Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The "Billboard" Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by "Billboard" magazine. Chart rankings are based on airplay and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday; while the airplay tracking-week runs from Wednesday to Tuesday. A new chart is compiled and officially released to the public by "Billboard" on Thursday. Each chart is dated with the "week-ending" date of the following Saturday.

:Example:::Monday, January 1 – sales tracking-week begins::Wednesday, January 3 — airplay tracking-week begins::Sunday, January 7 – sales tracking-week ends::Tuesday, January 9 – airplay tracking-week ends::Thursday, January 11 – new chart released, with issue date of Saturday, January 20.

The first number one song of the Hot 100 was "Poor Little Fool" by Ricky Nelson on August 4, 1958. As of the issue dated October 18 2008, the Hot 100 has had 965 number-one hits. Its current number one is "Live Your Life" by T.I. featuring Rihanna. [cite news | first = Keith | last = Caulfield | title = T.I.'s 'Paper Trail' Leads To No. 1 On The Billboard 200 | url = http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/charts/chart_alert/e3i305959daf22af07a80e03da69edaf7f4 | work = | publisher = Billboard magazine | date = 2008-10-08 | accessdate = 2008-10-08 | language = | quote = ] [cite news | first = Katy | last = Hasty | title = T.I. Debuts Big Atop Billboard 200, Hot 100 | url = http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003871707 | work = | publisher = Billboard magazine | date = 2008-10-08 | accessdate = 2008-10-08 | language = | quote = ] [cite news | first = Johnathan | last = Cohen | title = T.I Breaks Own Record With Hot 100 Burst | url = http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003872625 | work = | publisher = Billboard magazine | date = 2008-10-09 | accessdate = 2008-10-09 | language = | quote = ] [ [http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/chart_display.jsp?g=Singles&f=The+Billboard+Hot+100 Billboard Singles Charts - Billboard Top 100 Songs - Billboard Top 100 Singles] ]

History

What is now the Hot 100 existed for nearly fifteen years as numerous charts, tracking and ranking the most popular singles of the day in several areas.During the 1940s and 1950s, popular singles were ranked in three significant charts:
*Best Sellers In Stores — ranked the biggest selling singles in retail stores, as reported by merchants surveyed throughout the country (20 to 50 positions).
*Most Played By Jockeys — ranked the most played songs on United States radio stations, as reported by radio disc jockeys and radio stations (20 to 25 positions).
*Most Played In Jukeboxes — ranked the most played songs in jukeboxes across the United States (20 positions). This was one of the main outlets of measuring song popularity with the younger generation of music listeners, as many radio stations resisted adding rock 'n roll music to their playlists for many years.

Although officially all three charts had equal "weight" in terms of their importance, many chart historians refer to the "Best Sellers In Stores" chart when referencing a song’s performance prior to the creation of the Hot 100.

"Billboard" eventually created a fourth singles popularity chart that combined all aspects of a single’s performance (sales, airplay and jukebox activity), based on a point system that typically gave sales (purchases) more weight than radio airplay. On the week ending November 12, 1955, "Billboard" published The Top 100 for the first time. The "Best Sellers In Stores", "Most Played By Jockeys" and "Most Played In Jukeboxes" charts continued to be published concurrently with the new "Top 100" chart.

On June 17, 1957, "Billboard" discontinued the "Most Played In Jukeboxes" chart, as the popularity of jukeboxes waned and radio stations incorporated more and more rock-oriented music into their playlists. The week ending July 28 1958 was the final publication of the "Most Played By Jockeys" and "Top 100" charts, both of which had Perez Prado's instrumental version of "Patricia" ascending to the top.

On August 4, 1958, "Billboard" premiered one main all-genre singles chart: the Hot 100. Although similar to the "Top 100", the first Hot 100 chart reset all songs’ "weeks on chart" status to "1". The Hot 100 quickly became the industry standard and "Billboard" discontinued the "Best Sellers In Stores" chart on October 13, 1958.

"Billboard" produces the Hot 100 to this day and it is still the standard by which a song’s popularity is measured in the United States. The Hot 100 is still compiled by combining a song’s radio airplay points and sales points (both at retail and digitally).

