March 1983 -- the end of Country & A/C

Listening to the March 5, 1983 countdown on SiriusXM, the top 10 was just fascinating:

1 4 BILLIE JEAN –•– Michael Jackson (Epic)-7 (1 week at #1) (1)
2 2 SHAME ON THE MOON –•– Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band (Capitol)-12 (2)
3 3 STRAY CAT STRUT –•– The Stray Cats (EMI-America)-11 (3)
4 5 DO YOU REALLY WANT TO HURT ME –•– Culture Club (Virgin)-14 (4)
5 6 HUNGRY LIKE THE WOLF –•– Duran Duran (Harvest)-11 (5)
6 1 BABY, COME TO ME –•– Patti Austin with James Ingram (Qwest)-25 (1)
7 7 YOU AND I –•– Eddie Rabbitt with Crystal Gayle (Elektra)-22 (7)
8 9 WE’VE GOT TONIGHT –•– Kenny Rogers & Sheena Easton (Liberty)-6 (8)
9 11 BACK ON THE CHAIN GANG –•– The Pretenders (Sire)-13 (9)
10 10 PASS THE DUTCHIE –•– Musical Youth (MCA)-13 (10)
11 14 YOU ARE –•– Lionel Richie (Motown)-8 (11)
12 16 ALL RIGHT –•– Christopher Cross (Warner Brothers)-7 (12)

The top 10 had two #1 country hits plus a de facto country hit by Bob Seger, the last top 10's by Eddie Rabbitt or Crystal Gayle.  By the end of the year with "Islands in the Stream," country/pop was over.  And since I added #12 by Christopher Cross, what was also over by the end of the year was "Yacht Rock" / Soft AC with Cross and Air Supply having their last top 10's, Barry Manilow already having done so.  Neil Diamond sits at #35 for his very last week in the top 40....which the DJs should've noted, in my opinion...

The replacement?  Look at those MTV juggernauts...Duran Duran, Culture Club with their first big hits, Stray Cats with their second.  And at #1, the video MTV was shamed into playing, which paved the way for so many to follow.