Joel Whitburn's all-time Top Country Artists list

[EmersonDrive13Rocks]

Some nice moves happening. Thanks for updating this. I'm rooting for Rascal Flatts, Carrie Underwood, and Emerson Drive to make nice moves in 2008. I'm sure Carrie and the Flatts will do great and a hoping Emerson Drive's next album spawns a couple of top 10 hits.

[luvhonkytonk]

- Count me in the crowd that considers Brooks & Dunn well past their prime, and I'll be surprised if they make it much past 6K before they call it quits.

Last time everybody thought that they came back with one of the biggest songs of their career, "Ain't Nothin' Bout You". I wouldn't write them off just yet. They still have a lot of fire left in them.

[edwin1961]

luvhonkytonk said:

- Count me in the crowd that considers Brooks & Dunn well past their prime, and I'll be surprised if they make it much past 6K before they call it quits.

Last time everybody thought that they came back with one of the biggest songs of their career, "Ain't Nothin' Bout You". I wouldn't write them off just yet. They still have a lot of fire left in them.

If B&D can constantly have T5 hits, then I wouldn't call that shabby at all....considering the state of the charts these past few years. Some artists would love to make the T10, let alone the T5.

[Jonsolo]

I know I was going to next bring this thread up at the end of June, after the first half of the year was complete, but I felt it was important to let those that are interested know about one major accomplishment that has now happened.

With Shiftwork moving up from #4 to #2 this week (from the looks of Hit Predictor), and I Saw God Today also on the chart, George Strait has now cracked the 10,000 barrier, joining Eddy Arnold and George Jones as the only artists to do so (and in all likelihood, only ones ever). George's total now stands at 10,004, and I was glad to see George get put back on the artist listing of Shiftwork on Billboard, so that he should get full point credit, and get over the milestone now (as opposed to having to wait until some time in the summer). Of course, this is a bit of an assumption, and we'll find out for sure when the next Whitburn Country book comes out, but I can't see Joel Whitburn depriving George of full Shift credit.

George is now 1918 points behind the Possum for #2. George only needs to now accomplish everything that Michael Martin Murphey did in his entire career (at least Whitburn point-wise), and he'll get there!! So that would be (looking at M.M.M.'s discography in the Whitburn book...) two more #1s, twelve more top 10s, and twenty more top 40s. No problem!!!

In all seriousness, since I'm here, I might as well let you know that:

Clay Walker is now in the top 100;

RF and Brad are at #113 and #116, 63 points apart, in the hottest battle going on on the entire points list; I'm Still A Guy and Every Day going head-to-head will be very interesting;

Carrie and Sugarland are over 1000 points, at #277 and #278, and only separated by twenty points;

and Taylor entered the top 400 just last week.

The next update will come after the 6/28/08 chart has been released, probably around June 18th or 19th.

[EmersonDrive13Rocks]

Thanks for the update and congrats to King George for passing 10k.

Looks like Rascal Flatts and Brad Paisley will be battling it out to see who gets to the top 100 first.

[Zazie]

Feb 26, 2008 3:29:45 GMT -5 EmersonDrive13Rocks said:

Thanks for the update and congrats to King George for passing 10k.

Looks like Rascal Flatts and Brad Paisley will be battling it out to see who gets to the top 100 first.

Since you enjoy following this stuff, I'll throw in a bonus for you -- EDrive is now at #374 with 697 points through the 3/8 chart.

Keith Urban was even with RF on the mid-2005 publication date of the last edition of the Whitburn book. He's now almost 400 points behind RF -- that's how hot RF has been on the charts, and they should get to the top 100 before Brad. (Especially if they release a Christmas album.) But he's putting up great numbers now. It'll be fun to watch.

[bigbluenote]

Where is LeAnn Rimes on that chart and Toby?

[Zazie]

Feb 26, 2008 10:40:49 GMT -5 bigbluenote said:

Where is LeAnn Rimes on that chart and Toby?

Toby's at #42, and he'll pass 5,000 points (half of King George) with his next single. He's about 100 points ahead of Chesney in the other interesting battle taking place on this list. (He had fallen behind Chesney but his Christmas charting songs got him back in the lead.) Of course maintaining a small lead over Chesney is a difficult task, given his 6-singles-per-album chart success.

