Billboard unveils the new Hot 100

Brian W.:

I discovered the revised Billboard Hot 100 chart today and I too am pleased overall with the changes and I very much agree with your sentiments. But there is potentially a downside for those of us who are music collectors as this may officially mark the death of the "45 version". Allow me to explain...

Sad to say, commercial retail singles have pretty much become extinct in the U.S. Proof of this is in the fact that the #1 selling single at music stores right now sells barely over 1,000 copies a week nationwide! No longer can you go into a store and expect to find a physical copy of your favorite new song on CD, cassette, or vinyl single for purchase. In fact, if you can even find a store that still has a singles section, you'll encounter a very limited selection that takes up a tiny amount of bin space.

Meanwhile, paid downloads are rapidly growing in popularity and are now clearly the driving force of the singles market. Now keep in mind that paid downloads do not have a bar code or a catalog number. So here's the underlying question: How will we be able to determine the "45 version" of a hit that's only available as a paid download? Are we going to be reduced to classifying these songs as either "LP version" or "radio edit"? Just something to think about.

Some interesting points are being brought up here, but I think we need to lay down a definition before drawing conclusions.

Personally, I've always thought of the "45 version" as the hit version that everyone knows. And for the most part, radio stations always played the 45 versions of songs, and the videos usually matched the 45 versions, at least in the 1980s and prior.

But what about hits from the 1990s and 2000s? 45s have hardly existed since 1990. We're still using the term "45 version," but are we referring to the version that was available on the commercial singles (cassette or CD)? Why do we even care about the version that was on the commercial cassette or CD single?

Take the recent thread about Janet Jackson's "If," for example. I'd be willing to bet that almost every radio station in the U.S. played the "Radio Edit." I don't recall which version was used on the video, but in many cases the "Radio Edit" versions are used. Therefore, the version that most people would know as the "hit version" would be the "Radio Edit."

As a consumer, if I'm looking in Pat's book for the "hit version" of a song, having "45 version" next to it (for songs from the 1990s to present) wouldn't necessarily mean I'm getting the version I'm looking for. It would just mean that I've found the version that was released on the cassette single. But, as Todd pointed out, single sales are very low. Why would I care if I had the version on the cassette single if that's not the version that was the hit?

Anyhow, just some more food for thought. If you ask me, I'd say put "hit version" in the book next to songs that are from the 90s to present that never had vinyl 45s.

I forgot to add that the only reason no one buys singles anymore is because they don't MAKE THEM anymore. CD singles were BIG in the late 90s -- lots of CD single titles sold in the millions. That's why they stopped making them. They were doing TOO well, and the record companies wanted to make you buy the whole album to get it on CD.

I guess part of the reason that we care about matching the single version is because, until the last few years, the rankings on the Hot 100 were largely determined by single sales -- 50%, I believe. So that single is what helped propel the song up the charts -- therefore, that's the version a lot of us want.

For my own collecting, I consider the cassette single to be the single version after 1989 or so, up until the mid-nineties, when CD singles started really catching on.

Unfortunately, for the last 15 years or so, at least, there was more than one "hit" version -- most promo CD singles contain multiple mixes, multiple versions.

What was the hit version of Whitney's "So Emotional"? I believe the video used the LP version or LP edit, the US single was the LP edit, but my local Seattle station at the time mainly played the Shep Pettibone "Edited Remix," which was ONLY available on the promo CD, not issued commercially in America at all. (Which I own... one of my most prized CD singles!) However, that remix WAS the commercial single version in the UK.

Amy Grant's "Baby Baby" -- the video used the LP Version, which was the A-side of the single... but radio mainly played a drastic remix, which was included on the B-side of the single and, according to an article I read at the time, largely responsible for the song climbing to #1. (And for lots of returned copies of the album when people weren't getting the remix they heard on the radio, according to the same article!)

So I guess in some ways using the "single version" is also a way of choosing one from several versions out there, any one of which could be the "hit" version, depending on where you lived, what your local station played, which video channel you watched, etc.

aaronk wrote: But on the other hand, why do we collect music at all? I would say because we love it and we like to listen to it. So, why not just collect the version of the song that we like to listen to the most, whether it's the "single version" or "lp version" or "radio edit"? After all, what's the point in having a bunch of CDs sitting on a shelf collecting dust that we'll never play?

Well, all collectors (of all types of objects) get asked that. I've asked myself that. But an equally relevant question is why collect Top 40 music, period? If we like a song or a record, why not just buy it? Why do we care anything about its chart performance?

If we REALLY just bought what we liked, well... we wouldn't be collectors, we'd be fans. That's sort of what "collecting" is -- you want to buy items to complete a collection, or you want to add something really unique to your collection.

If you asked most collectors WHY they collect something, you'd get the same answer: "I don't know." I'll bet most of us have some mild degree of obsessive-compulsive disorder (I know I do). Maybe it's a way of having one thing in our lives that we have 100%, complete control over.

Or it's like a game. Challenge: Collect all of such-and-such. Prize: Well, nothing, but goal achieved.

Just like a tennis game with your friend. Why play? To win. Why do you want to win? "Uh...uh... I don't know."