For many decades, the ‘Billboard Hot 100’ has been the ultimate indicator if a song was considered a “hit.” If a song was at number 1, it meant that the artist had “made it to the big leagues.” But now, in the climate of TikTok videos, Instagram Reels, Facebook and YouTube Shorts, a song can blow up overnight, and some people wonder if the ‘Billboard Hot 100’ list is really the scoreboard of music it used to be.
The ‘Hot 100’ list is measured based upon a combination of digital downloads, streaming numbers from media platforms like Apple music and Spotify, and radio airplay. Because of the combination of sources, the ‘Hot 100’ list has a broad spectrum of the music that people all over the U.S are listening to.
Despite the credibility of the ‘Hot 100’ list, social media has drastically changed the way music is spread all over the world, and how it blows up. Today, a 20 second clip of a new song can go viral, and reaches millions of people. For several cases, social media sparks the popularity of a song, rather than a traditional kick start like the radio or record labels.
While social media like TikTok may popularize a song very quickly, it’s not very effective, as social media promotes clips of songs that correlate with trends. In modern day social media, trends are very unstable, as they can fade slowly or very quickly, while the ‘Billboard Hot 100’ hits uses a longer time frame to determine the credibility of the reception to the music on the list.
To look into this debate of whether social media or the ‘Billboard Hot 100’ list is the better scoreboard for music, the Omega staff orchestrated a student poll. In this poll, 45 students at DGN were asked about their personal opinion on the credibility of the Billboard Hot 100 list.
While many students don’t agree with the music on the ‘Billboard Hot 100 Hits,’ measuring music with just one selected chart isn’t that easy. The ‘Billboard Hot 100’ list measures the music sales, and radio and streaming plays in a balanced system. Whereas social media shows the popularity of a song, these ‘Hot 100’ lists can’t to the same extent. Social media captures what people are talking about right now and the cultural impact that these songs can reach just overnight.
