Mainstream Top 40 facts for kids

The Mainstream Top 40 is a popular music chart from Billboard magazine. It shows which songs are played most often on the radio. On the Billboard website, it's also known as Pop Songs.

This chart ranks the most popular pop songs each week. It figures this out by tracking which songs are played on about 200 different Top 40 radio stations across the United States. A company called Nielsen BDS keeps track of all this radio play. Another company, Arbitron, sometimes calls this type of music "contemporary hit radio."

Chart History and Purpose

The Mainstream Top 40 chart started on October 10, 1992. It was created at the same time as the Rhythmic Songs Chart. The main reason for creating these charts was to tell the difference between radio stations. Some stations played a wide mix of all the current hit songs. Other stations focused more on specific music styles like R&B, Hip-Hop, or Dance music. This chart helped show which songs were popular on the stations that played a broad mix of pop hits.

Images for kids

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  Lady Gaga is the only musical artist in history to have her first six singles all reach the number-one position on this chart.

See also

In Spanish: Mainstream Top 40 para niños