Billboard Dance/Club Play Chart
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Billboard's Dance/Club Play Chart is a weekly national survey of what songs are most popular in U.S. dance clubs. It is compiled by Billboard exclusively from playlists submitted by nightclub disc jockeys who must apply and meet certain criteria to become "Billboard reporting DJs."
History
The Dance/Club Play chart has undergone several incarnations since its inception in 1974. Originally a Top 10 list of tracks that garnered the largest audience response in New York City discotheques, the chart began modestly on October 26 1974 under the title Disco Action. The chart went on to feature playlists from various cities around the country from week to week.
Billboard continued to run regional or city-specific charts throughout 1975 and 1976, while rival music publication Record World was the first publication to feature a chart that encompassed club play on a national level. Billboard has since adopted Record World's chart statistics from the weeks between March 29. 1975 and August 21 1976 into their Club/Play Chart history as Billboard did not publish a national chart during this time. (source: Joel Whitburn's "Billboard Hot Dance/Disco 1974-2003")
Beginning on August 28 1976, a 30-position National Disco Action Top 30 premiered, which quickly expanded to 40 positions. In 1979 the chart expanded to 60 positions, then 80, and finally reached 100 positions from 1979 until 1981, when it was reduced to 80 again.
During the first half of the 1980s the chart maintained 80 slots until March 16 1985 when the Disco charts were splintered and renamed. Two charts appeared: Hot Dance/Disco, which ranked Club Play (50 positions) and Hot Maxi-Single Sales, which ranked 12-inch single (or maxi-single) sales (also 50 positions).
These two charts still exist today, under the official titles Hot Dance Club Play and Hot Dance Single Sales. In 2004 Billboard introduced the Hot Dance Airplay chart, which is based solely on radio airplay of eight dance music stations electronically monitored by Nielson Broadcast Data Systems. These eight stations are also a part of the electronically monitored panel that encompasses the Hot 100.
It is generally assumed that when one refers to a song or an artist "going to #1 on the Dance chart," he or she is referring to the Club Play chart.
Chart Statistics and Trivia
The first 12-inch single made commercially available to the public was Ten Percent by Double Exposure in 1976.
The first #1 on Billboard's Disco Action chart was Never Can Say Goodbye by Gloria Gaynor.
The first #1 on Billboard's National Disco Action Top 30 was You Should Be Dancing by The Bee Gees.
From the Dance Charts' inception until the week of February 16 1991, several (or even all) songs on an EP or album could occupy the same position if more than one track from a release was receiving significant play in clubs (for example, Michael Jackson spent 11 weeks at #1 in 1983 with " Thriller (all cuts)"). Beginning with the February 23, 1991 issue, the Dance Chart became "song specific," meaning only one song could occupy each position at a time.
The artist with the most #1 songs on the Dance/Club Play chart is Madonna, who has hit the top spot 33 times. Second place belongs to Janet Jackson, who has less than half of that amount of #1s to her credit.
Madonna also holds the record for the most chart hits, the most Top 20 hits, the most Top 10 hits and the most total weeks at #1. She also has the most Top 10 hits from one album (seven tracks from her album American Life).
Masters At Work and Byron Stingily have the most number of Dance/Club Play chart hits - 11 each - without any Hot 100 entries.
The longest running #1s on the Dance/Club Play chart are Bad Luck by Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes in 1975 and the above mentioned Thriller (all cuts) by Michael Jackson. Both songs spent 11 weeks in the top spot.
One Word by Kelly Osbourne made chart history on Jun 18 2005 when it became the first song to simultaneously top the Hot Dance Club Play, Hot Dance Singles Sales and Hot Dance Airplay charts.
The current #1 song on the Dance/Club Play Chart is Lonely No More by Rob Thomas.
