Hollywood

It was the song that began an era. I had kept a weekly record of my favorite songs of the moment from what I heard on the radio, on VH1 and MTV, and on AOL and Yahoo’s music providers, for about a year leading up to the online debut of Jessica’s Top 40. I thought keeping little lists of my favorite songs was ridiculous, but that was before I realized hundreds of people online did the same thing I was doing. When I did an online search for music charts, I stumbled upon Top Hits Online, a site that ranks the most popular songs based not on radio airplay and sales, but on what people like based on their own personal rankings (I would later contribute to other similar charts). When I started looking at other people’s charts, I wanted in on the action and decided to start Jessica’s Top 40 online.

The #1 song on the first online chart was actually #1 the week before the site debuted, because I decided to carry over the statistics from previous charts so songs I liked in the past wouldn’t be labeled chart flops. The stats show four former #1s carried over to the first chart, “American Life” by Madonna, “Bring Me To Life” by Evanescence, “Miss Independent” by Kelly Clarkson, and “Are You Happy Now?” by Michelle Branch. Much like Billboard’s early days when three charts were produced before they merged to become the Hot 100 in 1958, I regard Jessica’s Top 40 #1s after the July 2, 2003 chart as #1s from the online era, much how #1s after the Hot 100 was introduced are described as #1s from the rock era. Therefore, this is the first true JT40 #1, though the #1 peaks for the four aforementioned songs count towards the artists’ chart histories since they appeared on the chart when the online era began.

Madonna was my favorite artist of the time, and she managed to be the big superstar artist of the moment. After hearing “Don’t Tell Me” for the first time in 2001, I immediately got hooked on Madonna’s music, past and present. The obsession quieted down the following year while my interest turned towards young female singer-songwriters Michelle Branch, Vanessa Carlton, and Avril Lavigne, but when she released the title theme to the 007 movie “Die Another Day”, with word she would be releasing a new album in spring 2003, it was all about Madonna, again. By the time the “American Life” single and album were released, Madonna was one of my most listened to artists of the time.

“Hollywood” was the second single from the album, and though it was a moderate success worldwide, it was infamous for being Madonna’s first single to miss the Billboard Hot 100 since “Burning Up” in 1983. In an interview, Madonna said of the song: "This song is like a metaphor for me. It's the city of dreams and superficiality. It's the place where you forget about the really interesting things in life. In Hollywood, you can lose your memory and your vision of the future. You can lose everything because you can lose yourself."

“Hollywood” spent a total of eleven weeks at #1 before it was replaced by Madonna’s infamous MTV Video Music Awards performance with Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Missy Elliott (the latter of whom appeared in a Gap commercial with Madonna where the chorus of “Hollywood” was sung over the music to “Into The Groove”). While it will always be remembered for being one of the lowest points of Madonna’s career, “Hollywood” has its own place in JT40 history, as the first #1 in the online era.