# The evolution of popular music.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-popular-music/754720>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [May 13, 2016, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-popular-music/754720 "2016-05-13T21:55:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2016, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-popular-music/754720/1 "2016-05-13T21:55:37Z")

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[This site is ingenious.](This site is ingenious.) It will play the songs that reached number one on the top Billboard charts, but show the ones below it and how they moved over the month and years… and if one happens to move up and take the number one spot, the site will switch to playing that song for duration of it being in number one.

I immediately clicked on the year 1958 when I loaded it up…the default is 1997, it looks like.

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**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-popular-music/754720/2 "2016-05-14T00:14:31Z")

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> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#):
>
> [This site is ingenious.](This site is ingenious.) It will play the songs that reached number one on the top Billboard charts, but show the ones below it and how they moved over the month and years… and if one happens to move up and take the number one spot, the site will switch to playing that song for duration of it being in number one.
> 
> I immediately clicked on the year 1958 when I loaded it up…the default is 1997, it looks like.

I bet we’d have better luck in finding the site if you included the URL in the link.

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**Author:** ![TheChileanBlob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thechileanblob/32/435_2.png) [@TheChileanBlob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheChileanBlob)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-popular-music/754720/3 "2016-05-14T00:46:33Z")

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It’s this: [http://polygraph.cool/history/](http://polygraph.cool/history/)

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**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-popular-music/754720/4 "2016-05-14T02:35:37Z")

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So popular music began in 1958? Not.

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**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2016, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-evolution-of-popular-music/754720/5 "2016-05-14T07:25:25Z")

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> [@panache45](#):
>
> So popular music began in 1958? Not.

August 4, 1958 is when Billboard started their Hot 100 chart.