Revealed: The most-streamed songs of the 70s, 80s, 90s and more

The music industry is obsessed with “new”.

The charts discriminate against aging songs; radio stations stake their reputation on premieres; and Ofcom sets quotas for new music on the BBC.

But, for most people, that’s irrelevant. There’s a reason why the best-selling album in UK chart history is Queen’s Greatest Hits; and why second place goes to Abba’s Gold.

Research shows that the music of your teenage years is hard-wired into your brain.

There’s even something called the “reminiscence bump” – which shows children have superior recognition for songs that date to their parents’ and grandparents’ teenage years.

And while streaming services fight each other for exclusive new releases, Spotify’s own research shows that 40% of songs are streamed more frequently in their second year on the service than their first.

This week, the BPI released data on the “oldies” we played 2017 – showing that songs like TLC’s No Scrubs, Toto’s Africa and The Temptations’ My Girl are still receiving millions of streams.

“Older songs are quietly accounting for a very significant proportion of listening,” says BPI analyst Rob Crutchley, who calculates that 30% of the music played on streaming services was released before 2010.

BBC