How the countdown changed
Twenty-four years of votes, read four ways. Everything here comes from
the countdown archive, The Rock's own playlist, and open track data from MusicBrainz.
When the cover wins
Songs that have charted in more than one version. Matched by composition,
not by title, so these really are the same song, twice. The filled dot is whichever
version the voters put higher.
The countdown rewards the long song
Share of each length band that reaches the top tenth of the list,
across all 24 countdowns. Nobody votes for a running time, but the epics keep winning anyway.
Who owns the top ten
Rank runs #1 on the left to #10 on the right; each row is
one countdown, 2002 at the top and 2025 at the bottom. Colour is where the act is from;
hover or tab onto any square for the song.
The station is further ahead than we are
Two homegrown shares side by side. On air is how much of
The Rock's airtime goes to New Zealand acts; on the list is how much of the
countdown we vote for them. The station has gone from one spin in nine to nearly one in six.
Our ballots have held roughly still.
Who The Rock has been playing since 2024
The homegrown question
Is New Zealand music gaining on the countdown? It depends entirely on
what you measure, so here are three answers. Share is how much of the list
a country holds; average position is how high its songs sit within it;
best song is how far its finest reached that year.
Genres age. Some climb anyway.
Each bubble is a genre family: how old its songs are on average,
against how high they sit in the list. Bubble size is how much of the list it holds.
Press play and watch nu metal grow old without slowing down.