Dance Singles Sales

History

From October 26, 1974 until August 28, 1976, Billboard magazine's Disco Action section published weekly charts of retail single sales from various local regions along with Top Audience Response Records. Billboard debuted its first national chart devoted exclusively to sales of 12-inch singles in their issue dated March 16, 1985. This record type is most commonly used in disco and dance music genres where DJs use them to play in discos or dance clubs because of the exclusive extended remixes that are often only made available on this format, but Billboard's 12-inch Single Sales chart ranks releases by artists from all styles of music that release maxi-singles.

The 50-position weekly ranking joined Billboards established Dance/Disco Top 80 chart, reduced to the same 50 positions, both under the title Hot Dance/Disco, becoming two separate Top 50 charts: 12-Inch Singles Sales and Club Play. A coupling from MCA Records' Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack, Patti LaBelle's "New Attitude" and Harold Faltermeyer's "Axel F", held the No. 1 slot for the 12-inch Singles Sales chart's first week and was also No. 1 for the second consecutive week on the most played dance/disco chart.

The word "disco" was removed from the title of the section of both charts beginning September 19, 1987. After being temporarily renamed Hot Dance 50, Billboard retitled the section Hot Dance Music on October 24, 1987.

On the first Billboard Music Awards in 1990, Janet Jackson was awarded #1 Hot Dance 12-inch Singles Sales Artist. The 1991 winner for #1 Hot Dance 12" Singles Sales was C + C Music Factory featuring Freedom Williams' "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)".

On June 20, 1992, Billboard began to also survey cassette tape and CD maxi-singles along with vinyl twelve-inch singles renaming the chart Maxi-Singles Sales. In 1993, the Billboard Music Award winner for #1 12" Dance Single was RuPaul's "Supermodel (You Better Work)". The Maxi-Singles Sales survey began using actual sales figures (SoundScan) to compile the chart on August 28, 1993.

On July 28, 2001, Billboard launches the 15 position Top Electronic Albums chart and reduces the Maxi-Singles Sales chart size from 50 to 25 positions, 30 positions online. Billboard renamed the Maxi-Singles Sales survey to Dance Singles Sales on March 1, 2003, although the survey would continue to chart popular maxi-singles by artists from other genres of music besides dance even more frequently such as hip hop & rap artists like Public Enemy and 2Pac and alternative rock & industrial metal bands such as The Smiths and Ministry. 2006's "Every Day Is Exactly the Same" by Nine Inch Nails topped the sales chart more than any other single with 36 inconsecutive weeks, yet never appeared on the Hot Dance Club Play survey.

Dance Singles Sales is retitled Hot Dance Single Sales when the top 25 Hot Dance Radio Airplay begins to appear in print on October 25 of that year. The single "Me Against the Music" by Britney Spears and Madonna won the award for "Hot Dance Singles Sales Single of the Year" at the Billboard Music Awards in 2004.

Beginning April 30, 2005, the Billboard Dance section started alternately printing Hot Dance Single Sales and Top Electronic Albums every other week in the magazine until Hot Dance Single Sales became only available at billboard.biz after the February 24, 2007 issue. Billboard reduces the position size of the Hot Dance Singles chart from 25 to 15 positions on March 30, 2007.

The size of the Dance Singles Sales chart is reduced further down to 10 positions on October 3, 2009. Billboard's Dance/Electronic Digital Song Sales, a 50 position chart ranking of the most popular downloaded songs ranked by sales data as compiled by Luminate, debuted online January 23, 2010. After years of falling record sales, Billboard discontinued their weekly Dance Singles Sales survey in 2013. The last chart of the nearly 29 year old national survey was published online November 30, 2013.

List of number-one singles

Main article: Timeline of Billboard number-one dance songs

1980s–1990s

• 1985
• 1986
• 1987
• 1988
• 1989
• 1990
• 1991
• 1992
• 1993
• 1994
• 1995
• 1996
• 1997
• 1998
• 1999

2000s–2010s

• 2000
• 2001
• 2002
• 2003
• 2004
• 2005
• 2006
• 2007
• 2008
• 2009
• 2010
• 2011
• 2012
• 2013

Achievements and milestones

Top-charting singles by year

The following are the top-charting singles for each year of the duration of the Hot Dance Singles Sales survey.

Singles with the most weeks at number one

The following singles peaked at #1 for more than 12 weeks on the Hot Dance Singles Sales survey.

Singles with the most weeks charting

The following #1 singles charted over 100 total weeks each on the Hot Dance Singles Sales survey.

Artists with the most number-one singles

The following artists charted 5 or more #1 singles on the Hot Dance Singles Sales survey between 1985 and 2013.

References

References

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56. (1990). "Madonna - Vogue | Releases".
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58. (1991). "Crystal Waters - Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless) | Releases".
59. (1992). "Michael Jackson – Remember The Time (1992, Vinyl)".
60. (1993). "Zhané - Hey Mr. D.J. | Releases".
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79. (2005). "The Postal Service - We Will Become Silhouettes | Releases".
80. "Every Day Is Exactly The Same" by Nine Inch Nails spent 14 weeks at #1 in 2006, 21 weeks at #1 in 2007 and 1 week at #1 in 2008.
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82. "Puscifer | Biography, Music & News".
83. (2007). "Puscifer - Cuntry Boner | Releases".
84. "Lady Gaga".
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96. "Cher".
97. (1998). "Cher - Believe | Releases".
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100. (2009). "Edward Maya & Vika Jigulina - Stereo Love | Releases".
101. (1999). "Amber - Sexual (Li Da Di) | Releases".
102. (May 18, 2004). "George Michael – Amazing (The Mixes) (2004, CD)".
103. (2001). "Maxwell - Lifetime | Releases".
104. "Britney Spears | Biography, Music & News".
105. (December 11, 2003). "Britney Spears Featuring Madonna – Me Against the Music (Remixes) (2003, Vinyl)".
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107. (2011). "Lana Del Rey - Video Games | Releases".
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110. (1997). "Mariah Carey - Butterfly | Releases".
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112. "Sting".
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114. (October 2021). "Victor Calderone".
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