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Post by jlthorpe on May 3, 2014 8:52:26 GMT -5
I was looking through Joel Whitburn's Country Annual and I noticed something interesting about some of the #1s from 1981. I know there was a lot of quick turnover at the #1 position in the 80s, and a lot of songs had big drops from #1. But for 1981 a few songs dropped from #1 all the way out of the Top 40. For example: "Feels So Right" by Alabama and "Tight Fittin' Jeans" by Conway Twitty both dropped from #1 to #43, and "You Don't Know Me" by Mickey Gilley dropped from #1 to #47. For people listening to country countdown shows that used Billboard charts, how was this handled by the host? Did they mention the songs as being #1 the week before and then play the current Top 40 without the song? How did country music fans deal with the drops, and did they understand what caused them?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 3, 2014 9:27:41 GMT -5
I'd like to know what caused that to happen too!
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Post by mstgator on May 6, 2014 22:18:49 GMT -5
The ACC shows I've heard from that era have no previous week recap, there's just a brief intro by Bob Kingsley before #40 kicks off. No mention is made of the songs that fell off the chart. Chart movement is given for most songs, although usually only once (in either the intro or outcue). Not sure what contemporary listeners thought of the huge drops, but listening today it's a bit shocking to hear Bob casually say that a particular song fell from #2 to #37, for instance, as if it's a normal occurrence (which it was for most of the decade).
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Post by donwa001 on May 6, 2014 22:55:06 GMT -5
As I understand it, a lot of country stations would come up with their weekly Top 30 or 40 list and they didn't list their #1 song from a week ago. A new song had moved to #1. Of course, they were still playing the prior weeks' #1 song, but without 24 hr monitoring to capture that the song was still being played, the song had disappeared "chartwise".
Weekly when Billboard would call each country station to get their new Top 30/40 list, there would be no points awarded to last week's #1 song. So many stations dropped the prior #1 from their weekly list, the song would plummet in Billboard when the points were tallied up.
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Post by davewollenberg on Sept 9, 2016 19:30:27 GMT -5
From what I read in 'Country annual 1944-97, Anne Murray's 'Blessed are the believers' fell from #1 to #11, then COMPLETELY off the 100-spot chart, the next week.
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Post by adam31 on Oct 4, 2016 11:29:57 GMT -5
Was Wardlow in charge of the country chart too at this time?
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Post by jmorgan on Oct 4, 2016 20:31:04 GMT -5
I don't know about that, but there's history on this week's Billboard country airplay chart. Justin Moore's "You Look Like I Need A Drink" becomes the first song to drop out of the chart after being at #1 the previous week.
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Post by dukelightning on Oct 6, 2016 6:46:08 GMT -5
Said song drops to #10 on the chart used by ACC. That has to be close to the Soundscan era record for drops from #1. (Not Soundscan that is the measurement, I just use that term to define the era which in the case of ACC, started at the beginning of 1990). I am not aware of a Dixie Chicks situation with that song, a good one IMO. There was an uproar over their comment about President Bush and the Iraq war in 2003 but thier "Traveling Soldier" song at #1 only dropped to #3.
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Post by briguy52748 on Oct 7, 2016 6:27:44 GMT -5
My guess is that, for a previous week's No. 1 song that fell from No. 1 into the 30s (especially 36-40), he just announced/referred to the song as ("a recent No. 1" or "a former No. 1 hit").
