Country on the Hot 100 in 1999, 2000...

This continues. The main reason for the influx of
country songs on the "pop" chart in 1998 was because,
with that method change, the Hot 100 switched from using
strictly top 40 airplay to including airplay from ALL
genres.

Even Billboard no longer refers to the Hot 100 as the pop
chart on their website. That honor now falls to the
mainstream top 40 chart.

Edited by JMD1961

I think the drop in number of songs each year had more to
do with Billboards switch to monitored airplay & actual
sales in 1991. This resulted in songs having longer
chart-lifes, and left less room for newer songs to debut.

According to an article in the 12/05/1998 issue, the
reason for the new methodology to all genres was to
return the Hot 100 to the "variety-filled" chart it
started out as in 1958.

Thanks for the replies, gentlemen. The fact that songs were staying on
the chart longer, as well as tighter playlists, makes sense. I also agree
that the Hot 100 should be the most popular songs, regardless of
genre. Did Hot 100 airplay always include multiple formats, or was that
chart also restricted to top 40? The reason I ask is because it there are
a number of alternative and urban songs with the [AIR] symbol in the
Whitburn book. Were those formats included, too?

Thanks for the tip on this 12-5-98 article in Billboard, I just looked it up. I had known that BB had changed the Hot 100 back then, but had forgotten all the specifics of this 1998 change. Here are some bullet points from the article that I found most interesting:

--The Hot 100 prior to this 12-5-98 change had been based on singles sales plus radio station airplay in the formats of: mainstream top 40, rhythmic top 40, adult top 40, adult contemporary, and modern rock. Effective at this change, they added these radio formats into the mix: R&B, adult R&B, mainstream rock, triple-A rock, and country.

--Airplay only tracks now qualified for the Hot 100.

--The Hot 100 retail component (single sales) was adjusted DOWN, from 40% to 25%.

--It it will now be difficult for a radio-only song to rise all the way to #1.

--Radio-only songs would only be eligible for the Hot 100 IF they broke the Top 75 of the Hot 100 Airplay chart.

--The Hot 100 will now be song driven, no more double-A-sided singles. Sales will be assigned to the most popular airplay side. The less popular airplay side will only chart based on its airplay.

--A new POP chart was started, Top 40 Tracks, on which pop and rock singles would compete with one another, based on radio airplay only, from these charts: mainstream top 40, rhythmic top 40, adult top 40.

So that was the deal. No more would the Hot 100 be based on pop radio formats + sales, but instead on all radio formats plus sales. No mention of jazz, classical, or other, which may not have charted if they had been included. But of course since then, BB has modified everything yet again, multiple times...

FYI, all of that also applies to the "Bubbling Under The
Hot 100" chart as well. They've also added Latin and
Christian airplay since 1998.

Another interesting fact is that all of the "other" main
charts are now based on the same Hot 100 formula.