CHR/Pop Forum Rules & FAQ

[Haley]

1. To begin a thread, be sure to have an adds date from the following sources: AllAccess, FMQB, and/or R&R. Also those songs under AllAccess' 'Cool New Music' section have ended up being singles, so a thread for those songs are allowed as well. If a song is in/nearing the top 50 showing promise, a thread for it can be allowed. Lately I've been more lenient with the whole thing, throwing in exceptions here and there, but it can change in the near future.

Also, if a popular artist has an upcoming single still unnamed, you can start a thread with "Artist name: TBA" and I'll go in and edit once we have a title. This can prevent a bunch of topics with unconfirmed song names and such.

2. When posting about a song, it's performance, the artist and so on, please be respectful of other's opinions. If someone says they dislike a song, don't argue about it and say it's because they're a fan of so and so. Also, posting every 5 or 10 replies that a song is going to flop adds nothing to the discussion. Any trolling or posting for the sake of derailing the discussion of a song can and will result in warnable offenses. Try to stay away from one and two word posts as well. i.e. "Yay", "Go soandso!"

3. No double posting. If you've already posted an update, go back and edit so it doesn't take up 3 or 4 posts of space. This includes any discussion. If you just posted in the thread 30 minutes ago and would like to say something else as your post is the latest post, go back to edit that same last post.

4. Only one iTunes update is allowed per day. You can go back and edit it if it has changed. Lately, iTunes updates have been clogging up threads by not allowing any real discussion. In the General Music News forum, you can post any songs iTunes position's there. It may be a bit difficult to get used to at first, so I'll try and get into the habit of deleting multiple updates as I see them.
edit: I don't mind the discussion of iTunes positions, but 5-10 posts in a row just stating the position every half an hour or so can be annoying. As long as discussion is incorporated into it all I don't see it as a problem. Basically, here is what I don't want to see

5. Only one Mediabase update is allowed per day. You can post an update twice on Sunday, but ONLY if it moved in the final update. This includes all stations and data. Posting every time z100 spins a song isn't necessary. Oh, and don't bring up 2 or 3 month old songs just to show it's gained one spin. Seeing just one username in the column with a bunch of song threads that no one posts in just brings the actual discussions to the bottom of the page. And quite frankly it looks like spam.

6. No fan wars. Don't bring up Artist A's song in Artist B's thread to go on about how much greater Artist A is and how much of a failure Artist B is, and so on. Multiple artists can be discussed in a mature manner, going on about how much of a flop so and so is would be an immature matter. You know how it goes. A moderator (like myself) or other staff member can come in and cease the fanwars/offtopic discussion. Failure to listen to these warnings can result in thread closure and warnable offenses.

7. If you see any posts that you'd like to report, please PM me. I can't stress enough how little time I have to actually go through and read every single thread each and every day. It helps me out a LOT. And if there's a rampant troll in our midst, the job can be done quicker.
You can also use the new 'Report to Mod feature.

8. IN! BEFORE THE LOCK :insertlockemoticonhere: really irks me. Don't do it. That is all.

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to PM me. :)

The rules are now in effect.

[Deleted]

reserved.

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reserved.

[Deleted]

I will be merging this thread with the glossary/FAQ, but the glossary very badly needs updating. If you would like to contribute to the new shiny glossary/FAQ, or there is something new you would like to see added to it, please PM me! :)

[Deleted]

Original Glossary/FAQ thread

Feb 23, 2009 2:22:15 GMT -5 Juanca said:

Hey guys,

I thought it would be a useful idea to have a Glossary thread in the Pop chart!!
We can put here all of those main terms that we use in our threads, discuss some unclear definitions maybe... and anyone who enters the board for the first time can come and look at this thread for help ;)
I thought of it today after reading people asking about OHP and bullets again.
Hope you can all help out. I can think of some terms right now, but I'm sure there can be many, many more ;)
(Btw, I asked for Haley's opinion, too, and she thought it was good idea too )

Let's start this:

1) How can I read the typical "chart statistic" that is posted in many threads here? I see so many random numbers and no one says what each number means!

