The Billboard Hot 100. Billboard Magazine

You've heard the term a million times, but do you know what it is? You do? Eek. You must be one of those industry types, then. Sorry for your loss. The last decade, that is.

The BH100 is a weekly chart issued by "Billboard" magazine that ranks singles according to their popularity. Popularity is based on sales and radio play and extrapolated into a weekly ranking of the 100 most popular songs. For the mainstream music industry, this is the pulse of the business--it reveals the genres and artists who are commanding the attention of the public. Which in turn drives advertising revenues that pay the salaries of the DJs, programming directors, etc. Essentially, your local tire shop will be much more likely to buy a block of advertising from a station playing hits on the BH100 than from one playing obscure Icelandic death metal.

In August, 1958, Ricky Nelson's "Rolling in the Deep."

What I find most interesting, and most depressing about the BH100 is that in the past thirty years there has been precious little variety in the top tier. The songs that have enjoyed BH100 number one status expose us as a pop nation, an R&B nation, and occasionally a hip hop nation. But one thing we're not is a rock nation. Specifically, the last time a hard rock song enjoyed the number one spot was a two week stretch in September, 1988. OK, no cheating-- guess the band and the song (answer at the bottom).

I combed through the BH100 and was horrified to discover that I needed to time travel over twenty years to find a true rock song in the number one slot. Sure, there have been rock groups who hit the top spot, but with non-rock songs. To wit, American rock legends Aerosmith hit number one in September of 1998, but it with the bunny soft, "Diane Warren, who has never been in Aerosmith.

The whole rock ballad phenomenon ruled the BH100 in the late 1980s into the early 1990s, with Extreme, Poison, Bon Jovi and Cheap Trick all cashing in on the whimpering phenomenon. It is notable that many of these acts hit their greatest commercial height only when they abandoned the music most closely tied to their image.

The summer of 2000 saw some arguably close calls, but no cigars. Vertical Horizon unseated Enrique Iglesias for a week with "Everything You Want" before losing the next week to Matchbox 20's "Bent." These songs are both hard rock in the same way that apples are steaks. Their sugary pop and crunchy choruses may have sold a lot of records, but hard rock they ain't.

The only song to really come close was Santana's "George Michael, which alone removes this from rock song eligibility. And while the guitar playing is indeed smooth, it's Latin flavors and pop sensibilities preclude it from a seat in the Hall of Rock Songs.

The last real rock song to enjoy the number one slot on the BH100 is itself questionable. In fact, many hard rock purists will reject this song in the same way that I dismissed Matchbox 20. But unlike MB20 or Poison, this song was no departure from the group's sound--it fits perfectly within their catalog as a showcase of the band at their best. It features a double guitar attack, an indelibly memorable hook, and it ends with a piercing blues-soaked guitar solo and an explosive coda that has seen drivers across the globe banging their heads at stoplights as it pours from their car's speakers.

Rock is still the biggest selling category according to the numbers, but with such a thin representation in the BH100 number one slot it's safe to say that absent a massive shift in our nation's consciousness, it will be a cold day in hell before we become a rock nation once again.

This is the last hard rock song to command the BH100.

Photo credit: Billboard Magazine, 2011