Top 40

In the music industry, the Top 40 is a list of the 40 currently 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.

According to producer Richard Fatherley, Todd Storz was the inventor of the format, at his radio station KOWH in Omaha, Nebraska, United States.^[1] Storz invented the format in the early 1950s, using the number of times a record was played on jukeboxes to compose a weekly list for broadcast.^[2] The format was commercially successful, and Storz and his father Robert, under the name of the Storz Broadcasting Company, subsequently acquired other stations to use the new Top 40 format. In 1989, Todd Storz was inducted into the Nebraska Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame.^[3][4]

The term "Top 40", describing a radio format, appeared in 1960.^[5] 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.

Un artículo publicado en la edición de primavera de 2012 de la revista Nebraska History ofrecía el siguiente comentario sobre el legado de Todd Storz: «La revolución radiofónica que Storz inició con KOWH ya se extendía por todo el país. Miles de propietarios de emisoras de radio se habían percatado del enorme potencial de un nuevo tipo de radio. Cuando la televisión se popularizó, los analistas sociales predijeron la desaparición de la radio. Sin embargo, gracias a la invención de Storz y otros como él, la radio renacería». ^{[ 6 ]}

Algunas fuentes atribuyen a Storz el mérito de haber contribuido a popularizar el rock and roll . A mediados de la década de 1950, su emisora, y muchas otras que posteriormente adoptaron el formato Top 40, ponían discos de artistas como Presley , Lewis , Haley , Berry y Domino . ^{[ 7 ] [ 8 ]}

Desde la década de 1980, diferentes formatos de grabación han competido con el disco de vinilo de 45 rpm. Esto incluye sencillos en casete , sencillos en CD , descargas digitales y streaming . Muchas listas de éxitos musicales modificaron sus reglas de elegibilidad para incorporar algunos o todos estos formatos.

Algunos disc jockeys que presentan programas de Top 40 y formatos similares se han visto implicados en varios escándalos de sobornos .

• radio de éxitos contemporáneos
• Los 40 principales éxitos del momento

• Pete Battistini, "American Top 40 con Casey Kasem: Los años 70", Authorhouse.com , 31 de enero de 2005. ISBN 1-4184-1070-5
• Susan Douglas, Listening In: Radio and the American Imagination (Nueva York: Times Books, 1999)
• Durkee, Rob (1999). American Top 40: The Countdown of the Century . Nueva York: Schriner Books. ISBN 0-02-864895-1.
• Fisher, Mark (2007). Something in the Air: Radio, Rock, and the Revolution That Shaped a Generation . Nueva York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-375-50907-0.
• Ben Fong-Torres, Los éxitos siguen llegando: La historia de la radio Top 40 (San Francisco: Backbeat Books, 1998)
• Elwood F. 'Woody' Goulart, El misticismo y la persuasión de masas: la programación radiofónica de rock and roll de Bill Drake y Gene Chenault (2006)
• David MacFarland, El desarrollo del formato de radio Top 40 (Nueva York: Arno Press, 1979)

• Documental de la radio pública que presenta la historia de los Top 40.