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On January 4, 1936 Billboard magazine published its first music hit parade and on July 20, 1940 Billboard published its first Music Popularity Chart.

Today, Billboard maintains several internationally recognized charts that track the most popular songs in various categories on a weekly basis. Its " Hot 100" survey ranks the top 100 pop songs and is frequently used as the standard measure for ranking singles in the United States. The Hot 100 chart is compiled by tracking single sales as well as songs' radio airplay on a variety of different station formats, including urban, modern rock, country, adult contemporary, Top 40Top 40 is a radio format based on frequent repetition of songs from a constantly-updated list of the forty best-selling singles. The term is also used to refer to the actual list of hit songs, and, by extension, to refer to pop music in general. History A, rhythmicRhythmic music and Rhythmic radio, also known as Rhythmic Crossover or Rhythmic Pop is a term used to describe a certain group of radio stations and the Billboard chart that is compiled based on airplay from those radio stations. Rhythmic radio stations g, and adult Top 40 . Additionally, each style has its own individual chart, so a song that is widely played on (for example) alternative rockThe term alternative rock or alternative music 1 was coined in the early 1980s to describe bands which didn't fit into the mainstream genres of the time. A catch-all phrase for modern rock and similar genres, it includes indie, post-punk, hardcore punk, G stations but has little crossover appeal may chart on the Modern Rock Tracks chartThe Modern Rock Tracks chart is a music chart that has appeared in Billboard magazine since the early 1980s. It lists the 40 most-played songs on alternative rock radio, most of which are modern rock songs. In many ways, the Modern Rock Tracks chart is a but not on the Hot 100. Songs are awarded points, according to the amount of airplay and singles sold, which are added up to calculate the weekly Hot 100 rankings. Currently, because so few singleAlternate meanings: Single (disambiguation In music, a single is a song considered commercially viable enough by the artist and record company to be released separately from an album, usually featuring on an album as well. It is often accompanied by severs are sold in America, single sales hardly matter (the best-selling single usually sells less than 20000 copies in the whole U.S.) and a song's radio play is much more important.

Since late 19981998 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar), and was designated the International Year of the Ocean''. Events January January 1998 A massive ice storm, caused by El Nino, strikes New England, southern Ontario and Quebec, resulting, it has been possible for a song to chart on the Hot 100 based only on airplay points (the term that Billboard uses for this is an album cut). Prior to this change, a song had to have had a single available for purchase in order to rank on the Hot 100. To date, several songs that have had no buyable single have managed to achieve such massive radio airplay that they were able to make it into the number one spot anyway. The first instance of this was AaliyahAaliyah Dana Haughton ( January 16, 1979 August 25, 2001) was an American rhythm and blues singer. Professionally known as simply Aaliyah she also branched out into acting before her death in a plane crash in 2001 at the age of 22. Life and career Early c's Try Again from Romeo Must DieRomeo Must Die ( 2000) is an American film directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak and starring Aaliyah, DMX and Jet Li. Plot outline Han Sing (Li) has taken the fall for his father and brother and gone to prison in Hong Kong while his family escaped to the United, which was a giant pop, rhythmic, and urban radio hit.

Some other notable Billboard records include Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men's 1995 song "One Sweet Day," which is the longest-lasting number one on the Hot 100 (16 weeks) and consequently the most popular song, in general, in American history.

The R&B group The Isley Brothers hold a record for being the only act to have had Top 40 hits on the Hot 100 in six consecutive decades: the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s.

The classic rock group Pink Floyd hold the record for the album in the top 100 the longest. Their 1973 Dark Side of the Moon remained on the chart for 591 consecutive weeks (11 years), and 740 weeks total, finally dropping off in 1988.

For many years, the weekly syndicated radio program American Top 40, hosted by Casey Kasem, played the top 40 songs on that Billboard chart in reverse order; in 2004, after his departure, he was replaced with American Idol host Ryan Seacrest. The October 11, 2003 chart week marked the first time since its inception that the Billboard Top 10 artists were exclusively black individuals or groups with a majority of black members.