LeAnn is at #152 with 2,006 points. She's about 100 points behind Adkins and about 150 ahead of the hard-charging Montgomery Gentry, about 200 ahead of Sara Evans and Gary Allan. Because she's still so young, she has a chance to move very high up the list -- but it's hard to figure out the pattern of her career. What kind of music will she be making in 10 years? I can't begin to guess.

[bigbluenote]

Thanks you Zazie. Those are very interesting numbers. How are the points calculated?

[Jonsolo]

Feb 26, 2008 11:03:45 GMT -5 bigbluenote said:

Thanks you Zazie. Those are very interesting numbers. How are the points calculated?

I touched on the point system in my very first post on this thread, but I'll delve a little deeper. Each charting song for an artist gets assigned a point total, depending on where it peaked on the chart. The point assignments are:

100 for #1
90 for #2
80 for #3
70 for #4 or #5
60 for #6 to #10
55 for #11 to #15
50 for #16 to #20
45 for #21 to #30
40 for #31 to #40
35 for #41 to #50
30 for #51 to #60

And they continue on down to #100, but since the chart no longer goes past 60 positions, that's as far as we have to be concerned with.

There are bonus points for multiple weeks at the top three positions. Each additional week at #1 gives 10 points, #2 gives 5, and #3 gives 3. Those are added in to the orginal point total.

Finally, the number of weeks gets added in as well. Each song for an artist gets a point total like this, and you add up all the points, and voila! A collossal waste of time! No, a pretty interesting points list and method of ranking artists based on their chart accomplishments.

Going with Emerson Drive examples, we can look at You Still Own Me. Hit Predictor shows it at #24 on the 3/8/08 chart, its 32nd week on the chart. The song has reached as high as #22, so it gets 45 points for so far peaking in the #21 to #30 range. Add in the 32 points for the 32 weeks, and we have 77 points coming from this song. If it could somehow find its way to #20, it'd get a +5 for getting to the next "level".

With their song Moments from last year, it reached #1, and spent 28 weeks on the chart. 100 points for the #1 peak, with no bonus for multiple weeks, and 28 points for the 28 weeks on the chart. That gives us 128 points from Moments.

Hope that helps explains the madness...

[Zazie]

Feb 26, 2008 11:03:45 GMT -5 bigbluenote said:

Thanks you Zazie. Those are very interesting numbers. How are the points calculated?

One point for each week a song is on the Billboard country chart. Plus bonus points as follows:

30 for a peak position between 51 and 60
35 for 41-50
40 for 31-40
45 for 21-30
50 for 16-20
55 for 11-15
60 for 6-10
70 for 4-5
80 for 3, plus 3 extra points for each additional week spent at 3
90 for 2, plus 5 for extras
100 for 1, plus 10 for extras

So Gary Allan gets 33 points + 90 bonus points for Watching Airplanes for 123 total points, but he would have gotten 33 + 80 + 6 if he had had a 3-week #3 song instead of a 1-week #2.

The biggest song in recent times was Amazed, with 170 points for its 8 week run at #1, plus 41 for chart weeks, for 211 total points.

When the BB chart was 75 or 100 positions it was possible to score fewer than 31 points for a song. But now 31 is the minimum.

[Jonsolo]

Interception! But you're in luck, bigbluenote, as you get two explanations for the price of one. And I think Zazie was able to accomplish the job more succintly.

[bigbluenote]

That is too cool. I thank both of you for the explanations. It's very interesting.

[Jonsolo]

Might as well bump this thread back up, as I'll be posting a "Half-year" update sometime tomorrow, as soon as the 6/28 chart has been released, and I can finalize the point totals of the artists. Then I've got a list of comments for each of the "active" artists in each 100-position section. Actually, I've got the whole update pretty much written, as I was able to gather the needed information on chart positions from Hit Predictor and the Chart Highlights. I only need to find out if George's Troubadour made the top 30 or not, in order to give him or withhold that +5 bonus.

[Zazie]

These updates are among the best items available on Pulse. Brad Paisley vs. Rascal Flatts is, by itself, a contest that makes tomorrow's post a must-read. Not to mention Reba's campaign to reach the all-time top 10....

[EmersonDrive13Rocks]

Brad should pass Rascal Flatts with the next update or be very close to passing them.

[somebody60]

I haven't posted here, but I have been reading this thread ever since it was first started and am really looking forward to tomorrow's update (and as a big Carrie fan, I like to see how much Carrie progresses with each new update, though I also really enjoy seeing how all the others do).

