Cashbox was the trade magazine for jukeboxes, our local newspaper published both the Cashbox and the Billboard charts every week, and they were often very different, the difference between what people want to hear and what people want them to hear--I understand that now, there is a ratings service that monitors P2P downloads to determine which songs and artists are popular--an interesting turnabout for the music industry!

I have had what occasionally borders on an obsessive interest in what songs are and were popular--Of course, as a kid, I was an avid radio listener,   and the top 40 standings of everything were drummed into our heads as often as the songs themselves--but later, as a bar--club--wedding--coffeehouse-sandwich-shop entertainer, I was always looking for the perfect set list, and always tried to get the inside line on what people really liked--and for that the charts only get you so far--

For that, there are two non-existant charts that I'd really like to see--one would be charts based on the set lists for working club/bar bands(including info on the "most requested"), the other would be the set lists for club and dance party DJ's--these guys make their living by playing what people want to hear, and they die if the dance floor is empty--