What would the Hot 100 look like if...

[somelikeitwhen]

...airplay data was allowed as early as the 1991 change?
Given how Billboard in the 90s was the farthest from a definitive chart authority, it would be interesting to see how exactly would the Hot 100 look each week if certain airplay-only songs were allowed to chart and how the chart would be weighted to accommodate them. I know the big #1s on the Hot 100 Airplay might have possibly had a chance at hitting #1, but I'm not sure about anything else, especially considering the Airplay panel at the time only included pop, R&B, AC and Alternative stations. This would be an interesting experiment.

[SPRΞΞ]

Don't Speak, Iris, and Torn would've challenged One Sweet Day's record # of weeks at #1, that's for sure.

[Au$tin]

"Don't Speak" would, without a doubt, hold the record for the longest stay at #1. That song was MASSIVE on airplay. Didn't it spend a ridiculous amount of weeks at #1 on the airplay chart?

[colson]

^Actually, Iris was a bigger airplay hit staying at #1 there for 18 weeks. Don't Speak was #1 for 16 weeks. And for both of them it was non-consecutive weeks which makes even more impressive.

You can't assume because a song spends months at #1 in airplay that it would stay at #1 for months on the Hot 100. In that case, I Love You Always Forever would've went to #1. It's also about the competition at that time. People seem to forget about the competition. And assuming the single would've sold a lot at the 'right time.' Don't Speak was released to airplay at a time when there was a lot of competition on the charts. Anything could have happened. I just can't see it staying at #1 for 16 weeks if it was commercially released.

There is no way of really knowing these things unless they were commercial singles. It's really hard to believe that the Fugees 'Killing Me Softly with His Song' didn't go to #1 in airplay. That song was everywhere and it felt like a MASSIVE #1 single to me and obviously affected The Score overall sales tremendously, but wasn't released as a commercial single in the U.S. It was the biggest 'commercial' hit in the UK that year. So in my mind, KMSWHS could have been one of the biggest hits that summer and fall.

[Lozzy]

Apr 5, 2013 22:00:12 GMT -5 Au$tin said:

"Don't Speak" would, without a doubt, hold the record for the longest stay at #1.

Assuming I read this correctly, this thread is asking what would happen if the Hot 100 included airplay for airplay-only tracks, not if the airplay-only tracks had been released commercially. If "Don't Speak" was released commercially and thus had the massive airplay plus good sales I'm pretty sure it would have been a #1, but if Billboard had changed their rules earlier than 1998 but "Don't Speak" still wasn't released commercially, which I'm pretty sure is what this thread is asking, I doubt it would have reached #1 at all.

[Quixotic Music Lover]

I was a subscriber to the Top40 Monitor magazine in the 1990s. "Don't Speak had around 88-92 million AI (I am going by memory) which would have placed it in the top 10 of the HOT 100 but probably no higher than 7 or 8. The sale of physical sales was still pretty strong in 1996 with the top 5 on the sales chart usually above 70,000 and the #1 was often above 100,000.

"Torn" was in the low to mid 90s in AI, again it would have likely reached the Top10 but no where near enough points to reach #1 (or #2 for that matter). I can't remember "Iris" AI but considering the point totals of "The Boy Is Mine" and "You're Still The One" it would not have reached any higher than #3.

[badrobot]

QML is right. Even after airplay-only songs were allowed, it took 2 years before an airplay-only song hit #1 (Aaliyah's Try Again).

Additionally, if airplay had included the full panel of stations in the mid-90s, those huge airplay songs may not have had as long of runs at the top of the airplay chart.

[HolidayGuy]

Lots of "ifs" when talking about the chart. In 1991, just three tracks hit the top 40 on Top 40 Radio Monitor with no cassette/CD single. In 1992, tit was just one. In 1993, it was four. And then in 1994, that number swelled to 16 and kept growing through 1998.

Would some tracks have gone even further in airplay if they had a cassette/CD single, to reflect their sales popularity? Perhaps. But maybe radio took note of the album sales and the airplay would have been what it was, regardless.

And then there's the bunch of radio hits that did chart from late 1998-on, that had no CD single, that would have attained higher Hot 100 peaks if they had one. In some cases, the reason some tracks that weren't necessarily the biggest airplay hits managed a high Hot 100 peak was because of the lack of sales competition. In the digital age, there's a heckuva lot more competition in terms of singles sales, so it's made the chart more exciting.

[somelikeitwhen]

Now that I think about it, the size of the airplay panel wouldn't have affected the Hot 100 panel that much if airplay-only songs were allowed, since the majority of the urban songs on the Hot 100 were all hits on urban stations, and they were included in the panel prior to 1998.

[Deleted]

Apr 7, 2013 20:47:15 GMT -5 somelikeitwhen said:

Now that I think about it, the size of the airplay panel wouldn't have affected the Hot 100 panel that much if airplay-only songs were allowed, since the majority of the urban songs on the Hot 100 were all hits on urban stations, and they were included in the panel prior to 1998.

What? Airplay from Urban stations wasn't included in Hot 100 Airplay until 1998.

[jebsib]

colson really nailed it; The general assumption is that something like "Don't Speak" or "Iris" would have been #1 for four months plus. But there is no way of telling due to competition.

Rock based singles sold next to nothing versus urban singles back then, and we have plenty of examples where huge airplay hits did not get to #1 ( some didn't even get close to the top 5!):

Like Donna Lewis, or "Missing", "You Learn", "Lullaby", "Sunny Came Home"... none reached the top spot despite weeks as the #1 airplay song on BDS.

[Myth X]

Don't Speak probably wouldn't have been #1, especially not against Un-break My Heart which was doing great in both sales and airplay.

[somelikeitwhen]

Apr 7, 2013 20:51:53 GMT -5 @jazzysoul47 said:

Apr 7, 2013 20:47:15 GMT -5 somelikeitwhen said:

Now that I think about it, the size of the airplay panel wouldn't have affected the Hot 100 panel that much if airplay-only songs were allowed, since the majority of the urban songs on the Hot 100 were all hits on urban stations, and they were included in the panel prior to 1998.

What? Airplay from Urban stations wasn't included in Hot 100 Airplay until 1998.

Actually those R&B/hip-hop songs must have been from Rhythmic stations then.

[WolfSpear]

I'll avoid an "if".

Under the current rules, "Torn" would have ranked higher than #42. There's no doubt in anyone's mind about that.

[HolidayGuy]

^That No. 42 ranking was well past its airplay peak- so indeed. :) The airplay peak for many 1998 tracks that already peaked in airplay prior to charting in December 1998, is much more notable than the Hot 100 peak.