[edwin1961]

It will be interesting to see where Taylor Swift will end up fo rthe first half, considering it's been almost a year since the song, Tim McGraw first broke.

As if it makes any difference, doesn't Eddy Arnold get at least 11 or 12 points for To Life (#49)?

[Jonsolo]

With 2008 now half over, and the 6/28/08 chart released, it's time to do an update on the Whitburn points list, which is what I did last year at this time. I'll just type out some of the notable moves, and wait until the end of the year to do the full redo of the list. You can refer to how the list looked on my 12/17/07 posts, for each of the major "sections". I'll list the new position and point total next to each artist's name as I mention them.

Notes for #1 to #100:

- Eddy Arnold (#1; 12689) came back with his 147th charting song, To Life, in May, to throw another 36 points onto his #1 pile. Death doesn't have to be completely negative! The pursuing George Strait sighs.

- Strait (#3; 10121) also had a good first half of '08, and didn't have to die to do it! With the help from Shiftwork, he passed the 10,000 mark in February (as I noted at the time on this thread), and racked up 233 points, the third-highest artist total for the half-year. He's now within 1801 of George Jones. That's still a ways off, but George can now see him as a speck on the horizon.

- Dolly (#7; 8392) also joined the top ten artists in action, adding 43 points with her two songs, and put a little bit more distance on Willie.

- Reba's (#11; 7687) slowly but surely chasing down Ray Price for that coveted #10 spot. Thankfully for her, Every Other Weekend didn't flop, and has given her 70 more points, and she could potentially be one more top 15 song away from Ray when it's done.

- AJ (#18; 6568) ended his four-year #1 drought, and has enjoyed a solid 147-pt half-year. That's put him well into the large gap behind Jim Reeves, and he hopes to catch Jim by late next summer.

- Garth (#23; 6163) has used his two underperforming singles to nonetheless pass over Hank Snow and Faron Young for a two-position jump.

- Timmy (#30; 5720) has had a horrible year (for him), only adding 88, and needs a big showing from his You Had To Be There in the fall to catch Tammy Wynette for #29.

- B&D (#35, 5322) have done almost as bad, only 92 points this year, but do have a new song out that's acting like a #1. That would get them past Tanya Tucker in two months, and Mel Tillis by the end of the year. They're trying to keep Timmy in view.

- Toby (#41, 5006) passed the 5000 mark, with the double help from the Mica Roberts song. His 168 points is an impressive total, though he's struggling to make the top ten lately with his singles. How much longer can he hold off Kenny?

- I wasn't quite sure how to handle Kenny's (#43, 4967) contributions on the Reba song (along with Skip Ewing). From correspondence with the Whitburn staff after the '05 edition came out, I did learn that at certain times when additional artists aren't fully credited on the song listing, they've given those artists "percentage" credit, like 50, 40, or 30% of the full point total, depending on how many other participants are present. Whitburn gave each of Jimmy Buffett's partners on Hey Good Lookin' a 10% share of its Whit-pts, or (80 X 10% =) 8 pts.

Therefore, that's what I did with his involvement on the Reba song (50%), but will be ready to edit that once the new Whitburn book comes out if it is wrong. Kenny gained 209, and is also looking to hit 5000 within a month.

- Clint Black (#49) is at the round number of 4500. Hope he doesn't decide that that's a nice place to stop.

- With Trisha's (#78, 3263) involvement on the Turner song, she's passed six artists with her 148-point haul, and is within 91 points of the slumbering Faith.

- Lonestar (#89, 3002) found themselves a new lead singer, and also crossed the 3000 mark.

- Finally, Clay (#99, 2792) got himself into the top 100, but with RF and Brad closing quickly, needs to advance one more spot to stay in the top 100 for the next Whit-edition.


Notes for #101 to #200:

- The most compelling contest on the Whitburn list is Rascal Flatts (#109, 2655) vs. Brad Paisley (#110, 2653), and it's been an additional treat that they went head-to-head on the charts twice this year, Winner At A Losing Game vs. Letter To Me, and Everyday vs. I'm Still A Guy. Brad got the better of both of those matchups, has earned 248 pts this half-year (2nd highest) to RF's 162, and thus trimmed RF's lead from 88 to almost even. Waiting On A Woman vs. Bob That Head could be a blowout in Brad's favor. They're both aiming for the top 100 before the end of the year.

