|
Post by Shadoe Fan on Sept 14, 2011 18:41:49 GMT -5
Mr. Griffey was steamed at pointing out that a single which had gone PLATINUM by the end of its chart run barely made the top 100, while other platinum singles which radio played the heck out of, including 'Convoy', 'Le Freak' & 'YMCA' shot to the top of the charts. There was definitely a huge disconnect between radio, the trades, and the music-buying public back then as far as Mr. Griffey was concerned, and he did have a point when he lit into the powers that be at Billboard. According to Joel Whitburn's book, "It's a Love thing" was not certified gold or platinum by the RIAA. Are singles like albums and not automatically certified when they sell a certain amount?
|
|
|
Post by johnnywest on Sept 15, 2011 13:24:36 GMT -5
Mr. Griffey was steamed at pointing out that a single which had gone PLATINUM by the end of its chart run barely made the top 100, while other platinum singles which radio played the heck out of, including 'Convoy', 'Le Freak' & 'YMCA' shot to the top of the charts. There was definitely a huge disconnect between radio, the trades, and the music-buying public back then as far as Mr. Griffey was concerned, and he did have a point when he lit into the powers that be at Billboard. According to Joel Whitburn's book, "It's a Love thing" was not certified gold or platinum by the RIAA. Are singles like albums and not automatically certified when they sell a certain amount? How did that song perform in Cashbox and Record World? If it was a Top 5 hit in those magazines, then it's possible that Billboard was playing favorites. Otherwise, it seems like Mr. Griffey didn't have his facts right.
|
|
|
Post by mkarns on Sept 15, 2011 16:05:17 GMT -5
"It's a Love Thing" peaked at #25 in Cashbox (not sure about RW), only three notches higher than in Billboard. That was in 1981; in 1980 "And the Beat Goes On" was a bigger hit, reaching #19 in BB and CB.
|
|
|
Post by mstgator on Sept 15, 2011 18:46:57 GMT -5
Mr. Griffey was steamed at pointing out that a single which had gone PLATINUM by the end of its chart run barely made the top 100, while other platinum singles which radio played the heck out of, including 'Convoy', 'Le Freak' & 'YMCA' shot to the top of the charts. There was definitely a huge disconnect between radio, the trades, and the music-buying public back then as far as Mr. Griffey was concerned, and he did have a point when he lit into the powers that be at Billboard. According to Joel Whitburn's book, "It's a Love thing" was not certified gold or platinum by the RIAA. Are singles like albums and not automatically certified when they sell a certain amount? In the case of both singles and albums, it's up to the record company to request certification from the RIAA (there are no automatic certifications). So I find it difficult to sympathize with Mr. Griffey being so steamed at Billboard when he didn't even bother to seek official platinum certification for the single himself...
|
|
|
Post by Shadoe Fan on Sept 15, 2011 20:08:33 GMT -5
^^Thanks. That's what I thought, but wasn't sure.
|
|
|
Post by jaxxalude on Sept 16, 2011 19:07:49 GMT -5
I seriously have a question for those who repeatedly cry for a dividing line between chart achievements pre and post-1991: would you think of proposing a similar 2003 thing regarding the Billboard 200? I mean, look at this: when people ask the Billboard staff about album sales, all they'll provide is Soundscan-era numbers, since those are the ones which have been fully monitored, so they're consequently more trusting. They also repeatedly say that full pre-Soundscan numbers are not only unavailable, they're also not really trustworthy, for reasons me and artsmusic already discussed in the first few pages of this thread. Furthermore, you could also take into account that there is a pre and post-2003 scenario on album sales. Analysts pretty much have a consensus that that was the year where sales of albums really started going downshift continuously (exceptions being 2005 and, apparently, this year). It's not for nowt that you hear/read about how Gold is the new 2x Platinum in album scales on a semi-regular basis. And so on. So once again: do you think there should be such a similar diving line between chart achievements in the the Billboard 200?
|
|
|
Post by Shadoe Fan on Sept 16, 2011 20:45:39 GMT -5
^^ Yes there should at least be a footnote between any Soundscan and pre-Soundscan comparisons on the BB200. For example, it became much easier for albums to debut at #1 in the Soundscan era. Also, when comparing longevity, you have to take into account the period when albums were removed to the Catalog chart.
The Hot 100 comparison moves even beyond the 1991 change, because now the Hot 100 is more encompassing of all formats, when even early after the change in 1991/2 it still concentrated more on "pop" stations than it does now (i.e. the radio station panel is much larger across more formats).
|
|
|
Post by marv101 on Sept 17, 2011 18:21:25 GMT -5
I'm not even sure if SOLAR Records was a member of the RIAA back then; when CCR set an all-time record with nine gold records in 1969, their label (Fantasy Records) wasn't a member of the RIAA either, although they eventuaklly received retroactive certifications for that accomplishment when they later joined RIAA.
Another item to consider regarding how switching to BDS changed the composition of the Hot 100 dramatically was the fact that the top 40 format lost several dozen stations over the course of the nineties.
Furthermore, there are over 300% more country stations nowadays than CHR/Pop stations according to Arbitron's 2010 survey of radio (2,626 vs. 802), and since the CHR/Pop audience is substantially younger, they tend to do substantially more downloading of music, in spite of the fact that 59,000,000 folks who listen to those stations every week are substantially less than the 64,000,000 who listen to country in any given week.
That certainly explains the outsized effect that downloading has had on the Hot 100 for several years.
|
|