Music distribution has changed so radically in the last 30 years that I'm not sure it's meaningful to make historical comparisons. The Billboard Hot 100 was onc

Music distribution has changed so radically in the last 30 years that I'm not sure it's meaningful to make historical comparisons. The Billboard Hot 100 was once based purely on physical sales, but now incorporates online streaming and radio play. Charts have always been a fairly poor indicator of what people actually want to listen to because of the huge incentives record companies have to manipulate them, but they're a particularly poor indicator now. The snake is eating its own tail - streaming and radio algorithms heavily rely on chart placement to build playlists, but those charts are determined largely by streaming and radio playlists.