"This is a hit": history and records of music charts
We meet charts and music charts all the time: they are played on the radio, they are written about in the media, they are found in historical references about long-released albums, compositions and musicians.
For 79 weeks, Elvis Presley stayed in the first place of the hit parade of the Billboard magazine Hot 100. Immediately 7 songs of Whitney Houston in a row occupied the top of the hit parade of Billboard - more than any other musician. The album Adele “21” held on the Billboard 200 chart for almost seven years (353 weeks) after the release, while the most “long-playing” plate of the chart, Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon (1973), lasted more than 937 weeks (currently).
What does all of this mean? How did the charts come about, how are they made and why did they become important?
')
We understand.
Photo by JFHayeur CC
In 1955, the first Hot 100 appeared in the American magazine Billboard - a list of the hundred most popular singles of the week. But materials similar to the charts were published earlier - for example, in 1936, Billboard had the first review material on the state of the music industry, “Hit Parade”. Since then, charts and charts have captured music media - they are made up by the editorial offices of newspapers, magazines and online platforms, they go on the radio and on TV channels. But Billboard remains the most authoritative - the charts of this magazine are considered to be the main indicator of the state of the US music industry.
Now Billboard releases two main charts - Billboard Hot 100 (best selling singles) and Billboard 200 (best selling albums). The latter is practically a metaphor for the commercial success of the album in the USA.
In 1991, a new research system appeared in the American analytical company Nielsen, which measured what people buy in stores and watch on TV. It was called Nielsen SoundScan and measured sales of music and music videos.
In the spring of 1991, the first release of the Billboard 200 charts (a list of the two hundred most popular music albums in the US) was released, based on data from Nielsen SoundScan. In 2014, in addition to monitoring sales in physical and digital stores, Nielsen SoundScan began to measure data from streaming services. Now Nielsen receives information from 39 thousand trading platforms from around the world .
But between the sixties, when the charts only began to be actively used, and the beginning of the nineties, when Nielsen SoundScan entered the game, collecting data literally "from retailers' cash registers," 30 years passed. All these years, the Billboard charts were compiled on the basis of aggregated data provided by American music stores, without any methodology or commitment. It was an unreliable and unprotected method.
With the advent of the Nielsen SoundScan methodology, the music market has become more volatile - accurate data showed that consumer tastes change faster than the ideas of store employees, who often evaluate sales "by eye".
For example, there is a theory that alternative music suddenly became popular in the United States precisely because of Nielsen SoundScan - sellers usually underestimated the size of underground and music sales, but thanks to statistics, informal musicians rose higher in the charts and popular culture responded.
Perhaps the most interesting is the records of the charts. Over time, they became a huge collection of very different information and a tool for a retrospective look at musical history.
The record for the number of weeks in the first line of the Hot 100 chart is 16 weeks. He was separated by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men with the track One Sweet Day, released in 1995, and Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee and Justin Bieber with the single Despacito 2017.
Analytics charts Billboard includes a lot of interesting data. For example, there are artists whose singles soared from the bottom of the chart to the first line in one week - in 2009, the My Life track Would Suck Without You track Kelly Clarkson climbed to the top from 97 lines, in 2008 the same happened with Womanizer Britney Spears (he went up 1 place with 96 lines).
Most of the tracks that occupied the first line of the chart were written by Paul McCartney (32) and John Lennon (26).
Records of albums in the Billboard 200 chart are also interesting - for example, the record for the number of weeks on the first line (54 weeks) at the soundtrack of West Side Story (1962-63), followed by (37 weeks) is Thriller Michael Jackson (1983-84), then (31 week) Calypso Harry Belafonte (1956-57).
Now Billboard is not the only platform that makes up the ratings. For example, streaming services and stores, such as Spotify and iTunes , are preparing their charts.
Since 1952 in the UK goes UK Singles Chart - hit parade of British singles, compiled by analogy with the American Hot 100. Now the chart is called Official Singles Chart. It is compiled on the basis of data on sales of singles on physical media, paid downloads on various services and streaming auditions. At first it had 75 positions, and now it has been expanded to 100.
Interestingly, at first, in the UK, charts and charts published several sites at once, which caused confusion on the agenda - radio stations had to cite a number of sources, whose readings often diverged. Because of this turmoil, it is now difficult to calculate the exact number of musicians who occupied the first line of the “official British charts”. One thing is for sure - the first song, topping the UK Singles Chart on November 14, 1952, was Al Martino's composition Here in My Heart.
The volatility of the charts in the UK and the USA is about the same - the records for the number of weeks in the top are commensurate. Thus, the record for the number of weeks in the first line of the chart is the single I Believe Frankie Lane, who was in the lead for 18 weeks (but not in a row). Elvis Presley headed the charts 21 times, The Beatles - 17 times, Cliff Richards - 14.
