公告牌

快捷索引

1894年11月1日，美国俄亥俄州辛辛那提市的一个小酒馆里，两个专门为马戏团、展览会设计告示牌的年轻人威廉。H.唐纳德森(William H.Donaldson)和詹姆士.F.亨宁汉(James F. Henningham)酒后兴起，萌生了办刊物的念头，《公告牌》(Billboard)就这样诞生了。不过那时，它还叫做“Billboard Advertising”，这份月刊只有8页，售价10美分，内容以州内大事、狂欢节日、娱乐演出为主。

1897年，杂志更名为“The Billboard”，同时做出一系列调整。唐纳德森买下了亨宁汉的股份、将月刊转变为周刊、在纽约以及芝加哥设立办公室。杂志内容则逐步娱乐化：增添唱片界的新闻与广告、电影概述、歌曲评论、专栏专区等等。直到1913年，《公告牌》出现首份榜单“上周最畅销的前十名流行歌曲”，成为第一本拥有排行榜的杂志。

随后的几十年里，《公告牌》又陆续开设了各式各样的排行榜：各剧院上周所播放的流行歌曲排行榜、点唱机排行榜、流行歌曲销量排行榜、电台最热播歌曲排行榜、唱片销量排行榜等等。这些排行榜中，精度不高、由唱片公司提供名单或所针对的传播途径影响不大的榜单大多停止。

上个世纪40年代，《公告牌》做出调整并重点推出点唱机最常播放歌曲榜、电台DJ最常播放歌曲榜、专辑销量榜、单曲销量榜等榜单，这些排行榜已与现今《公告牌》的榜单形式十分相似，而杂志本身也成为专业性的流行音乐排行榜杂志。1954年后，《公告牌》已经掌控了整个美国流行乐界，包括各类流行项目的榜单信息与名次的排行统计专业职权。1955年7月9日到8月27日，比尔·哈利的《昼夜摇滚》(Rock Around The Clock)蝉联《公告牌》单曲销量榜八周冠军，宣告了摇滚乐时代的开始。

同年11月12日，《公告牌》推出首份综合歌曲销售及点唱机最常播放的排行榜Top 100，1958年8月4日，Top 100更名为Hot 100单曲榜，随后将最佳销量榜并入，单曲榜自此宣告统一，成为《公告牌》至今最有名的榜单。虽然成型用了3年时间，人们仍将它的诞生日定在1955年 11月12日。

之后，《公告牌》一直稳步发展，称霸美国乐坛，并不时改进推新：将名称改为 “Billboard”、出现封面、改进统计方式、更名专辑榜为The Billboard 200等等，包括今年，《公告牌》还推出了Pop 100 单曲榜，与Hot 100 相比，它以top 40 主流电台播放率作为统计来源。

如此113年，才有了这么一张厚重、醒目、权威的“公告牌”。

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis. The two most notable charts are the Billboard Hot 100, which ranks the top 100 songs regardless of genre and is based on physical sales, digital sales and radio airplay; and the Billboard 200, the corresponding chart for album sales.

Billboard was founded in Cincinnati on November 1, 1894, by William H. Donaldson and James H. Hennegan. Originally titled Billboard Advertising it was a trade paper for the bill posting industry, hence the magazine’s name. Within a few years of its founding, it began to carry news of outdoor amusements, a major consumer of billboard space. Eventually Billboard became the paper of record for circuses, carnivals, amusement parks, fairs, vaudeville, minstrels, whale shows and other live entertainment. The magazine began coverage of motion pictures in 1909 and of radio in the 1920s.

With the development of the juke box industry during the 1930s, The Billboard began publishing music charts. Originally, there were only three genre-specific charts: Pop, Rhythm & Blues, and Country & Western. In the 1950s it introduced a section covering the television industry, including ratings charts for programs. It continued to carry news of fairs, carnivals, theme parks and other outdoor entertainments until 1961 when these departments were transferred to a new weekly magazine called Amusement Business. By this time television coverage had also been transferred to another publication.

From 1961 until 2005, Billboard was devoted entirely to the music industry. In 2005, the magazine and its web sites were repositioned to provide coverage of all forms of digital and mobile entertainment.

Amusement Business prospered for a few decades, but was struggling by the beginning of the new century. Shortly after that its frequency of publication was reduced to monthly, and it finally ceased publication altogether following its May 2006 issue.

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