Billie Eilish Helped Inspire ‘Billboard’ To Create New Alternative Charts

Today is an unexpectedly big day for changes in the music industry. This morning, the Recording Academy announced some major Grammy rule changes, which include the renaming of the Best Urban Contemporary Album category, which is now known as Best Progressive R&B Album. Now, another storied musical institution is also shaking things up: Billboard is making some alterations to their alternative and rock charts, and Billie Eilish is part of the reason for it.

The chart purveyors have announced that their Hot Rock Songs chart has been renamed to Hot Rock & Alternative Songs. Additionally, they have also debuted a pair of new charts stemming from that one: Hot Alternative Songs and Hot Hard Rock Songs. Billboard notes that these changes reflect “the rise of artists making music that is often considered alternative, but does not fit within the commonly held boundaries of rock,” going on to cite Eilish, Powfu, and Benee as examples.

The new Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart “will house songs deemed either rock or alternative, or both, as it expands beyond a listing of core rock titles, including those with an alternative bent, to include songs considered a hybrid of pop and alternative, rap and alternative and more.” Meanwhile, Hot Alternative Songs “will include only songs categorized as alternative in any way,” and Hot Hard Rock Songs “will feature only guitar-based rock songs with a heavier edge.”

The inaugural Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart is led by Powfu’s Beabadoobee-featuring “Death Bed,” followed by Eilish’s “Everything I Wanted,” Benee’s “Supalonely” (featuring Gus Dapperton), Tones And I’s “Dance Monkey,” and Twenty One Pilots’ “Level Of Concern.” The new Hot Alternative Songs chart has the same top five.

Aside from the aforementioned, Billboard is also launching the following new charts: Alternative Streaming Songs, Alternative Digital Song Sales, Alternative Songwriters, Alternative Producers, Hard Rock Streaming Songs, Hard Rock Digital Song Sales, Hard Rock Songwriters, and Hard Rock Producers.

This news appropriately comes shortly after Eilish discussed the ways her music is categorized, telling GQ in a recent interview, “The world wants to put you into a box; I’ve had it my whole career. Just because I am a white teenage female, I am pop. Where am I pop? What part of my music sounds like pop?”

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.