The Billboard Charts
Did you know the Billboard charts started in the 1930s, but the famous Billboard Hot 100 charts wasn’t in existence until August 4, 1958 when It became the first chart to combine sales, radio airplay, and later streaming data to become one of the most comprehensive music rankings in the world?
Did you also know that the Billboard doesn’t just track the Hot 100 and Billboard 200 as there are over 100 different Billboard charts before them with each tailored to a specific genre, format, or metric?
Few of the different Billboard Charts that exists are treated below:
- Hot 100: These comprises of the top 100 tracks and most popular songs across all genres based on sales, streaming, and radio play.
- Billboard 200: This is concerned with the top ranking 200 albums based on equivalent album units (sales, streaming, and track sales combined).
- Global 200 / Global Excl. US: This is a yardstick for measuring worldwide song popularity with and without U.S. data.
Genre-specific charts: These are charts that are specifically tailored down to specific genres. Examples include the Hot Country Songs, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, Rock & Alternative Airplay, and Latin Airplay.
- Component charts: These are Billboard Charts that are only focused on individual data points such as stream, digital song sales, and radio song plays.
- Social and emerging artist charts: It would also amuse you to learn that there are specific charts for emerging artists like the Emerging Artists Charts and the TikTok Billboard Top 50 which are dedicated towards promting and publishing viral and rising acts.
N.B: Another onus of interest from the Billboard Hot 100 that is worthy of attention is the list of artists with the most No.1 hits, and below goes the breakdown of the top 5!
- The Beatles – Securing a total of 20 No. 1 Chart toppers on the Billboard Hot 100, the Beatles pioneer this list. Only to be followed by;
- Mariah Carey with 19 No. 1 Chart toppers.
- Rihanna with 14,
- Michael Jackson with 13 No. 1 Chart toppers as a solo artist! and;
- Drake with 13 No. 1 Chart toppers and a high counting potential.
Stay Informed, Stay Creative!
@Alaro Basit
