Countdown (MuchMusic TV series)

"The Much Music Countdown" is a ninety-minute music video program block, that airs on Canadian music television station MuchMusic. The program airs a playlist of the most well-known songs in the mainstream; the first half of the show plays recently released and most popular music videos, while the second half focuses on the top 10 videos, whether they be ascending or descending the chart. "Countdown" is one of the oldest programs that continues to be aired on MuchMusic since its debut.

The order that the videos are played goes from #30-#1, although only about 16-20 of those videos are actually played, while the rest are just mentioned in a clip, as well as the videos that just played , this part of the show airs before commercials. Most of the videos that go unplayed are old videos that are fading off the chart, or less popular videos. A video that is moving down the chart will never get played unless it is stil in the Top 10. Every video in the Top 10 is played, as well as videos that are debuting on the chart. A music video that reaches the Number One spot usually stay there for 1-2 weeks.

Chart patterns

The patterns that Countdown follows become very predictable to someone who regularly examines the weekly list. A few very obvious patterns are:

* When videos that have been progressing slowly stay at a position for two consecutive weeks (i.e. #15), they often fall in the third week. If a video were to stay at #15 for two consecutive weeks, it would likely drop to somewhere in the 20's for the third week. Although latley many videos have stalled several times and have still managed to climb higher on the chart. An example is Jesse McCartney's "Leavin'" stalled at #11, #9 and finally #7 before falling.

* Videos almost never jump from any position other than Number Two, up to the number one spot. This means that a video that is at number three or four for a week will almost never jump to number one for the following week. This leads videos almost never failing to reach number one after reaching number two.

* Recently, videos rarely stay at number one for more than one week. This could be attributed to there being numerous popular videos being on the Countdown at a certain time. However, some of the most popular videos such as The Black Eyed Peas' "My Humps" or Flo Rida's "Low" or Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl" climb to number one in a very short period of time, but then fall from the top spot after just one week. Other videos that take a long time to climb to number one such as Gwen Stefani's "The Sweet Escape" or Miley Cyrus "Start All Over" manage to hold onto Number One for two weeks.

* Videos that fall from Number One often drop several positions the week after being at Number One. Again, this could be attributed there being numerous popular videos being on the Countdown at a certain time.

* Videos almost never begin to ascend the Countdown after already being on the Countdown and falling off, or peaking and beginning to drop.

Trivia

"Information can only be found from 1988 - Present"

*Notable #1's (Songs that have stayed at the top of the charts for over two weeks from 1988-Present)

*Hoobastank's "The Reason", Nelly's "Dilemma" and No Doubt's "Don't Speak" spent six weeks within the top three, the longest stay in these ranks.

*Falling from grace: the biggest fall on the "MuchMusic Countdown" from the #1 spot was 13 positions, to #14 accomplished by The Pussycat Dolls' "Stickwitu".

*Hilary Duff's "Come Clean" peaked at #4 on the "Countdown". It began to descend and when it reached number #22, it reascended to #19. When a song has peaked, it is rare for it to reascend.

*The Largest ascent on the Countdown in one week was eleven positions. This was achieved by Madonna's "American Pie", going from #29 to #18 on the March 3rd Countdown in 2000.

*The largest ascent to the #1 position was accomplished by Metallica's "Enter Sandman", back on September 6th of 1991, where it reached #1 from having been at #8 the previous week. The song also set the record for fastest song to reach #1, doing so within four weeks.

*The largest descent in one week on the Countdown was twenty-eight positions. This was achieved by Gwen Stefani's "Wind it Up" in 2006 falling from #2 to #30.

*The quickest a video has fallen from #1 and off the Countdown is one week, one video has acheieved this:Britney Spears' Toxic it fell from #1 to #13, and ceased to exist on the countdown the next week.

* The only four artists/bands to have all their music videos reach #1 (excluding One-Hit Wonders) are:

* Fergie: All 5 of her videos: London Bridge, Fergalicious, Glamorous, Big Girls Don't Cry and Clumsy have reached #1.

* Flo Rida: All 3 of his videos: Low, Elevator, and In The Ayer have all reached #1.

* Three Days Grace: All 6 of their videos: (I Hate) Everything About You, Just Like You, Home, Animal I Have Become, Pain, and Never Too Late have reached Number 1.

*Mobile's "Out of My Head" reached #1 for one week (May 26) and descended to #10 before starting to ascend the Countdown again. It reached #1 again seven weeks later (July 14), which is the longest gap for the same song at the top position. This feat might have been achieved because the dance remix of the song was released with an edited version of the music video. When it debuted, this probably counted the song as a new entry at number ten. The song spent twenty-two weeks on the Countdown, to date the most since the program's premiere.
* Two videos stalled at the lowest position: one was P. Diddy's "Show Me Your Soul", and the other's was Kid Rock's "Forever", both of which stalled at #27.

*During their ascent to the #1 position, Timbaland featuring Keri Hilson's The Way I Are shared the exact same pattern, as The Pussycat Dolls's Don't Cha (27,24,21,17,13,9,7,4,3,2,1), which is very odd to occur on the Muchmusic Countdown.

References

External links

* [http://www.muchmusic.com/tv/countdown/ The Top 30 Countdown]
* [http://www.derekweb.com/oldspot/countdown/ The Countdown Archives]