Chart ranking question

[bestmusicexpert]

If you ranked all time artists. Males, Females, groups, overall...

What would make someone rank higher?

#1 hits?
# of hits?
Weeks on the pop charts?

For example, Roger Miller and Ronnie Milsap....

Neither had a #1 hit. Roger had 12 hits to Ronnie's 6, Roger only had 2 more total weeks though...

Or like James Brown, never a #1 hit but lots of hits....

[hothitzdj]

If you go pre-rock era (all-time), you must look at sheet music sales as well giving Paul Whiteman a fighting chance. Then, how much credit do you give to digital sales vs. record/CD sales? Once you step into all-time, you run into an array of problems. It's basically your list and you can slice and dice it anyway you want to.

[bestmusicexpert]

I just mean rock era. Handicapping 92 onwards. But my examples are all pre 92.

[vince]

One thing you could do is assign points to each chart position an artist's records occupy and then total them up for each artist. It would be time consuming but its one option.

[donwa001]

I would come up with some sort of point ranking value for these 5 items:

I've listed the items in the order of importance (at least how I see it).

#1 songs
Top 10 songs
Top 40 songs
Total Other Charted songs (#41 - #100)
Total weeks on the charts

Maybe each #1 song could be multiplied by 25 points.
Then each Top 10 song could be multiplied by 15 points.
Each Top 40 song could be multiplied by 10 points.
Each Other Charted songs could be multiplied by 5 points.
Finally add the total weeks charted.

Example, point value for Abba

#1 songs: 1 X 25 = 25
Top 10 songs: 4 x 15 = 60
Top 40 songs: 14 x 10 = 140
Total Other Charted songs (#41 - #100): 6 x 5 = 30
Total weeks on the charts: 261 weeks

Grand Total = 516


Example, point value for Paula Abdul

#1 songs: 6 X 25 = 150
Top 10 songs: 8 x 15 = 120
Top 40 songs: 11 x 10 = 110
Total Other Charted songs (#41 - #100): 5 x 5 = 25
Total weeks on the charts: 241 weeks

Grand Total = 646

So Paula Abdul would rank ahead of Abba because of her #1's and Top 10's, even
though Abba has more Top 40 songs and other charted songs (#41 - #100)
and a higher total weeks on the chart.

This system looks like it might work.

[bestmusicexpert]

I like that donwa, thanks for the tip. Ill have to somehow handicap the songs charting from 1992 on though...

[jmack19]

This is more aimed toward 1958-today as opposed to pre-1992.

I would only look at only Top 25 singles since Billboard Magazine emphasizes those as hits(12/10/2009). #1 songs would receive 35 pts. #2-24 points,#3-23 points,#4-22 points and so on up to #25 - 1 point. This would take out the bias of the charts methodology over time.

I came up with this list of the Top 10 acts from 1980 thru 1989 using this method.

10:JOHN COUGAR MELLENCAMP
9: BILLY JOEL
8: HUEY LEWIS AND THE NEWS
7: Phil Collins
6: WHITNEY HOUSTON
5: LIONEL RICHIE
4: DARYL HALL & JOHN OATES
3: PRINCE
2: MICHAEL JACKSON
1: MADONNA

In the above example, duets split points unless the song is tied in to one album. Separate Lives , for instance, is split with Marilyn Martin while Easy Lover is credited to Philip Bailey. This was done to show a way to deal with the "featuring" epidemic post 1992.

Interestingly, if you used this method, The Cast of Glee would have less points (150) than Hot 100 appearances(over 200).

[jdelachjr2002]

May 4, 2013 11:25:48 GMT -5 jmack19 said:

This is more aimed toward 1958-today as opposed to pre-1992.

I would only look at only Top 25 singles since Billboard Magazine emphasizes those as hits(12/10/2009). #1 songs would receive 35 pts. #2-24 points,#3-23 points,#4-22 points and so on up to #25 - 1 point. This would take out the bias of the charts methodology over time.

I came up with this list of the Top 10 acts from 1980 thru 1989 using this method.

10:JOHN COUGAR MELLENCAMP
9: BILLY JOEL
8: HUEY LEWIS AND THE NEWS
7: Phil Collins
6: WHITNEY HOUSTON
5: LIONEL RICHIE
4: DARYL HALL & JOHN OATES
3: PRINCE
2: MICHAEL JACKSON
1: MADONNA

In the above example, duets split points unless the song is tied in to one album. Separate Lives , for instance, is split with Marilyn Martin while Easy Lover is credited to Philip Bailey. This was done to show a way to deal with the "featuring" epidemic post 1992.

So for his two duets with Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson only got credit for "The Girl Is Mine" (from "Thriller") but not "Say Say Say" (from Sir Paul's "Pipes Of Peace"). And vice versa for Paul.

And on the same topic, Stevie Wonder doesn't get any credit for "Ebony & Ivory" (again from Paul's album only "Tug Of War").

[jmack19]

jdelachjr2002, you are correct.

If I had done this based on songs prior to 1992, Michael Jackson would be ahead of Madonna & Phil Collins would have been ahead of Whitney Houston because I would have split duets in half as opposed to assigning based on album intent.

[bestmusicexpert]

I am not sure how I'd figure it, but many of the lists I come up with are 20th Century Rock Era (1955 through 1999)

I mainly only count top 40 songs unless its on one artist, then I look at the whole Hot 100.