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Hot Country Songs is a chart released weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.
This 60-position chart lists the most popular country songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales. Currently, the chart does not count digital downloads towards chart tabulation.
The chart provides the information for the syndicated radio program, "American Country Countdown;" however, only the week's top 40 songs are referenced.
History
Billboard began compiling the popularity of country songs with its January 8, 1944 issue. However, only the genre's most popular jukebox selections were tabulated, with the chart titled "Most Played Juke Box Folk Records." The chart length was not standardized; a given week had anywhere from two to eight positions.
For about 10 years, from 1948-1958, Billboard used several charts to measure the popularity of a given song. These included:
- The "best sellers" chart – started May 15, 1948 as "Best Selling Retail Folk Records." This chart had anywhere from 10-20 positions during its 10-year life, with the number of positions varying each week.
- A "jockeys" chart – started December 10, 1949 as "Country & Western Records Most Played By Folk Disk Jockeys." This chart had anywhere from eight to 15 positions, varying from week to week.
The names of each chart changed slightly during each chart's life. The "jukebox" chart – which by 1956 was known as "Most Played C&W in Juke Boxes" – ended on June 17, 1957. The "best sellers" and "jockeys" charts continued until October 13, 1958.
Starting with the October 20, 1958 issue, Billboard began combining sales and radio airplay in figuring a song's overall popularity, counting them in one single chart called "Hot C&W Sides." The chart began with a standard length of 30 positions each week. The name of the chart, and the number of positions varied through the years (at one point, the chart had 100 positions each week). The chart became known as "Hot Country Singles & Tracks" on February 17, 1990, the same week it dropped to 75 positions, and was renamed "Hot Country Songs" effective April 30, 2005.
Today, Billboard compiles its country singles chart entirely from information provided by Broadcast Data Systems, a system which electronically monitors radio airplay of songs.
Further reading
- Whitburn, Joel. "Top Country Songs 1944-2005 - 6th Edition." 2006.
See also
"Hot Country Songs"