Education
Masterton began posting his weekly comments about the latest singles chart on Usenet in 1992, while a student at Lancaster University, whence he graduated in 1994.
Masterton began posting his weekly comments about the latest singles chart on Usenet in 1992, while a student at Lancaster University, whence he graduated in 1994.
Masterton is also a producer for talkSPORT,and has worked on air as a presenter at the Bradford ILR station The Pulse. In 1995 he became an important element of British Telecom"s Dotmusic website, an online hub for the United Kingdom music scene and one of the few sites that posted the entire United Kingdom top 75 every week. When Dotmusic was purchased from British Telecom by Yahoo! on October 28, 2003, Masterton"s commentary moved to Yahoo! Launch with it, remaining with the site as it transformed into Yahoo! Music United Kingdom and Ireland until the site"s closure in September 2011.
His chart column moved to About.com, where it is published each week on Monday afternoon.
Masterton has made numerous appearances on television and radio as an authority on music and chart matters. He has appeared on British Broadcasting Corporation News 24"s Zero 30 programme, as a talking head on the Channel 4 show 100 Worst People’s Records and on the British Broadcasting Corporation News Channel segment E24.
Masterton has come into conflict in the past for his strident views on the work of particular veteran acts and in particular for his criticism of fan-inspired chart campaigns. In 2009 he was openly critical of the campaign to get Rage Against The Machine to Number One for Christmas, blasting the record as having been "purchased by fans for what it represents rather than as a reflection of its cultural popularity" and provoked anger amongst fans of the Pet Shop Boys for asking "why do they even bother" when their album Yes was released.