An interesting story of Russian charts - they began to appear in 1975 under the heading "Soundtrack MK" of the newspaper "Moskovsky Komsomolets". Interestingly, in the USSR they were not compiled on the basis of data received from sellers, but according to listeners' polls and letters from readers. Thanks to this mechanics, in 1977, the Musical Parade (later “Sound Parade Hit Parade”) appeared - a full-fledged hit parade that still exists. In 1977, 7 songs by Alla Pugacheva were immediately included. In 2003, Sound Track presented the first music award based on a survey of readers.
Photo of Mark Kent CC
Interestingly, in no other medium does the “ideology” of the charts take root so firmly as in the music industry.
In the literature, however, there are lists of bestsellers that are compiled by different media (for example, one of the most authoritative - the New York Times list , where books can be sorted by genre). Bestseller lists are based on data from Nielsen BookScan , which considers book sales and provides this data to bookstores (so that they can make a more informed decision on the arrangement of books on bookshelves).
Nielsen BookScan was launched in 2001 - until then, only the publishers had the most accurate book sales data, and they had no reason to share this information. Therefore, bestseller lists were compiled on the basis of “gray” and often very conditionally representative information received from bookstore chains.
In the cinema instead of the charts - an assessment of the success of the film based on the size of its box office by week of film distribution. The remaining formats — ratings of “best films” by some criterion or according to a site — are most often based on an audience vote or peer reviewers. For example, the KinoPoisk top-250 site is formed based on movie ratings by site users and critics — this has nothing to do with payback, merchantability, or film popularity at the box office.
Now the music charts are starting to have problems - despite the fact that for decades they have been the main indicator of the success of a musician. But the rules of the game change the streaming services, where not buying a new album, but listening to the same familiar tracks, comes to the fore. This greatly affects the totals used by the chart compilers.
For example, in March 2017, as many as 16 tracks by Ed Shiran entered the top 40 of the British charts - such fantastic popularity is due not least to the fact that streaming services encourage passive consumption, and not the search for new music. Charts are no longer informative and are gradually becoming obsolete - but this is just one of the evidences of how the entire music industry has changed in recent years.
Additional reading from our “Hi-Fi World”:
Our fresh stuff on GT:
For 79 weeks, Elvis Presley stayed in the first place of the hit parade of the Billboard magazine Hot 100. Immediately 7 songs of Whitney Houston in a row occupied the top of the hit parade of Billboard - more than any other musician. The album Adele “21” held on the Billboard 200 chart for almost seven years (353 weeks) after the release, while the most “long-playing” plate of the chart, Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon (1973), lasted more than 937 weeks (currently).
What does all of this mean? How did the charts come about, how are they made and why did they become important?
')
We understand.
Photo by JFHayeur CC
Billboard Charts in the USA
In 1955, the first Hot 100 appeared in the American magazine Billboard - a list of the hundred most popular singles of the week. But materials similar to the charts were published earlier - for example, in 1936, Billboard had the first review material on the state of the music industry, “Hit Parade”. Since then, charts and charts have captured music media - they are made up by the editorial offices of newspapers, magazines and online platforms, they go on the radio and on TV channels. But Billboard remains the most authoritative - the charts of this magazine are considered to be the main indicator of the state of the US music industry.
Now Billboard releases two main charts - Billboard Hot 100 (best selling singles) and Billboard 200 (best selling albums). The latter is practically a metaphor for the commercial success of the album in the USA.
In 1991, a new research system appeared in the American analytical company Nielsen, which measured what people buy in stores and watch on TV. It was called Nielsen SoundScan and measured sales of music and music videos.
In the spring of 1991, the first release of the Billboard 200 charts (a list of the two hundred most popular music albums in the US) was released, based on data from Nielsen SoundScan. In 2014, in addition to monitoring sales in physical and digital stores, Nielsen SoundScan began to measure data from streaming services. Now Nielsen receives information from 39 thousand trading platforms from around the world .
But between the sixties, when the charts only began to be actively used, and the beginning of the nineties, when Nielsen SoundScan entered the game, collecting data literally "from retailers' cash registers," 30 years passed. All these years, the Billboard charts were compiled on the basis of aggregated data provided by American music stores, without any methodology or commitment. It was an unreliable and unprotected method.
With the advent of the Nielsen SoundScan methodology, the music market has become more volatile - accurate data showed that consumer tastes change faster than the ideas of store employees, who often evaluate sales "by eye".
For example, there is a theory that alternative music suddenly became popular in the United States precisely because of Nielsen SoundScan - sellers usually underestimated the size of underground and music sales, but thanks to statistics, informal musicians rose higher in the charts and popular culture responded.
Perhaps the most interesting is the records of the charts. Over time, they became a huge collection of very different information and a tool for a retrospective look at musical history.
