Michelle McManus........the fat bird from scotland, couldn't sing.......
She was buffed up to get one number 1 in her first record by popularity and hype of the media. Right, she sold many records to get to number one................
Second single..................down the bin, no one bough her second single because of her first set of sales. It was because everyone slagged her and Cowell in the media, DJs didn't want to play it because it was bad and never sold hardly any. Now disappeared!

. The media in many forms, mainly TV and Radio drive the sales if need to and then records become number one.
Radio plays a song more -> becomes more popular -> It's going to be bought more.
The charts hardly prove anything these days and they admitted did in the days of the early to late 1990s then the internet came with MP3 and people didn't want to buy records anymore cos it wasn't cool.
I haven't bought a hardcore CD single in 5 years. Admittedly.
Going back to the "American Drool" of which was originally posted, there is a lot of rubbish pop and is driven a lot by the british media for an odd reason. Stations like Radio 1 (and maybe one of a few) are trying to encourage British music and bands I've never really bothered to turn attention to (e.g. Muse, Keane, The Thrills, Embrace), I have now.
Only local stations fall into the trap of playing rubbish american pop to keep themselves up with what they think is cool.
By the way, I am a DJ and my opinion is always changing and my tastes differ.