- Keith Urban (#130, 2221) wakes up just in time to stay in front of Trace Adkins (#132, 2177), who had closed to within 26 pts before My Shirt was released. Trace needs to follow-up Gonna Miss This with a strong song to keep pace.

- Jo Dee Messina (#144, 2101) is making a little bit of progress into the top 150, and broke 2100 points. Leann Rimes (#147, 2062) did break into the top 150.

- Montgomery Gentry (#165, 1901) has successfully broken away from Gary Allan, Terri Clark, and Sara Evans, to pass 1900 points and to flirt with reaching the top 150 by the end of the year (120 pts away). They don't have much range in what types of songs they can do, but at least they're doing a good job with that limited scope.

- Gary (#168, 1854) might have back-to-back hits on his hands, and has scored 104 points this year. Sara's (#170, 1826) luckily had a Christmas song during the first chart week, for her 102 points, but has started to fall behind the guys.

- I would have thought Billy Ray Cyrus (#191, 1579) would have cashed in his Ready, Set, Don't Go success by now with a follow-up single this year, but he's apparently had to focus instead on trying to keep his daughter's clothes on for photo shoots...


Notes for #201 to #300:

- Phil Vassar (#227, 1372) seems to be able to get a hit every 18 to 24 months, and lucky for him, that time came this spring. He's still 155 pts away from the top 200, or at least two songs, so Carrie will catch him before he can make it there first.

- Blake Shelton (#246, 1250) also is on that same, inconsistent cycle that Phil is, but caught a nice hit with Home to crack the top 250. He's less than two years from the top 200.

- Then of course we have the Points Machine, Carrie (#259, 1188), with 203 pts in the first half, which could have been much higher had her #1s lasted longer. When even mediocre stuff like Last Name makes it to #1, you know she's on an unstoppable tear. It would be nice if Sugarland could catch up to her, and give us another close battle like RF and Brad are waging further up on the list. She's probably less than a year from the top 200.

- Joe Nichols (#260, 1185), Dierks Bentley (#262, 1167), and Craig Morgan (#269, 1123) were all passed by Carrie like they were standing still. And Sugarland isn't far behind Dierks and Joe as well. Those two should make the top 250 by the end of the year, with Craig a few months after that.

- Sugarland (#268, 1124) is right behind Carrie's total for the year, 202, and are double-dipping with two songs now. They just need to get on a #1 streak like Carrie is on, and pump up their puny current career total of two.

- Chris Cagle (#292, 948) finally found a hit after a long 4.5 year drought, and made the top 300. I wouldn't yet bet on him making the top 200 down the road.

- Rodney Atkins (#299, 924) also made the top 300, though it looks like he's going to fail miserably in trying for a fifth #1 in a row. I'm still surprised that Cleaning This Gun went all the way.

Notes for #301 to #400:

- Pat Green (#324, 833) gets a debut in right under the wire, to move up 15 places. He's still waiting on a big follow-up to Wave On Wave, though. He's 85 pts from the top 300, and has a lot to prove if he wants to get there by the end of the year. Or at least, he'd like to get there by the cut-off date of the next Whitburn book (since they only listed the top 300 in the 2005 edition).

- Big & Rich (#341, 800) have been MIA for a full four months now.

- Josh Turner (#356, 755) is steadily hanging out in the middle-tier artist level. I'm still miffed Swift blocked his Firecracker from #1. He should be in the top 300 by early next spring.

- Speaking of Taylor (#364, 731), she's got the highest point total of any artist for the first half (249, ahead of Brad by a point), and crashed into the top 400. She'll come close to the top 300 by the end of the year, and appears to be about 15 months behind the pace that Carrie is setting.

Also, with her on pace to reach 1200 pts or so before she turns 20 years old, watch out Eddy Arnold!!! Or rather, watch out Eddy Arnold's estate!!!

- Not much going on in this section, but I can say that Lila McCann (#400, 634) used that one charting song to crack the top 400 (and will be kicked back out before long by Gracin).

Notes for below #400:

- Josh Gracin (#402, 623) has squeezed more success out of Weren't Crazy then I thought possible. He's eleven points behind Lila for #400, and I wouldn't think he'd be able to get there (would have to last six more weeks, and hit the top ten?).

