The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on airplay and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday; while the airplay tracking-week runs from Wednesday to Tuesday. A new chart is compiled and officially released to the public by Billboard on Thursday. Each chart is dated with the "week-ending" date of the Saturday after.
Limitations[]
The limitations of the Hot 100 have become more pronounced over time. Since the Hot 100 was based on singles sales, as singles have themselves become a less common form of song release, the Hot 100's data represented a narrowing segment of sales until the December 1998 change in the ranking formula.
Few music historians believe that the Hot 100 has been a perfectly accurate gauge of the most popular songs for each week or year. For example, during the 1950s and 1960s, payola and other problems skewed the numbers in largely undetectable ways.
Further, the history of popular music shows nearly as many remarkable failures to chart as it does impressive charting histories. Certain artists (such as Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin) had tremendous album sales while being oblivious to the weekly singles charts. Business changes in the industry also affect artists' statistical "records." Single releases were more frequent and steady, and were expected to have much shorter shelf lives in earlier decades, making direct historical comparisons somewhat specious. Of the sixteen singles to top the Billboard chart for more than ten weeks since 1955, just one was released before 1992. During the first forty years of the rock era, no song had ever debuted at number one; since a 1995 change in methodology, a dozen have.
Strategizing also plays a role. Numerous artists have taken deliberate steps to maximize their chart positions by such tactics as timing a single's debut to face the weakest possible competition, or massively discounting the price of singles to the point where each individual sale represented a financial loss. Meanwhile, other artists would deliberately withhold even their most marketable songs in order to boost album sales. Particularly in the 1990s, many of the most heavily played MTV and radio hits were unavailable for separate purchase. Because of such countervailing strategies, it cannot be said that a Hot 100 chart necessarily lists the country's 100 most popular or successful songs. Strategies like these were the main reason behind the December 1998 change in the charts.
Some critics have argued that an overemphasis on a limited number of singles has distorted record industry development efforts, and there are nearly as many critics of the Hot 100 as there are supporters. Certain of these criticisms, however, are becoming less and less germane as digital downloads have revitalized the concept of “singles sales.”
For good or ill, the Billboard charts have endured as the only widely-circulated published report on songs that have been popular across the United States over the last half-century. Competing publications such as Cash Box, Record World, and Radio & Records offered alternate charts, which sometimes differed widely. But even a perfect meld of all these charts could only provide scholars an imperfect overview of American popular music.
Entries[]
| Song | Debut date | Peak position | Peak date | Weeks on chart |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Vision of Love" | June 2, 1990 | 1 (4 weeks) | August 4, 1990 | 22 |
| "Love Takes Time" | September 15, 1990 | 1 (3 weeks) | November 10, 1990 | 26 |
| "Someday" | January 19, 1991 | 1 (2 weeks) | March 9, 1991 | 19 |
| "I Don't Wanna Cry" | April 6, 1991 | 1 (2 weeks) | May 25, 1991 | 19 |
| "Emotions" | August 31, 1991 | 1 (3 weeks) | October 12, 1991 | 20 |
| "Can't Let Go" | November 16, 1991 | 2 | January 25, 1992 | 20 |
| "Make It Happen" | February 22, 1992 | 5 | April 11, 1992 | 20 |
| "I'll Be There" (featuring Trey Lorenz) | May 30, 1992 | 1 (2 weeks) | June 20, 1992 | 20 |
| "Dreamlover" | August 7, 1993 | 1 (8 weeks) | September 11, 1993 | 29 |
| "Hero" | October 23, 1993 | 1 (4 weeks) | December 25, 1993 | 30 |
| "Without You" / "Never Forget You" | January 29, 1994 | 3 | March 19, 1994 | 23 |
| "Anytime You Need a Friend" | May 28, 1994 | 12 | June 25, 1994 | 21 |
| "Endless Love" (with Luther Vandross) | September 10, 1994 | 2 | October 1, 1994 | 20 |
| "Fantasy" | September 30, 1995 | 1 (8 weeks) | September 30, 1995 | 25 |
| "One Sweet Day" (with Boyz II Men) | December 2, 1995 | 1 (16 weeks) | December 2, 1995 | 27 |
| "Always Be My Baby" | April 6, 1996 | 1 (2 weeks) | May 4, 1996 | 32 |
| "Honey" | September 13, 1997 | 1 (3 weeks) | September 13, 1997 | 20 |
