Printing June of 2024
Pre-Order Now & Save $15
Announcing the upcoming 10th edition of our beloved Pop Annual. The new edition of this music fan favorite boasts 12 more yearly rankings over its predecessor, as we take it back to the beginning of the Fifties and update it through 2023. Also new to this book are half-decade synopses of the Top 10s among artists, songwriters and songs, as well as Top Artist Debuts, and news tidbits. Journey across this musical landscape of ~1,000 pages packed with stats detailing every song and artist to hit Billboard's pop singles charts, whether they ascended to #1 or #135, over the past 74 years.
Coming June, 2024
It's the ultimate reference of everything that hit Billboard magazine’s Hot 100 and Bubbling Under charts — that’s 21,095 songs by 4,197 artists. Track the explosion of Rap/Hip-Hop, the rise of Latin and K-pop music, and the impact of streaming on the weekly chart.
Volume 2 of the 17th edition of Joel’s flagship book picks up where Volume 1 (1955-1989) leaves off. Get the complete history of music icons who debuted after 1989: Adele, Mariah Carey, Drake, Imagine Dragons, Bruno Mars, Taylor Swift, Kanye West, and more!
Volume 2 of the 17th edition of Joel’s flagship book picks up where Volume 1 (1955-1989) leaves off. Get the complete history of music icons who debuted after 1989: Adele, Mariah Carey, Drake, Imagine Dragons, Bruno Mars, Taylor Swift, Kanye West, and more!
Joel Whitburn was beyond thrilled when he first opened Top Pop Singles 1955-1989. It was his most informational edition ever of the vinyl years. And, though it was a huge risk to also print that large book in color (he thought he might be the only one interested), Joel took the gamble. The color edition became one of our fastest-selling books.
Joel immediately set to work on this book, Volume 2 of the 17th edition of Top Pop Singles, with his ever-keen eye for accuracy, looking forward to beholding his research of the digital age in color. He chose the photos within the book, including the cover which features one representative artist from each year covered, like Volume 1.
Unlike Volume 1, Volume 2 covers a vastly different era, resulting from interacting factors such as the transmission, the purchase, and the tabulation of ever-changing music. During the vinyl era covered in Volume 1, songs were typically introduced on radio, then purchased as physical singles by fans in record shops. Volume 2 covers an evolution from the decline of Top 40 radio, to the record industry’s retirement of the single, to the new technologies flooding those vacuums with the rise of streaming services, to the surge in music utilized within video games and social media. These major shifts necessitated revisions to Billboard’s chart methodologies. Compare the average chart life of a song from 1960 to one from 1985, 25 years apart, and you’ll see the about the same ebb and flow. Do the same comparison for another 25 years (1985 to 2010), and the average chart life of a song reveals a stark contrast.
It was at this clear divide — between the vinyl era and the digital era — that Joel split the 17th edition of Top Pop Singles into two volumes. This offered a cleaner view of each era and the distinct song and artist rankings would be more equitable. (We did, however, include the Top 500 ranking of all artists from 1955-2022 within this book.) For the artists who span both volumes, we pick up their hit count in Volume 2 from their final hit in Volume 1.
Joel finished the bulk of his work on Volume 2, his last project before his passing in 2022. With its new music, new edits and new features, it not hard to imagine that Volume 2 would rate a close second in Joel’s all-time ranking of his books. (The vinyl era of Volume 1 contained his favorite music.) But Joel’s huge heart for the charts and new music never wavered, and he would have, no doubt, devoured every page between these covers.
Then, You Have a Heart for the Charts!
Record Research's reference books are relied upon by music industry professionals and devoted music fans worldwide. Extending from 1900 through today, Record Research covers the music charts of many genres (Pop, Country, R&B, Rock, AC, and Dance).
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MUSIC CHART DATA ...
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