I've always wondered this so I'm gonna throw it out there now but how comes the US Hot 100, especially the Top10 seems to be alot more consistent than its UK counterpart? It seems there is alot less movement in the former, where songs tend to climb steadily up the chart while the latter sees songs either shooting up rapidly or bombing just as fast. Also, has there ever been a time where the UK Top10 has remained pretty much static with little to no movement at all?

The US Hot 100 consists of a combination of Radio (measured in million of listeners) and Sales (measured per unit sales and since sales are generally in the hundreds of thousands, they are divided by 1000 to bring it to the same "base" as the "millions" of listeners). There is also a "streaming" component which gets added to give an overall points score for each song each week, and it is this combined points score (Radio listeners + Sales + Streams) that is used to rank the songs on the Hot 100 chart.

 

For example, Song 1 may have 100 million listeners on Radio in any one week and sells 200,000 copies. This song would have 100 points from radio and 200 from sales, giving it 300 chart points in total (100 (million, but ignore "million") + 200,000/1000 = 300). Song 2 might have 50 million listeners and 225,000 sales, giving it 275 chart points in total. Song 1 would chart higher than Song 2, as it has more chart points, despite its sales being less than Song 2's. [i've ignored the streaming component from this example as I can't remember how the number of streams are scaled to fit in with the radio listeners and sales.]

 

As radio tends to pick up songs in constant, weekly increases, or correspondingly, tends to slowly de-list songs from their playlists in constant, weekly decreases, this is reflected in the US charts. For a song that is also experiencing a similar increase/decrease in sales (e.g. increase in sales as radio picks up an album track, or decrease in sales once demand for the song has peaked (usually just before the peak on radio)), this corresponds to slow(er), consistentent rises/falls on the Hot 100.

 

Of course, this doesn't always apply, and e.g. a performance of a track on a big show (e.g. American Idol) can lead to a sales spike that, when factored into the Hot 100 calculation methodology, leads to a rapid rise up the chart for that track (and usually a rapid fall back down the chart the following week(s)); or e.g. tracks that are the first to be released from an album can often chart prior to their sales release based on their radio points alone, and then when the track is released for sale, shoot into the top 10 of the Hot 100 due to the sales spike being factored in.

 

Contrast this to the UK charts, which are entirely sales based and therefore the consistent radio angle isn't factored in at all and sales spikes/falls are generally more noticeable. Of course, there's actually an argument that including radio in the UK charts would massively distort the charts and may even generate more noticeable movements due to the massive listener base of Radio 1 and 2.

if you want to see a Hot 100 hundred type British chart you can use Hit40UK this uses download sales and radio airplay, but you can tell that airplay does distort the chart quite a bit as old/radio friendly songs stay in the chart longer.

^However, Hit40UK copies the Official Download Chart, so no matter how high the airplay is, if the song is not Top 10 in ODC, it will not be Top 10.

 

US has radio included which can linger its stay at the chart. Jason Mraz's I'm Yours has been in the Top 40 for over 25 weeks because of radio while sales are decreasing gradually. ;)

IMO, UK Chart is miles better when it comes to movements of the songs, it's rare to see a song lasting too long in Top 10 or Top 40.

 

Off-topic, ARIA Charts (Australia) has many old songs sliding slowly in the Top 50 because of sales being low. ;)

Also, has there ever been a time where the UK Top10 has remained pretty much static with little to no movement at all?

I don't think so. :)

Off-topic, ARIA Charts (Australia) has many old songs sliding slowly in the Top 50 because of sales being low. ;)

Is that just in recent weeks or overall? :)

 

Personally I prefer the UK chart, it's much more exciting to see the changes week-to-week.

Is that just in recent weeks or overall? :)

Not sure, I'll say recent weeks, as I haven't seen the old charts yet.

the UK is getting just as boring as the US chart these days

The UK charts have always been more reliable than the US Hot 100. As a simple, sales based chart with relatively few chart rules and most of which relate to formats, the UK chart is more reliable and doesn't need someone to sit and work out how many spins at radio are worth how many sales in stores. The Hot 100 also excludes records which would be ranked below #50 and have been on the charts for 20 weeks. Then old songs aren't allowed to chart unless they are being actively promoted at radio. Apart from the early to mid 2000s the UK chart hasn't had exclusion rules for records in the top 75.

 

Also, while the UK charts were the subject of scrutiny in the late 70s and early 80s over chart fixing, at least the Chart Manager of the UK charts hasn't been sacked unlike the Hot 100 counterpart who was sacked in 1983 for manipulating the charts including promoting songs to number one in dubious circumstances...

the UK is getting just as boring as the US chart these days

My thoughts exactly. I miss the old charts to be honest, I know downloads have thrown up some interesting songs sneaking into the charts occasionally but most of the time it's just so static...mind, I also think that the lack of a primetime TV programme to showcase new music has led to old songs hanging around longer, I had a friend ask me about the "new" Kings of Leon song Use Somebody the other day :o When I enquired what rock she'd been living under for the past 10 years :P she said "we can't have radio on at work, and there's nothing on TV at times when we can watch it except on Saturdays when the x-factor or something like it is on" and so this song had somehow passed her by until now, at which point she went and downloaded it.

if you want to see a Hot 100 hundred type British chart you can use Hit40UK this uses download sales and radio airplay, but you can tell that airplay does distort the chart quite a bit as old/radio friendly songs stay in the chart longer.

 

There's also the Bullboard chart :kink:

I've always wondered this so I'm gonna throw it out there now but how comes the US Hot 100, especially the Top10 seems to be alot more consistent than its UK counterpart? It seems there is alot less movement in the former, where songs tend to climb steadily up the chart while the latter sees songs either shooting up rapidly or bombing just as fast. Also, has there ever been a time where the UK Top10 has remained pretty much static with little to no movement at all?

 

Try our last but one singles chart - 7 non-movers in the T10, and the other three moved no more than 2 places...

 

Try our last but one singles chart - 7 non-movers in the T10, and the other three moved no more than 2 places...

He said though, remained static, not has become static. :unsure:

Thanks for all your helpful replies guys, I've always found this to be pretty interesting. I'm not sure which chart I prefer per say, but I'm glad I now have a little more insight into why they function differently :)