When the countdown begins on the Radio 1 chart show tonight, listeners may spot the sound of history in the making. After more than 50 years as arbiters of cultural tastes, the charts they are a-changing.

For the first time the barometer of poptastic taste will be based not only on the sale of singles in the shops but also on the number of songs downloaded from the internet to computers, iPods and MP3 players. The chart, once in the vanguard of social revolution, is having to play catch-up with a trend that threatens to change the face of music: the rise of cyber-youth.

Tonight new entries on CD, such as Anastacia’s Heavy on My Heart and Razorlight’s Somewhere Else, will have to compete against all manner of music downloaded from the internet.

Little more than six months ago the downloaders, often filling their MP3 players with thousands of songs for free, were seen as musical pirates. Faced with losing millions in revenue, the industry tried to ban the downloaders — but has been forced to join them.

Although many in the industry do not welcome a combined chart, few see any alternative. “It’s where it’s at,” said Jim Bachelor, director of entertainment at Woolworths, the high street chain which previously had the biggest share of the CD singles market.

“People are changing in how they consume music. Whereas 30 years ago it was about the 7in single, we have since moved across cassettes and CDs. In 10 years people will be growing up never knowing the CD single.”

Over the past six days the chart compilers have electronically counted the sale of 450,000 singles in shops and a further 400,000 single tracks downloaded from websites. Within a month or two downloading is expected to overtake store sales, and as the new combined chart establishes its own influence on listeners, the rise of cyber- music is likely to accelerate.

It spells the demise of the CD and the arrival of cheaper music — and also new styles of music that will come to dominate youth culture.

IT all began in November 1952 when Al Martino, an Italian-American jazz vocalist who later appeared as the wedding singer Johnny Fontane in the film The Godfather, flew into London for a British tour.

He was met at the airport by an excited reporter who told him that his song, Here in My Heart, was number one in the first chart, a Top 12 compiled by New Musical Express. Previously the popularity of music had been measured by the sale of song sheets.

Martino’s chart success was the start of a force that would usher in the age of celebrity. The weekly ranking of hits was the ideal vehicle for turning unknowns into stars overnight.

When Top of the Pops began in 1964 — with Jimmy Savile hosting the show from a converted church in Manchester — television redoubled the power of the chart and brought its own cultural change. With slots for recorded films, image and dance became vital additions to the music.

It was a trend later accentuated by the rise of the pop video. Now image is such an influence that TOTP admits that it does not care whether “performers” can sing. Those who cannot are allowed to “lip-synch” to their records.

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