Chris Molanphy

After 55 years, the voracious creature, built to absorb whatever medium is delivering music to the masses at any given time, is complicated and imperfect — any chart where Bob Dylan, ...

Chris Molanphy, chart columnist and NPR Music contributor, calls the summer of '93 a "dog's breakfast of assorted stuff." We're not exactly sure what that means -- but he says it's a good thing. On the charts, "there were two songs that dominated that summer -- one was by Janet Jackson, 'That's The Way Love Goes,'" he says. "And the other was a light reggae cover of the Elvis Presley classic 'Can't Help Falling In Love' by the reggae band UB40." 

In the last week of June, we're seeing a divide among the Top 10 songs on Billboard's flagship Hot 100 chart. Not pop versus rock, or hip-hop versus dance, or fast versus slow. I'm talking about new versus old.

The major Song of Summer contenders still feel new ...

Every so often, we turn our series “THAT Was A Hit?!?” on its head with Soundcheck frequent guest Chris Molanphy, calling it instead, “That WASN’T A Hit?!?” We look back at songs that...

"I wanted to talk about an improbable hit, but not a terrible hit." That's what music writer and chart columnist Chris Molanphy had to say about choosing "Tom's Diner" -- DNA's remix of the a cappella Suzanne Vega song -- for our That Was a Hit?!? series.

This past week, the No. 1 album in America was by a polo-shirted New York band that has never had a hit single. Even alt-rock radio doesn't play them much.

This week, that band will be replaced at No. 1 by a French duo that only appears publicly in robot ...

Last week, returning pop hero Justin Timberlake topped the charts with The 20/20 Experience, only his third album in a decade-long post–'N Sync solo career. No one was surprised when he debuted at No. 1.

The shocker for pundits was the number of albums he shifted in seven ...

Every so often, our series, “That Was A Hit?!?,” catalogues songs that — however unlikely — charted in the Top 40. Chris Molanphy, who previously profiled Prince’s “Batdance” in our s...

Can you name all five of Prince's hits that have hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100?

Go ahead, try.

It's 2052. And we're programming an oldies station that plays the "turn of the century hits" (that's 21st century). What music from the '90s, '00s and '10s would survive? And what wou...

Soundcheck takes its semi-regular look at what's topping the Billboard charts, and what should be. We're joined by Chris Molanphy, who writes the pop-chart column "100 and Single" for the music blog Idolator.