Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Following the Charts " Which One is Best?

By Scott McKenzie

American Top 40, Billboard, MTV, Rick Dees Weekly Top 40there is no shortage of charts that rank music. But which one should you follow? The choice is really up to you.

The American standard by which a song is judged is Billboard, although there is no one true method. Billboard ranks songs based on album sales and the amount of airtime it receives on the radio. They also feature a Hot 100 chart which combines both the sames and airtime. Billboard also places music into categories and has charts such as Billboard Pop, Billboard Country and others, with some crossing over from one chart to another. The Hot 100 premiered the first number one in 1957 and has been active since.

American Top 40 with Ryan Seacrest is another immensely popular music chart. Originally hosted by Casey Kasem and counting down the top Billboard hits, American Top 40 now counts down songs with the most airplay and based on Mediabase. While American Top 40 is entertaining, it is not as definitive as Billboard in how it arrives at its ratings.

Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 is another chart countdown that has been around for a long time. Rick Dees originally hosted the American Top 40 before being replaced with Ryan Seacrest. This is another good chart, but still not as authoritative as Billboard.

There are literally hundreds of charts in the music world you can follow. MTV has charts for the best music video; genre specific charts exist for specific music. Deciding which chart to follow can seem daunting to say the least.

Billboard is the number one respected source for ranking music. Performing artists all look to Billboard for good ratings as this can make or break their musical careers.

If you are looking for music from all over the world, then there are music charts which list out this music; they also have charts which are listed based on voting; there are also charts which are based in sales and airplay.

Deciding which chart is best for you to follow depends on why you are following the charts. If you are following the chart to see how well a song is performing commercially then you will want to follow a chart that ranks according to sales, such as Billboard. If you want to see how well a song performs in terms of radio play then you will want to follow a chart based on airplay such as Billboard or American Top 40.

Unless you have a monetary stake in the songs performance, choosing which chart to follow is much like choosing your music, its all a matter of personal taste.Regardless of what chart you choose to follow, music and its ranking is all a matter of opinion. A song can be number one or number 100 and if you like it that is all that matters. - 20785

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