The
Billboard Hot 100' is the United States
music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by
Billboard
magazine. Chart rankings are based
on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on
Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play 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 Saturday two
weeks after. 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 December 5,
2009, the Hot 100 has had 979 different number-one hits. Its
current number-one is "
Empire State
of Mind" by
Jay-Z and
Alicia Keys .
History
What has always been known as the Hot 100 had 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 ranked by radio airplay audience impressions
as measured by Nielsen BDS, sales data complied by Nielsen
Soundscan (both at retail and digitally) and streaming activity
provided by online music sources.
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 claimed 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:
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.
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 nine 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.
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’
"
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 thanthe 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 that
have reached certain criteria regarding its current rank and number
of weeks on the chart from the Hot 100 to
Hot Singles
Recurrents. 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.
Exceptions are sometimes made, usually on a case-by-case basis.
Occasionally an older song is re-released (for example, featured on
a current movie
soundtrack and given a
renewed promotional push from a record label) or a song can take an
extended amount of time to climb to position fifty.
Billboard chart managers ultimately make the decision
about which songs can remain on the Hot 100 in such cases.
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. Songs at the peak of their popularity at the time
of the November/December chart-year cutoff many times end up ranked
on the following year's chart as well, as their cumulative points
are split between the two chart-years, but often are ranked lower
than they would have been had the peak occurred in a single
year.
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 and
Led Zeppelin) 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,
Radio & Records and most
recently
Mediabase have 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 on November 30 1991, as
American Top 40 started using the airplay-only side of the Hot 100
(then called Top 40 Radio Monitor). The ongoing
splintering of Top 40 radio
in the early 90's led stations to lean into specific formats,
meaning that practically no station would play the wide array of
genres that typically composed each weekly Hot 100 chart.
- A new chart, the Pop 100, was 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. It was discontinued in June
2009.
- 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.
See also
Sources
- 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 online archive services and print editions of the
magazine.
References
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