Dr. Bill Carroll Interview
Dr. Bill Carroll is Adjunct Professor of Chemistry at Indiana University, Bloomington. Bill has been a music lover all his life. "From the time I was about five, I was fascinated by the charts—the earliest being Dick Clark’s top tens in the late 1950s. Growing up in Chicago, I had WLS Silver Dollar Surveys taped to my bedroom wall. I worked in radio in college and grad school and read Billboard faithfully. Later, my company was in the business of making vinyl resin for records, and I got the company to spring for Billboard as a business expense." Recently, Bill published the article "Did Billboard, Cash Box, and Record World Charts Tell the Same Story? Perception and Reality, 1960-1979." Fascinated by the premise and methodology, I reached out to Bill to hear more.
Can you please briefly describe yourself and what you do in music?
My background is in science, and I spent my career in the chemical industry; however, from the time I was about 5, I was fascinated by the charts—the earliest being Dick Clark’s top tens in the late 1950s. Growing up in Chicago, I had WLS Silver Dollar Surveys taped to my bedroom wall. I worked in radio in college and grad school and read Billboard faithfully. Later, my company was in the business of making vinyl resin for records, and I got the company to spring for Billboard as a business expense.
From the mid-90s I had the idea to extend statistical and mathematical analytics to the charts. I started that work in earnest in 2013 by transcribing Billboard, Cash Box and Record World singles charts week to week between 1955 and 1991 to create my new “laboratory.”