- Little Big Town (#420, 576) have at least been getting a few points from their involvement on Life In A Northern Town, as they wait for a new single. Top 400 is easily in range as soon as that song gets released.

- Jason Aldean (#432, 552) will come close to making the top 400 with Relentless.

- Wrapping up, we have Jimmy Wayne (498) about to break 500, as well as Jack Ingram (493). Miranda Lambert (473) is hoping for her first top ten to get her near that mark as well. Keith Anderson (450) could make it past 500 if his Miss You does as well as I'm thinking it will. And I started tracking Kellie Pickler (321) for the first time, after she passed the 300-pt mark.

And that will do it until the 12/27/08 chart comes out, when I reprint the entire list (in sections of 100). As always, all questions are welcome, and either me or Zazie will try to make up an answer.

I will come back later to print up what the Top Artists are for this decade, with 18 months left to go until the end of '09. Whitburn has been including those decade lists in his books, and I've also been tracking the totals for the 00s. It shouldn't surprise anyone to know that Kenny is heading that list.

[Minimalism]

Thanks for the comprehensive updates! :) I really appreciate that.

[Jonsolo]

Okay, here's the list I have for the biggest Whitburn point-gainers for this decade ('00 to mid-'08). There are similar decade lists at the end of the Whitburn books (back to the 40's), including one for '00 to '05 in the last edition. I kept that list, and have been updating it as well. I'm reasonably confident of the numbers (at least down to about 1000), but even if I'm off a little, the positions shouldn't change that much.

1. Kenny Chesney - 3628
2. Toby Keith - 3292
3. Tim McGraw - 3076
4. George Strait - 2698
5. Rascal Flatts - 2655
6. Brad Paisley - 2437
7. Alan Jackson - 2349
8. Keith Urban - 2221
9. Brooks & Dunn - 2197
10. Lonestar - 1846
11. Martina McBride - 1796
12. Montgomery Gentry - 1730
13. Trace Adkins - 1511
14. Faith Hill - 1494
15. Sara Evans - 1471
16. Gary Allan - 1421
17. Dixie Chicks - 1375
18. Phil Vassar - 1372
19. Garth Brooks - 1305
20. Blake Shelton - 1250
21. Jo Dee Messina - 1242
22. Carrie Underwood - 1188
23. Joe Nichols - 1185
24. Dierks Bentley - 1167
25. Darryl Worley - 1162
26. Leann Rimes - 1133
27. Reba McEntire - 1132
28. Sugarland - 1124
29. Craig Morgan - 1123
30. SheDaisy - 1007
31. Gretchen Wilson - 983
32. Travis Tritt - 969
33. Chris Cagle - 948
34. Clay Walker - 935
35. Lee Ann Womack - 931
36. Steve Holy - 904
37. Rodney Atkins - 903
38. Terri Clark - 898
39. Tracy Lawrence - 894
40. Mark Wills - 891

I've said before that I feel that a great year on the Whitburn list is a gain of 300 points. So obviously, a "great decade" would be defined as a gain of 3000 points. The top five on the list should make it. Brad could as well, but would need some help with two charting songs at once, either from duets, charting album cuts, or another Christmas album.

I was very surprised over the course of the last year or so to see George continue to hang tough with the Flatts, and has at worst clinched a top five spot (after ranking #13 in the 80s and #2 (behind Garth) in the 90s). I don't really expect him to hold the Flatts off, but with them releasing stuff like Bob That Head, who knows?

Other than those two, the rest of the top 9 appear pretty well set. Urban reawakening should be able to hold off B&D, and AJ's doing well enough that he's got a chance to hold Keith back to #8.

Very telling to not see any female acts in the top ten, and even if Martina catches Lonestar, Mont Gentry appear headed for that #10 position. Obviously, the Chicks' total would have doubled by now, to the #5 position, had they not ran into their troubles. And Carrie came along a bit too late, with an impressive total based on less than three years of chart action.

How high can Carrie get on the list in the next 18 months? She might add 550 points, to reach 1740. That would be good enough for #12, as Mont Gentry will be long gone from that area, and Faith, Sara, and Gary probably can't generate enough points in time to get above that mark. Trace has a chance, if he can choose two more good hits. And I would guess right now that Carrie and Brad will be battling for the highest point total of the next decade, the '10s.

