The Max was formed back in March 1998 by creater and present webmaster Mike B. It is a personal chart that is based Mike's tastes of current music.
The Max was originally started under the name My Stars 20 as it began as a Top 20 chart.
The very first #1 of the chart was Hands by Chantal Kreviazuk. My Stars 20 chart was posted on the now defunct Jam! Music message boards in a very stylistic manner, possibly foreshadowing the many designs the chart would undertake in years to come.
In July 1998, the chart would expand into a Top 30 and later on that year, a website was created with a simple design that would eventually grow to include music news, song reviews and other special charts including a yearly Top 40 Canadian songs chart for Canada Day as well as other one-time charts such as Best Irish Artists for St. Patrick's Day among others.
In 1999, after the chart expanded again into a Top 40, Mike teamed up with fellow chartmaker Robert Charbonneau to form My Stars Music Online, a website that consisted of charts from both as well as a collective effort of special features much like were present before but also included more interactive features such as their own version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Over a dozen people played that game that consisted of increasingly difficult questions regarding artists, music and charts.
Soonafter, the website included another chartmaker named Daryl that had a very Rhythmic flavoured chart which included much Latin, Soca and Dance-styled songs. With three personal charts, this soon resulted in a temporary combined chart that rank-ordered each member's charting songs.
Daryl eventually left MSMO but the site continued to involve other chart makers including a much younger chartmaker Aaron as well as another Mike, Mike K, who both contributed their respective charts. Mike left after a few months due to personal reasons and serious illness and the remaining members of MSMO, which at this time was a revamped MSMO2000, soon parted ways over disagreements.
In early 2000, Mike B. decided that he wanted to end the shared site of MSMO with Rob and create his own website which he created based on a template and a simple site name The Max Online. Rob continued to use the MSMO website and title for his personal chart Rob's Top 40 while Mike changed his chart name from My Stars 40 to The Max 40 chart.
The website had a very distinct design that was created from scratch by Mike. Regular features of the site included the Top 40 chart as well as chart archives, music reviews and interviews, which were conducted by Mike B. where other chartmakers were interviewed. This helped put The Max chart on the forefront of personal charts as it connected other chart makers and their interests in music, the industry and more.
On October 30th, 1999, the Top 40 chart had extended into a trial Top 100 run that would become official in 2000. Along with the online chart, Mike also sent out a weekly newsletter to subscribers that he called The Maxletter. At its peak, it was sent out to over 60 people every week and included commentary on Top 100 entries, the entire Top 10 as well as select songs throughout the Top 100. It also included the Top CDs of the week, special charts and for a short time, the Top 10 songs of American Top 40, as that chart didn't have a website at the time.
In September 2002, The Max chart began to experience delays in the updating. At this point, Mike B. had begun university and the time spent with the chart was beginning to dwindle when it came to the website. The website itself eventually became downgraded to just the chart, archives and the occasional set of reviews. By 2005, the online version of the chart would be fallen weeks behind and the Maxletter would only be sent out as little as once a month. In June, Mike decided that it was time to end the chart due to lack of time and a lack of interest in the constant upkeep of the website and the newsletter. Mike once said that "if it ever came to the point that doing the chart was a chore, I'd end it."
The very last #1 of this era was Fall To Pieces by Avril Lavigne.
Mike decided in October of 2005, after almost five months off, it was time to bring The Max back, even if it wasn't in website or newsletter form. He discovered that the chart was more than just ranking his favourites in current music but it also kept him up to date with music and artists. Without it, he felt he was losing track with some of his favourite artists and their songs so he started The Max 100 chart again. In the previous version of the chart, the only major rule was that only released singles were eligable to chart but on the new revamped version of The Max chart, any song was free to chart as long as he listened to it and liked it. Mike decided that since it was a personal chart, there should be no limits to what songs could chart. This version lasted for two months when interest once again dwindled. During this period, four songs were #1s; Did You Get My Message by Jason Mraz, Headlock by Imogen Heap, and two by KT Tunstall, Black Horse And The Cherry Tree and Under The Weather.
