Mainstream Rock Airplay

Mainstream Rock Airplay is a music chart published by Billboard magazine that ranks the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations in the United States. It is an administrative category that combines the "active rock" and "heritage rock" formats. The chart was launched in March 1981 as Rock Albums & Top Tracks. The name changed multiple times afterwards: first to Top Rock Tracks, then to Album Rock Tracks, then to Mainstream Rock, and finally to its current in 2021.¹ The first number-one song on this chart was "I Can't Stand It" by Eric Clapton on March 21, 1981.

The "Rock Albums & Top Tracks" charts were introduced in the issue of Billboard that the parent company published on March 21, 1981.² The 50-slot based and 60-slot based positional charts ranked airplay on album rock type radio stations in the United States.³ Because album-oriented rock stations often focused on playing tracks from entire albums rather than specifically released singles, these charts were designed to measure the airplay of any and all tracks from an album, regardless of context. Rock Albums was a survey of the top albums on American rock radio, while Top Tracks listed the top individual songs being played. Mike Harrison of Billboard explained that when major artists release albums, more than one song from the album can become popular at the same time.³ The first number-one song on the Top Tracks chart was "I Can't Stand It" by Eric Clapton. "I Can't Stand It" was from Clapton's album Another Ticket with its single having the track "Black Rose" on its alternate side.³⁴

On September 15, 1984, the Rock Albums chart was discontinued and Top Tracks was renamed Top Rock Tracks.²⁵ It reduced from a 60-song tally to 50 songs on October 20, 1984,² following a major revamp to the magazine. Coinciding with an increase in its reporting panel of album rock stations in the United States, the name of the chart was changed again with the issue dated April 12, 1986, to Album Rock Tracks.⁶

On November 23, 1991, instead of reporting panels, Billboard changed its methodology of measuring airplay by using monitored airplay as provided by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems to compile many of its charts.² As a result, this data showed that many songs could spend months to over a year on the Album Rock Tracks chart. Billboard decided to drop to a 40-position chart on the week of June 27, 1992 (still its current format), and songs that fell out of the top 20 and after spending 20 weeks on the chart were moved to a new 10-position recurrent chart.⁷²

To differentiate between classic and alternative album rock radio formats, Billboard changed the name of the chart to Mainstream Rock Tracks beginning with issue dated April 13, 1996.²⁸ The Mainstream Rock Tracks chart did not appear in the print edition of Billboard from its issue dated August 2, 2003,⁹ being accessible only through the magazine's subscription-based website, Billboard.biz. In late 2013, the chart was reintroduced to its primary website and magazine.

When R&R ceased publication in June 2009, Billboard incorporated its rock charts, Active Rock and Heritage Rock into its own publication. The radio station reporters of the two charts combine to make up the Mainstream Rock chart.¹⁰ In the United States, active rock stations concentrate on current hits over classic rock standards while heritage rock stations put a greater emphasis on classic rock with a few newer tracks mixed in.¹¹ The individual Active Rock and Heritage Rock components were discontinued by Billboard at the end of November 2013, due to a growing lack of difference between the two charts.¹²

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the chart, in June 2021, Billboard released two charts ranking the top songs and artists in the history of the chart. "Touch, Peel and Stand" by Days of the New was the number-one song on the Greatest of All Time Mainstream Rock Songs and Shinedown was named the number-one artist on the ranking of Greatest of All Time Mainstream Rock Artists.¹³ The current number-one song on the chart is "Don't Wanna Go Home Tonight" by Three Days Grace.¹⁴

These are the artists with the most songs that topped the Mainstream Rock chart.

Acts who have scored the most charted songs on the Mainstream Rock chart.

Source:²⁰

Metallica (1990s, 2000s, 2010s, 2020s)

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AC/DC (1990s, 2000s, 2020s)

Aerosmith (1980s, 1990s, 2000s)

Alice in Chains (1990s, 2000s, 2010s)

Breaking Benjamin (2000s, 2010s, 2020s)

Chevelle (2000s, 2010s, 2020s)

Disturbed (2000s, 2010s, 2020s)

Foo Fighters (2000s, 2010s, 2020s)

Godsmack (2000s, 2010s, 2020s)

Green Day (2000s, 2010s, 2020s)

Linkin Park (2000s, 2010s, 2020s)

The Offspring (1990s, 2010s, 2020s)

Ozzy Osbourne (2000s, 2010s, 2020s)

Papa Roach (2000s, 2010s, 2020s)

Red Hot Chili Peppers (1990s, 2000s, 2010s)

Seether (2000s, 2010s, 2020s)

Shinedown (2000s, 2010s, 2020s)

Staind (2000s, 2010s, 2020s)

Theory of a Deadman (2000s, 2010s, 2020s)

Three Days Grace (2000s, 2010s, 2020s)

Albums whose singles have spent at least 15 weeks at #1 on the Mainstream Rock charts

These are the songs that have spent at least one year (52 weeks) on the Mainstream Rock chart.