There are several component charts that contribute to the overall calculation of the Hot 100. The most significant ones are shown below.
*"Hot 100 Airplay" — "(per Billboard)" approximately 1,000 stations, "composed of adult contemporary, R&B, hip-hop, country, rock, gospel, Latin and Christian formats, digitally monitored twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Charts are ranked by number of gross audience impressions, computed by cross-referencing exact times of radio airplay with Arbitron listener data."
*"Hot 100 Singles Sales" — "(per Billboard)" "the top selling singles compiled from a national sample of retail store, mass merchant and internet sales reports collected, compiled, and provided by Nielsen SoundScan."
*"Hot Digital Songs" — Digital sales are tracked by Nielsen SoundScan and are included as part of a title's sales points.

Hot 100 policy changes

The methods and policies by which this data is obtained and compiled have changed many times throughout the chart’s history.

As the advent of a singles music chart spawned chart historians and chart-watchers and greatly affected pop culture and produced countless bits of trivia, the main purpose of the Hot 100 is to aid those "within the music industry" – to reflect the popularity of the "product" (the singles, the albums, etc.) and to track the trends of the buying public. "Billboard" has (many times) changed its methodology and policies to give the most precise and accurate reflection of what is popular. A very basic example of this would be the ratio given to sales and airplay. During the Hot 100’s early history, singles were the leading way by which people bought music. At times when singles sales were robust, more weight was given to a song’s retail points than to its radio airplay.

As the decades passed, the recording industry concentrated more on album sales than singles sales. Musicians eventually expressed their creative output in the form of full-length albums rather than singles, and by the 1990s many record companies stopped releasing singles altogether (see "Album Cuts", below). Eventually a song’s airplay points were weighted more so than its sales. "Billboard" has adjusted the sales/airplay ratio many times to more accurately reflect the true popularity of songs.

Double-sided singles

"Billboard" has also changed its Hot 100 policy regarding “two-sided singles” several times. The pre-Hot 100 chart "Best Sellers in Stores" listed popular A- and-B-sides together, with the side that was played most often (based on its other charts) listed first. One of the most notable of these, but far from the only one, was Elvis Presley’s "Don’t Be Cruel" / "Hound Dog." During the Presley single’s chart run, top billing was switched back and forth between the two sides several times. But on the concurrent "Most Played in Juke Boxes," "Most Played by Jockeys" and the "Top 100," the two songs were listed separately, as was true of all songs. With the initiation of the Hot 100 in 1958, A- and-B-sides charted separately, as they had on the former Top 100.

Starting with the Hot 100 chart for the week ending November 29, 1969, this rule was altered; if both sides received significant airplay, they were listed together. This started to become a moot point by 1972, as most major record labels solidified a trend they had started in the 1960s by putting the same song on both sides of the singles it serviced to radio.

More complex issues began to arise as the typical A-and-B-side format of singles gave way to 12 inch singles and maxi-singles, many of which contained more than one B-side. Further problems arose when, in several cases, a B-side would eventually overtake the A-side in popularity, thus prompting record labels to release a new single, featuring the former B-side as the A-side, along with a "new" B-side.

The inclusion of album cuts on the Hot 100 put the double-sided hit issues to rest permanently.

Album cuts

As many Hot 100 chart policies have been modified over the years, one rule always remained constant: songs were not eligible to enter the Hot 100 unless they were available to purchase as a single. However, on December 5 1998 the Hot 100 changed from being a "singles" chart to a "songs" chart. During the 1990s, a growing trend in the music industry was to promote songs to radio without ever releasing them as singles. It was feared by major record labels that singles were cannibalizing album sales, so they were slowly phased out. During this period, accusations began to fly of chart manipulation as labels would hold off on releasing a single until airplay was at its absolute peak, thus prompting a top ten or, in some cases, a number one debut. In many cases, a label would delete a single from its catalog after only one week, thus allowing the song to enter the Hot 100, make a high debut and then slowly decline in position as the one-time production of the retail single sold out.

It was during this period that several popular mainstream hits never charted on the Hot 100, or charted well after their airplay had declined. During the period that they were not released as singles the songs were not eligible to chart. Many of these songs dominated the "Hot 100 Airplay" chart for extended periods of time:

* 1995 The Rembrandts – "I’ll Be There For You" (number one for eight weeks)
* 1996 No Doubt – "Don't Speak" (number one for sixteen weeks)
* 1997 Sugar Ray featuring Super Cat – "Fly" (number one for six weeks)
* 1997 Will Smith - "Men in Black" (number one for four weeks)
* 1997 The Cardigans – "Lovefool" (number two for eight weeks)
* 1998 Natalie Imbruglia – "Torn" (number one for eleven weeks)
* 1998 Goo Goo Dolls – "Iris" (number one for eighteen weeks)

As debate and conflicts occurred more and more often, "Billboard" finally answered the requests of music industry artists and insiders by including airplay-only singles (or "album cuts") in the Hot 100. A song that does not have a retail component is allowed to enter the Hot 100 provided it ranks above position 75 on the "Hot 100 Airplay" chart.

