Billboard Hot 100 facts for kids
The Billboard Hot 100 is a very important record chart in the United States. It lists the most popular songs each week. The chart is put together by Billboard magazine. Songs are ranked based on how many times they are sold (both physical copies and digital downloads), how many times they are played on online streaming services, and how much radio airplay they get across the U.S.
A new chart is usually ready and put online by Billboard on Tuesdays. However, the official date for the chart is the following Saturday, which is when the printed magazine comes out. For sales and streaming, Billboard counts everything from Friday to Thursday. Radio airplay is also counted during this Friday to Thursday period.
The very first song to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 was "Poor Little Fool" by Ricky Nelson. This happened on August 4, 1958. As of the chart for the week ending on July 19, 2025, there have been 1,182 different songs that reached the number-one spot. The song currently at number one is "Ordinary" by Alex Warren.
Contents
How the Hot 100 Started
Billboard magazine has been tracking popular music for a long time. The first chart they published was in July 1913. It listed the best-selling sheet music. Over the years, Billboard added other ways to measure a song's popularity, like how often it was played on the radio or in jukeboxes.
In 1940, Billboard created a full-page chart called the "Billboard Music Popularity Chart." This chart looked at jukebox plays, sales in stores, sheet music sales, and radio plays. The "Best Selling Retail Records" part of this chart was like an early version of today's pop chart. Its first number one song was "I'll Never Smile Again" by Tommy Dorsey.
Before the Hot 100, Billboard had different charts for different things:
- Best Sellers in Stores: This chart listed the songs that sold the most in music stores.
- Most Played by Jockeys: This chart showed the songs played most often on U.S. radio stations.
- Most Played in Jukeboxes: This chart ranked songs played most in jukeboxes. Jukeboxes were very popular with young people, especially when many radio stations didn't play much rock and roll music.
In November 1955, Billboard introduced "The Top 100." This chart combined sales, radio play, and jukebox activity into one list. It gave more importance to sales. The first number one on "The Top 100" was "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing" by The Four Aces.
Then, on August 4, 1958, Billboard launched the Hot 100. This became the main chart for all types of music. "Poor Little Fool" by Ricky Nelson was its first number one. The Hot 100 quickly became the most important way to measure a song's popularity in the U.S.
How Songs Are Ranked
The Billboard Hot 100 ranks songs using information from different sources. These include:
- Radio Songs: This counts how many times a song is played on about 1,000 radio stations across the U.S.
- Digital Song Sales: This tracks how many times a song is bought as a digital download from places like iTunes.
- Streaming Songs: This measures how many times a song is played on online streaming services like Spotify and also counts views on YouTube.
How the Chart Week Works
The week for counting sales, streaming, and radio play starts on Friday and ends on Thursday.
- For example, if a song is released on Friday, July 18, 2025, its sales, streams, and radio plays will be counted until Thursday, July 24, 2025.
- The new chart, showing how well that song did, would then be released online on Tuesday, July 29, 2025. The chart would be officially dated Saturday, August 2, 2025.
Changes Over Time
The way the Hot 100 is put together has changed many times. Billboard makes these changes to make sure the chart always shows what's truly popular.
Album Songs on the Chart
For a long time, a song could only be on the Hot 100 if it was sold as a single. But in the 1990s, many record labels stopped releasing songs as singles. They wanted people to buy whole albums instead. This meant some very popular songs that were played a lot on the radio couldn't be on the Hot 100 because they weren't sold as singles.
Some famous songs that were huge radio hits but couldn't chart on the Hot 100 (or charted much later) include:
- 1995: The Rembrandts' "I'll Be There for You" (the theme song from Friends)
- 1996: No Doubt's "Don't Speak"
- 1998: Goo Goo Dolls' "Iris"
Because of this, on December 5, 1998, Billboard changed the rule. The Hot 100 became a "songs" chart instead of just a "singles" chart. This meant that songs played on the radio could now be on the chart, even if they weren't sold as singles.
Digital Music and Streaming
In 2005, Billboard started counting paid digital downloads from services like iTunes. This was a big change! Songs could now jump many spots on the chart very quickly if they sold a lot digitally.
In 2007, Billboard began adding data from streaming media services. Then, in 2013, they started including views from YouTube in the Hot 100 formula. The song "Harlem Shake" was the first song to reach number one after YouTube views were added.
More recently, in July 2020, Billboard changed how they count sales of "bundles." These are when a song is sold along with merchandise (like a T-shirt). Now, these sales only count when the physical item is actually shipped to the customer. This stops artists from using bundles just to boost their chart position quickly.
Remixes
Sometimes, a song gets a "remix" that is very different from the original. If a remix is so changed that it's almost a new song, Billboard now counts its radio play separately from the original version. This means a song might appear on the chart twice, once for the original and once for the new remix.
Older Songs and Recurrents
To keep the chart fresh and make room for new artists, Billboard has rules for removing older songs. A song is usually moved to "recurrent status" (meaning it's no longer on the main Hot 100) if it has been on the chart for 20 weeks and falls below position 50. Also, songs that fall below position 25 after 52 weeks are removed.
However, there are exceptions! If an older song suddenly becomes very popular again, it can re-enter the Hot 100 if it charts higher than number 50. For example, Mariah Carey's 1994 Christmas song "All I Want for Christmas Is You" has reached number one on the Hot 100 in December several times, even though it's an older song.
Year-End Charts
Billboard also creates "year-end charts" to show the most popular songs of the entire year. The "chart year" runs from the first week of December to the last week of November. This allows Billboard to put together the year-end charts in time for their final magazine issue in December.
Today, year-end charts are calculated by adding up all the sales, streaming, and radio play points a song earned throughout the year. This gives a very accurate picture of which songs were truly the most popular.
Other Similar Charts
Billboard has created other charts similar to the Hot 100 for different regions:
- The Canadian Hot 100 started in 2007 for Canada.
- The Billboard Japan Hot 100 started in 2008 for Japan.
- The Billboard Vietnam Hot 100 started in 2022 for Vietnam.
Images for kids
-
The current Billboard Hot 100 logo
-
A previous iteration of the logo
See also
In Spanish: Billboard Hot 100 para niños
