Billboard Hot 100 - What happened between 1991 and 1992?

[Seraphis Cain]

So I'm sitting here unable to sleep and somehow find myself on Wikipedia looking at the Billboard Hot 100 #1 lists from the 80s and 90s and I notice something that strikes me as odd.

Here's the Hot 100 #1s for 1990. 26 songs hit #1 that year.

Here's the Hot 100 #1s for 1991. 27 songs hit #1 that year.

And here's 1992. Only 13 songs hit #1.

And the number only goes down from there. 11 in '93, 10 in '94, up to 12 in '95, then only 9 in '96 and '97. From there the number starts to fluctuate, bottoming out at 8 in '05 before jumping up to 18 in '06. But that's going a bit beyond the scope of my question. What really bewilders me is the sudden shift in the early 90s from years and years of the #1 song changing almost weekly to only a few songs holding #1 for weeks or even months at a time. Was it a change in the way Billboard calculated things (nothing on Wikipedia seems to suggest this) or was it just a cultural thing? I mean, I was only 8-9 years old back then so while I was aware of music in general, I certainly wasn't paying attention to popular music trends or anything, so I'm kinda scratching my head at the sudden shift. Anyone more knowledgeable than me about this sort of thing want to chime in and shed some light on it?

/insomniathread

 

[sprsk]

It slowed down when pop and hair metal started to die and got replaced with grunge, went back up again as grunge and "gangster" rap started to become mainstream.

Then in 1998 Napster happened, and it took forever for the industry to capitalize on music over the internet.

(Just guessing though)

 

[David Addison]

Was it a change in the way Billboard calculated things (nothing on Wikipedia seems to suggest this) or was it just a cultural thing?

Click to shrink...

SoundScan was put into place in 1991, and offered more accurate (read: payola-resistant) results.

 

[Seraphis Cain]

SoundScan was put into place in 1991, and offered more accurate (read: payola-resistant) results.

Click to shrink...

Well I suppose that answers that! Though even if that is the cause, the shift being so drastic still surprises me.

 

[srhltmr]

So I'm sitting here unable to sleep and somehow find myself on Wikipedia looking at the Billboard Hot 100 #1 lists from the 80s and 90s and I notice something that strikes me as odd.

Here's the Hot 100 #1s for 1990. 26 songs hit #1 that year.

Here's the Hot 100 #1s for 1991. 27 songs hit #1 that year.

And here's 1992. Only 13 songs hit #1.

And the number only goes down from there. 11 in '93, 10 in '94, up to 12 in '95, then only 9 in '96 and '97. From there the number starts to fluctuate, bottoming out at 8 in '05 before jumping up to 18 in '06. But that's going a bit beyond the scope of my question. What really bewilders me is the sudden shift in the early 90s from years and years of the #1 song changing almost weekly to only a few songs holding #1 for weeks or even months at a time. Was it a change in the way Billboard calculated things (nothing on Wikipedia seems to suggest this) or was it just a cultural thing? I mean, I was only 8-9 years old back then so while I was aware of music in general, I certainly wasn't paying attention to popular music trends or anything, so I'm kinda scratching my head at the sudden shift. Anyone more knowledgeable than me about this sort of thing want to chime in and shed some light on it?

/insomniathread

Click to shrink...

End of the Road happened. 13 weeks at #1 and 8 of the 13 songs had 3+ week runs at #1.

You can chalk that up to either A) those 8 songs being that good or B) there wasn't anything else good enough to knock them off.

 

[Pagusas]

I always chaulked it up to generational changes, MTV really taking over at the time, things like TRL really overly pushing music videos which kept songs relevant longer