| "My All" | May 9, 1998 | 1 | May 23, 1998 | 20 |
| "When You Believe" (with Whitney Houston) | December 5, 1998 | 15 | January 30, 1999 | 17 |
| "I Still Believe" | February 6, 1999 | 4 | March 20, 1999 | 20 |
| "Heartbreaker" (featuring Jay-Z) | September 4, 1999 | 1 (2 weeks) | October 9, 1999 | 20 |
| "Thank God I Found You" (with Joe & 98º) | December 11, 1999 | 1 | February 19, 2000 | 20 |
| "All I Want for Christmas Is You" | January 8, 2000 | 1 (14 weeks) | December 21, 2019 | 65 |
| "Crybaby" (featuring Snoop Dogg) | June 24, 2000 | 28 | June 24, 2000 | 7 |
| "Loverboy" (featuring Cameo) | June 23, 2001 | 2 | August 4, 2001 | 14 |
| "Never Too Far / Hero Medley" | December 29, 2001 | 81 | December 29, 2001 | 3 |
| "Through the Rain" | December 28, 2002 | 81 | January 18, 2003 | 9 |
| "I Know What You Want" (with Busta Rhymes featuring The Flipmode Squad) | March 8, 2003 | 3 | May 31, 2003 | 24 |
| "U Make Me Wanna" (Jadakiss featuring Mariah Carey) | November 20, 2004 | 21 | December 25, 2004 | 13 |
| "It's Like That" | January 29, 2005 | 16 | March 12, 2005 | 20 |
| "We Belong Together" | April 16, 2005 | 1 (14 weeks) | June 4, 2005 | 43 |
| "Shake It Off" | July 30, 2005 | 2 | September 10, 2005 | 26 |
| "Don't Forget About Us" | October 22, 2005 | 1 (2 weeks) | December 31, 2005 | 21 |
| "Say Somethin'" (featuring Snoop Dogg) | April 29, 2006 | 79 | May 20, 2006 | 5 |
| "Touch My Body" | March 1, 2008 | 1 (2 weeks) | April 12, 2008 | 20 |
| "Bye Bye" | May 3, 2008 | 19 | May 31, 2008 | 12 |
| "Migrate" (featuring T-Pain) | May 3, 2008 | 92 | May 3, 2008 | 1 |
| "I'll Be Lovin' U Long Time" | July 26, 2008 | 58 | August 30, 2008 | 8 |
| "Just Stand Up!" (as part of Artists Stand Up to Cancer) | 11 | |||
| "My Love" (The-Dream featuring Mariah Carey) | March 21, 2009 | 82 | March 21, 2009 | 4 |
| "Obsessed" | July 25, 2009 | 7 | September 19, 2009 | 21 |
| "I Want to Know What Love Is" | October 3, 2009 | 60 | October 17, 2009 | 6 |
| "Up Out My Face" (featuring Nicki Minaj) | March 6, 2010 | 100 | March 6, 2010 | 1 |
| "Oh Santa!" | January 1, 2011 | 100 | January 11, 2011 | 1 |
| "All I Want for Christmas Is You" (SuperFestive! with Justin Bieber) | November 19, 2011 | 86 | November 19, 2011 | 1 |
| "#Beautiful" (featuring Miguel) | May 25, 2013 | 15 | June 22, 2013 | 16 |
| "You're Mine (Eternal)" | March 1, 2014 | 88 | March 1, 2014 | 1 |
| "Infinity" | May 16, 2015 | 82 | May 16, 2015 | 1 |
| "I Don't" (featuring YG) | February 25, 2017 | 89 | February 25, 2017 | 1 |
| "Oh Santa!" (featuring Ariana Grande & Jennifer Hudson) | December 19, 2020 | 76 | December 19, 2020 | 1 |
Bubbling Under Hot 100[]
Entries[]
| Song | Debut date | Peak position | Peak date | Weeks on chart |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Sweetheart" (with Jermaine Dupri) | December 5, 1998 | 25 | December 5, 1998 | 1 |
| "I Still Believe" | January 30, 1999 | 1 | January 30, 1999 | 1 |
| "Thank God I Found You" (featuring Joe & 98º) | December 4, 1999 | 7 | December 4, 1999 | 1 |
| "All I Want for Christmas Is You" | January 1, 2000 | 7 | January 1, 2000 | 1 |
| "Loverboy" (featuring Cameo) | June 16, 2001 | 16 | June 16, 2001 | 1 |
| "Never Too Far / Hero Medley" | September 1, 2001 | 5 | September 15, 2001 | 6 |
| "Don't Stop (Funkin' 4 Jamaica)" (featuring Mystikal) | October 27, 2001 | 23 | October 27, 2001 | 2 |
| "Through the Rain" | November 2, 2002 | 11 | December 21, 2002 | 8 |
| "I Know What You Want" (with Busta Rhymes featuring The Flipmode Squad) | March 1, 2003 | 5 | March 1, 2003 | 1 |
| "U Make Me Wanna" (Jadakiss featuring Mariah Carey) | October 30, 2004 | 5 | November 13, 2004 | 3 |
| "It's Like That" | January 22, 2005 | 4 | January 22, 2005 | 1 |
| "We Belong Together" | April 9, 2005 | 7 | April 9, 2005 | 1 |
| "Shake It Off" | July 23, 2005 | 3 | July 23, 2005 | 1 |
| "So Lonely" (Twista featuring Mariah Carey) | December 24, 2005 | 14 | January 7, 2006 | 10 |
| "Say Somethin'" (featuring Snoop Dogg) | April 22, 2006 | 5 | April 22, 2006 | 1 |
| "Fly Like a Bird" | April 29, 2006 | 4 | June 24, 2006 | 22 |
| "Lil' L.O.V.E." (Bone Thugs-n-Harmony featuring Mariah Carey) | May 26, 2007 | 17 | May 26, 2007 | 5 |
| "I'll Be Lovin' U Long Time" | July 19, 2008 | 24 | July 19, 2008 | 1 |
| "Obsessed" | July 11, 2009 | 1 | July 18, 2009 | 2 |
| "Betcha Gon' Know (The Prologue)" | October 17, 2009 | 1 | October 24, 2009 | 2 |
| "Oh Santa!" | December 18, 2010 | 6 | December 25, 2010 | 2 |
| "Triumphant (Get 'Em)" (featuring Rick Ross & Meek Mill) | August 25, 2012 | 15 | August 25, 2012 | 1 |
| "#Beautiful" (featuring Miguel) | May 18, 2013 | 4 | May 18, 2013 | 1 |
| "The Art of Letting Go" | November 30, 2013 | 19 | November 30, 2013 | 1 |