Let's use a "historical example" ;)
Today's update of the Pop chart for the number song is this one:

4 1 BRITNEY SPEARS Circus 9184 8641 543 59.659

The information should be read like this:
Last week position - This week position - Artist - Song - Number of spins for this week - Number of spins of last week - Change in the number of weekly spins - Audience impression

2) OK, better :) but now, what exactly "spins" mean?
Spins refer to the number of times that a song is played on the radio. If you are currently hearing a song in the radio, that is a Spin that would count for the stats of your radio.
Usually, here we talk of the accumulated number of spins for the last seven days, so it's a weekly accumulated number.

3) And where is the bullet?! ??? I always read that bullet when talking about chart stats
When the "change in the number of weekly spins" (see above) is positive, then we have a Bullet! In another words, the bullet is the number of new spins that a song gained over the past 7 days (in our example: 543 is the bullet).
There is a common mistake to call bullet as difference of spins, but that is not accurate. A song with a difference of -100 is simply "unbulleted". You have the idea that the bullet goes forward and not backwards, right? Same here ;)

4) What does Audience impression (AI) mean?! Number of average people? How can there be 0.659 people? Come on!
An audience impression is a measure of how large an audience a song reaches, and is usually expressed in millions of people. For example, one play by a New York radio station might be rated as a certain number of million impressions, meaning that this is a reasonable if necessarily inexact estimate of the number of people who heard it.

5) Who are the daddies?
Hehe, daddies are not persons, but radio stations that are aired in the largest markets in the country -- those with largest AI (see below), so they are heard by most listeners. They were called daddies in here, since they are usually the leaders of the industry. Many radio stations can see what Z100 is playing and would just follow them.

6) What is a recurrent song? If a song is purged, is it also recurrent? but then, what does going recurrent mean?! I'm confused!!!

I would start by saying that recurrent is a song that is not 'current' but is played on the radio often.
Mediabase has a ranking that includes Currents and Recurrents, which means including all songs that are highly played in a radio station, independent of their 'age'.
However, there are also rules for songs to go recurrent or earn recurrency.
There are two main criteria to consider to know if a song is going recurrent:
- Number of weeks: the song has been inside the Top 40 for TWENTY (20) WEEKS.
- Position inside the chart: the song has slipped outside of the Top 20.
EDIT (08/16/2010): Starting from the weekend of April 11, 2010, this criterion was modified to:
- Position inside the chart: the song has slipped outside of the Top 15.

If a song fulfills both criteria, then on the Sunday official chart, the song will NOT appear in the Official chart anymore: the song went recurrent!!

Let's use few current examples (from the chart updated on Sunday March 1st, 2009):

CASE 1:
29 28 KANYE WEST Love Lockdown (Roc-A-Fella/IDJMG) 1377 1635 -258 10.329 (20)
Will Kanye go recurrent next week even if it drops out of the Top 40?
Kanye spent his 20th week today. If this coming week, Kanye plummets and by Sunday is already out of the Top 40 at let's say #43, it WILL go recurrent!!
Because it already spent 20 weeks INSIDE the Top 40, and is below #20.

CASE 2:
15 16 T.I. Live Your Life f/Rihanna (Grand Hustle/Atlantic) 3806 4498 -692 26.091 (20)
Will TIRi go recurrent next week?
Well, it depends. If TIRi stay inside the Top 20, it will NOT go recurrent! Remember, it has to be BELOW #20 to go recurrent.

CASE 3:
Sunday Morning Update:
37 50 LESLEY ROY Unbeautiful 526 931 -405 2.231
On Sunday Afternoon Update, Lesley disappeared. Did she go recurrent? ???
NO! She had not spent 20 weeks inside the Top 40, so she was PURGED!!

So... that is when we use the word 'being purged':
When a song that didn't fulfill the criteria to go recurrent is removed from the chart because it is already decreasing spins considerably (and Mediabase decides is not relevant anymore to be counted in the official chart).

