Mainstream Rock Tracks Chart Article Index for
Mainstream
Shopping
Mainstream
Website Links For
Mainstream
 

Information About

Mainstream Rock Tracks Chart




This chart began with the stations. The Rock Tracks chart originally listed 60 songs. The first number-one song was "I Can't Stand It" by Eric Clapton .

The chart changed its name to Album Rock Tracks in April 1986. During the 1980s, a subgenre of rock music began to develop and gain popularity, known as New Wave , or Modern Rock . The Album Rock Tracks chart included some New Wave songs, but usually only those with Crossover appeal to mainstream listeners. Radio stations devoted entirely to this new category of rock music began to grow in popularity, but data from these stations were not included in compiling the Album Rock chart.

In order to give more recognition to Modern Rock, ''Billboard'' began a separate Modern Rock Tracks chart, beginning with the September 10 , 1988 issue. The Album Rock Tracks chart remained as before, and it continued to include Modern Rock songs with crossover appeal. Within two months of the first Modern Rock Tracks chart, the song " Desire " by U2 became the first song to reach number-one on both of these two Rock Tracks charts.

In 1996, Album Rock Tracks once again changed its name, to Mainstream Rock Tracks. This occurred soon after ''Billboard'' established the Adult Top 40 chart. Like Modern Rock Tracks, Adult Top 40 also had some songs in common with Mainstream Rock Tracks. Ironically, Adult Top 40 has often featured artists who were once prominent on the Rock Tracks charts, but were now considered too "soft" for rock radio.

Mainstream Rock Tracks was published in the print edition of ''Billboard'' for the last time in its July 26 , 2003 issue. The chart is still compiled, but it is only available through the magazine's website. In recent years, fewer and fewer classic rock artists have released new music which has appeared on the chart; as such, the artists appearing on this chart have almost become a subset of those appearing on Modern Rock Tracks . For six and a half years, following " Jaded " by Aerosmith in 2001, every number one song on Mainstream Rock Tracks also appeared on Modern Rock Tracks. This string was finally broken by Ozzy Osbourne 's " I Don't Wanna Stop " in July 2007.

The Mainstream Rock Tracks has had 307 number one hits. The current number-one song on ''Mainstream Rock Tracks'' (for the week ending September 15 , 2007 ) is " Never Too Late " by Three Days Grace .

Shown below are the songs which have spent ten or more weeks in the number one spot. Most of these songs are from recent years, in part because the top spot experiences much less turnover than it used to. Prior to 1994, only three songs had spent ten or more weeks at number one:

21 weeks












SEE ALSO



ACHIEVEMENTS AND RECORDS

  • Van Halen holds the record for the most singles to hit number-one on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, with thirteen singles. Tom Petty has the second most with ten singles. Aerosmith has the third most with nine singles.


  • John Mellencamp holds the record for the most singles by a solo artist to hit number-one on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, with eight singles.


  • Only twice have two consecutive number-one songs been by the same artist. In 1992, the Black Crowes hit number-one with "Remedy", followed by "Sting Me". In 1994, the Stone Temple Pilots ' "Vasoline" hit number-one and was replaced by its album mate, "Interstate Love Song".


  • Two songs have performed a "hat trick" by reaching number-one on Mainstream Rock Tracks, Modern Rock Tracks, and Adult Top 40. The first was "One Headlight" by The Wallflowers in 1997. The second was " Boulevard Of Broken Dreams " by Green Day in 2005.



EXTERNAL LINKS