Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay are charts that rank the top-performing country music songs in the United States, published by Billboard magazine. Hot Country Songs ranks songs based on digital downloads, streaming, and airplay, not only from country stations but from stations of all formats, a methodology introduced in 2012. [1] Country Airplay, which was published for the first time in 2012, is based solely on country radio airplay, a methodology which had previously been used for several decades for Hot Country Songs. [1] In 2015, 10 different songs topped the Hot Country Songs chart and 39 different songs topped Country Airplay in 52 issues of the magazine.
In the first issue of Billboard of the year, Craig Wayne Boyd entered the Hot Country Songs chart at number one with "My Baby's Got a Smile on Her Face". Boyd, winner of the seventh season of NBC's reality TV singing competition The Voice , was only the second artist in the chart's 57-year history to enter at number one. [2] The following week, however, the song dropped off the chart completely, meaning that its entire chart run consisted of a single week at number one. [3] In addition to Boyd, one other artist was a first-time chart-topper on Hot Country Songs. Following a critically acclaimed performance at the 49th Country Music Association Awards, Chris Stapleton's version of "Tennessee Whiskey", which had spent a single week at number 46 six months earlier, [4] re-entered at number one, [5] despite never having been officially released as a single or serviced to radio. [6] Nine acts gained their first career country number ones by topping the airplay listing. Ashley Monroe made her first appearance at number one under her own name when she featured on Blake Shelton's hit "Lonely Tonight", [7] although she had previously reached the top spot as part of the group Pistol Annies, who had been featured on another of Shelton's songs two years earlier. [8] Between May and August, Tyler Farr, [9] Kelsea Ballerini, [10] Canaan Smith, [11] Michael Ray, [12] and the band A Thousand Horses [13] were all first-time chart-toppers, as was Grace Potter, [14] who was featured on veteran country star Kenny Chesney's song "Wild Child". Later in the year, the band Old Dominion and the duo Dan + Shay made their first appearances at number one. [15] [16]
The group Little Big Town had the longest unbroken run at number one on Hot Country Songs, spending 13 consecutive weeks in the top spot with "Girl Crush" during the summer. Sam Hunt had the highest total number of weeks at number one, spending a total of 17 weeks atop the chart with "Take Your Time" and "House Party". Hunt was one of two acts with more than one chart-topper on the hybrid listing, along with Luke Bryan, who reached number one with "I See You", "Kick the Dust Up" and "Strip It Down". On the Country Airplay listing, songs had much shorter runs at number one; no song spent more than three consecutive weeks in the top spot, a feat achieved by three songs during the year: "Homegrown" by the Zac Brown Band, "Save It for a Rainy Day" by Kenny Chesney and "I'm Comin' Over" by Chris Young. Chesney and Bryan tied for the most total weeks at number one, each spending five weeks in total atop the chart. The two singers also tied with Blake Shelton for the highest number of individual number ones, each taking three songs to the top spot during 2015. At the end of the year, Shelton was at number one on the airplay chart with "Gonna" and Thomas Rhett held the top position on Hot Country Songs with "Die a Happy Man", which would ultimately spend a total of 17 weeks at number one. [17]
The Billboard Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales, online streaming, and radio airplay in the U.S.
The Billboard charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in Billboard magazine. Billboard biz, the online extension of the Billboard charts, provides additional weekly charts, as well as year-end charts. The two most important charts are the Billboard Hot 100 for songs and Billboard 200 for albums, and other charts may be dedicated to a specific genre such as R&B, country, or rock, or they may cover all genres. The charts can be ranked according to sales, streams, or airplay, and for main song charts such as the Hot 100 song chart, all three data are used to compile the charts. For the Billboard 200 album chart, streams and track sales are included in addition to album sales.
The Radio Songs chart is released weekly by Billboard magazine and measures the airplay of songs being played on radio stations throughout the United States across all musical genres. It is one of the three components, along with sales and streaming activity, that determine the chart positions of songs on the Billboard Hot 100.
Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.
Pop Airplay is a 40-song music chart published weekly by Billboard Magazine that ranks the most popular songs of pop music being played on a panel of Top 40 radio stations in the United States. The rankings are based on radio airplay detections as measured by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems, a subsidiary of the U.S.' leading marketing research company. Consumer researchers, Nielsen Audio, refers to the format as contemporary hit radio (CHR). The current number-one song on the chart is "Beautiful Things" by Benson Boone.
Country Airplay is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States since October 20, 2012, although the magazine also retrospectively recognizes the Hot Country Songs charts from January 20, 1990, through October 13, 2012, as part of the history of the Country Airplay listing. The chart lists the 60 most-listened-to records played on 150 mainstream country radio stations across the country as monitored by Nielsen BDS, weighted to each station's Nielsen ratings.
"Die a Happy Man" is a song co-written and recorded by American country music singer Thomas Rhett. It was released on September 28, 2015, by Valory Music Group as the second single from his second studio album, Tangled Up. Rhett wrote the song with Sean Douglas and Joe Spargur. American singer Tori Kelly is featured on a pop remix included on the deluxe edition. The song peaked at number 21 on the US Billboard Hot 100, becoming his highest-charting single on that chart.
"Head Over Boots" is a song co-written and recorded by American country music artist Jon Pardi. It was released to radio on September 14, 2015, as the lead single to his second album California Sunrise (2016). The song was written by Pardi and Luke Laird. Its Pardi's first number one hit in his career, topping the Billboard Country Airplay chart. It also peaked at numbers four and 51 on both the Hot Country Songs and Hot 100 charts respectively. "Head Over Boots" was certified 4× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and has sold 701,000 copies in that country as of January 2017. The song also charted in Canada, reaching number two on the Canada Country chart and number 64 on the Canadian Hot 100. It was certified Platinum by Music Canada, denoting sales of over 80,000 units in that country. An accompanying music video for the song, directed by Jim Wright, features a band led by Pardi performing for a couple as the former goes through outfit changes and the latter ages as time passes.