Old-Charts
History
UK
The  first British singles chart was published in the November 14, 1952 edition of  the New Musical Express. It was at first little more than a gimmick, a  tool in the circulation war against NME's much older (and more popular) rival Melody Maker. The chart, at first a top 12, was the creation of the paper's  advertising manager, Percy Dickins, who compiled it by telephoning around 20  major record stores and aggregating their sales reports. He would continue to  personally oversee the compilation of the chart well into the 1960s.
The  chart rapidly became one of the paper's most popular features. After only a few  weeks, it started being quoted in record company advertisements and press  releases. The chart also spawned imitators - Record Mirror launched its  own chart in 1955 and Melody Maker in 1958.
The  forerunner of today's official chart first appeared in the music trade  publication Record Retailer (now Music Week) in 1960 as a Top 50,  but was not immediately recognised as the definitive chart in the country.  Arguably, the NME chart was still the most recognised chart, and had the  advantage of widespread exposure due to its use by Radio Luxembourg. Throughout  the sixties, the various different charts vied for public recognition, leading  to some historical anomalies ï¿½ for example, The Beatles' second single "Please  Please Me" was a number one on most charts, but not in Record Retailer.  To add to the confusion, the chart used by the BBC on their popular shows Pick of the Pops and Top Of The Pops was actually calculated by  averaging out all the others, and so didn't agree with any of them, and was  prone to tied positions.
It  wasn't until 1969 that a truly reliable, official chart emerged, from an  alliance between the BBC and Record Retailer. For the first time a professional  polling organisation, BMRB, was commissioned to oversee the chart, and a pool of  500 record shops was used - more than twice as many as had been used for any  previous chart. The new Official Top 50 was inaugurated in the week ending 12  February 1969.
In  1978, the singles chart was extended from a Top 50 to a Top 75.
In  1982, BMRB lost their contract to Gallup, who arranged for electronic data  gathering to replace the old sales diary method of compilation. The first chart  terminals appeared in record shops in 1984. As a result, in October 1987, it was  now possible for the chart, incorporating sales up to close of business on  Saturday, to be announced on Sunday afternoon, rather than being delayed until  Tuesday as was previously the case.
In  1990, the chart came under the auspices of CIN (Chart Information Network), a  syndicate including the BBC, Spotlight (publishers of Music Week), the  BPI and BARD (British Association of Record Distributors). This was basically a  formalisation of the previously-existing informal arrangement, and did not  significantly affect compilation.
 
USA
The  earliest charts probably came in late 1929.
In the  30's there were Downbeat and Metronome Charts and maybe there were others. The  Billboard Charts started in 1940, Cashbox in 1944.
 
The Billboard charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs or albums in the United States. The results are published in Billboard magazine. The two primary charts - the Hot 100 (top 100 singles) and the Top 200 (top 200 albums) factor in airplay, as well as music sales in all relevant formats. Billboard is considered the foremost worldwide authority worldwide in music charts, and the rankings have gained a following among the general public.
On January 4, 1936, Billboard magazine published its first music hitparade. The first Music Popularity Chart was calculated in July, 1940. A variety of song charts followed, which were eventually consolidated into the Hot 100 by mid-1958.
 
Methodology of its charts
Currently, Billboard utilizes a    system called Nielsen SoundScan to track sales of singles, albums,    videos and DVDs. Essentially, it's a system that registers sales when    products are purchased from SoundScan-enabled stores. Billboard    also uses a system called Broadcast Data Systems, or BDS, which they own    as a subsidiary, to track radio airplay. Each song has an "acoustic    fingerprint" which, when played on a radio station that is contracted to    use BDS, is detected. These detections are added up every week among all    radio stations to determine airplay points. Arbitron statistics are also factored in to give "weight" to airplay    based on audience size and time-of-day.
All of Billboard's charts use this    basic formula. What separates the charts is which stations and stores    are used ï¿½ each musical genre having a core audience or retail group.    Each genre's department at Billboard is headed up by a chart    manager, who makes these determinations.
For many years, a song had to be    commercially available as a single to be considered for any of   Billboard's charts. At the time, instead of using SoundScan or BDS,    Billboard obtained its data from manual reports filled out by radio    stations and stores. According to the 50th Anniversary issue of   Billboard, prior to the official implementation of Nielsen SoundScan    tracking in November 1991, many radio stations and retail stores removed    songs from their manual reports after the associated record labels    stopped promoting a particular single. Thus songs fell quickly after    peaking and had shorter chart lives. In 1990, the country singles chart    was the first chart to use SoundScan and BDS. They were followed by the    Hot 100 and the   R&B chart in 1991. Today, all of Billboard's charts use this    technology.
Before September 1995, singles were    allowed to chart in the week they first went on sale based on airplay    points alone. The policy was changed in September 1995 to only allow a    single to debut after a full week of sales on combined sales and airplay    points. This allowed several tracks to debut at number one.
In December 1998, the policy was further    modified to allow tracks to chart on the basis of airplay alone without    a commercial release. This change was made to reflect the changing    realities of the music business. Previous to this, several substantial    radio and MTV hits had not appeared on the Billboard chart at    all, because many   major labels chose not to release them as standalone singles, hoping    their unavailability would spur greater album sales. Not offering a    popular song to the public as a single was unheard of before the 1970s.    The genres that suffered most at the time were those that increasingly    impacted   pop culture, including new genres such as trip    hop and    grunge.
Starting in 2005, Billboard changed    its methodology to allow paid   digital downloads from digital music stores such as   iTunes to chart with or without the help of radio airplay.
 
A variety of charts
Originally, Billboard had separate    charts for different measures of popularity, including disk jockey    playings,   juke box song selection, and best selling records in retail stores.    There was also a composite standing chart compiled by combining those,    which gradually grew to become a top 100, the ancestor of the current    Hot 100 chart. The juke box chart ceased publication after the June 17,    1957 issue, the disk jockey chart, after the July 28, 1958 issue, and    the best seller chart, after the October 13, 1958 issue. The July 28,    1958 issue was also the last issue in which the composite chart was    called the Top 100; the following week was the start of the Hot 100    titles.
Currently, Billboard publishes many    different charts, with the Hot 100 and Billboard 200 being the most    famous. In 2009 Billboard partnered with   MetroLyrics to offer top 10 lyrics for each of the charts.
 
At year's end
At the end of each year, Billboard    tallies the results of all of its charts, and the results are published    in a year-end issue and heard on year-end editions of its   American Top 40 and    American Country Countdown radio broadcasts, in addition to    being announced in the press. Between 1991 and 2006, the top    single/album/artist(s) in each of those charts was/were awarded in the    form of the annual   Billboard Music Awards, which were annually held in December until    the awards went dormant in 2007 (plans for a new version of the awards    in 2008 fell through, and no awards have been held since 2007). The    year-end charts cover a period from the first week of December of the    previous year to the last week of November of the respective year.
 
AT OLD-CHARTS YEAR-END TOP 150 CHARTS BASED ON THE CHARTS FROM JANUARY - DECEMBER!! (POINT-SYSTEM NR. 1: 100    POINTS etc.)