Radio Songs (chart)

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The Radio Songs chart (previously named Hot 100 Airplay until 2014 [1] and Top 40 Radio Monitor until 1991) [2] 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 (both physical and the digital) and streaming activity, that determine the chart positions of songs on the Billboard Hot 100.

Contents

History

Radio airplay has always been one of the component charts of the Hot 100. Prior to the establishment of the Hot 100, Billboard published a radio airplay chart, a singles sales chart and a jukebox play chart, the last of which was discontinued in 1959 as jukeboxes lost their popularity. During the 1960s and 1970s, Billboard continued to collect airplay data as a component of the Hot 100 but did not make the chart public. [3]

The airplay-only chart debuted as a 30-position chart on October 20, 1984, and was expanded to 40 positions on May 31, 1986. [4] Rankings were based on playlists received by a panel of Top 40 radio stations. On December 8, 1990, Billboard introduced the 75-position Top 40 Radio Monitor chart positions, which ranked songs measured by the number of spins each song on monitored radio stations and the ratings for those stations when the songs were being played based on Nielsen BDS technology. [5] The BDS-measured Top 40 Radio Monitor chart became the official airplay-component of the Hot 100 on November 30, 1991. [6]

Chart data collection

Each week, the Radio Songs chart ranks the top 100 songs by most airplay points (frequently referred to as audience impressions, which is a calculation of the number of times a song is played and the audience size of the station playing the tune). A song can pick up an airplay point every time it is selected to be played on specific radio stations that Billboard monitors. Radio stations across the board are used, from Top 40 Mainstream (which plays a wide variety of music that is generally the most popular songs of the time) to more genre-specific radio stations such as urban radio and country music. Paid plays of a song or treatment as bumper music do not count as an impression.

During the early years of the chart, only airplay data from top 40 radio stations were compiled to generate the chart. Effective from issue dated July 17, 1993, adult contemporary stations were added to the panel, followed by modern rock few months later. However, beginning in December 1998, the chart profile expanded to include airplay data from radio stations of other formats such as R&B, rock and country. To preserve the notion of the former chart, the Top 40 Tracks chart (now defunct) was introduced at the same time.

Per Billboard (as of October 2011):

"1,214 stations, encompassing pop, adult, rock, country, R&B/hip-hop, Christian, gospel, dance, jazz and Latin formats, are electronically monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by Nielsen Broadcast Data System. This data is used to compile the Billboard Hot 100."

The radio airplay data was previously collected on a Wednesday to Tuesday weekly cycle prior to July 2015, and on a Monday to Sunday weekly cycle from July 2015 to July 2021. [7] As of the chart dated July 17, 2021, the radio airplay data is collected on a Friday through Thursday weekly cycle, which matches that of the other Hot 100 metrics (streaming and sales). [8]

Lists of number ones

Song records

Highest debut

No. 2

No. 4

No. 6

No. 8

No. 9

Most weeks at number one

WeeksArtistSongYear(s)Source
26 The Weeknd "Blinding Lights"2020 [17]
20 Shaboozey "A Bar Song (Tipsy)"2024 [18]
18 Goo Goo Dolls "Iris"1998 [19]
Miley Cyrus "Flowers"2023 [20]
16 No Doubt "Don't Speak"1996–1997 [19]
Mariah Carey "We Belong Together"2005 [19]
Maroon 5 featuring Cardi B "Girls Like You"2018 [19]
15 Adele "Easy on Me"2021–2022 [19]
14 Céline Dion "Because You Loved Me"1996 [19]
Alicia Keys "No One"2007–2008 [19]
Panic! at the Disco "High Hopes"2018–2019 [19]

Highest audience peaks

Listed here are airplay peaks by song. Even if a song has registered enough impressions to be listed during multiple weeks, it is only listed once.

