8/24/08 Hot AC Chart: 3 Doors Down returns to #1, Daughtry goes top 10

At the top of the chart this week, 3 Doors Down climb back up to #1 with “It’s Not My Time”, giving the song its 2nd week on top. The last time a song fell from #1 and returned to the top spot was back in 2006 when “Black Horse & the Cherry Tree” did it.

David Cook rebounds back to his peak of #6, but it looks like that will be the highest it goes unless stations suddenly start playing it more.

Fellow Idol alum Daughtry climbs to #9 this week with “What about Now”. This gives Daughtry 5 top 10s off their debut album, which is a new record for the HAC chart. This also puts them in a tie for most top 10s from a single album. The other 2 acts are Kelly Clarkson and Nickelback. Another tidbit about Daughtry: They have been consecutively in the top 10 with different songs since January of 2007. Interesting note…Idol judge Paula Abdul had 5 top 10s on the pop chart from her debut cd.

Jesse McCartney gets pushed back out of the top 20 as Collbie Callait jumps over him to land at #20. Lifehouse stalls at #21 but with a strong bullet, so look for it to climb again soon.

Pink has the highest debut of the week at #35 with “So What”, her 9th entry on the HAC chart. The other debut is by newcomer Justin Nozuka. He debuts at #40 with “After Tonight”.

For you Idol fans, David Archuleta is bubbling under the top 40 with “Crush”.

All chart data © Mediabase 24/7

(Edited to add Paula Abdul info and the copyright notice)

8/17/08 Hot AC Chart: Coldplay reigns, Carrie Underwood’s big move, Jonas Brothers go top 30

Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida” holds at #1 for a 2nd week, but is only 23 spins ahead of 3 Doors Down’s “It’s Not My Time”.

Kid Rock continues his climb up the chart, moving 5-4 with “All Summer Long”. David Cook gets pushed back down to #7, but the song is still gaining spins and is just a few spins behind Gavin Rossdale at #6. Just below the top 10 Daughtry moves up to #12 with “What about Now”. If his gains continue, he could be top 10 next week.

Jesse McCartney gets a 2nd top 20 hit as “Leavin’” moves up to #20. The Jonas Brothers get their first top 30 on Hot AC with “Burnin’ Up”, which moves up to #29 in its 4th week on the chart.

Carrie Underwood leaps 7 notches to #31 this week and is the biggest mover within the top 40. Interestingly, she only had an increase of 34 spins over the previous week.  Thus, unless more stations play the song, don’t expect much of a move up next week. The song is being played on about 20% of the Hot AC panel of stations.

Staind has the highest of the 3 debuts this week. They come in at #34 with “Believe”.  The song is their 5th Hot AC hit. Newcomer Estelle enters at #37 with “American Boy”, and Leona Lewis debuts at #39 with her 2nd hit “Better in Time.”

All chart data © Mediabase 24/7.

Madonna Turns 50: 25 years of hits

Happy Birthday to Madonna, who turned 50 years old this past week. Madonna first charted on the pop chart back in late 1983 with “Holiday”, so it’s been 25 years of hits. Who else has charted within at least a 25 year span? Here are some examples: Elvis Presley first charted in 1956, and his last appearance in the top 40 on the Mediabase pop chart was in 2002, which is a 46 year span. The Beatles charted from 1964 to 1996, a 32 year span.  Cher appeared in 1965 and last charted on Mediabase pop in 2002, a 37 year span. Other acts include, but are not limited to, the Beach Boys, the Bee Gees, and Aretha Franklin. Thus Madonna is in good company.

The Hot AC chart began in 1994, well into Madonna’s career. Since then she has charted 19 times, with her most recent song being 2008’s “4 Minutes”.  Her first 3 songs on the HAC chart were all #1s: “I’ll Remember”, “Secret”, and “Take a Bow”. “Bow” spent 8 weeks at #1. Her 4 other top 10s on HAC are: “You’ll See”, “Frozen”, Beautiful Stranger”, and “Don’t Tell Me”. Two of her hits only spent 1 week on the chart: “Ray of Light” and “Sorry”.  The song of hers to spend the most weeks on the HAC chart is “Don’t Tell Me”, with 29 weeks. She’s had a song debut on the HAC chart every year from 1994-2008 except 2004 and 2007.

