make a major impact in the US.

Jeremy Marsh from Telstar Records told Music Week that breaking the US is a "quantum leap" for UK acts - and cited the example of British boy band BBMak.
He said: "BBMak took 12 consecutive months to promote there. Craig David has spent the whole of the back end of 2001 and all of 2002 so far breaking the US and establishing himself."
In the past success came easy for UK acts across the Atlantic.

Success

In May 1965 and again in May 1985, there were eight UK records in the top 10.

In April 1964 the Beatles held all of the top five positions and exactly 20 years later there were 40 UK singles in the top 100.

The US album charts are not looking particularly healthy either for UK acts, with only Craig David's Born To Do It (81) and Ozzy Osbourne's Down to Earth (97) in the top 100.

In 2001 UK artists had an 8.8% share of the top 100 albums.
This compares with just 1.7% in 2000 and 0.7% in 1999.