Shortest climbs to number one

Sources: [27] [28]

4 weeks

5 weeks

Artist records

Most number-one songs after BDS-based chart's December 1990 inception

Number of songsArtistSource
13 Rihanna [29]
11 Mariah Carey [29]
9 Bruno Mars [30]
8 Taylor Swift [31]
7 Usher [32]
Katy Perry [29]
Maroon 5 [33]
6 Ludacris [34]
Kanye West [35]
Beyoncé [36]

Most cumulative weeks at number one

WeeksArtistSource
91 Mariah Carey [37]
72 Rihanna [38]
60 Bruno Mars [39]
50 Usher [40]
Boyz II Men [41]
Maroon 5 [33]
45 Beyoncé [36]
44 The Weeknd [42]
40 Adele [43]
Taylor Swift [44]

Most-consecutive number-one songs

Source: [45]

Most top 10 songs

Number of SongsArtistSource
30 Rihanna [46]
24 Drake [47]
23 Mariah Carey [48]
21 Justin Bieber [49]
Beyoncé [50]
Taylor Swift [51]
20 Lil Wayne [48]
19 Ariana Grande [52]
Bruno Mars [39]
18 Maroon 5 [33]
Chris Brown [53]
Usher [32]


Self-replacement at number one

Use in media

On November 30, 1991, after 21 years of using the Billboard Hot 100 as their source, American Top 40 started using this chart, which at the time was called the Top 40 Radio Monitor. This relationship ended in January 1993, as American Top 40 switched to the Billboard Mainstream Top 40 chart. The ongoing splintering of Top 40 radio in the early 1990s 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.

Related Research Articles

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">All I Want for Christmas Is You</span> 1994 single by Mariah Carey

"All I Want for Christmas Is You" is a song by American singer-songwriter Mariah Carey from her fourth studio album and first holiday album, Merry Christmas (1994). She wrote and produced the song with Walter Afanasieff. It was released as the lead single from the album on October 29, 1994, by Columbia Records. The track is an uptempo love song that includes bell chimes, backing vocals, and synthesizers. It has received critical acclaim, with The New Yorker describing it as "one of the few worthy modern additions to the holiday canon". The song has become a Christmas standard, with a significant rise in popularity every December.

R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay is a chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks the top R&B and hip hop songs in the United States, based on audience impressions from a panel of radio stations monitored by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems. It was also used in sister publication R&R, which listed the chart as Urban National Airplay. The chart is not the R&B/hip-hop subset of the Hot 100 Airplay chart, but rather uses a separate panel of R&B stations in urban and urban adult contemporary markets. It was the primary airplay component chart of the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart until the issue dated October 20, 2012, when Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs was revamped to include digital sales, streaming, and airplay from all radio formats. The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart encompasses two separate airplay charts, both of which are based on radio spins rather than audience impressions: Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop and Adult R&B Airplay, which measure airplay on urban contemporary and urban adult contemporary stations respectively.

The Rhythmic chart is an airplay chart published weekly by Billboard magazine.

The Adult Pop Airplay chart is published weekly by Billboard magazine and ranks "the most popular adult top 40 as based on radio airplay detections measured by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems."

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 "Stargazing" by Myles Smith.

The Streaming Songs chart is released weekly by Billboard magazine and lists each week's top streamed radio songs, on-demand songs and videos on leading online music services in the United States. The chart represents one of the three components, along with airplay and sales, that determine the chart positions of songs on the Billboard Hot 100, which ranks the most popular songs in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Monster (song)</span> 2013 single by Eminem featuring Rihanna

"The Monster" is a song from American rapper Eminem's album The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (2013) featuring a guest appearance from Rihanna. The song was written by Bebe Rexha, Eminem, Rihanna, Aalias, Jon Bellion, Maki Athanasiou, and Frequency, with the latter also handling production. Released on October 29, 2013, as the fourth single from the album, "The Monster" marks the fourth collaboration between Eminem and Rihanna, following "Love the Way You Lie" (2010), its sequel "Love the Way You Lie " (2010), and "Numb" (2012), and is a hip-hop and pop song, with lyrics that describe Eminem pondering the negative effects of his fame while Rihanna comes to grips with her inner demons.

The Billboard Global 200 is a weekly record chart published by Billboard magazine. The chart ranks the top songs globally and is based on digital sales and online streaming from over 200 territories worldwide. First announced in mid-2019, it officially launched in September 2020.

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