There is no specific criteria for a song to be purged... and Mediabase can do purges randomly, but generally refers to songs that are unbulleted and below the Top 40. These songs will be included in the "Mediabase w/Recurrents" chart, since they are considered non-currents or 'recurrents', but they did not 'earn recurrency' but were 'forced' to become recurrent, or 'purged'.

Going recurrent is a sort of status of a song that managed to remain inside the Top 40 for enough weeks that could 'graduate' from it with honors instead of being 'dropped out' ;)

EDIT (08/16/2010): There is another distinction -- the GOLD songs. Apparently, songs go gold after two years from the song's first debut on ANY format's chart (but this information is to be confirmed yet), and a song would go gold on all formats at the same time, unlike recurrents (source: tcatron565 @ ATRL)

7) WAIT, hun, so why I can see some songs that are decreasing spins, are old enough, but are still charting below #50?!! Sooo confusing!
Not necessarily! Let's use as an example another famous song in Pulse ;)

David Archuleta - "A Little Too Not Over You"
As of April 12, 2009, he is still charting despite being "unbulleted":
50 56 DAVID ARCHULETA A Little Too Not Over You 19/Jive/JLG 260 444 -184 2.341

The issue here is that David NEVER reached the Top40 portion of the Pop chart, therefore is NOT subject to becoming recurrent or even being purged.
It has already happened before with other songs. Probably the best example of this situation happened with another David (and NO! just in case it's not Cook!):

David Guetta & Chris Willis - "Love Is Gone"
That song reached #41 on May 11, 2008
On the chart as of March 15th, 2009 it was still charting:
87 100 DAVID GUETTA & CHRIS WILLIS Love Is Gone Ultra 40 55 -15 0.189
Obviously, no purge despite the longevity!
By the way, this song managed to reach #40 for 3 days before Sunday. However, since that peak was UNOFFICIAL (it was not inside the Top 40 on Sunday evening), then the rules of purge did not apply for it, since its official peak was #41.

Oh, and beware that if you don't see a song in the thread CHR/POP Top 50 mediabase chart(UPDATED DAILY)
pulsemusic.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=pop&action=display&thread=94938
(the thread with older charts is pulsemusic.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=pop&action=display&thread=62030)
it doesn't mean it's purged.
You could take a look at the other thread: Mediabase 51-200 Daily Updates
pulsemusic.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=pop&action=display&thread=65761
where usually 'Under The Radar' posts for us the bottom part of the chart at least once a week :)

EDIT (08/16/2010): After UTR dilligently posted the 51-100 for quite some time, posters like Azriel and others are posting the now updated 51-200 thread. Thanks!

EDIT (08/16/2010): Also, the 'purge' is not necessarily automatic, i.e., if a song slips from #38 to #41 in the Sunday Evening Update, this doesn't mean that it will necessarily be purged. Mediabase may want to wait another week and purge the song the following week.
It is also always important to keep in mind that Mediabase can be random still, and make some "mistakes". For example, making The Script's "Breakeven" go recurrent despite going from #16 to #15 in the Sunday update; or sending to recurrency songs that are close to the limit but have not passed it yet (i.e. a song that is at #15, 10 spins above #16. Mediabase might have it purged in the afternoon update, because the difference was very small, even though the afternoon or evening update might have increased (rather than decreased) the spin gap between #15 and #16.


8) What does adds mean... it's quiet confusing.. coz XXX is already played on radio but no adds date yet?/ what does it mean and how it will affect the song?

when a song goes for adds, basically it means it being "officially" released for stations to add the song, the promo CD is usually sent out a little before or around the adds date as well.... also just cuz a station spins a song doesnt mean its added, it has to be added to their playlist and spun regularly throughout the week, not just 1 or 2 spins here and there. Adds dates dont really affect major artists since their music is bound to take off anyways, but an adds date possibly gives it a little boost reminding Programmers that a song is going for adds that week...

9) What is Quick Cut (... it sounds bloody dangerous- ouch!)?

