Di-Namix Productions - The Best In Hit Music

A TOUR OF THE DI-NAMIX CHART:

The Di-Namix chart has evolved greatly since its creation in 1991. The following is a history of the chart's changes, along with photos of actual charts and explanations of how the chart developed into its present form. Click on the photos for a larger view of each historic chart.

Our tour of the Di-Namix chart begins on the very first week, August 31, 1991. The idea of a weekly chart to keep track of the hottest hits arose from the creation of Di-Namix DJ, a mobile DJ service I founded earlier that month with a high school friend. The simple chart (left) was created on my Apple IIgs computer system, using word processing software that was outdated even then.

The first number one song was Bryan Adams' "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You," and there were two actual debuts that week. They were "Do Anything" by Natural Selection Featuring Niki Haris and "Shiny Happy People" by R.E.M. The other 18 songs on that first chart were placed as if they had already established a spot on the chart. There was no Hot Shot Debut or Power Pick Hit designation on the first chart. In fact, these designations didn't show up until the September 21 chart. They have been important features ever since. For point calculation purposes, "Do Anything" was the un-named Power Pick hit on September 7, 1991; and "I Adore Mi Amor" by Color Me Badd claimed the unwritten honor for September 14. The Hot Shot Debuts would have been "Do Anything" on August 31, "I Adore Mi Amor" on September 7 and "Time, Love And Tenderness" by Michael Bolton on September 14. "My Name Is Not Susan" by Whitney Houston was the actual Hot Shot Debut on September 21, but the chart mistakenly listed "Kiss Them For Me" by Siouxsie & The Banshees as the Hot Shot that week. There were many small errors on the early charts, such as misspelled and wrongly-titled entries (in fact, "Siouxsie" was misspelled on that September 21 chart). The Hot Shot and Power Pick errors have been corrected on the main point spreadsheet, so proper credit is given.

As you can see by the September 21 chart (left), the layout was changed after the first three charts. It was redesigned to more closely resemble the Billboard Hot 100 chart, but due to extreme limitations on that old computer system, it still appeared crudely designed.

Each week, I had to print the letterhead using The Print Shop, then re-insert the paper and print the chart using Appleworks word processing software.

The "bullets" on the first several charts were simply a caret (^) character placed next to the position number. Due to the fixed width of the font, several titles and artist names had to be abbreviated.

As the early chart slowly evolved, changes included wider margins, beginning with the November 2, 1991 chart. On November 30, the "NEW! '" designation for debuting songs was expanded across the "Last Week" and "2 Weeks Ago" columns, for a more balanced look. The December 14 chart (left) introduced new bullets, surrounding the position numbers with parentheses, instead of the harder-to-see caret mark.

On December 28, 1991, the chart was not intended to be an official tally, since the National charts also "froze" their charts at the year's end. In 1997, this "unofficial" chart was reinstated and included in the point spreadsheet. It was determined that there was no legitimate reason to leave this week out. Consequently, "Set Adrift On Memory Bliss" by PM Dawn became an official Number One song, as it had peaked that week.

More features were added to the chart in 1992. A listing of movie titles next to soundtrack songs began on August 22. This space-consuming practice was discontinued on March 11, 1995, when "Here Comes The Hotstepper (From 'Ready To Wear')" exited the chart. On September 12, 1992, a much needed "weeks at No. 1" designation was added to the top song, making it easier to see how long a song had been Number One. A chart "volume and number" indication appeared on the September 19, 1992 chart, and continues today. The "volume" indicates the year of the chart, and the "number" indicates the week. For instance, "Chart Vol. 2, No. 3" indicated the 2nd year and 3rd week of the chart on September 19, 1992. The December 27, 2008 chart shows "Vol. 18, No. 18."

A strange occurrence took place at the end of 1992. There was no December 26 chart printed. Therefore, the "Last Week" and "2 Weeks Ago" columns of the January 2, 1993 chart were the same. Therefore, it was determined that the Top 20 songs "held" their positions for the final week of 1992, and Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" officially spent 11 weeks at No. 1. A similar thing happened again at the end of 1993. No chart was printed for December 25. However, the "Last Week" column of the January 1, 1994 chart reflected the positions of the December 18 chart, simply overlooking that last week of 1993.

Beginning on January 1, 1994, the chart heading was changed from "Compiled from radio airplay and sales data, along with personal tastes of Di-Namix D.J." to "Compiled from weekly radio airplay data, along with chart criteria developed by Di-Namix." The old heading had been in place for exactly two years. The Billboard charts had been an early basis for the Di-Namix chart, which is why sales data had been mentioned. "Chart criteria" also sounded more scientific than "personal tastes." Sales data continued to be mentioned in the small print at the bottom of the page.

The biggest visual change happened on April 16, 1994 (left). A new computer system was acquired, which allowed the chart to undergo a major overhaul. Colors were added to the bullets, Hot Shot Debuts and Power Pick Hits. Shading, continuous borders and high-resolution fonts gave the chart a spectacular new look. Songwriter info, record label listings and catalog numbers were added, as was the number of hits each artist had charted. "Source" letters indicated if a song was on cassette single, CD, etc. in the Di-Namix collection.

