Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity.
[2][3] The chart is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African-American, venues.
Beginning in 1942, Billboard published a chart of bestselling African-American music, first as the Harlem Hit Parade, then as Race Records.
The move was made by a Billboard editorial decision that the term "soul" more accurately accounted for the "broad range of song and instrumental material which derives from the musical genius of the black American".
In late June 1982, the chart was renamed again, this time to Hot Black Singles because the music that African-Americans were buying and listening to had a "greater stylistic variety than the soul sound" of the early 1970s.
Black Singles was deemed an acceptable term to encompass pop, funk, and early rap music popular in urban communities.