| Manual of Style (MoS) |
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This page is a proposed guideline for using and displaying record chart information in music-related articles. It is an effort to codify what is considered to be the best practices of existing articles, while limiting practices that have proven to cause substantial difficulties in maintaining and verifying articles.
Charts to include
editThe purpose of including charts is to provide an objective, verifiable measure of the performance of an album or song. It is not intended to be an exhaustive listing detailing the performance of a work in all markets regardless of small size or obscurity. Charts pertaining to only one specific retailer (such as iTunes, Amazon.com or Wal-Mart) should not be used. In addition, unofficial charts from countdown shows (such as MTV's TRL or BET's 106 & Park) should not be used as they are not derived from verifiable sales and/or airplay totals.
The IFPI has identified 30 countries as having 95% of the world's market in music sales. With a few limited exceptions, the performance in those 30 countries, and only those 30 countries should be listed. In general, one and only one chart per country should be listed. Some exceptional cases are worth noting:
- US Billboard charts are discussed below.
- Despite being a major world market, Brazil has no legitimate record chart. Only certifications can be properly sourced for Brazil.
- There is no composite chart for Dutch and French-speaking Belgium, thus Belgium is allowed to have two charts.
- Argentina, Croatia, and Mexico do not have singles charts of any kind.
- Poland's single chart is not archived, and thus cannot be considered verifiable.
Sources for these charts are located at WP:Chart sources. Note that this includes archival sites. In general, the use of separate archival sites such as acharts.us is discouraged, and articles should rely on the official chart source or one of the IFPI archival sites.
The cases which allow charts outside of those 30 countries are:
- The home country of the performer is outside of those countries, in which case a home country chart may be included, so long as it is both reliable and verifiable.
- French-language records may include Quebec-specific charts.
- Spanish-language records may include Latin American charts, so long as they are both reliable and verifiable.
Billboard charts
editThe Billboard charts are a special case. They constitute multiple charts for one country, but the dominance of the US in the music industry is widely recognized. These charts provide an indicator not only of how well a song performed, but provide a reliable indicator of the industry's categorization of the work in question. Because of this, many US Billboard charts are eligible for inclusion, including component charts. Billboard charts for other countries should not be used unless there is a difficulty with availability or verifiability of that country's domestic chart.
In order to avoid dominating the main table, if more than two Billboard charts are listed for the US, the Billboard charts should be broken into a separate table. The appropriate standardized table provided should be used, with — inserted in the place of non-charting positions. Note that component charts are always listed when this format is used. The charts listed are the important charts that can apply. Other Billboard charts exist, but are sufficiently trivial that they should never be listed.
This table should be used for singles.
| Hot 100 | Pop 100 | Hot R&B | Hot Dance | Hot Latin | Hot Christian | Hot Rap | Hot Country | Hot Mainstream | Hot Modern | Hot AC | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 | 25 | 30 | 35 | 40 | 45 | 50 | 55 | |||||
| Sales | Airplay | Digital Songs | Digital Tracks | Airplay | Sales | Airplay | Sales | Airplay | |||||||
| 10 | 20 | 10 | 20 | 10 | 20 | 10 | 20 | 10 | |||||||
Cases
editThe non-Billboard chart positions should be organized into one table, and the table should be formatted using class="wikitable sortable".
Within the table, no peak positions should be boldfaced, as this violates Wikipedia's policy regarding neutral point of view and breaches WP:MOSBOLD. Weeks spent at peak position should be mentioned within the article text and not inserted into the table.
| Chart (2008) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian ARIA Singles Chart | 1 |
| Canadian Singles Chart | 1 |
| French Singles Chart | 1 |
| German Singles Chart | 1 |
| Norwegian Singles Chart | 1 |
| Swiss Singles Chart | 1 |
| UK Singles Chart | 1 |
Albums and singles which appear on different charts during different years are formatted with the charts for the most recent year furthest down the table:
| Chart (2006) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian ARIA Singles Chart | 1 |
| Canadian Singles Chart | 1 |
| Spanish Singles Chart | 1 |
| UK Singles Chart | 1 |
| Chart (2007) | Peak position |
| Japanese Airplay Chart | 1 |
Alternative versions, such as remixes or radio edits, of the same song should be indicated on the table with superscript numbers:
| Chart (2007) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian ARIA Singles Chart | 1 |
| German Singles Chart 1 | 1 |
| UK Singles Chart 2 | 1 |
1 German radio version
2 Extended dance remix
Chart trajectories
editA song/album's chart trajectory should not be included in an article, even if it is verifiable. Including the chart trajectory constitutes an indiscriminate collection of information. Chart trajectories should instead be briefly described in the text of the article or in a table for charts.
Deprecated charts
editThis is a list of charts which should not be included in Wikipedia articles. These charts fail one or more criteria found above, or have, through a community discussion, been deemed unreliable and unsuitable for inclusion.
- Argentina Top 40: This chart's article was deleted by deletion discussion as a non-notable chart with dubious methodology.
- Note: a valid Argentine chart exists at capif.org.ar.
- Brazil Hot 100/Hot100Brasil: This chart's article was deleted by deletion discussion as a non-notable chart with dubious methodology.
- Bulgarian National Top 40: This chart's article was deleted by deletion discussion as a non-notable chart with dubious methodology.
- Note: the chart at acharts.us is a mirror of the Bulgarian National Top 40.
- Chile Hot 100: This chart's article was deleted by deletion discussion as a non-notable chart with dubious methodology.
- Euro 200/APC-stats: This chart's article was deleted by deletion discussion as a non-notable chart with dubious methodology.
- Note: the following charts are known to be mirrors of these charts:
- Note: a valid Portuguese album chart, based on AC Neilsen data, can be found here.
- iTunes: Charts pertaining to only one specific retailer should not be used.
- LCC Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and other Lithuania Charts Company charts: This chart's article was deleted by deletion discussion as a non-notable chart with dubious methodology.
- Lithuanian Airplay Chart: This chart's article was deleted by deletion discussion as a non-notable chart with dubious methodology.
- Philippines Hot 100: This chart's article was deleted by deletion discussion (multiple times) as a non-notable chart with dubious methodology. There are no charts for Philippines that are known to be acceptable.
- Polish National Top 50: This chart's article was deleted by deletion discussion as a non-notable chart with dubious methodology.
- Note: a valid Polish album chart can be found at olis.onyx.pl.
- Radio Disney: Charts from countdown shows should not be used as they are not derived from verifiable sales and/or airplay totals.
- United World Chart/Global Top 40 Albums: This chart's article was deleted by deletion discussion as a non-notable chart with dubious methodology.
- Viacom Network Countdowns (VH1 VSpot and CMT Top 20 Countdowns): Both programs formerly used a mix of network airplay and radio popularity with some minor viewer feedback to compile their lists, but now only depend entirely on viewer text messaging and internet voting to compile their lists.