Do you know what was the number one song in the country las week? Unless you are a chart-watcher like me, you might not. It was "Way 2 Sexy" by Drake. I, for one, have yet to hear it on any local Top 40 radio stations. That isn't that strange, as my favorite rarely plays hip-hop/rap records unless they get very, super popular. Then again, they have been known to randomly play songs that are fifteen, twenty years old out of nowhere. In fact, the only time I might have heard even a snippet of it may have been when I was scrolling through SiriusXM radio in the last days of my free trial. Drake didn't just have the top song, but nine out of the top ten. In fact, every song from his latest album debuted in the top forty, and many people have never heard it on the radio. This begs the question, how can all those songs debut so high without radio airplay? Let's review the history of Billboard magazine and its chart. Billboard started out by charting the sales of sheet music over a hundred years ago. Yes, it is that old. When recorded music and radio started out, they began to chart those as well. In the 1950s, Billboard combined various data into a single Hot 100 chart, which is the primary chart used today. Throughout most of the chart's history, the criteria for appearing were simple. The song had to be played on the radio and available as a commercial single. That second part was very important. Even if a song was played non-stop on the radio, unless there was a way to buy it, the song couldn't chart. At first, it was as a vinyl single, transferring to cassettes and CDs by the time I was a teenager. Then, in the 1990s, a number of artists had very popular songs on the radio, as well as videos on MTV and elsewhere, but the songs were never available for individual sale. Billboard initially tried to solve the problem by creating two sub-charts, on e for radio airplay and one for commercial, physical sales. The airplay chart was close to the Hot 100 with a few outliers, but the sales chart looked nothing like it, as more and more songs were leaving physical sales behind. Ultimately, Billboard had to allow all singles on the chart, as commercial sales were going digital, such as iTunes. As part of this transition, Billboard switched how it weighed some of its metrics for determining the chart positions. Where airplay and sales were once equal in standing, the metrics were changed to favor digital sales, streaming, and social media sharing. What this means is that if a fan streams each single from an artist's new album, or purchases the singles individually instead of the album as a whole, each instance would count more for the chart than a single time a song is played on radio. This is why Drake, and many other artists, debut an entire album on the charts when it first comes out, but rarely have the songs make a lasting impression unless they are released to radio. This week, only two of Drake's songs stayed in the top ten, with "Stay" by The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber climbing back to number one. "Way 2 Sexy," or another song, might return to the top spot, but this is highly unlikely. For example, Taylor Swift debuted at number on with "Cardigan" when her first new album of the year debuted. However, it was the only song from that album to do so. Not only that, but "Cardigan" quickly dropped out of the top ten and barely placed in the year-end charts. Artists are gaming the system to get the coveted number one slot, but it is skewing how the charts work. It is getting close to the point where being number one isn't so big of a deal any more. Unless a song can show widespread airplay, or if fans keep a song steady on streaming (BTS fans, I'm looking at you for "Butter" being a success.), then it really isn't a great number one song. Just look at the charts, and question if they really reflect what is popular.
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