Dance/Mix Show Airplay
Dance/Mix Show Airplay (formerly Hot Dance Airplay) is a monitored electronic dance music radio chart that is published weekly by Billboard magazine.
History[edit]
The chart came about as a result of the small but influential impact of electronic dance music on the radio in the United States and the stations that program it. Debuting as Hot Dance Radio Airplay in the issue dated October 25, 2003, it initially ranked the 25 most-played songs over eight radio stations playing mainly dance music and monitored by Nielsen BDS.[1] When published for the first time, "Just the Way You Are" by Milky was ranked as the number-one song, but that was following after a ten-week unpublished chart history. "Crazy in Love" by Beyoncé featuring Jay-Z spent the first seven weeks of the chart at number one, which Billboard recognizes retroactively.[2]
With the issue dated November 19, 2011, Billboard changed the name of the chart to Dance/Mix Show Airplay to reflect a change in its methodology. Instead of just ranking the number of airplay songs received at six dance-formatted reporters (four terrestrial radio stations, plus SiriusXM's BPM channel and Music Choice's Dance/Electronica channel), the panel of monitored stations was expanded to include mixshow plays on mainstream top 40 and rhythmic radio during hours in which these stations featured mixshow programming.[3]
On November 26, 2014, the 25-song chart expanded to 40 positions (effective with the December 6, 2014 issue), allowing more dance tracks to chart while simultaneously making the chart less pop-oriented.
In comparison to other dance charts, American commercial radio's definition of dance music is arguably more marginal, which is reflected in the chart's content. After the alterations made in 2011, the chart somewhat moved away from its initial purpose of charting conventional dance songs, instead including more remixed pop and urban songs in place of traditional forms of dance music and/or music by dance artists. By 2012, however, the influx of EDM songs in mix shows and the addition of two additional dance outlets amongst those monitored once again increased the dance content found on the chart, thereby decreasing to some extent the number of remixed pop and R&B tracks included.
The current number-one song on the chart is "Cutting Loose" by Disco Lines, J. Worra and Anabel Englund.[4]
Chart criteria[edit]
There are 40 positions on this chart and it is solely based on radio airplay. Eight stations (five terrestrial, one cable, one satellite and one online internet service), serve as exclusive reporters and are electronically monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems.[5] Songs are ranked by a calculation of the total number of spins per week with its "audience impression", which is based upon exact times of airplay and each station's Nielsen Audio listener data. The chart also includes 84 selected mainstream, adult, and rhythmic top 40 reporters that feature mix shows as part of their programming.
Songs receiving the greatest growth will receive a "bullet", although there are tracks that will also get bullets if the loss in detections 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 a song is tied for the most spins in the same week, the one with the biggest increase that previous week will rank higher, but if both songs show the same number of spins regardless of detection the song that is being played at more stations is ranked higher. Songs that fall below the top 15 and have been on the chart after 26 weeks are removed and go to the 20-song recurrent status.