![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The total number of albums to reach #1 on the Billboard Top 200 album charts in 2002 is 25. I am sharing this with you because I spent two f&#@ing weeks trying to chase down the answer, so I'm now going to tell everybody.
Backstory: In 2001, I submitted a Prophecy Contest to Games Magazine, based on similar contests they used to run about 20 years ago. The gist was, entrants had to submit their predictions on what would happen in the year 2002, in the form of numeric answers to 12 questions (e.g. "The total number of medals won by the U.S. in the Winter Olympics," "Number of speaking roles in the Pulitzer Prize winner for Drama," etc.) The magazine bought it, and told me that, if I kept track of the answers as they came, they'd assign me to do the write-up of the results. Groovy by me.
Well, most of the answers I could field as they happened, but there was one that had to wait 'til the end of the year: the one about how many albums hit #1 in Billboard all year. I figured, hey, no problemo, should be easy to calculate. Ahh, the best-laid plans of mice and men. My multiple-part contingency plan went something like this:
1) Look it up in the local library's copies of Billboard. (Local library, contrary to my memory, does not carry Billboard.)
2) Look it up on Billboard's Web site. (Billboard only allows archive access to paid subscribers. I am not about to hork up the cash for an annual subscription just to find a two-digit number.)
3) Find it out elsewhere online. (No dice. I didn't expect to see the figure posted anywhere per se, but I had hoped that some news source would have a week-by-week posting of the charts in their archives. Apparently, news sources only post Billboard charts when they feel like it.)
4) Travel to another library and look at their copies of Billboard. (See #1.)
5) E-mail the Charts Guru at Billboard, and beg for the answer. (Got a nice e-mail back, saying that, yes, he could give me the answer, but, gosh, if this is going to be printed in a magazine, I'd have to go through the licensing board and pay the standard reprint and publication fees. The editors at Games reminded me that there is such a thing as the First Amendment.)
6) Call the we-can-answer-anything folks at the NYC Public Library. (After being shuffled off to three different extensions, I got a rather snippy guy who said that they didn't have the time to go through issue-by-issue, and I would have to come in and do it by hand. I understod that, but did he have any other suggestions of where I might turn? No, he didn't have time to go through issue-by-issue, and I would have to... I really hate NYC.)
I finally found the answer: the Glens Falls Post-Star prints the top 5 every Sunday. Yes, that's the same paper that's delivered to our house daily, which is just more evidence that the Research Gods have a personal vendetta against me. I got to go through 8 months of microfilm, then made the poor librarians go and fetch another 14 weekly issues that hadn't been discarded yet. My hari kiri session is scheduled for Wednesday, weather permitting.
When I have the energy, I'll tell you about the other nighmare question from this contest; let's just say that I now know what every member of the House of Representatives looks like on an individual basis.
Backstory: In 2001, I submitted a Prophecy Contest to Games Magazine, based on similar contests they used to run about 20 years ago. The gist was, entrants had to submit their predictions on what would happen in the year 2002, in the form of numeric answers to 12 questions (e.g. "The total number of medals won by the U.S. in the Winter Olympics," "Number of speaking roles in the Pulitzer Prize winner for Drama," etc.) The magazine bought it, and told me that, if I kept track of the answers as they came, they'd assign me to do the write-up of the results. Groovy by me.
Well, most of the answers I could field as they happened, but there was one that had to wait 'til the end of the year: the one about how many albums hit #1 in Billboard all year. I figured, hey, no problemo, should be easy to calculate. Ahh, the best-laid plans of mice and men. My multiple-part contingency plan went something like this:
1) Look it up in the local library's copies of Billboard. (Local library, contrary to my memory, does not carry Billboard.)
2) Look it up on Billboard's Web site. (Billboard only allows archive access to paid subscribers. I am not about to hork up the cash for an annual subscription just to find a two-digit number.)
3) Find it out elsewhere online. (No dice. I didn't expect to see the figure posted anywhere per se, but I had hoped that some news source would have a week-by-week posting of the charts in their archives. Apparently, news sources only post Billboard charts when they feel like it.)
4) Travel to another library and look at their copies of Billboard. (See #1.)
5) E-mail the Charts Guru at Billboard, and beg for the answer. (Got a nice e-mail back, saying that, yes, he could give me the answer, but, gosh, if this is going to be printed in a magazine, I'd have to go through the licensing board and pay the standard reprint and publication fees. The editors at Games reminded me that there is such a thing as the First Amendment.)
6) Call the we-can-answer-anything folks at the NYC Public Library. (After being shuffled off to three different extensions, I got a rather snippy guy who said that they didn't have the time to go through issue-by-issue, and I would have to come in and do it by hand. I understod that, but did he have any other suggestions of where I might turn? No, he didn't have time to go through issue-by-issue, and I would have to... I really hate NYC.)
I finally found the answer: the Glens Falls Post-Star prints the top 5 every Sunday. Yes, that's the same paper that's delivered to our house daily, which is just more evidence that the Research Gods have a personal vendetta against me. I got to go through 8 months of microfilm, then made the poor librarians go and fetch another 14 weekly issues that hadn't been discarded yet. My hari kiri session is scheduled for Wednesday, weather permitting.
When I have the energy, I'll tell you about the other nighmare question from this contest; let's just say that I now know what every member of the House of Representatives looks like on an individual basis.