Taylor Swift (731 right now) should get over 1200 or so, safely in the top 30 by the end of '09, and with an eye on a big next decade.

[kim8]

I am new to this whole thing but it is very interesting. Thanks for the info and for compiling this for us.

I am kind of shocked to see Darryl Worley so high on that list.

[Jonsolo]

Jun 18, 2008 15:27:55 GMT -5 @somebody60 said:

Thanks for the update, but I have a question.

Jun 18, 2008 11:35:10 GMT -5 Jonsolo said:

Then of course we have the Points Machine, Carrie (#259, 1188), with 203 pts in the first half

I could be completely wrong, but hasn't Carrie earned more points than 203 for the half-year? The last time you posted on this thread before yesterday was on Feb. 26th (which would have been before the Mar. 8th update came out). Well, Carrie's "All-American Girl" went to #1 on the Mar. 15th update and stayed at #1 for a second week on the Mar. 22nd update. That would be 110 points, right? Well, "Last Name" went to #1 on the June 21st update, so that is 100 points. This total would be 210 points already. Plus, there are the weeks that the songs are on the charts. "All-American Girl" was on the chart for 20 weeks, and "Last Name" has been on the chart for 14 weeks with the Jun. 28th update, for an additional 34 points. This grand total would be 244 points.

If I am wrong, I apologize. I'm just confused as to how you got 203 points.

Pretty good question somebody60, but you have to keep in mind that that 203 only covers the points that have been gained in the first half of this year, from the 1/1/08 chart to the 6/28/08 chart. All-American Girl actually debuted three weeks earlier, on the 12/15/07 chart, so it had already generated some of its point total in '07.

By the 12/29/07 chart, A-A Girl was in its third week, and at #28. So it had already generated 3 (three chart weeks) + 45 (for reaching the #21 to #30 range; see the above posted point breakdowns) = 48 points. You're right that its two-week stay at #1 and 20 weeks total on the chart would give it 130 (110 for the two weeks at #1, + 20 weeks) when it was completely finished, but only (130 - 48 =) 82 of those points have been in '08, as it continued to advance up the chart and finally peak.

Just to do a run-down of her songs this year:

We have 82 points from A-A Girl;

7 points from Do You Hear What I Hear (it was at #39 on the 12/27/07 chart, and then was on the 1/5/08 and 1/12/08 charts (2 points), and advanced to the next peak range, #21 to #30, when it hit #27 on the 1/12/08 chart (for another 5 points);

And with all of Last Name's run coming in 2008, it has been on the charts for 14 weeks so far (14 points) and hit #1 for one week (100), for a total of 114 gained so far from it.

82 + 7 + 114 = 203 total for Carrie so far.

Clear as mud?

If you think that's convoluted, you should see the Excel spreadsheet that I use to follow this mess!!!

[somebody60]

^Ah, I completely understand now! I forgot about subtracting the points that AAG earned on last year's chart. Sorry about that and thanks for the explanation!

I would go crazy keeping up with all those stats. You do a great job!

[Zazie]

Thanks for the decade update as well as the half-year update. I'll look at it further, but to begin with I have one question and a few comments:

Q: Am I right in thinking that, on his decade lists, Whitburn only counts songs if they peaked in the decade? I'm pretty sure that's correct because of the way he treats Keith Urban.

********

Your comments about Eddy Arnold, dead artists, and Whitpoints (and I would like to take a moment to celebrate King George still being with us) made me think about the leaders in the odd category of "posthumous Whitburn points." I don't have time to figure this out now, but I'll post the total of points Jim Reeves scored after his untimely death later on. I'll do Hank Williams too. This is one category in which Eddy will not wind up as the leader.

And as for somebody60's question, Carrie didn't score all of her points for A-A G in 2008. She was in the top 30 already on the last chart of 2007, so we have to subtract 45 + 3 (weeks) from her total of 130 for that song. Let's see, I can do easy math -- that leaves 82. Plus her current total for Last Name, which is 100 + 14 weeks = 114. That's 196. Then 7 points for Do You Hear What I Hear (2 weeks, entered top 30 for +5), and we're up to 203.

Probably that one's already been answered, as my log-in timed out and I had to scramble just to keep the post intact.

[EmersonDrive13Rocks]

Thanks for the update.

