Product Code Database
A hit song, also known as a hit record, hit single, or simply hit, is a Sound recording song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known. Although hit song means any widely played or big-selling song, the specific term hit record usually refers to a single that has appeared in an official Record chart through repeated radio airplay audience impressions or significant streaming data and commercial sales.
Prior to the dominance of recorded music, commercial sheet music sales of individual songs were similarly promoted and tracked as singles and are now. For example, in 1894, Edward B. Marks and Joe Stern released The Little Lost Child, which sold more than a million copies nationwide, based mainly on its success as an illustrated song, analogous to what later became .
A hit single is variously called a number one hit, a top 5 hit, a top 10 hit, a top 20 hit, or a top 40 hit, depending on its peak position. In the UK (where radio play is not included in the official charts), this does not completely reflect the song's popularity—as the weekly chart position is based solely on direct comparison with concurrent sales of other singles. It is, therefore, not uncommon that a single fails to chart, but has actually sold more copies than other singles regarded as "hits" based on their higher chart placement in a period of low sales. (This is also possible in the United States—or anywhere—with slow but steady sellers; a number of minor hits, especially those that are popular in specific genre, have earned gold certifications despite relatively poor pop chart performances.)
|
|
