Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the main U.S. singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. The new charts go into effect every Saturday, while the charts are posted every previous Thursday on the website.

Airplay-Only "Singles"/Album Cuts

Billboard's Hot 100 chart policies have been modified many times over the years to accommodate changes in the record industry, but one rule always remained constant: songs were not eligible to enter the Hot 100 unless they were available to purchase as a single. During the 1990s, a growing trend in the music industry was to promote songs to radio without ever releasing them as singles. It was feared by major record labels that singles were cannibalizing album sales, so they were slowly phased out. During this period, accusations eventually began to fly of chart manipulation as labels would hold off on releasing a single until airplay was at its absolute peak, thus prompting a Top 10 or, in some cases, a number one debut (see Number one debuts, below). As this occurred more and more often, Billboard finally answered the requests of music industry artists and insiders by including airplay-only singles (or album cuts) in the Hot 100. On December 5, 1998 the Hot 100 changed from being a "singles" chart to a "songs" chart.

Related Topics:
1990s - December 5 - 1998

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Many album cuts hit the Top 10 once the policy was changed, but the first song to climb all the way to number one as an airplay-only single was Aaliyah's "Try Again" on June 17, 2000 (the song was eventually released as a single, but not until after it had dropped from number one, and then only as a limited 12-inch single, and not a conventional CD Single). It is worth noting that several classic, extremely popular songs from this era never entered the Hot 100 because they were not released as singles before Billboard changed its policy: "Lovefool" by The Cardigans, "Killing Me Softly" by the Fugees and "Don't Speak" by No Doubt (which spent 16 weeks at number one on the Airplay chart) are three such examples. Three of the era's biggest songs eventually did chart, but only after Billboard changed the airplay-only policy, well after the songs had reached their peak at radio: "Iris" by The Goo Goo Dolls, "Torn" by Natalie Imbruglia and "Are You That Somebody?" by Aaliyah.

Related Topics:
Aaliyah - June 17 - 2000 - 12-inch single - The Cardigans - Killing Me Softly - Fugees - Don't Speak - No Doubt - The Goo Goo Dolls - Natalie Imbruglia

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