EPs

Extended play (EP) releases were listed by "Billboard" on the Hot 100 and in pre-Hot 100 charts ("Top 100") until the mid-to-late 1960s. With the growing popularity of albums, it was decided to move EPs (which typically contain four to six tracks) from the Hot 100 to the Billboard 200, where they are included to this day.

Paid digital downloads

The "Billboard" Hot 100 now tracks paid digital downloads from such internet services as iTunes, Napster, Musicmatch, Rhapsody, etc. With paid digital downloads added to the airplay/sales formula of the Hot 100, many songs benefited on the charts from the change. "Billboard" initially started tracking downloads in 2003 with the "Hot Digital Tracks" chart. However, these downloads did not count towards the Hot 100 and that chart (as opposed to "Hot Digital Songs") counted each version of a song separately (the chart still exists today along with "Hot Digital Songs"). This is the first major overhaul of the Hot 100's chart formula since December 1998.

The change in formula has shaken up the chart considerably, with some songs debuting on the chart strictly with robust online sales and others making drastic leaps. In recent years, several songs have been able to achieve 80-to-90 position jumps in a single week as their digital components were made available at online music stores. Since 2006, the all-time record for the biggest single-week upward movement has been broken five times.

In the issue dated August 11, 2007, "Billboard" began incorporating weekly data from Streaming media and On-demand services into the Hot 100. The first two major companies to provide their statistics to Nielsen BDS on a weekly basis are AOL Music and Yahoo! Music, with more to follow in the future. [cite news | first = Geoff | last = Mayfield | title = Billboard Hot 100 To Include Digital Streams | url = http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003619084 | work = | publisher = Billboard magazine | date = 2007-08-04 | accessdate = 2007-07-30 | language = | quote = ]

Remixes

"Billboard" has also answered the call of music industry insiders who raised an issue regarding song remixes. A growing trend in the early 2000s was to issue a song as a "remix" that was so drastically different in structure and lyrical content from its original version that it was essentially a whole new song. Under normal circumstances, airplay points from a song’s album version, "radio" mix and/or dance music remix, etc. were all combined and factored into the song’s performance on the Hot 100, as the structure, lyrics and melody remained intact. Criticisms began when songs were being completely re-recorded to the point that they no longer resembled the original recording. The first such example of this scenario is Jennifer Lopez’s "I'm Real". Originally entering the Hot 100 in its album version, a "remix" was issued in the midst of its chart run that featured rapper Ja Rule. This new version proved to be far more popular than the album version and the track was propelled to number one.

To address this issue, "Billboard" now separates airplay points from a song’s original version and its remix, if the remix is determined to be a "new song". Since administering this new chart rule, several songs have charted twice, normally credited as "Part 1" and "Part 2". The remix rule is still in place.

Recurrents

"Billboard", in an effort to allow the chart to remain as current as possible and to give proper representation to new and developing artists and tracks, has (since 1991) removed titles from the Hot 100 that have reached certain criteria regarding its current rank and number of weeks on the chart. Recurrent criteria have been modified several times and currently (as of 2008), a song is permanently moved to "recurrent status" if it has spent twenty weeks on the Hot 100 and fallen below position number fifty. Exceptions are made to re-releases and sudden resurgence in popularity of tracks that have taken a very long time to gain mainstream success. These rare cases are handled on a case-by-case basis and ultimately determined by "Billboard’s" chart managers and staff.

The most notable exception to the recurrent entry policy applies to holiday-themed releases, which are commonly reissued year after year in anticipation of Christmas purchasing. After its initial chart run, a holiday entry cannot re-enter the Hot 100 in subsequent years.

Year-end charts

"Billboard"'s "chart year" runs from the first week of December to the final week in November. This altered calendar allows for "Billboard" to calculate year-end charts and release them in time for its final print issue on the last week of December. Prior to Nielsen SoundScan, were calculated by an inverse-point system based solely on a song’s performance on the Hot 100 (for example, a song would be given one point for a week spent at position 100, two points for a week spent at position ninety-nine and so forth, up to 100 points for each week spent at number one). Other factors including the total weeks a song spent on the chart and at its peak position were calculated into its year-end total.

