Adult Alternative Airplay

The 40-position chart is formulated based on each song's weekly radio spins, as measured by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems. The earliest incarnation of the chart was first published on January 20, 1996, as a feature in Billboard sister publication Airplay Monitor. In 2006, Airplay Monitor ceased publication after Billboard parent company VNU Media's acquisition of rival radio trade magazine Radio & Records, which then subsequently incorporated Airplay Monitor's Nielsen-based Triple A chart.

Billboard itself began publishing the Triple A chart in the issue dated July 5, 2008, through their Billboard.biz website, appropriating the same airplay data as Radio & Records. Radio & Records closed in June 2009, leaving Billboard as the sole publisher of the chart. In February 2014, the chart's reporting panel was expanded from 23 to 32 stations, including non-commercial reporters for the first time.

Following a re-design of their website, Billboard officially incorporated the history of the Airplay Monitor/Nielsen chart from 1996 to 2008 into their Adult Alternative Songs chart. The Billboard website and its official chart archive now show the first Adult Alternative Songs chart as having been published on January 20, 1996, with "The World I Know" by Collective Soul as its first number one single. Radio And Records first charted their Adult Alternative chart in the September 22, 1995, issue. It was a 30 position chart, and "Til I Hear It from You" by the Gin Blossoms was the first number one. The current number-one song on the chart is "Don't Forget Me" by Maggie Rogers.

• Artists with the most number-one songs:

U2 (14)
Coldplay (13)
Dave Matthews Band (11)
Jack Johnson (11)
John Mayer (8)
Death Cab for Cutie (8)
The Black Keys (8)
Sheryl Crow (7)
Counting Crows (7)
R.E.M. (7)
Florence + the Machine (6)
The Lumineers (6)

• Artists with most top 10 songs:

U2 (27)
Dave Matthews Band (24)
Coldplay (23)
Jack Johnson (19)
John Mayer (19)
Counting Crows (15)
Sheryl Crow (14)
Beck (14)
R.E.M. (13)
The Black Keys (12)
Mumford & Sons (12)

• Most weeks at number one:

16 weeks
"Beautiful Day" – U2 (2000–01)

15 weeks
"Clocks" – Coldplay (2003)
"Waste a Moment" – Kings of Leon (2016–17)

14 weeks
"One Headlight" – The Wallflowers (1996)
"3AM" – Matchbox Twenty (1997)
"Bent" – Matchbox Twenty (2000)
"Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me)" – Train (2001)
"Rolling in the Deep" – Adele (2011)

13 weeks
"Smooth - Santana featuring Rob Thomas (1999)
"Just Breathe" – Pearl Jam (2010)
"Somebody That I Used to Know" – Gotye featuring Kimbra (2012)
"Upside Down" - Jack Johnson (2006)

12 weeks
"Funny the Way It Is" – Dave Matthews Band (2009)
"Dreams" – Beck (2015)

11 weeks
"Hold On" - KT Tunstall (2007)
"Viva la Vida" – Coldplay (2008)
"You and Your Heart" – Jack Johnson (2010)
"I Will Wait" – Mumford & Sons (2012)
"Ophelia" – The Lumineers (2016)
"Feel It Still" – Portugal. The Man (2017)

10 weeks
"Building a Mystery" - Sarah McLachlan (1997)
"Soul Meets Body" - Death Cab For Cutie (2005)
"Good People" - Jack Johnson (2006)
"If I Had Eyes" – Jack Johnson (2008)
"Fugitive" – David Gray (2010)
"Fever" – The Black Keys (2014)
"Budapest" – George Ezra (2014–15)
"Guiding Light" – Mumford & Sons (2018–19)

• List of Radio & Records number-one adult alternative singles of the 1990s
• List of Billboard number-one adult alternative singles of the 2000s
• List of Billboard number-one adult alternative singles of the 2010s
• List of Billboard number-one adult alternative singles of the 2020s

• Adult Alternative Songs at Billboard