1. Music charts

2. Radio format

3. References

4. Further reading

5. See also

6. External links

In the music industry, the top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or "contemporary hit radio" is also a radio format. Frequent variants of the Top 40 are the Top 10, Top 20, Top 30, Top 50, Top 75, Top 100 and Top 200.

The term "Top 40", describing a radio format, appeared in 1960.^[3] The Top 40, whether surveyed by a radio station or a publication, was a list of songs that shared only the common characteristic of being newly released. Its introduction coincided with a transition from the old ten-inch 78 rpm record format for single "pop" recordings to the seven-inch vinyl 45 rpm format, introduced in 1949, which was outselling it by 1954 and soon replaced it completely in 1958. The Top 40 thereafter became a survey of the popularity of 45 rpm singles and their airplay on the radio. Some nationally syndicated radio shows, such as American Top 40, featured a countdown of the 40 highest ranked songs on a particular music or entertainment publication. Although such publications often listed more than 40 charted hits, such as the Billboard Hot 100, time constraints allowed for the airing of only 40 songs; hence, the term "top 40" gradually became part of the vernacular associated with popular music.

From the 1980s onwards, different recording formats have competed with the 45 rpm vinyl record. This includes cassette singles, CD singles, digital downloads and streaming. Many music charts changed their eligibility rules to incorporate some, or all, of these.

Some disc jockeys presenting Top 40 and similar format programs have been implicated in various payola scandals.

Music charts

Music charts and various radio programs adopt different chart formats including Top 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 75, 100 and 200 although radio formats usually restrict to the Top 40 wherever the chart contains more than 40 songs.

Radio format

Top 40 is also adopted to a radio format called Top 40 format, spinning mainly hits appearing in the official Top 40 charts of the country in addition to some upcoming hits that are greatly expected to get into the Top 40 very imminently. The format is variously known also as CHR (contemporary hit radio), contemporary hits, hit list, current hits, hit music, top 40, or pop radio.

References

Further reading

• Pete Battistini, "American Top 40 with Casey Kasem The 1970s", Authorhouse.com, January 31, 2005. {{ISBN|1-4184-1070-5}}
• Susan Douglas, Listening In: Radio and the American Imagination (New York: Times Books, 1999)
• {{cite book|last=Durkee|first=Rob|title=American Top 40: The Countdown of the Century|year=1999|publisher=Schriner Books|location=New York|isbn=0-02-864895-1}}
• {{cite book|last=Fisher|first=Mark|title=Something in the Air: Radio, Rock, and the Revolution That Shaped a Generation|year=2007|publisher=Random House|location=New York|isbn=0-375-50907-0}}
• Ben Fong-Torres, The Hits Just Keep On Coming: The History of Top 40 Radio (San Francisco: Backbeat Books, 1998)
• Elwood F. 'Woody' Goulart, The Mystique and Mass Persuasion: Bill Drake & Gene Chenault’s Rock and Roll Radio Programming (2006)
• David MacFarland, The Development of the Top 40 Radio Format (New York: Arno Press, 1979)

See also

• Contemporary hit radio
• Mainstream Top 40

External links

• Public Radio documentary featuring a history of Top 40

• University of California, Irvine Arboretum
• University of California, Irvine, Arboretum
• University of California, Irvine campus
• University of California Irvine Muslim Student Union
• University of California, Irvine School of Biological Sciences
• University of California, Irvine School of Education
• University of California, Irvine - School of Education
• University of California, Irvine School of Social Ecology
• University of California Jazz Ensembles
• University of California-La
• University of California Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
• University of California libraries
• University of California, Long Beach
• University of California,Los Angeles
• University of California, Los Angeles Library System
• University of California Los Angeles Meteorite Museum
• University of California, Los Angeles student housing
• University of California-Merced
• University of California Natural Reserve System (UCNRS)
• University of California Old Style
• UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
• University of California Regent
• University Of California Regents V. Bakke
• University of California - Riverside
• University of California, Riverside, Botanic Gardens