Hot 100 Airplay
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
The Hot 100 Airplay Chart is one of the three component charts, along with the Hot 100 Singles Sales Chart & Hot Digital Songs, that determine the chart positions of singles on the Billboard Hot 100.
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Chart Data Collection
The Hot 100 Airplay Chart is a weekly chart that shows the 100 songs with the most airplay points across America. A song can pick up an airplay point everytime it is selected to be played on specific radio stations that Billboard chooses to count. Radio stations across the board are used from Top 40 Mainstream (plays wide variety of music that is generally the most popular songs of the time) to more genre specific radio stations such as urban radio.
Strength Of Airplay
Singles usually chart on this chart before any other, because in most cases, they hit the airwaves first before being made commercially available online or in stores. Prior to December 5 1998, the Hot 100 was solely compiled on songs that were commercially available. This means that singles could chart on the airplay chart, but would not be legible on the Hot 100 unless a commercial single in stores was issued. Mariah Carey would often score singles that peaked highly on the airplay charts like "Forever" (#9) & "All I Want For Christmas Is You" (#12), but neither song was issued as a commercial single release and therefore could not chart on the Hot 100, despite probably being a success with airplay being strong.
Album Cut Implementation
After December 5 1998, songs could chart on the Hot 100 with just airplay points. However, before they were allowed onto the Hot 100, they had to make the Top 75 on the Hot 100 Airplay chart. Songs that charted on the Hot 100, without being issued with a commercial single release were known as album cuts. These album cuts however, were not very strong initially and did not usually chart very highly; the first airplay-only single to hit #1 came in June 2000 when Aaliyah's "Try Again" spent one week at the top. This implementation was solely responsible for the end of #1 debuts. In the mid 90s, many songs were commercially released as singles after airplay was given a chance to grow to its maximum potential. This allowed songs to enter the Hot 100 at the top, a feat unheard of before 1995. Ten songs were able to do this, but after this change to the Hot 100, only two singles were able to debut at #1 and only because airplay of their singles was too insignificant to make their singles chart.
Critcisms
The Hot 100 is often criticised for weighing airplay more than sales. For example, in 2002, Mariah Carey's lead single from her 12th album Charmbracelet, "Through The Rain", topped the Hot 100 Single Sales Chart, but failed to chart on the Hot 100 Airplay Chart, thus reaching a peak of #81 on the Hot 100. In a market where many believe sales to reflect music popularity more than airplay, this can be considered unfair.
Records
Highest Debut
Madonna set a record in 1992 when the lead single and title track from her sixth album Erotica debuted at #3 on the Hot 100 Airplay Chart. It is very difficult for a song to debut at a high position on the airplay chart, for many reasons, so for Madonna this was a great achievement. Firstly, in comparison to sales, there is no real set date for when a single hits the airwaves and it usually takes some time to grow to chart so high. Secondly, airplay itself is a pre-promotional tool so there is a lack of control over its spread of popularity. Thirdly, competition is very intense on the airplay charts as any song is legible to chart, whereas for singles, a commercial release must be issued before it becomes legible. "Erotica" was able to gain a lot of airplay due to its controversial lyrics and also possibly its boosting of popularity by the book Madonna had released prior to the release of the single, Sex.
Most Weeks At Number One
The first album cut to top the airplay chart was "Don't Speak" by No Doubt in 1996. It spent 16 weeks at the pole position, a record which still remains.