After "Billboard" began obtaining sales and airplay information from Nielsen SoundScan, the year-end charts are now calculated by a very straightforward cumulative total of yearlong sales and airplay points. This gives a more accurate picture of any given year’s most popular tracks, as a song that hypothetically spent nine weeks at number one in March could possibly have earned fewer cumulative points than a song that spent six weeks at number three in January. Interestingly, songs at the peak of their popularity at the time of the November/December chart-year cutoff many times end up ranked lower than one would expect on a year-end tally, yet are ranked on the following year's chart as well, as their cumulative points are split between the two chart-years.

Limitations

The limitations of the Hot 100 have become more pronounced over time. Since the Hot 100 was based on singles sales, as singles have themselves become a less common form of song release, the Hot 100's data represented a narrowing segment of sales until the December 1998 change in the ranking formula.

Few music historians believe that the Hot 100 has been a perfectly accurate gauge of the most popular songs for each week or year. For example, during the 1950s and 1960s, payola and other problems skewed the numbers in largely undetectable ways.

Further, the history of popular music shows nearly as many remarkable failures to chart as it does impressive charting histories. Certain artists (such as Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, or The Grateful Dead) had tremendous album sales while being oblivious to the weekly singles charts. Business changes in the industry also affect artists' statistical "records." Single releases were more frequent and steady, and were expected to have much shorter shelf lives in earlier decades, making direct historical comparisons somewhat specious. Of the sixteen singles to top the Billboard chart for more than ten weeks since 1955, just one was released before 1992. During the first forty years of the rock era, no song had ever debuted at number one; since a 1995 change in methodology, a dozen have.

Strategizing also plays a role. Numerous artists have taken deliberate steps to maximize their chart positions by such tactics as timing a single's debut to face the weakest possible competition, or massively discounting the price of singles to the point where each individual sale represented a financial loss. Meanwhile, other artists would deliberately withhold even their most marketable songs in order to boost album sales. Particularly in the 1990s, many of the most heavily played MTV and radio hits were unavailable for separate purchase. Because of such countervailing strategies, it cannot be said that a Hot 100 chart necessarily lists the country's 100 most popular or successful songs. Strategies like these were the main reason behind the December 1998 change in the charts.

Some critics have argued that an overemphasis on a limited number of singles has distorted record industry development efforts, and there are nearly as many critics of the Hot 100 as there are supporters. Certain of these criticisms, however, are becoming less and less germane as digital downloads have revitalized the concept of “singles sales.”

For good or ill, the "Billboard" charts have endured as the only widely-circulated published report on songs that have been popular across the United States over the last half-century. Competing publications such as "Cash Box", "Record World", and "Radio & Records" offered alternate charts, which sometimes differed widely. But even a perfect meld of all these charts could only provide scholars an imperfect overview of American popular music.

Additional information

*The Hot 100 served for many years as the data source for the weekly radio countdown show "American Top 40". This relationship ended in 1995, though from November 30 1991 "American Top 40" utilized only the airplay-side of the Hot 100 (to include songs that, at the time, were ineligible for the Hot 100 because of the lack of a commercial single). Because of the extreme narrowing of major radio playlists, few so-called "Top 40" stations in recent decades would play the full array of pop, rock, R&B and country (and other genres) depicted in a typical week’s Hot 100 top forty.

*A new chart, the Pop 100, has been created by "Billboard" to answer criticism that the Hot 100 was biased in favor of rhythmic songs, as throughout most of its existence, the Hot 100 was seen predominantly as a pop chart.

*The Canadian Hot 100, was launched June 16, 2007. Like the Hot 100 chart, it uses sales and airplay tracking compiled by Nielsen SoundScan and BDS. [cite news | first = | last = | title = Billboard Launches Canadian Hot 100 Chart | url = http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3ib5ce1539248626d64718ef9dbd81fa59 | work = | publisher = Billboard magazine | date = 2007-06-07 | accessdate = 2007-06-07 | quote = ]

*The Japan Hot 100 was launched in the issue dated May 31, 2008, using the same methodologies as the Hot 100 charts for the U.S. and Canada, utilizing sales and airplay data from SoundScan Japan and radio tracking service Plantech. [cite news | first = Gary | last = Trust | title = Billboard Japan Hot 100 Finds Global Audience | url = http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i6003c2212b7640e85af151f8c653ea84 | work = | publisher = Billboard magazine | date = 2008-05-21 | accessdate = 2008-05-21 | quote = ]

