70's - Automatic Drop Outs from Hot 100

[edinnyc]

In 1970, there are a lot of songs that suddenly drop from top 40 all the way out of the Hot 100.  For example, Someday We'll Be Together from Diana Ross & Supremes was at 29 on Feb 21 1970 but the next week it dropped completely out of the Hot 100.

But in 1974, I don't see that sort of thing happen so much.  Top songs seem to linger in the bottom of the chart before dropping out. Did Billboard change rules at some point?  Did it automatically drop songs from the Hot 100 based on certain rules and then stop doing that at some point later?  

[dukelightning]

It is because they changed teh methodlogy on June 9, 1973. Prior to that airplay was not part of the top 50. With airplay back in the mix, it slowed down the chart since stations tend to plays songs well after the sales have stopped or slowed down. So songs did not fall off from high positions anymore.

[djjoe1960]

I noticed the same thing with the Cash Box charts you can access on line. It seems that songs in the 1960's and 70's dropped off the chart after exiting the Top 40 (mostly Top 10 hits). In the 1980's I noticed that songs tended to work their way down the chart more naturally. I guess both Billboard and Cash Box probably removed big hits from their charts possibly to make room for newer stuff. Of course, Cash Box Top 100 chart was supposedly a sales only chart until it added airplay data in the late 1970's.

[jmack19]

It probably was an arrangement with the record industry to allow more artists access to the charts.

It appears to have started around 1962, after a brief phase in. If a song clearly on its way down the chart fell out of the top 40 below the top 50, that single was removed from the chart(over 90% of the time).

dukelightning is right that the 1973 chart change put an end to this, although it appears it took about 2 years to phase out the old system habits altogether.

[lasvegaskid]

Discussed a little here.

at40fg.proboards.com/thread/3138/quick-burn