The second week of 2006, Mike decided to give the chart one last try but instead of going back to a full Top 100, a Top 20 would be enough. At this point, he was still "recovering" from a lack of current music so a Top 20 would be easy to handle. The first #1 was Jesus Of Surburbia by Green Day.
On February 25th, 2006, Mike once again extended the chart into a full Top 100 chart. The "weeks on" section of the chart would reflect the number of chart appearances a song made on any chart, past or present. Best Of You by the Foo Fighters started out with 16 weeks on the chart, which basically meant 16 chart appearances as that particular song originally entered The Max chart in May of 2005 and was present on the reincarnation in late 2005 and it continued to hang around on the latest version in early 2006 where it was #72. (incredibly, that song would go on to last for a total of 46 chart appearances. Had The Max never gone on hiatus and assuming the song never would have fallen off, that would equal into 68 consecutive weeks on the chart).
Mike B. says that it took nearly a year for the chart to return to the normal feel that it had before it originally went on hiatus back in June of 2005. It took a while to get back into it but he says now that the chart is as fun to make as it ever was and while he regrets taking a break from it, he says that it is reflective of his life at the time and it helps add some extra character to the history of the chart.
Today, the chart has a very simple but very organized layout that includes a list of artists and their complete chart history that extends as far back as the original charts of 1998 onward. The period of 2005 will always remain a thorn in the side of the chart history, as some songs really lost out on good chart peaks, most notably All These Things That I've Done by the Killers, which Mike says would have been a very strong Top 5 single but has a chart peak of only #34, the last position it was at before the hiatus.
Mike used the very basic inverse points for compiling the yearend charts in which #1 would get 100 points, #2 99 points, etc. He also inserted bonus points to songs that he felt should have charted higher, which was required for the yearend chart for 2000 in which the entire Top 3 was originally by Chantal Kreviazuk. The resulting #1 songs for the year were:
In 2002, Mike wanted a new way to compile the chart as he felt songs that had a short chart-life that peaked high weren't fairly represented so he used a formula created by FreakyFlyBry that put extra emphasis on higher charting songs. #1 would get 100 points, #100 would get 1 point and the halfway point regarding points was #10 with 50 points alotted to songs in that position. The resulting #1 for that year was:
Mike returned to the simple inverse formula for the next two years as he felt the previous year was much too extreme. The #1 songs for those years were:
For 2005, Mike still wanted to create a yearend chart but he only had seven months worth of charts for the year. So he decided to just pick the songs that he felt best represented the year for him in terms of most listened to and overall favourite. This chart, however, wasn't limited to only singles but to album tracks and even older songs, such as My Number by Tegan and Sara, which was a track from their 2000 album The Business Of Art. He liked this format the best so he used it again for the yearend chart again in 2006, despite having 51 charts to choose from. The #1 songs for those years were:
In October 2006, Mike created a new certification system to use for his chart that was based on amount of plays on his iPod. He decided that it was a good idea that would reflect how often he listened to songs and that it should align itself to the chart in a similar way that singles certifications align themselves to the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The criteria for songs was that it had to have an appearance in the Max 100 chart, even just a week and it had to get 10 plays on his iPod to receive a Gold certification. Platinum were given to songs with 20+ plays. In February 2007, he doubled this as a result of higher than expected airplay with his iPod and his switching to using iTunes as the default mp3 player on his computer. Any song that received a certification before the switchover kept the title.
Albums owned by Mike were also eligible. Under the original system, Gold was given to an album that collectively received 25 plays while Platinum was given for 50 plays but under the new and current system, 50 plays is required for an album to reach Gold and 100 for Platinum.
Mike B. has been going by his online nickname of The Max since about 2001. When people that didn't know him saw his chart The Max 40, they assumed his name was Max so he was referred to as either Max or The Max, which is usually his online message board name.
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