To see a history of Madonna on the old Radio and Records/current Mediabase Pop chart, please visit the chart archive site.

All HAC Chart data listed is © Mediabase 24/7.

8/10/08 Hot AC Chart: Coldplays 1st #1, New Peak for David Cook, Carrie Debuts

We have another new number one this week. Coldplay score their 1st #1 single on the Hot AC chart with “Viva La Vida”, which hits #1 in its 10th week on the chart. That means that 3 Doors Down only spent 1 week at #1, the 2nd song to do that this year. Back in February, “Apologize” spent 1 week at the top.

David Cook inches up one more to #6 with “The Time of My Life”. The song will need new growth in order to make the top 5.

Jason Mraz scores a 2nd top 10 hit with “I’m Yours” which moves to #10. His only other top 10 was his 1st hit “The Remedy”, 5 years ago.

“What about Now” makes the top 15 this week, while Daughtry’s previous hit holds at #9. Metro Station make the top 20 at #20 with “Shake It”.

The biggest mover is Lifehouse’s “Broken”, which climbs 6 to #24 in its 4th week on the chart.

The highest debut is Colbie Caillat’s 3rd hit, “The Little Things”, at #28. Carrie Underwood also scores a third hit, “Last Name”. After bubbling under the top 40 for a while now, the song debuts at #38.  Lesley Roy re-enters the top 40 for a 2nd time with “I’m Gone, I’m Going” at #40.

All chart data © Mediabase 24/7.

More Men Actually Listen to AC/Hot AC Than Expected?

Thanks to a tip from a reader, I read a presentation from McVay Media that showed results from portable people meters in example AC radio stations.  The results, in part, show that the composition of the listeners of the AC stations is nearly 50-50 women to men. This is a big change from the expected results of 67 to 33 or even 75 to 25 ratio of women to men. While these results are only for AC stations, I bet a similar trend would be found on Hot AC as well. [Yes I do acknowledge that the results are only for 2 stations and do not necessarily represent all AC/HAC stations. Let's just go with a theoretical situation where they do.]

Why is this important to me? Well, exectives always target the women for AC stations, since that supposedly is their audience. They ignore the men, as men in the 25-54 year demo supposedly do not like AC or Hot AC. That’s always irked me since I enjoy Hot AC music, and I would like to be thought of as a valuable listener as well. I’m not in radio, so I don’t pretend to understand how to change the ad buys and songs to target more men, but I believe it should be done to better reflect the apparent listening audience.

8/3/08 Hot AC Chart: 3 Doors Down #1, David Cook inches up, Daughtry’s 5th top 20

We have a new #1 this week, “It’s Not My Time” by 3 Doors Down. It’s the group’s 2nd #1 hit on Hot AC, with their first being “Here without You”.  “Time” reaches #1 in its 20th week on the chart.

“Viva La Vida” climbs to #2 and is less than 25 spins away from #1, so 3 Doors Down stay at the top looks short.

David Cook inches up one more to #7, but his bullet is healthier than last week. He could sneak up another notch next week.

Daughtry’s “What about Now” jumps 5 to #17 this week, giving the group their 5th top 20 hit off of their debut cd. They’re the first group to have 5 top 20s from a debut cd, and only the third act overall to have 5  top 20 hits from any cd. The other two acts? Nickelback and fellow American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson.

“Leavin’” leaps 6 spots to #25 for the week’s biggest move. Two songs debut: “One Step at a Time” by American Idol winner Jordin Sparks (have I mentioned Idol enough already? ) is the highest debut at #36. John McLaughlin anchors the chart at #40 with the other debut, “Beating My Heart”.

All chart data © Mediabase 24/7.

August 1 and No Free Mediabase

If you’ve been following the Mediabase situation, that is the free access to daily updates being removed, then you know today was the day that Mediabase was supposed to become free once again. However, as of early evening (EDT) on August 1, that has not come to pass. The August 1st date came from the Mediabase article in Wikipedia, which can be edited by anyone. Apparently the person who wrote the article was misinformed.

Weekly updates are still free at www.americasmusiccharts.com , and USA Today still publishes the top 30 of the charts each week, which is still better than nothing.