THE WORLD ACCORDING TO BILLBOARD
The History of Billboard Magazine
For nearly a century, Billboard magazine has been recognised as the international "Bible" of the recording and home entertainment industries. Read by over 200 million people in 107 different countries world-wide, the magazine's charts, including the venerable "Hot 100," and "The Billboard 200," make news and history every week, making it the world's definitive authority on record sales, airplay and popularity of all forms of music.
These charts have been the basis for a successful retail compact disc series, various corporate promotions and weekly international television and radio shows. All artists whose songs reach the coveted #1 position are contenders to win an award at the annual "Billboard Music Awards," broadcast in over 75 countries.
Legend has it that Billboard was founded over a schooner of beer in an Ohio tavern in 1894. Near the end of "The Great American Century," mass media and advertising were still in their infancy, and William H. Donaldson published the first monthly issue of Billboard Advertising in November of that year, "devoted to the interest of advertisers, poster printers, bill posters, advertising agents and secretaries of fairs."
By 1900, publication began on a weekly edition, simply called The Billboard, and coverage was expanded to include park music and opera, burlesque and vaudeville revues and minstrel shows. The Billboard began to cover motion pictures in 1907. In 1912, it added the first "Critical Song Reviews," and the Billboard chart debuted the following year under the title "Last Week's Ten Best Sellers Among the Popular Songs."
From the beginning, Billboard has proven itself to be a magazine of firsts: the first showbiz trade magazine, the first to cover all branches of the industry (both indoor and outdoor), the first to devote a special section to black and Latino performers and music buyers and Billboard offered renowned columnist Walter Winchell his first regular column.
Throughout radio's golden years in the '30s and '40s, Billboard began to expand its music coverage with the debut of the "Songs with the Most Radio Plugs" chart in March of 1937. July 1940 saw the first full-page music chart: "The Billboard Music Popularity Chart," which included information based on jukebox play and sheet music sales as well as actual record sales and radio airplay. In March 1943, the "Harlem Hit Parade" was added.
In the mid-50s, Billboard began publishing what would eventually grow into the "Hot 100 Singles" chart. Today Billboard charts reflect the most popular recordings in nearly every variety of music: rock, dance, rap, country, R&B, modern rock, new age, jazz, Latin, gospel, world music and classical.
In addition, Billboard's charts now, more than ever, accurately reflect the number of record sales and record airplay. The sales charts are constructed from national sales reports collected, compiled and provided by SoundScan, Inc. Some of the charts that have been revised in recent years are: "The Billboard 200," and "Hot 100 Singles" charts. New features and charts recently added by Billboard include the "Popular Uprisings" page, the "Heatseekers" chart (both focusing the industry spotlight on new artists), the "Catalog Album" charts for pop and country and the return of the "Jukebox" chart.
In recent years, Billboard has continued to thrive and expand in numerous directions, including the addition of the annually televised "Billboard Music Awards." First seen in 1990, and now in its sixth year, it reaches over 300 million viewers world-wide. The Billboard Music Awards features only those artists whose efforts reached position #1 on the charts. Some of the chart-toppers who have appeared on this annual event include Genesis, John Mellencamp, Young MC, Richard Marx, Mariah Carey, Bryan Adams, Vanessa Williams, Queensryche, C+C Music Factory, Whitney Houston, Hammer, Randy Travis, Clint Black, Eric Clapton, Aerosmith, Garth Brooks, Dr. Dre, Brian McKnight, Illegal, Jon Secada, Stone Temple Pilots, Kenny G, DaBrat, Reba McEntire, R. Kelly, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Collective Soul, The Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, George Harrison, Buddy Guy and Billy Joel. In addition, the 1994 Billboard Music Awards, hosted by Heather Locklear and Dennis Miller, gave awards from Billboard's international charts to Jacky Cheung, Eric Moo and The Pulse from India.
