What or where are the most currently popular music charts?

I'd like to know - is it TV or Radio or Internet? In the uk we used to have 'Top the Pops' and 'The Chart Show' - but now as globally we seem to have entered a huge melting pot of artists and styles and levels of production (which incidentally I think is a good thing) it seems there are any number of ways to broadcast new music.Are there companies out there that tote up all the download sales and arrive at chart statistics? Or does each radio/tv station work independently? Is it true however do you think that still the best way for a band/artist to get heard is by live performance? If a band just released a good video/soundtrack on something like youtube could this provide enough coverage to launch a career?

Theres alot of questions there,but I'm probably a bit out of touch - any clues?

The latest track I heard that I really liked was Tilly And The Wall - 'bad education' which I heard on a BBC talk show,by chance.

 

I believe itunes have that little avenue of thought control established these days

"Hey this is hip - come on kids spend your pocket money on THIS look we made a video for $30million its gotta be cool"