Your opinion: most/least realistic chart years pre-Soundscan

[80sat40fan]

Looking back on the charts, what years do you think Billboard was "right on" with America's tastes, and what might it have not been completely in sync with listening habits and single purchases?  This was also dependent on how the charts were compiled at the time.  Soundscan changed the charts a lot in late '91 so I am looking at AT40 charts pre-Soundscan.

For me, I thought the '72 charts seemed to line up with people's likes and dislikes. Some songs zoomed up the countdown if they were out of the box smashes while starting in '73, that didn't seem to happen as much. I also thought '84 and '85 were pretty accurate charts. Publishing the top single airplay and single sales charts in the summer of '84 give some credence to that era for me... although in late '85, it seemed like a lot of future popular songs somehow found their way into the Top 40 at #40 in their first week rather than being high debuts the following week. I wonder if AT40 was under any pressure to feature a great hit or at least a well-known artist at #40 by the Fall of '85? That's just speculation on my behalf.

Least realistic chart years? '78 would be one of my picks given how hot RSO tunes were at the time (Yvonne Elliman moving to #1 without a bullet with "If I Can't Have You" and Gerry Rafferty not hitting #1 with "Baker Street" as two examples). On the other hand, '82, while such a fun movement year for chart enthusiasts, seems like an odd chart year given songs holding multiple weeks at the same position like 6 weeks at #21 for "What Kind Of Fool Am I" or five weeks at #31 for "You Dropped A Bomb On Me."

In hindsight... given how charts were compiled back in the day, what years for you are very realistic chart years and what years are not as realistic?

[dth1971]

I think 1982 should be the least with the many weeks at 1 position and big droppers out of the top 40 from the top 10 reaches.

[jlthorpe]

I only started listening to pop music regularly in the summer of 1990, so I just have a short period of time to comment on. Looking back, I will say it seemed like the spring and summer charts from 1991 prior to Soundscan made sense based on what I remember getting released back then. "Baby Baby" was a #1 hit, "Joyride" was a #1 hit, "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" was a massive #1 hit, everything Mariah Carey put out was a #1 hit, and a lot of songs that seemed like Top 10 hits were Top 10 hits, unlike a lot of stuff post-Soundscan (Aerosmith's "Cryin'" never hit the Top 10 - that still doesn't make sense to me). It's hard for me to say when it comes to the fall of 1991, since I didn't listen to pop music as much at that time, and some songs I had no familiarity with back then were Top 10 hits ("Can't Stop This Thing We Started", "Real, Real, Real", "The One and Only").

[chrislc]

Mar 20, 2023 17:36:02 GMT -5 80sat40fan said:

Looking back on the charts, what years do you think Billboard was "right on" with America's tastes, and what might it have not been completely in sync with listening habits and single purchases?  This was also dependent on how the charts were compiled at the time.  Soundscan changed the charts a lot in late '91 so I am looking at AT40 charts pre-Soundscan.

For me, I thought the '72 charts seemed to line up with people's likes and dislikes. Some songs zoomed up the countdown if they were out of the box smashes while starting in '73, that didn't seem to happen as much. I also thought '84 and '85 were pretty accurate charts. Publishing the top single airplay and single sales charts in the summer of '84 give some credence to that era for me... although in late '85, it seemed like a lot of future popular songs somehow found their way into the Top 40 at #40 in their first week rather than being high debuts the following week. I wonder if AT40 was under any pressure to feature a great hit or at least a well-known artist at #40 by the Fall of '85? That's just speculation on my behalf.

Least realistic chart years? '78 would be one of my picks given how hot RSO tunes were at the time (Yvonne Elliman moving to #1 without a bullet with "If I Can't Have You" and Gerry Rafferty not hitting #1 with "Baker Street" as two examples). On the other hand, '82, while such a fun movement year for chart enthusiasts, seems like an odd chart year given songs holding multiple weeks at the same position like 6 weeks at #21 for "What Kind Of Fool Am I" or five weeks at #31 for "You Dropped A Bomb On Me."

In hindsight... given how charts were compiled back in the day, what years for you are very realistic chart years and what years are not as realistic?

I would think any post-payola scandal and pre-Wardlow years would be pretty much equally credible. So that would be about 1960 to 1975.

Do the charts create the tastes or do the tastes create the charts? I think 1960-75 would best represent the latter of the two. I know 1966 and 1967 had the most singles making the charts and therefore probably the fastest turnover. Maybe those two years were the best years in this respect due to that level of competition.

[djjoe1960]

Mar 20, 2023 17:36:02 GMT -5 80sat40fan said:

Looking back on the charts, what years do you think Billboard was "right on" with America's tastes, and what might it have not been completely in sync with listening habits and single purchases?  This was also dependent on how the charts were compiled at the time.  Soundscan changed the charts a lot in late '91 so I am looking at AT40 charts pre-Soundscan.

For me, I thought the '72 charts seemed to line up with people's likes and dislikes. Some songs zoomed up the countdown if they were out of the box smashes while starting in '73, that didn't seem to happen as much. I also thought '84 and '85 were pretty accurate charts. Publishing the top single airplay and single sales charts in the summer of '84 give some credence to that era for me... although in late '85, it seemed like a lot of future popular songs somehow found their way into the Top 40 at #40 in their first week rather than being high debuts the following week. I wonder if AT40 was under any pressure to feature a great hit or at least a well-known artist at #40 by the Fall of '85? That's just speculation on my behalf.

Least realistic chart years? '78 would be one of my picks given how hot RSO tunes were at the time (Yvonne Elliman moving to #1 without a bullet with "If I Can't Have You" and Gerry Rafferty not hitting #1 with "Baker Street" as two examples). On the other hand, '82, while such a fun movement year for chart enthusiasts, seems like an odd chart year given songs holding multiple weeks at the same position like 6 weeks at #21 for "What Kind Of Fool Am I" or five weeks at #31 for "You Dropped A Bomb On Me."

In hindsight... given how charts were compiled back in the day, what years for you are very realistic chart years and what years are not as realistic?

I think the easiest way to consider whether the charts accurately reflected what was really popular is to compare the Big 3 (and R & R)--and see if any songs made it into the Top 10 or #1 (on only one chart) and where those songs peaked on the other charts. One song that made the Top 10 in Record World in 1966, made it to #28 in Billboard & #31 in Cash Box--however, the song gets airplay on Oldies stations; the song in question...Knock on Wood by Eddie Floyd. 

   Electric Light Orchestra had their only #1 in Radio & Records during the summer of 1979, a song that reached the Top 10 in the other Big 3 (reaching #7 in CB & #8 in both BB/RW)--Shine A Little Love. Probably not the song that one immediately thinks of when reflecting on ELO's biggest hit.

    I could bring up dozens of more unusual songs that reached the Top 10 or #1 in only magazine--but I think the point is that songs that peaked in nearly the same position on all the charts should show that the charts clearly reflected the listening and buying habits of their time frame prior to Soundscan.