Countdown (MuchMusic TV series)

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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 that shows the 2 videos that were played just before the clip(i.e., #19, 18, 17) that is aired 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.

Contents

[edit] Chart patterns

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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.
  • 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" 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.

[edit] 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)
Weeks at #1 Year # of Weeks to Reach #1 Weeks Artist Song
5 1999 6 January 8 - February 5 Britney Spears ...Baby One More Time
4 1991 4 September 6 - September 27 Metallica Enter Sandman
4 1988 5 October 21 - November 11 U2 Desire
4 1996 5 March 1 - March 22 Alanis Morissette Ironic
4 2004 7 January 30 - February 20 Outkast Hey Ya
3 1995 5 November 17 - December 1 Smashing Pumpkins Bullet With Butterfly Wings
3 1997 5 February 7 - February 21 Spice Girls Wannabe
3 1996 6 February 9 - February 23 Oasis Wonderwall
3 2000 7 May 26 - June 9 Britney Spears Oops!...I Did It Again
3 2001 10 October 26 - November 9 Nickelback How You Remind Me
3 1997 11 April 4 - April 18 Our Lady Peace Superman's Dead
3 2001 11 May 25 - June 8 Destiny's Child Survivor
  • Highest Debut on the countdown was #18. All of these songs have debuted at #18
Year Date Peak Position Artist Song
1996 January 6 #2 Everything But The Girl Missing
1996 June 28 #1 (one week) Metallica Until It Sleeps
1997 January 17 #1 (one week) U2 Discothèque
Date Debut Position Artist Song
September 27
1996		 #30 Marilyn Manson The Beautiful People
#28 Crash Test Dummies He Liked To Feel It
#25 Moist Leave It Alone
#23 Celine Dion It's All Coming Back To Me Now
#21 2Pac I Ain't Mad At Cha
April 18
1997		 #30 Blur Song 2
#28 Hanson MMMBop
#27 Notorious B.I.G. Hypnotize
#26 The Chemical Brothers Block Rockin' Beats
#24 Wide Mouth Mason Midnight Rain
  • 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 two artists to have all their music videos reach #1 (excluding artists with only one video) are Fergie (All 5 of her videos (London Bridge, Fergalicious, Glamorous, Big Girls Don't Cry and Clumsy) have reached #1, and Flo Rida (Both of his videos (Low and Elavator) have reached #1.
  • The only band to have all their music videos reach #1 is Three Days Grace, for all 6 of their videos (videos (I Hate) Everything About You, Just Like You, Home, Animal I Have Become, Pain, and Never Too Late).
  • 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.

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