*For more Hot 100 trivia and statistics, see Billboard Hot 100 chart achievements and milestones.

ee also

*List of number one hits
*List of artists who reached number one in the United States
*List of number-one Hot 100 Airplay hits
*Bestseller
*Billboard charts
*Chart-topper
*Single Certifications
*Top 40 Mainstream
*Billboard Music Awards

ources

*"Fred Bronson's Billboard Book of Number 1 Hits, 5th Edition" (ISBN 0-8230-7677-6)
*Christopher G. Feldman, "The Billboard Book of No. 2 Singles" (ISBN 0-8230-7695-4)
*"Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-2002" (ISBN 0-89820-155-1)
*"Joel Whitburn Presents the Billboard Pop Charts, 1955-1959" (ISBN 0-89820-092-X)
*"Joel Whitburn Presents the Billboard Hot 100 Charts: The Sixties" (ISBN 0-89820-074-1)
*"Joel Whitburn Presents the Billboard Hot 100 Charts: The Seventies" (ISBN 0-89820-076-8)
*"Joel Whitburn Presents the Billboard Hot 100 Charts: The Eighties" (ISBN 0-89820-079-2)
*"Joel Whitburn Presents the Billboard Hot 100 Charts: The Nineties" (ISBN 0-89820-137-3)
*Additional information obtained can be verified within "Billboard's" [http://www.billboard.biz online archive services] and print editions of the magazine.

References

External links

* [http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/chart_display.jsp?g=Singles&f=The+Billboard+Hot+100 Current Hot 100 - Top 50 Positions]
* [http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/about_us/bbmethodology.jsp Billboard methodology]
* [http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/yearend_chart_index.jsp Historical Year-End Hot 100 and other charts]
* [http://www.billboardradio.com/billboardradio/radiojava.jsp]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Billboard Hot 100 — Billboard Hot 100: логотип Billboard Hot 100 («Горячая сотня Billboard»)  еженедельно публикуемый американским журналом …   Википедия

  • Billboard hot 100 — Demande de traduction Billboard Hot 100 → …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Billboard Hot 100 — El Billboard Hot 100 es un conteo de los 100 sencillos más populares y vendidos en los Estados Unidos, ayuda a promover la industria musical nacional e internacional, y se define como la más importante de las listas de Billboard junto con el… …   Wikipedia Español

  • Billboard-Hot-100 — Die Billboard Hot 100 ist eine Hitparade des US amerikanischen Billboard Magazins, die die Charts jeden Donnerstag veröffentlicht. Seit Juni 2007 publiziert Billboard auch die Canadian Hot 100, die nach dem gleichen Prinzip wie die Billboard Hot… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Billboard Hot 100 — Die Billboard Hot 100 ist eine Hitparade des US amerikanischen Billboard Magazins, die jeden Donnerstag Charts veröffentlicht. Seit Juni 2007 publiziert Billboard auch die Canadian Hot 100, die nach dem gleichen Prinzip wie die Billboard Hot 100… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Billboard Hot 100 — Demande de traduction Billboard Hot 100 → …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Billboard Hot 100 chart achievements and milestones — This list highlights significant milestones and achievements based upon Billboard magazine s singles charts, most notably the Billboard Hot 100.This list spans from the issue dated January 1, 1955 to the present. The Billboard Hot 100 began with… …   Wikipedia

  • Billboard Hot 100 50th Anniversary Charts — The Billboard Hot 100 50 Year Anniversary Charts[1] are historical charts[2] from the Billboard Hot 100 s first 50 years, August 1958 through July 2008. Alfred Music publishing house, saluted the 50th, by publishing the Hot 100 50th Anniversary… …   Wikipedia

  • Billboard Hot 100 Airplay — The Hot 100 Airplay is a chart released weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States. It measures radio airplay, and is one of the three component charts, along with the Hot 100 Singles Sales and the Hot Digital Songs charts, that determine… …   Wikipedia

  • Billboard Hot 100 50th Anniversary — Fifty years ago, in the August 4, 1958, issue, Billboard launched a revolutionary chart called the Hot 100. After nearly two decades of tracking songs distinctively by sales or plays (on jukeboxes and at radio), the Hot 100 was the first list to… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”