The record for the number of weeks in the first line of the Hot 100 chart is 16 weeks. He was separated by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men with the track One Sweet Day, released in 1995, and Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee and Justin Bieber with the single Despacito 2017.
Analytics charts Billboard includes a lot of interesting data. For example, there are artists whose singles soared from the bottom of the chart to the first line in one week - in 2009, the My Life track Would Suck Without You track Kelly Clarkson climbed to the top from 97 lines, in 2008 the same happened with Womanizer Britney Spears (he went up 1 place with 96 lines).
Most of the tracks that occupied the first line of the chart were written by Paul McCartney (32) and John Lennon (26).
Records of albums in the Billboard 200 chart are also interesting - for example, the record for the number of weeks on the first line (54 weeks) at the soundtrack of West Side Story (1962-63), followed by (37 weeks) is Thriller Michael Jackson (1983-84), then (31 week) Calypso Harry Belafonte (1956-57).
Now Billboard is not the only platform that makes up the ratings. For example, streaming services and stores, such as Spotify and iTunes , are preparing their charts.
Charts in other countries
Since 1952 in the UK goes UK Singles Chart - hit parade of British singles, compiled by analogy with the American Hot 100. Now the chart is called Official Singles Chart. It is compiled on the basis of data on sales of singles on physical media, paid downloads on various services and streaming auditions. At first it had 75 positions, and now it has been expanded to 100.
Interestingly, at first, in the UK, charts and charts published several sites at once, which caused confusion on the agenda - radio stations had to cite a number of sources, whose readings often diverged. Because of this turmoil, it is now difficult to calculate the exact number of musicians who occupied the first line of the “official British charts”. One thing is for sure - the first song, topping the UK Singles Chart on November 14, 1952, was Al Martino's composition Here in My Heart.
The volatility of the charts in the UK and the USA is about the same - the records for the number of weeks in the top are commensurate. Thus, the record for the number of weeks in the first line of the chart is the single I Believe Frankie Lane, who was in the lead for 18 weeks (but not in a row). Elvis Presley headed the charts 21 times, The Beatles - 17 times, Cliff Richards - 14.
An interesting story of Russian charts - they began to appear in 1975 under the heading "Soundtrack MK" of the newspaper "Moskovsky Komsomolets". Interestingly, in the USSR they were not compiled on the basis of data received from sellers, but according to listeners' polls and letters from readers. Thanks to this mechanics, in 1977, the Musical Parade (later “Sound Parade Hit Parade”) appeared - a full-fledged hit parade that still exists. In 1977, 7 songs by Alla Pugacheva were immediately included. In 2003, Sound Track presented the first music award based on a survey of readers.
Photo of Mark Kent CC
Other charts?
Interestingly, in no other medium does the “ideology” of the charts take root so firmly as in the music industry.
In the literature, however, there are lists of bestsellers that are compiled by different media (for example, one of the most authoritative - the New York Times list , where books can be sorted by genre). Bestseller lists are based on data from Nielsen BookScan , which considers book sales and provides this data to bookstores (so that they can make a more informed decision on the arrangement of books on bookshelves).
Nielsen BookScan was launched in 2001 - until then, only the publishers had the most accurate book sales data, and they had no reason to share this information. Therefore, bestseller lists were compiled on the basis of “gray” and often very conditionally representative information received from bookstore chains.
In the cinema instead of the charts - an assessment of the success of the film based on the size of its box office by week of film distribution. The remaining formats — ratings of “best films” by some criterion or according to a site — are most often based on an audience vote or peer reviewers. For example, the KinoPoisk top-250 site is formed based on movie ratings by site users and critics — this has nothing to do with payback, merchantability, or film popularity at the box office.
Now the music charts are starting to have problems - despite the fact that for decades they have been the main indicator of the success of a musician. But the rules of the game change the streaming services, where not buying a new album, but listening to the same familiar tracks, comes to the fore. This greatly affects the totals used by the chart compilers.
For example, in March 2017, as many as 16 tracks by Ed Shiran entered the top 40 of the British charts - such fantastic popularity is due not least to the fact that streaming services encourage passive consumption, and not the search for new music. Charts are no longer informative and are gradually becoming obsolete - but this is just one of the evidences of how the entire music industry has changed in recent years.
Additional reading from our “Hi-Fi World”:
- Forgotten Formats: Flexible Records
- Radio plays: very well forgotten old
- How to make a fortune from noise and become a legend
- "How it works": radio - the end of a beautiful era
- “Let's dance again”: why is radio still too early to bury
Our fresh stuff on GT:
- The end of the world soundtrack, the music of the roads and the stalactite organ: peace and nature in the sounds
- What to listen to in the background: 10 thematic podcasts about sound, audio, soundtracks and vinyl
- "Up to 10 thousand": 50 audio reviews
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/410915/
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