The Quick Cut data uses rolling numbers but under a different panel, which is all stations under a specific format. Therefore, for most if not all songs, Quick Cut Data tends to have higher spin counts, since more stations are included in the panel as opposed to the published panel that we use when making posts on this board.

10) I always read posters begging for a song to be "played on AT40" to have more spins. I know Ryan Secrest is popular, but how much can he help a song's performance by playing in AT40? Besides, he is boring!!
Ehem. Let's go to the objective side ;)
First, let's specify that AT40 means "American Top 40" (not Adult Top 40, which is another name for Hot AC, just in case).
The AT40 effect is what occurs when a song gets its first play on the popular American Top 40 (AT40) countdown show; because it is a widely-syndicated program (meaning it plays on most CHR/POP stations) a song will usually see a large spin gain over the weekend of its debut. The spins gained from the AT40 play will be reflected on the Sunday morning and Monday morning updates (showing the airplay for the previous day, respectively).
There are 2 ways that a song can get its first play on AT40:
- As a Breakout (a song rising on the charts but has yet to make the countdown)
- As a New Entry on the countdown (one of the 40 songs of the chart).
Of course, a song could also be featured as an Extra (after it was a Breakout, but before entering the Countdown), or just randomly because Ryan Secrest likes it ;) (as what happened with Paula Abdul's "Dance Like There's No Tomorrow"), but both cases are not regular on the show.
It is also important to remember that if a song is played for 2 or more weeks in a row, the effect wears off on the 2nd week, because the AT40 spin is no longer considered "new" (as it was played the previous week). So, for example, if a song was a Breakout, then an Extra, and then a New Entry, the song has been played for 3 weeks in a row. The AT40 effect would only be reflected the first week as it received the first bunch of new spins that week. But, if a song is a Breakout and then it's not featured on the countdown, but then enters the countdown, we will see a big effect on the first weekend, then a loss of spins the next weekend, and then an increase on the following weekend because of being featured again on the show.

In terms of the exact number of spins that will gain thanks to AT40, it varies, but it is good to consider the following information that I compiled in 2008 in terms of the number of stations playing the show per day:
89 stations on Saturday
200 stations on Sunday.
(the numbers include unmonitored radio stations, too)

That is why usually the AT40 effect is a BIG DEAL for a song, because on a Monday, it could have a gain in spins above 100!!

For more information on AT40, you can go to the AT40 website
www.at40.com/about.html
But you will realize that there is MUCH MORE information about Ryan Seacrest than about the show So, if you REALLY want to know more about the program, I suggest you look at the wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Top_40

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CHR/Pop:
The CHR/Pop is also known as Mainstream CHR or Top 40 and plays a bit of every popular genre (pop, R&B, urban, rock, country crossovers); in terms of incorporating a variety of genres of music, CHR/Pop is the successor to the original concept of Top 40 radio originated in the 1950s.
The term CHR comes from Contemporary Hit Radio, which is a radio format common in the US and Canada that focuses on playing current and recent popular music. Used alone, CHR most often refers to the CHR/pop format (but there are other subcategories, such as CHR/rhythmic or CHR/dance). The term Contemporary Hit Radio was coined in the early 1980s by Radio & Records magazine to designate Top 40 stations which continued to play hits from all musical genres.

Open House Party (OHP):
US radio show hosted on Saturday nights by John Garabedian that promotes itself as "the biggest party on the planet". The show differentiates itself because it plays a fairly significant amount of electronic dance music.
Open House Party Sunday also runs on the next evening on many stations.
Both programs are broadcast live around 7 P.M.
A song spun on OHP usually gets a boost of around 50 new spins in the following day's number of spins, thanks to the number of radio stations airing the show.

Website: www.openhouseparty.com/

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EDIT 1 (March 02, 09): Including recurrent/purged
EDIT 2 (March 10, 09): Adds
EDIT 3 (March 23, 09): Quick Cut
EDIT 4 (April 13, 09): Non-recurrents/ Non-purged and AT40 effect
EDIT 5 (August 16, 2010): Changes & updates in questions 6 and 7