“In 1988, after a short-lived format boom in the early MTV era, alternative radio was again attracting the attention of major-market group broadcasters,” Ross on Radio editor, and Billboard alum, Sean Ross wrote in 2013.
“In the late ’80s and early ’90s,” Ross noted, “the core acts of alternative were still very much The Smiths, Depeche Mode and The Cure, but 10,000 Maniacs also [had] a place, and there [was] a significant female singer-songwriter presence, with Edie Brickell, Tracy Chapman, Patti Smith and Joan Armatrading.”
Reflecting the format’s ascent, in the Sept. 10, 1988, Billboard issue, the Alternative Airplay chart, then titled Top Modern Rock Tracks, began. Siouxsie & the Banshees’ “Peek-a-Boo” led the first list — becoming the first of 434 No. 1s and counting, through Bad Omens’ “Just Pretend” on the latest, Sept. 9-dated chart.
Over the chart’s first 35 years, alternative has welcomed acts ranging from one-time entrants to those that have been core to the genre over the survey’s entire existence. Along the way, British bands and singer-songwriters, as Ross chronicled, served as key hitmakers, followed by the format’s segues to grunge, nu-metal, Lilith Fair-era female folk-rock and a return to synth sounds in recent years.
Summarized Ross in 2013, “The alternative radio format is built upon the promise of what’s coming next.”
(Similarly, when the chart began, 29 stations comprised the reporting panel; today, over 50 do. Shout-out to the two both at the start and now: KROQ Los Angeles and XTRA San Diego. Tracy Chapman’s chart presence is likewise as welcome in 2023 as it was in 1988.)
As Billboard celebrates the Alternative Airplay chart’s 35th anniversary, below are 35 of the most notable feats achieved on the ranking. Included are the acts with the most No. 1s and top 10s, the elite songs that hit No. 1 on both Alternative Airplay and the all-genre Billboard Hot 100, and more.
Given the winding road that the format has traversed, it’s difficult to predict what artists and songs will rewrite records by the time of the Alternative Airplay chart’s 40th anniversary. As Chris Payne, former Billboard writer (and author of the newly-released book, Where Are Your Boys Tonight), wrote for the survey’s 30-year mark, echoing Ross, “A period of considerable destabilization in alternative very well may prove to be healthy long-term — a sort of refresh on the genre, in which artists and programmers will no longer be beholden to the bedrocks of alternative radio past, and can try anything and everything to see what works.”
“Peek-a-Boo,” Siouxsie & the Banshees
As for alternative not drawing on the past … “Peek-a-Boo” includes the lyrics, “Golly jeepers / Where’d you get those weepers? / Peep show, creep show / Where did you get those eyes?” When they were deemed too close to the song “Jeepers Creepers” – from 50 years earlier – the band added co-writing credit on “Peek-a-Boo” to “Jeepers Creepers” writers Johnny Mercer and Harry Warren.
“Just Pretend,” Bad Omens
15, Red Hot Chili Peppers, from “Give It Away” in 1991 to “Tippa My Tongue” in 2022
4, Billie Eilish, from “Bury a Friend” in 2019 to “Therefore I Am” in 2021
3, Beck, from “Loser” in 1994 to “Up All Night” in 2017-18
30, Foo Fighters
“You have to write great songs. That’s it,” Grohl mused to Billboard in 2018. “To me, the challenge was always trying to craft a song that was simple in a way that people would connect to it emotionally. Even just a melody … that’s a funny thing. A lyric is one thing, but there’s something that a melody can do … just the sound of a minor scale, or a major scale rising in a chorus. The notes will twist your heart. That’s the Rubik’s Cube, trying to find a melody and lyric will braid together and create four minutes of memory that you’ll have for the rest of your life.”
2 each, The B-52’s & U2
8, Linkin Park
9, Cage the Elephant
No act has logged more leaders in a single decade than the band from Bowling Green, Ky., in the 2010s, from “Back Against the Wall” in 2010 through “Social Cues” in 2019. (The group has since added a 10th career No. 1, “Skin and Bones,” in 2021.)
4 each, twenty one pilots & Weezer
Foo Fighters, Green Day & Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers, 28 years, 11 months & two weeks (1991-2022)
Depeche Mode, 33 years, six months & two weeks (1989-2023)
Depeche Mode, 34 years, one month & three weeks (1989-2023)
“Orange Crush,” R.E.M., eight weeks, beginning in November 1988
“Scar Tissue,” Red Hot Chili Peppers, 16 weeks beginning in June 1999
“The Pretender,” Foo Fighters, 18 weeks, beginning in September 2007
“Feel It Still?,” Portugal. The Man, an overall-record 20 weeks, beginning in July 2017
“Monsters,” All Time Low feat. blackbear, 18 weeks, beginning in September 2020
“What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?,” R.E.M., Sept. 24, 1994
Previously, eight songs had debuted in the top five – three by U2 and two by R.E.M., as the bands had become essentially automatic adds at the format each time they returned with new music. No. 3 had been the highest launch pad until the lead single from R.E.M.’s 1994 album Monster, achieved by U2’s “Mysterious Ways” in 1991 and “Numb” in 1993, and Peter Gabriel’s “Digging in the Dirt” in 1992.
“Dani California,” Red Hot Chili Peppers, April 22, 2006
“What I’ve Done,” Linkin Park, April 21, 2007
42, “Running Up That Hill,” Meg Myers, 2019-20
Debuting at No. 1 is impressive. So is reaching the summit after a long climb. Myers’ cover of Kate Bush’s 1985 classic brought the composition to a new generation – helping make it even more familiar by the time the original was featured in Netflix’s Stranger Things; Bush’s version returned to multiple charts, including Alternative Airplay, where it reached No. 2 in August 2022.
“Nothing Compares 2 U,” Sinead O’Connor, 1990
O’Connor broke ground when her interpretation of Prince’s ballad ruled the Hot 100 dated April 21, 1990, after it first led Alternative Airplay that March. Thirty-three years later, following her passing, the song was still topping charts, hitting No. 1 on Alternative Digital Song Sales and Rock Digital Song Sales.
“One Week,” Barenaked Ladies, 1998
“Butterfly,” Crazy Town, 2001
“How You Remind Me,” Nickelback, 2001-02
“Viva La Vida,” Coldplay, 2008
Among these 10 dual No. 1s, Coldplay stands alone in having scored a second Hot 100 leader: “My Universe,” with BTS, in 2021. The collab likewise drew support on alternative radio, reaching No. 13 on the Alternative Airplay chart.
“Somebody That I Used to Know,” Gotye feat. Kimbra, 2012
“We Are Young,” fun. feat. Janelle Monae, 2012
“Royals,” Lorde, 2013
“Bad Guy,” Billie Eilish, 2019
“Heat Waves,” Glass Animals, 2021-22
The song rode its alternative breakthrough to a record 59-week crossover ascent to No. 1 on the Hot 100. It also spent a record 91 weeks on the Hot 100, through October 2022. “Many of you know when I wrote this song I was writing about missing someone I loved very dearly,” Glass Animals frontman Dave Bayley told Billboard about the latter feat. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think that it would lead to so much love and connection across the globe. You all have done that. Thank you.”
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