[Jonsolo]

Glad to see Zazie and I agreed on the Carrie breakdown. He also keeps up with his own Whitburn spreadsheet, and we're going to exchange lists (like we do every six months or so), to check on any discrepancies between us, to make sure we're both wrong about the exact same things!!

[kw9461]

Very interesting stuff. Looks like Chesney would pretty much have to retire tomorrow (and not Garth Brooks retire, but really retire) to not finish #1 for the decade. I guess that pretty much sums up the decade in country music, that an artist as manilla as Kenny could be the artist of the decade (don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Kenny's, but there is absolutely nothing distinctive about his music.). Is there anywhere that I can view the artists list from the 90's?

[Jonsolo]

Jun 18, 2008 17:18:26 GMT -5 kw9461 said:

Very interesting stuff. Looks like Chesney would pretty much have to retire tomorrow (and Garth Brooks retire, but really retire) to not finish #1 for the decade. I guess that pretty much sums up the decade in country music, that an artist as manilla as Kenny could be the artist of the decade (don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Kenny's, but there is absolutely nothing distinctive about his music.). Is there anywhere that I can view the artists list from the 90's?

Not that I know of, but if you ask nicely, I'll type it in....
.
.
.
.
....Okay, I assume that you just did...

1. Garth Brooks - 4646
2. George Strait - 4567
3. Alan Jackson - 4172
4. Clint Black - 3506
5. Reba McEntire - 3287
6. Vince Gill - 3176
7. Alabama - 3134
8. Brooks & Dunn - 3125
9. Tim McGraw - 2644
10. Travis Tritt - 2643
11. Mark Chesnutt - 2634
12. Collin Raye - 2499
13. Joe Diffie - 2480
14. Trisha Yearwood - 2463
15. Randy Travis - 2347
16. Patty Loveless - 2345
17. John M Montgomery - 2344
18. Tracy Lawrence - 2184
19. Lorrie Morgan - 2172
20. Diamond Rio - 2060
21. Sawyer Brown - 2056
22. Sammy Kershaw - 1948
23. Martina McBride - 1923
24. Pam Tillis - 1876
25. Faith Hill - 1860
26. Clay Walker - 1857
27. Tanya Tucker - 1808
28. Doug Stone - 1796
29. Mary C Carpenter - 1765
30. Shania Twain - 1759
31. Toby Keith - 1714
32. Wynonna - 1711
33. Steve Wariner - 1680
34. Neal McCoy - 1582
35. Aaron Tippin - 1521
36. Tracy Byrd - 1495
37. Shenandoah - 1459
38. Ricky Van Shelton - 1419
39. Dwight Yoakam - 1415
40. Little Texas - 1391
41. John Anderson - 1383
42. Lee Roy Parnell - 1377
43. Marty Stuart - 1343
44. Kenny Chesney - 1339
45. Billy Dean - 1310
46. John Berry - 1252
47. Kathy Mattea - 1250
48. Bryan White - 1205
49. Lonestar - 1156
50. Billy Ray Cyrus - 1148

So Kenny goes from #44 to #1, one decade later. I would have had my money on Bryan White......

And as you can see, with the much-higher point totals throughout, this was when there were 75 positions on the chart, instead of today's 60, so you'd have a ton of album cuts make the chart whenever the stars released new albums.

Example: Garth got nine songs to debut from Sevens the chart week after it was released (12/6/97), very David Cook-like, though there was no such thing as digital downloads back then. Three of those went on to be released later as singles, but that was a big 250+ single week for Garth.

Also, George got six songs to chart on 3/13/99 when the Always Never The Same album was released. Those are probably two of the main reasons that Billboard ended up trimming (on 1/6/01) their chart from 75 to 60.

Also, the chart as a whole moved a lot quicker back then, and you could easily have the star artists have four singles peak in a year, rather than today's 2 to 2.5. A lot more opportunities to score points, and the songs that weren't going to go anywhere (hovering around the #20 to #40 section) were usually dropped quickly, and new music was released.

Hope that was interesting. And I also hope that the career point totals of each artist that has had their entire career contained in the 90s and 00s can be attained by adding the points that I listed in both decade lists. If not, then it was probably a mistake by me somewhere along the way.

[sbp17]

I know we had a previous discussion comparing the 2000s to the 1990s. Looking at that top 25 to 30 reinforces how much I enjoyed the 90s. Some great artists there making great music.