Airplay hits from 1990s

Now that the database is back up and running, I've wondered if Pat was ever going to go back and add some of those Airplay-only hits from the 1990s. I'm talking Green Day, Dave Matthews Band, Counting Crows, Natalie Imbruglia, etc. I'm sure most music fans consider them essential Top 40 hits from that era.

What do you guys think?

I agree -- songs like "Torn" or Fastball's "The Way" are considered hits, and I'm sure anyone purchasing Pat's book (or database) would appreciate having that info.

It wouldn't be such a headache if Billboard hadn't started tampering with the way they compiled their charts. At one point, didn't they give very little weight to airplay for their Hot 100 chart?

If I remember correctly, Billboard favored sales data over airplay through the early part of their "actual sales & airplay" charts compiled in the early '90s. At the same time, though, the record companies all but stopped servicing commercial singles, and instead began releasing songs directly to radio. This led to the advent of the "radio hit", which was ineligible for the Hot 100.

No one said anything until "Don't Speak" by No Doubt became the undisputed #1 hit of 1997... undisputed that is, by everyone but Billboard who, since a commercial single had never been released, never charted the song on the Hot 100. (It did spend 16 weeks at #1 on their airplay chart.)

After that, enough voices were raised to cause Billboard to change their policy, and include airplay hits on the Hot 100 chart, at the same time, raising the balance of airplay over sales (based on the fact that most "singles" were unavailable for sale) in the compiling of the chart. However, at the same time, they also decided to stop using just top 40 airplay, and instead added airplay from all other radio formats. The result (in my eyes) was a heavily R&B leaning "pop" chart.

All of this has caused me to abandon the Hot 100 as my source for what warrants a "top 40" hit after 1989. When I research the '90s for Top 40 hits, I tend to lean on the Mainstream Top 40 airplay charts myself. I also like to look at more than one source, using both Billboard & R&R, as well as ARC.

Edited by JMD1961

Ditto. I don't put much weight into Billboard charts after 1989. I generally use the R&R CHR/Pop chart as an indicator for 90s hits. However, in the past few years, I've even been doubting the integrity of the R&R pop chart.

Since Clear Channel and Infinity basically own every station who reports to the chart, the R&R chart has essentially become the Clear Channel chart. After all, every Top 40 station owned by CC plays the exact same songs, picked by some VP who is probably getting major "perks" for adding certain songs to their playlists. How else can you explain why you see awful songs making it into the airplay top 10, while bands like Coldplay can't even land a song in the top 30, yet their album has sold over 2 million copies and stayed for weeks in the Billboard 200 top 10.

OK, I'll get off my soap box now.