Windmills over at MJsbigblog put together a wonderful chart analysis of the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart as it relates to Florida Georgia Line's "Cruise" officially becoming the longest running single at #1 in the chart's 70-year history with 22 weeks lodge (and counting).
Excerpt:
"So “Need You Now” and “Love Story” are bigger sellers and garnered greater cross format airplay, yet Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart tells us “Cruise” was the hit with by far the longest chart-topping impact. Also garnering comparable or greater cross format airplay are Carrie Underwood’s “Before He Cheats” (#1 for 5 weeks on Billboard’s Country Airplay/Hot Country Songs chart, it peaked at #9 on Pop Songs, #5 on Adult Pop Songs, and #6 on Adult Contemporary Songs) and Taylor’s “You Belong With Me” (#1 for 2 weeks on Billboard’s Country Airplay/Hot Country Songs chart, it peaked at #2 on Pop Songs, #2 on Adult Pop Songs, and #1 on Adult Contemporary Songs)."
And:
Carrie Underwood’s “Before He Cheats” was the Hot 100′s top ranking country song from: the 10/21/06 chart through the 2/24/07 chart, from the 3/24/07 chart through the 4/7/07 chart, on the 4/28/07 and 5/5/07 charts, and again from the 5/26/07 chart through the 9/08/07 chart.
Total weeks “Before He Cheats” spent as the top ranking country song on the Hot 100:40
Read more: The Meaningless Florida-Georgia Line Billboard Country Songs Record: Who Really Has The Biggest Country Hit? (ANALYSIS) | American Idol, Carrie Underwood, Charts | mjsbigblog
I'm glad that you're back Jason!![]()
That's crazy...and welcome back!
That was a Great blog by Windmills!! I read it earlier, while CF was down! Wow at all the numbers!!![]()
You can scream and shout all the hype you want but the stats here don't lie and the fact that Before He Cheats attained 40 weeks WITHOUT a remix to POP puts the song way above the others in standing for artistic integrity( Cruises 40% of stats attained from the Nelly collab-no wonder country sees the chart as a joke) - integrity reflected again in Carrie's album Some Hearts which has sold over 7 million copies without a rerelease - record execs can find a way to inflate stats but quality always sells on it's own without needing artificial boosts. Records become meaningless when they are manipulated - as someone mentioned in the comment section on the blog - The genre specific Billboard Hot Song chart is the steroid scandal of the music world
What Windmilils' blog article shows is that "Cruise"'s so-called record chart run is an artefact of the timing of the introduction of the new methodology. Several other songs would have beaten the "record" by a wider margin if a similar methodology had been applied in those years. That's not an attack on Florida Georgia Line (the additional publicity will delight them and their fans, and good luck to them). It simply indicates that the hype attached to the "record" is an artificial by-product of a change having been introduced at a time which made that particular chart run look more impressive than those that didn't receive the additional calculations now used.
I'm not particularly impressed with charts in general - but especially not with this Billboard "Hot" chart, which purports to be a genre chart, but is heavily biased towards General Music appeal. Whether it's topped by Florida Georgia Line with Nelly, or by Pinky and Perky with Dame Nelly Melba - people will like what they like, and a Pop chart will still be a Pop chart. As I said, good luck to them.
What's of most value to me is the sentence about "Before He Cheats" in Windmills' conclusion:
"the only country song among those listed that crossed over without a pop remix (ironic since it is also the most undeniably country song on this list)"
To me, those are the aspects that Carrie and her fans can be justifiably proud of
wow that is pretty incredible!
Interesting. So 'Before He Cheats' is the real biggest country song ever.
On a side note, 'I'll Stand By You' would have been number one, and would have been one of the breaks for BHC.
It is sickening how much Bill Werde, Billboad, and SCott Bullsh***a have destroyed country music. And no one dared to stand up to them but us. We may have lost the battle, but at least we fought.
Yup. BHC is the biggest country song ever. It was the perfect storm, so to speak. It was something so drastically different for her at that point (coming off DFTRM and JTTW), plus it was catchy enough to fit great for pop radio without a remix. Taylor's Love Story (her biggest smash to-date) would have spent 22 weeks at #1 if current methodology existed then.