Billboard’s New Country Chart Methodology Creates Chaos

12 years ago Liv Carter 2

Country music song charts have since their beginning, and as a matter of course, tracked the most played songs at country radio. No longer. Billboard has changed up the way the Hot Country Songs Chart is compiled. From now on, digital sales will be included, which could simply be seen as the chart joining the 21st century. It has also decided to not only track country radio airplay, but also spins on a large number of all-genre stations. The result is a new top 10 which might not make much sense if you are solely a country radio listener.

The current Billboard Hot Country Songs chart top 10 is as follows:

1. ‘We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together’ – Taylor Swift
2. ‘Red’ – Taylor Swift
3. ‘Blown Away’ – Carrie Underwood
4. ‘Wanted’ – Hunter Hayes
5. ‘Take a Little Ride’ – Jason Aldean
6. ‘Cruise’ – Florida Georgia Line
7. ‘Cowboys and Angels’ – Dustin Lynch
8. ‘Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye’ – Luke Bryan
9. ‘Hard to Love’ – Lee Brice
10. ‘Begin Again’ – Taylor Swift

Um…what? Swift’s ‘We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together’ was pretty much killed by country radio, leading to the perhaps earlier-than-planned release of second Red-single, ‘Begin Again.’ The reason it is topping this chart, after having climbed up from #21 last week (!), is the addition of airplay figures from non-country radio and of digital sales. Her worldwide pop-fans far outnumber her mainly North-American country-fans, so with any inclusion of sales, Swift will tower over country acts selling predominantly to North-American audiences. This is obviously not her fault, nor is it Billboard’s. What Billboard can be called out for, however, is for including non-country radio airplay when tracking this chart. More than any other genre, country music has been intimately tied to radio. ‘We Are Never…,’ a song country radio totally rejected is now placed above Carrie Underwood‘s ‘Blown Away,’ a song which, regardless of how you personally feel about it, was embraced by country radio.

Why is this a bad idea? The song topping the Hot Country Songs chart has long been considered the “official” country music #1. To reach that spot you needed to have the most played song on country radio. This was (mostly) achieved by country music songs. Now, if you achieve a good measure of crossover success, those pop-station spins will count toward your chart position. It is my worry that this will only invite record labels to encourage artists to release more pop-leaning tunes, in a conscious effort to chase the multi-genre success required to compete with global stars like Taylor Swift.

And who really thinks that’s going to lead to an increase in song quality?

 

Liv Carter

Liv Carter

Liv is a career coach for creatives, and the people who work with them.
She holds several certificates from Berklee College of Music, and a certificate in Positive Psychology from UC Berkeley.
Her main influences are coffee, cats, and Alexander Hamilton.
Liv Carter

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