Alternative Airplay is a record chart published by the music industry magazine Billboard that ranks the most-played songs on American modern rock radio stations. It was introduced by Billboard in September 1988. ^[1] During the 2000s, the chart was based on electronically monitored airplay data compiled by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems from a panel of national rock radio stations, with songs being ranked by their total number of spins per week. ^[2] The chart was known as Modern Rock Tracks until June 2009, when it was renamed Alternative Songs in order to "better [reflect] the descriptor used among those in the [modern rock radio] format." ^[3]

106 songs topped the chart in the 2000s; the first was " All the Small Things" by Blink-182, ^[4] while the last was " Uprising" by Muse. ^[5] " The Pretender" by Foo Fighters spent eighteen weeks atop the chart in 2007—the most for any song during the decade—and broke the previous all-time record for most weeks at number one set by " Scar Tissue" by Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1999 and later tied by " It's Been Awhile" by Staind in 2001 and " Boulevard of Broken Dreams" by Green Day in 2005. ^[6]

The top song of the 2000s on Billboard's Alternative Songs decade-end list was " Headstrong" by Trapt, ^[7] which topped the chart for three weeks and was also its year-end number-one song for 2003. ^[8] The decade-end top Alternative Songs artist was Linkin Park, ^[7] who scored eight number-one songs—" In the End", " Somewhere I Belong", " Faint", " Numb", " Lying from You", " Breaking the Habit", " What I've Done" and " New Divide"—and spent a record sixty-two weeks atop the chart during the 2000s. ^{[4] [9]}

Number-one songs

Key

† – Billboard year-end number-one song

‡ – Billboard decade-end number-one song

↑ – Return of a song to number one

References

Bibliography

• Whitburn, Joel (2008). Rock Tracks 1981–2008 (3rd ed.). Record Research. ISBN  978-0-8982-0174-1.

External links

• Alternative Airplay at Billboard