Д«illboard has not explicitly defined how it determines which songs qualify for the country chart and which ones do not, only that 'a few factors are determined (.) first and foremost is musical composition' and that a song must 'embrace enough elements of today's country music' to qualify. The record was subsequently broken by Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line's ' Meant to Be' in 2018 (50 weeks). This was followed almost immediately by Florida Georgia Line's ' Cruise', which had the longest stay at number one of any song in the country chart's history (24 weeks), until it was surpassed by Sam Hunt's ' Body Like a Back Road' in 2017 (34 weeks). The first song to benefit from this change was Taylor Swift's ' We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together', which had been declining in popularity but shot up to number one on the chart the first week the change took effect and stayed there until it set an all-time record for the most weeks at No. Following the change, songs that were receiving airplay on top-40 pop were given a major advantage over songs popular only on country radio, and as an unintended consequence, such songs began having record-long runs at the top of the chart. A new chart, the Country Airplay chart, was created using airplay exclusively from country radio stations. The Hot Country Songs chart methodology was changed starting with the October 20, 2012, issue to match the Billboard Hot 100: digital downloads and streaming data are combined with airplay from all radio formats to determine position. This change was brought on because of ' label-sponsored spin programs' that had manipulated the chart several times in 2004. The methodology was changed for the first chart published in 1992 to tally the amount of spins a song received, but in January 2005, the methodology reverted to the audience format. Starting in 1990, the rankings were determined by Arbitron-tallied listener audience for each spin that a song received. Effective April 30, 2005, the chart was renamed 'Hot Country Songs'. Beginning with the January 13, 2001, issue, the chart was reduced from 75 to 60 positions, and all songs on the chart at the time had their tally of weeks spent on the chart adjusted to count only weeks spent at No.В 60 or higher. Four weeks later, on February 17, the chart was retitled 'Hot Country Singles & Tracks'. On January 20, 1990, the Hot Country Singles chart was reduced from 100 to 75 positions and began to be compiled entirely from information provided by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems, a system which electronically monitors radio airplay of songs.

The chart was published under the title Hot C&W Sides through the October 27, 1962, issue and 'Hot Country Singles' thereafter, a title it would retain until 1990. Starting with the October 20, 1958, issue, Billboard began combining sales and radio airplay in figuring a song's overall popularity, counting them in one single chart called 'Hot C&W Sides'. The juke box chart was discontinued in June 1957.

An airplay chart вЂ“ started December 10, 1949, as 'Country & Western Records Most Played By Folk Disk Jockeys'.

The 'best sellers' chart вЂ“ started May 15, 1948, as 'Best Selling Retail Folk Records'.

In addition to the jukebox chart, these charts included: ДЇor approximately ten years, from 1948 to 1958, Billboard used three charts to measure the popularity of a given song. Only the genre's most popular jukebox selections were tabulated, with the chart titled 'Most Played Juke Box Folk Records'.

2.3 Artists with the most number one hitsД«illboard began compiling the popularity of country songs with its January 8, 1944, issue.

2.2 Artists with most cumulative weeks at number one.

2.1 Songs with most weeks at number one.

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