Adult Pop Airplay

Adult Pop Airplay (formerly known as Adult Pop Songs and Adult Top 40) is a radio airplay chart published weekly by Billboard magazine and ranks adult-targeted pop songs. It is a format in which the genre focuses on an adult audience who are not into hard rock, hip-hop, or soft adult contemporary fare. The main genres within this format are a mix of soft and energetic adult contemporary music alongside adult alternative rock and adult-oriented pop music. It is not to be confused with the Adult Contemporary chart which contains more ballad-driven songs played on the radio. The current number-one song on the chart is "Dracula" by Tame Impala and Jennie.

History

The chart was first published in the March 16, 1996, issue of Billboard; however, historically, the chart's introduction was in October 1995, when it began as a test chart.

The Adult Top 40 chart was formed following a split of the "Hot Adult Contemporary" chart due to the growing emergence of Adult Top 40 radio stations in the 1990s. These stations played a wider variety of artists and saw a faster turnover of songs compared to traditional adult contemporary radio. Songs by modern rock, dance, and R&B artists were included with artists more closely associated with adult contemporary. According to Billboard, splitting the chart "better reflect[s] the music being played on adult contemporary and adult/top 40 stations."

The first number-one song on the Adult Top 40, from the test chart of October 7, 1995, was "Kiss from a Rose" by Seal. The first number-one song on the Adult Top 40, from the published chart of March 16, 1996, was "One Sweet Day" by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men.

Chart criteria

There are 40 positions on this chart. Songs are ranked based on its total number of spins per week. This is calculated by electronically monitoring Adult Top 40 radio stations across the U.S. 24 hours a day, seven days a week by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems.

Songs receiving the highest growth receive a "bullet", although there are tracks that also receive bullets if the detections loss does not exceed the percentage of downtime from a monitored station. "Airpower" awards are issued to songs that appear on the top 20 of both the airplay and audience chart for the first time, while the "greatest gainer" award is given to song with the largest increase in detections. A song with six or more spins in its first week is awarded an "airplay add". If two songs are tied in spins in the same week, the one with the biggest increase that week ranks higher.^{[citation needed]}

All-time achievements

In 2016, for the 20th anniversary of the chart, Billboard compiled a ranking of the 50 best-performing songs and artists on the chart over the first 20 years of the chart's history. "Smooth" by Santana featuring Rob Thomas was ranked as the number-one song, while Maroon 5 was ranked as the number-one artist. Listed below are the top ten songs and the top ten artists.

Song records

Artist records

See also

• List of artists who reached number one on the Billboard Adult Top 40
• Adult Contemporary
• Pop Airplay

References

External links

• Current Billboard Adult Pop Songs chart