It’s time for another bonus episode of Hall of Songs!
The Hot 100 has been the leading arbiter of song popularity within America since its conception in 1958. To better understand its nooks and crannies, and to better contextualize what makes a song so popular nationwide, we brought in the chart expert himself, Chris Molanphy (@cmolanphy), to break it all down. Molanphy is the author of the Slate series “Why Is This Song No. 1?” and the host of the Slate podcast Hit Parade.
In this conversation, Tim, Chris, and Chris discuss popular songs, changes in the charts, and specific Hall of Songs topics such as freestyle, Billy Joel, and the fall and rise of country music as a crossover-capable genre.
Read Chris Molanphy’s work here, and listen and subscribe to his podcast Hit Parade here.