The chart underwent a few minor changes after its major redesign in 1994. The color for the Hot Shot Debut changed from red to its present-day green on May 21, 1994. Beginning in 1995, a "20" was added to the chart's name, and it became "Di-Namix Top 20 Singles." The font used in the chart's body was changed slightly, to be more reader-friendly. The No. 1 position also got a red highlight, and the "weeks at No. 1" indicator moved under the "1" in the "This Week" column.

On August 26, 1995, a very useful feature appeared for the first time. The "peak position" column on the right-hand edge of the chart made it much easier to follow a song's history.

On the January 6, 1996 chart, the "airplay and sales data" mention was finally removed from the small print below the chart.

May 3, 1997 brought more changes. Di-Namix D.J. became Di-Namix Productions. The chart's name also changed that week, exchanging the outdated term "singles" for "hits."

On July 26, 1997, Di-Namix Productions went online. The weekly chart was featured on the Internet, and that Web address was added to the bottom of the printed chart.

Ever since the dawn of the chart in 1991, debuting songs were designated as "NEW." Since not every song that enters the chart is necessarily "new" (re-releases, for example), the designation was changed to "DEBUT" on the May 23, 1998 chart (left).

As the new millennium dawned, a new era for the Di-Namix chart was about to begin. On the January 1, 2000 chart (left), a full-color graphic logo was included in the letterhead for the first time. The heading text was also shortened from its January 1, 1994 version. This heading is still in use today, and states that the chart is "compiled from chart criteria developed by Di-Namix Productions." New, graphically-interfaced bullets, Hot Shot, Power Pick and No. 1 designations were introduced.

As the early days of 2000 rolled on, the biggest change in the history of the chart (other than the cosmetic one in 1994) was about to occur…

March 11, 2000 changed the Di-Namix chart forever. That week, the chart expanded from 20 to 40 positions. This expansion had been experimented with several times, but never put into play. This time all the proper adjustments were made for a smooth transition. The Top 20 version of the chart (left) was still printed until August 25, 2001 along with the Top 40 version.

The first Top 40 chart on March 11, 2000 (left) only included songwriter information for the songs that debuted that week. The following week, the formatting was adjusted to allow space for songwriter info, along with the usual information that is included with each entry. On April 15, a narrower font became the standard that continues today.

With the expanded chart came extra designations used to signify songs that moved into the Top 20 for the first time. They were called the Hot Shot Breakthru and the Top 20 Breakthru. These were used in addition to the Hot Shot Debut, which signified the highest song entering the Top 40. The Breakthru designations were discontinued on August 19, but a Greatest Gainer designation was added on September 23, noting the song that gained the most places on the chart (the Power Pick Hit was still reserved for the biggest movement within the Top 20 at that time). The extra designations proved to be more distracting than useful, so the chart returned to its original configuration (Hot Shot Debut and Power Pick Hit only) on September 1, 2001. The Power Pick Hit now stands for the biggest mover on the entire chart, with the Hot Shot Debut remaining as the highest new entry.

August 25, 2001 saw the end of the Di-Namix Top 20 chart, exactly ten years after it debuted. The Top 40 chart had been in force for over a year and a half, and the Top 20 had been printed along with it for continuity's sake. With the transition to a 40-place chart complete, it was time to say goodbye to the chart in its original format. The final Top 20 chart is pictured (left).

The chart got another fresh look on September 1, 2001 (the first chart of its 11th year) with new bullets, as well as new Hot Shot Debut and Power Pick Hit graphics (left).

After tragedy struck on September 11, 2001, the chart's header was changed to feature an American flag graphic, honoring those who had lost their lives in New York City, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania. The September 15 chart had been printed prior to September 11, so the flag first appeared on the September 22 chart (left). The 2002 chart headings all featured a newly-designed, patriotic Di-Namix logo.

On April 5, 2003, the long-standing practice of placing a "source" designation on the chart was discontinued. It had been used to indicate what type of recording (CD single, etc.) was in the Di-Namix collection. Promotional CD compilations and downloaded music had taken over as the sources of most hits appearing on the chart. Promo singles continued to be noted with a catalog number for a short time after, but they are no longer identified.

More refinements to the chart included new symbols, which were added on May 3, 2003. Red circles with a dot in the center were placed next to song titles for songs that achieved the Top 250 on the all-time chart. Red diamonds indicated songs in the all-time Top 100. Red numbers were added in the "peak position" column to indicate songs that had achieved a new peak that week.

On September 6, a special #1 or #2 symbol with the number of weeks at #1 or #2 was added to the "peak position" column. This made it easier to see how long a song had stayed at or near the top. Also, a blue snowflake symbol was used for the first time on the December 27, 2003 chart to indicate Christmas hits.

On January 7, 2006, a plain red circle symbol was added to indicate songs reaching the Top 500 on the all-time chart. The dotted circle and diamond symbols continue to indicate Top 250 and Top 100 all-time hits.

Another feature was added on January 6, 2007. The artists' album titles can now be found below their name, to indicate where the hit song can be found.

From that first crude chart on August 31, 1991 to today's fully-loaded version, the Di-Namix chart has come a long way. The hits keep on coming, and so the evolution of the Di-Namix Top 40 chart continues...