Parody/Polka Target Chart Successes: An Analysis

[Bruce the Duck]

Something that is worth noting - Nowadays chart positions don't necessarily correlate directly with the popularity of a song due to other factors - mostly YouTube. "Gangnam Style" in particular was only number 2 on the charts, but has garnered more YouTube views than any other video in history (over 2 billion).

[mrmeadows]

Can't believe "American Idiot" was only #61 on the charts, but "Confessions Part II" and "Do I Make You Proud" were both #1! I remember hearing "Idiot" ad nauseum leading up to he release of SOL, but had never even HEARD of the other two songs.

[avesjohn]

Something worth taking into consideration is that Billboard didn't start accounting for digital downloads until February 2005 (almost 2 years after the iTunes Store went online), so the chart positions of singles in that time probably weren't entirely reflective of their actual popularity.

Likewise, in much of the '90s, singles released for airplay only (i.e., not for sale to customers) were not eligible for the Hot 100, which is why many songs from that era have "Hot 100 Airplay" for their relevant chart, but of course this was changed eventually.

The newest factor, online streaming, was only factored into singles charts last spring, and we have that to thank for many songs' current success (looking at you, "Word Crimes"), as well as the recent re-charting of several old hits due to viral videos ("Livin' On A Prayer" and "Billie Jean").

TL;DR version: the charts are always a little behind current trends, so they're not perfect.

[TMBJon]

To be fair, the album American Idiot did reach #1 on the charts.
avesjohn also makes a really good point that digital downloads were not accounted for, so the number was only counting people who actually went into the store and purchased a one or two track disc. Why would you do that? I certainly don't consider Green Day fans to be likely to make that kind of purchase.

[avesjohn]

To be fair, the album American Idiot did reach #1 on the charts.
avesjohn also makes a really good point that digital downloads were not accounted for, so the number was only counting people who actually went into the store and purchased a one or two track disc. Why would you do that? I certainly don't consider Green Day fans to be likely to make that kind of purchase.

Well, both sales and airplay (and nowadays, streaming) are factored into Hot 100 positions. So even if physical single sales weren't particularly high, airplay was sufficient to make the song a big enough hit to be a 6-week #1 on the Modern Rock (Alternative) songs chart. Even today, though, unless it's a massive crossover hit like "Radioactive", the #1 songs on the genre charts rarely reach the top tier of the pop chart. ("Boulevard Of Broken Dreams" reached #2 on the Hot 100 - stuck behind "Candy Shop" for its entire run - and was #1 for 16 weeks on the alternative chart, but when faced with addressing the biggest rock album of the era, one can see why Al thought the title track might have been better parody material.)