ED SHEERAN has broken pop.

This cheery songwriter with his puppyish grin has taken one of our most venerable institutions – the official charts – and put it to death.

After 62 historic years, the system we use to rank the popularity of the music we listen to is over.

And at its funeral, the bafflingly successful, achingly naff Galway Girl (sample lyrics: 'You know she beat me at darts and then she beat me at pool / And then she kissed me like there was nobody else in the room') will be played as a dirge.

It's not really Sheeran's fault, of course.

But his stranglehold of the charts this year seems to show a simple truth – the system has stopped working.

At one point, every song on his 16-track album ÷ was in the top 20, an astonishing feat which seems to defy the whole purpose of the exercise.

It is arguable the demise of the charts has been taking place slowly for years.

When was the last time you really cared about who was number one? Was it when Abba reached the top spot in 1974 with Waterloo? When John Lennon's Imagine spent four weeks at the top of the charts in 1981?

Maybe it was in the 1990s, when pop culture was informed by the likes of Michael Jackson and Madonna.

Those were the days when the music you bought mattered. To own a track, you had to go out and buy it. The charts were a true reflection of the songs which shaped our lives.

In the early 2000s, we began downloading music. Instead of buying CDs, unspooling cellophane wrappers and reading the lyrics from the inside cover, we could buy individual songs online and listen to those instead.

Then, in June 2014, we started to stream our music. Now we didn't even need to invest in the songs we heard. Lists of tracks were already curated and all we had to do was listen. And we did, on repeat.

Last year, Drake's One Dance was number one for a full 15 weeks, an achievement based primarily on streaming. As a result of its chart success, it got a lot of radio play, which meant more people heard it and streamed it for themselves.

This appears to be behind Sheeran's chart domination, too. His chart popularity means his songs are always on the radio, which leads to people streaming his tracks more often.

And so the charts have stagnated. We accept endless glossy, computer-generated hits from the likes of Justin Bieber, The Chainsmokers and Calvin Harris while young musicians find it harder to make any impact at all.

We fast-track our performers via talent shows and judge their success on the number of streams they achieve. It’s little wonder so many top 40 songs sound similar.

Music is important. At its best, it marks moments in time – first kisses, great loves, sad goodbyes. It can take us back or move us forward. Sometimes it inspires change and progress, and often it provides comfort when life is hard.

If we allow the charts to be dominated and neutered in this way, we allow new music to go unheard. And pop will eventually run out of fizz.