AT40 Top 100 of 2000

[jedijake]

Okay, this is strange.

I accessed the top 100 of 2000 based on AT40. I noticed that, despite hitting #7 and spending 22 weeks on the top 40, Toni Braxton's "He Wasn't Man Enough For Me" was not on it.

Does anyone know how they complied the AT40 top 100 of that year? Or was that just one of the many big mistakes that took place in the year ends from 1995 until the present?

[freakyflybry]

Also missing were "I Think God Can Explain" by Splender, "Graduation" by Vitamin C and "Get It On Tonite" by Montell Jordan.

It's ironic that Rick Dees had the more accurate year-end that year, as his had all of those songs included.

[Caseyfan4everRyanfanNever]

Probably had something to do with the fact that AT40 changed charts for a short time from 2000-2001. Instead of Radio and Records, they used an unpublished Mediabase 24/7 chart that apparently had a strict recurrent rule, where songs were removed from very high on the chart. Therefore Radio and Records data may not have mattered as far as AT40 was concerned at that time.

[jedijake]

Thank you for your answers. I appreciate it.

Yeah, I remember having the Rick Dees list and all of those songs were on there. I believe that Rick used R&R or something very similar (although he had Eminem's "Forgot About Dre" even though it didn't chart).

But he had "He Wasn't Man...", "Graduation", "Get It On Tonite", "The Way You Love Me", "American Woman", and "I Think God Can Explain".

[mkarns]

Jan 15, 2009 0:05:51 GMT -5 Caseyfan4everRyanfanNever said:

Probably had something to do with the fact that AT40 changed charts for a short time from 2000-2001. Instead of Radio and Records, they used an unpublished Mediabase 24/7 chart that apparently had a strict recurrent rule, where songs were removed from very high on the chart. Therefore Radio and Records data may not have mattered as far as AT40 was concerned at that time.

I never understood why AT40 switched from Radio/Records to the Mediabase charts for nearly a year (Oct. 2000-Aug. 2001) and then switched back, only to return to MB permanently at the start of 2004. I actually like the R&R chart better, as it seems more consistent.

When Casey was using Mediabase for AT40, the recurrent rules seemed a bit too strict as songs were often pulled off the chart from rather high positions; but during the Ryan Seacrest era they've erred too far in the other direction in my (and many others on here) opinion, with no evident recurrent rule leading to many hits staying around for months and months. I'm not sure which approach is better or worse.

[jedijake]

What I wonder is if there is a way to shorten songs' chart life without using a recurrent rule.

Is there just not enough songs being played on the radio? Is it because of fragmentation of stations? (not as much of a problem in the early to mid 90's)

Personally, I think that it's a combination of the two. Certainly, the computerization of the charts did not cause the same songs to be played for 40 weeks in a row.

[laura]

I also noticed that as well when I heard it again. If I compiled that year-end chart, that would have definitely ended up at least in the Top 50 for me.

[Hervard]

Jan 15, 2009 0:05:51 GMT -5 Caseyfan4everRyanfanNever said:

Probably had something to do with the fact that AT40 changed charts for a short time from 2000-2001. Instead of Radio and Records, they used an unpublished Mediabase 24/7 chart that apparently had a strict recurrent rule, where songs were removed from very high on the chart. Therefore Radio and Records data may not have mattered as far as AT40 was concerned at that time.

Yeah, and they apparently didn't have anyone proofreading the chart. The AC YE chart was even more warped, with several songs appearing on it that did not chart at all during the year (i.e. "Everything You Want" by Vertical Horizon - they probably included that just so Casey could say it was the #1 Pop song of the year). There were also several songs on there that charted on the AT20 chart near the end of the year (ones that made it by dropping seven older songs the week of the switch). And a whole bunch of holdovers from 1999 that lasted well into 2000. I have a feeligg that they used the same chart that they switched to in October '00 and those songs had probably dropped from the chart when they did a chart purge, which happened roughly twice a year. The first one was in late October and there were two more in April, one at the beginning of the month, the other four weeks later. They might have done two separate ones then to make it look less conspicuous. When they did the first one, two songs that had fallen off the chart were pulled back onto the chart ("By Your Side" by Sade and "This Could Be Heaven" by Seal, I believe). The one in late April caused four songs to enter the chart, but one of them was a re-entry and I don't think it was done on the chart, like Sade and Seal were, pretty much.
One other thing about the chart brings the lack of a proofreader back to mind. Throughout the time period they used this oddball chart, there were several songs that mysteriously fell off the chart from relatively high positions only to re-enter the week after, also pretty high up. Ironically, one of these songs ("I Hope You Dance" by LeeAnn Womack) turned out to be the #1 song of the year.