Everything under the top 20 or 30 is probably not actually what people are listening to. There have been several studies showing that over 70% of the music that people listen to is at least 18 months old.

Billboard does not allow songs 20 weeks old if they drop below 50. They don't allow songs over 52 weeks old if they drop below 20.

Exceptions are made when employees at Billboard deem that there is a significant enough reason for the song to chart. It's completely arbitrary. For example, that Lizzo song Truth Hurts was in a Netflix movie, and they allowed it to reenter the charts after 2 years. That Kate Bush song they allowed on the charts after appearing on Stranger Things. Eminem, Dr. Dre, and 50 Cent after the super bowl? No. Beyonce after she announced her tour? No. Think about how many hip-hop and r&b songs are played during pivotal scenes of some of the biggest movies... why does it seem that so few are allowed back on the charts?

I decided to look at some numbers. I examined Lil Baby's Freestyle and Luke Combs's Fast Car, number 4 on the charts. The streaming numbers per week recently are actually not that far apart, with Baby ahead on Apple Music, Youtube, and Tidal and Luke Combs ahead on Spotify. Where would Freestyle be on the charts? Top 30? We all know that country radio has the most listening hours and the biggest share of stations. Is radio weighted that heavily to get that song with similar streaming numbers as a 3 year old song all the way to number 4? It shouldn't be. I know a lot of people listen to the radio, but its purpose isn't to play what you wanna hear. Its goal is simply to not be offensive enough to make you change the station so that you can listen to the ads that make them money.

Based on looking at a some different streaming numbers, it seems to me that if the charts consisted of what people were actually choosing to listen to it would look like this:

The biggest artists' new music (Drake, Beyonce, Sheeran, Ye, Adele, Taylor, Posty, Morgan, Bad Bunny, etc)

Older songs (probably stuff like Bohemian Rhapsody, Freestyle, older songs by those biggest artists, most likely a bunch of Eminem, Fleetwood Mac, and whatever else has shown up in a new movie, tv show, or on TikTok that Billboard has decided not to reenter)

Maybe 10-20 of the most played new songs, depending on how many spots were filled by the big artists' albums.

What are some older songs that you think would chart if the Billboard Hot 100 chart consisted of what people chose to stream, regardless of when it came out, with little weight given to radio?

Stuck culture

The real charts are the Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube charts. That’s the most accurate representation of what people are actually listening to

We need some people to start collecting all of that data and calculating to give us the real charts.

"Billboard does not allow songs 20 weeks old if they drop below 50. They don't allow songs over 52 weeks old if they drop below 20."

If it wasn't for this rule, Shape Of You would probably still be charting today

It's a good rule to keep the charts fresh.

I think I would rather know what people are choosing to listen to, even if it makes me sad about the world we live in.

What do you mean by this? I feel like I could interpret this comment several different ways.

"Exceptions are made when employees at Billboard deem that there is a significant enough reason for the song to chart. It's completely arbitrary. For example, that Lizzo song Truth Hurts was in a Netflix movie, and they allowed it to reenter the charts after 2 years. That Kate Bush song they allowed on the charts after appearing on Stranger Things."

No, it's not arbitrary. These songs didn't chart long enough before their resurgence. And I'm pretty sure Truth Hurts never charted at all before the Netflix movie.

Taylor swift should occupy spots 1-100

Radio should not have that much power on the Billboard charts

Whenever rap gets too popular they change the rules to benefit pop

Non singles shouldn’t be allowed to chart

You see it

!!!

Rap/Black representations was getting too big so they decided to increase the importance old ass mediums were the safe white artists will dominate via radio play

You can literally listen to a song on Apple Music on repeat without actually listening 😂.

You mean to tell me that In Da Club wasn't on the charts long enough? Forgot About Dre? Whatever Eminem s*** he's got with a ton of streams? I don't believe it. They had enough streams to chart but weren't let back on, even though the super bowl is a pretty big deal. Billboard allowed that Fleetwood Mac song back on as well as Sure Thing, which I would imagine was on for 20 weeks, probably not very high. Once it drops off and becomes recurrent, staff at Billboard decide whether or not to allow it back on. How isn't that arbitrary?

That's right. I remember now. Truth Hurts climbed up the charts without actually being on the charts because it had to reach number 50 to show up because it was over 52 weeks old.

How many of the slots 50-100 would be filled with songs that are over a year old? And if a song is 55, wouldn't it being on the charts potentially give it a push to climb higher?

I get that it's supposed to be current or whatever, but I think they need a separate chart without those rules.

this thread needs to be pinned.
OP spittin.
The game is rigged.

I agree with that. Keep it clean

I don't agree with this because I probably would have never heard Tennessee Whiskey if it weren't allowed to chart because it wasn't a single.

If you don’t do it you get chart inflation

When a big artist drops an album the chart is then irrelevant because it’s all allowed to flood it

I get that. I'm torn on it though because if a song blows up, then the charts wouldn't really be accurate either. But, I also don't really like having a whole album chart in the top 20 either.

labels could just designate everything as a single

True, unfortunately they probably would do that

In the UK only 3 most popular songs by lead artist allowed in singles chart

Bunch of other rules too