Brian
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Post by briguy52748 on Oct 7, 2016 6:46:24 GMT -5
I was looking through Joel Whitburn's Country Annual and I noticed something interesting about some of the #1s from 1981. I know there was a lot of quick turnover at the #1 position in the 80s, and a lot of songs had big drops from #1. But for 1981 a few songs dropped from #1 all the way out of the Top 40. For example: "Feels So Right" by Alabama and "Tight Fittin' Jeans" by Conway Twitty both dropped from #1 to #43, and "You Don't Know Me" by Mickey Gilley dropped from #1 to #47. For people listening to country countdown shows that used Billboard charts, how was this handled by the host? Did they mention the songs as being #1 the week before and then play the current Top 40 without the song? How did country music fans deal with the drops, and did they understand what caused them? Do you have a list of how each of these songs did throughout this period? I did manage to see a few Billboard charts from the era and noticed this continued into early 1982. At some point in '82, there was slower turnover -- for instance, IIRC, " Always On My Mind" by Willie Nelson was still within the top 40 six weeks after falling from No. 1 and several other songs still had a top 40 position four weeks after their No. 1 peak. "Always On My Mind" downward trajectory was, I believe, 2-7-17-24-29-37. (Compare to "Always ...'" successor, " Just To Satisfy You" by Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson, which was off the top 40 two weeks -- falling from 12 to 26 -- while "Always" stuck around two more weeks ... highly unusual for any era.) Brian |
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Post by briguy52748 on Oct 7, 2016 12:03:07 GMT -5
Said song drops to #10 on the chart used by ACC. That has to be close to the Soundscan era record for drops from #1. (Not Soundscan that is the measurement, I just use that term to define the era which in the case of ACC, started at the beginning of 1990). I am not aware of a Dixie Chicks situation with that song, a good one IMO. There was an uproar over their comment about President Bush and the Iraq war in 2003 but thier "Traveling Soldier" song at #1 only dropped to #3. As far as Soundscan-era records go (i.e., 1990-onward), I have the record for biggest drop from No. 1 being " Mi Vida Loca (My Crazy Life" by Pam Tillis, which after a two-week run at No. 1 on Feb. 4-11, 1995 plummeted to No. 16 on Feb. 18 and dropped to No. 23 the following week (for a more modest seven-notch drop). My guess is that, had Billboard not had the "drop out of the top 10 after 20 weeks" rule, Justin Moore's " You Look Like I Need a Drink" would probably have landed somewhere between 11-15, perhaps similar to Mediabase's chart. As it was, when the Dixie Chicks' " Travelin' Soldier" plummeted from No. 3 to off the chart in 2003, I read somewhere where, had the "after 20 weeks" rule not been in use, Natalie, Emily and Martie would have dropped to No. 31 (from airplay that they still had or had gotten before stations quit playing their music in the wake of Natalie's controversial comments). I do think the rule is not really a good one ... if a song is popular, you give it credit. Yes, I understand this could lead to situations where a song like that blasted " Cruise" by FGL could still be on the charts today -- a four-year run in the top 40 is a scary thought -- but at least you're being honest. Brian |
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Post by dukelightning on Oct 7, 2016 12:50:50 GMT -5
Speaking of FGL, I think that recurrent rule is ridiculous too. A couple months ago, they dropped from #1 to #2 and then to #3 and then off with "Holy" IIRC. They need to amend whatever the recurrent rule is to allow songs to be in the top 10 before they fall out which according to what you just posted is the rule in Billboard. And I am assuming this will be the last week for Justin Moore unless there is some scenario where he gets the second week that FGL and everyone else gets before being dropped off the chart.
But I think they really need to ditch airplay based surveys.
Using the itunes download chart which they review the top 3 from makes more sense or at least a combination thereof a la the Hot 100.
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tcat
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Post by tcat on Feb 1, 2018 23:20:25 GMT -5
That is funny. I remember when "Traveling Soldier" was at #1 in March of 2003, then fell to #3 then out of the top 40 entirely. Interesting that it would have still been on the charts at #31 had the recurrent rule not been in place. The pattern I noticed in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004 was that after a song reached the top of the charts (or close to the top) it was allowed to fall within the top 20 but once it fell out of the top 20, it was gone. I didn't realize that was due to the 20 weeks rule. Still many songs were on the charts a lot longer than 20 weeks. I am guessing the rule was more than 20 weeks and currently in the top 20, then gone when below the top 20. I know having gone through Billboard weekly chart archives that in the 90s, lots of former #1s fell through the 20s and 30s before exiting the top 40 whereas after 2000, a former #1 song was never seen below #20 or else it disappeared. Of course this was probably to compensate for the slower chart movement. Longer story later, but just going since 1990, when the AIRPLAY chart method came into play, most of the 90s saw much faster chart turnover on country radio than the 2000s did. Between 1996 and 1999, there was a sharp drop off in the number of hit songs each year going from an average of 100 or so top 10s to an average of just 50 or so. This is probably why starting around late 1999/early 2000, the recurrent rule that a song on the charts 20 weeks or longer could not drop below the top 20 without falling out was implemented. This was to keep the charts fresh and favoring new songs (At least between #40 and 21) rather than continuing to list songs that had been around for months! Even with this rule some songs were in the top 40 for 7 or 8 months! It would have been even longer had they been allowed to gradually fall through the 20s and 30s! Anyway interesting stuff.
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