It feels like I've been doing this page forever. It's hard to believe a little inspiration from a website called Top Hits Online (THO) would be the start of something I have been doing for the last 6 years.
I began visiting THO in early 1997, when I began using the web to learn of new music, and other charts besides Casey's Top 40 and Billboard. I loved the idea of a chart where everyone had a voice, and I visited constantly! Near summer of 1997, I began coming up with the idea of making my own website, but exactly, what would I do?
I decided I would make a large website based on 2 of my favorite hobbies. Music charts (at this time I was currently doing my own personal chart) and RPG video games. I had heard of angelfire through a classmate, and their offering of free webpages (and I get what I pay for)! ;) Since this site was originally going to be based on music and videogames, the original name was Musicgames. However, I quickly realized that I was only going to be given so much space (2MG at the time) and I couldn't really put 2 types of websites onto one. So I had to make a choice, and ultimately Musicgames became a music page, and later, I made a separate page for RPG games.
I had finally decided, I would follow THO's footsteps and make a chart based on people's votes. I spread the word online a bit, and on July 7, 1997, the first Musicagmes top 10 chart was posted. There were 4 votes (including myself) and MMMBop by Hanson became the very first #1 on Musicgames!
I slowly began attracting new viewers and voters as the weeks and months went along by getting my site linked on other popular chart sites like THO, and the websites of a few of the regular voters.
I decided I could do a little more with the website than I had been doing. I started making little subpages, which included mini-pages of artists like Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Amber, and others. I had a really nice Mariah Carey page thanks to Anders Wahlsten, who was a regular voter at the time (and BIG Mariah fan). I do credit him some for some of Mariah's success at the beginning of the chart's time as 4 of Mariah's first 5 songs to make the Musicgames chart went to #1. I also tried other things on the chart including a Musical Challenge, where I'd put so many songs against each other and had the viewers vote on their favorite of those. I also added official charts to the page that weren't seen anywhere else including the Fox Kids/Family Countdown, and Leeza Gibbons' Blockbuster Top 25 Countdown (Leeza's show later changed to a Hollywood Gossip show, and focused less on music, and interest was quickly lost). When a website for Casey's Top 40 went down, which everybody always went to, I began posting that chart on my page. I think at the time, Casey's Top 40 (which is now American Top 40) was more popular than the actual Musicgames chart!
As the voting audience continued to grow, the chart length did as well. I had expanded the chart to top 20, top 25, top 30, and at one point, a top 50 chart. At Musicgames' peak, I'd say there were about 30+ voters each week.
But in summer of 1999, something happened that would completely change the way the site was done, and the way I thought of angelfire. Madonna was spending her 5th week at #1 with Beautiful Stranger, as I was just about to post the chart. When I went to type my info in to get to the webshell, angelfire wouldn't accept my username or password. I went to the homepage to see if it was down. Not only was it down, it was GONE! EVERYTHING I had worked on for the Musicgames site for the last 2 years had been permenantely deleted from Angelfire's database!!! I e-mailed them several times, never getting a response. One time I believe I got an automated e-mail which was about as useful as monopoly money.
For about 2 months, and many e-mails from concerned site viewers, there was nothing I could do. Something I had hoped would become a mainstay in the music sites world had been destroyed... or had it?
In October 1999, I decided I'd give this website thing another try. And for some reason which I still do not understand to this day, I used Angelfire. Since I was making a new website, and was going to work things differently, including trying to make a little more serious, and a little less inasne (For those of you who were around during the Musicgames days, you'd know what I'm talking about as to how the homepage was designed. OMG what was I thinking?!?!?!) I said to myself, "Things are going to be bigger and better than before!"
I sent out e-mails to the old voters, that the page was back under a new name. I had changed the name from Musicgames to MUSICDAYS. Why, I still don't know. I think the new name meant that it was a new day, new music... I don't know, the name just stuck for some reason. Like others I'm sure, I think the name is dumb too. ;)
I had set a more permenant fixture to the chart, bringing it back to a top 40 chart, and changed the point system for the votes a little. On the old version, the voting was 30 songs maximum with 3 points for the #1 song. The new system was 20 songs maximum, and 4 points for the #1 song. Christina Aguilera had the first #1 of the new MUSICDAYS chart with Genie in a Bottle.
After bringing the voting chart back, I decided to start coming up with new things for the website, and bringing back old ones, but I wanted the focus of the website to be the voting chart. I eventually on and off brought back Musical Challenge, and eventually reposting American Top 40 with Casey Kasem. In 2000, when Casey's chart temporarily stopped using the Radio & Records format, I needed other ways to post the chart. Luckily, at this time Y100, the station which aired Casey at 7 in the morning on Sundays moved Casey to 9pm Sunday night, which was when I was more likely to be able to listen. Also, at this time, I discovered more websites including Radio & Records message boards, where I learned more people were actually getting their AT40 information from my page than I thought. Now if only they would vote on the MUSICDAYS chart too! ;)
AT40 eventually returned to the R&R format, and not too much longer after that, R&R's website began posting the entire top 50 pop chart. At this point, I figured there really was no point in continuing posting it on my chart, since the main reason I posted it was because no other website at the time posted it. I ultimately removed AT40 from the website, and if anyone asked what had happened to it, I would direct them to R&R's website, and they'd get more information than they'd ever dream of!
In 2001, and 2002 due to various personal reasons, including a long illness, I lagged behind on the website. At one point, I was as far behind as 3 months on the chart. I decided instead of just skipping 3 months of charts, and having the votes e-mailed to me be not worth anything, I kicked it up a notch and starting getting back up to date, posting every chart. In the Fall of 2002, I had a VERY light school schedule, and I had a lot more free time to work on it, and by the end of 2002, I was all up to date, and have not lagged behind since!
This website has been around for awhile as you can see. My original concept is still in place, and that is the voting chart, which I currently average around 24 voters per week. What really makes me happy is after 6 years of doing this, I still get hyped on Wednesday nights when I finish up making the chart, and posting it. Although I've seen some weeks where I definitely disagree with the other voters, I still enjoy it. This chart has also helped expose me to artists, which otherwise I probably would never even know about. I remember when Sherrie Austin made the chart with her song "Never Been Kissed," it was an artist I ahd never heard of before. Several weeks later, I was at Camelot Music, and saw the single for the song reduced in price. I figured, for 99 cents, I don't have much to lose, and I'm curious as to who this is. I ended up really liking the song, and the single was also enhanced which featured a biography on her and a making of her video for the song. So I got to know more about her than I bargained for. Pretty good for a buck! I'm also glad over the years I've been able to expose people to music I enjoy. Back in 1999, I introduced Anggun to several people, and by April of that year, she had enough points to hit #1! I also used to have a "Song of the Week" section when I was still able to post mp3 files (again, blame angelfire for that). I remember one instance when I posted a song called "The Dream Within" by Lara Fabian which I heard at the end of the movie Final Fantasy. One of the frequent visitors loved the song, put it to #1 on their list, and told me without this site, they probably would've never known about that song.
May MUSICDAYS continue to chart your favorites for years to come!!!
