Sunday, March 2, 2008

Discrepancies in Billboard Charts

I found some problems with Billboard charts. Nothing serious though and no, I am not accusing Billboard of anything. It’s just that when I saw “What I’ve Done” by “Linkin Park” at the 38th position in the Hot 2007 Charts, I was a little troubled. It’s a kick ass song and Linkin Park are pretty famous too. Then why was this song rated 38th ?
It’s hard to say in this case as to why the song is rated 38th. I am sure Billboard was accurate with it’s ratings and all that, no doubt. I initially thought that the song might have bene released in late 2006 and still found its way on the 2007 chart. Not the case either. It was released in mid 2007 and debuted number 07 on the charts. (A relief there.)

But there have been cases where a song is on more than one years’ Hot 100 list. And depending on whether the song was released in the later part of the year or early part of the year, its ranking in the ensuing year’s Hot 100 could be higher or lower than the previous year rating respectively.

I think the bottom line is: Inside the Hot 100, it’s hard to compare songs based just on the Chart rankings.