Policies in the Asia Hitlist have been made in accordance to charting songs in the countdown. Several songs may have been given consideration due to its extreme reception in the Asian market. Various reasons for charting songs have special cases, and are deliberated by the makers of the MTV Asia Hitlist.
Multiple Entries Artists may have multiple entries in the chart, and may occupy the top positions at the same time, which happened in 2002, where the Top 3 songs in one week were all of
Mandy Moore's songs from her movie "
A Walk to Remember." "
Cry," "
Someday We'll Know," and "
Only Hope" occupied the Top 3 positions in May 2002, and all songs were able to top the charts, earning Moore her first three #1 singles.
Scope Release Regardless of the scope of release, Asia was exempted from US and UK release. One example is "
Born To Make You Happy" and "
From The Bottom Of My Broken Heart" by Britney Spears. "Born To Make You Happy" was released in the UK and other parts of the globe except for the US, while "From The Bottom Of my Broken Heart" was only released in the US. In the Asia Hitlist, both singles charted with the former topping the chart for 2 weeks, and the latter peaking at #2.
Double-sided Releases Double-sided releases were not considered to be a major factor in Asian releases. It was noted that each of the singles chart differently, since both songs totally differed from another. One example is the double-sided single "
Mama" and "
Who Do You Think You Are" by the
Spice Girls. Considered a double-sided single in the UK, it charted in the Asia Hitlist as two different entries, with each video justifying its eligibility to chart. However, in the case of Mariah Carey's "
Always Be My Baby," which was double-sided with "Slipping Away," the former charted as the official release excluding the latter from gaining popularity. "Always Be My Baby" became Carey's #1 hit while "Slipping Away" was disregarded and was not released.
Video Accompaniment Charting songs have been completely eligible when there is an accompanying music video, which is used for commercial release. The first song to chart without a commercial video release was "
Incomplete" by
Sisqo, his second number one. The single didn't have an accompanying video for a release, but eight weeks later after charting, an official video was released. The song was not aired during the period wherein there was no accompanying video, and a picture of Sisqo was shown during recaps of the countdown. It was only after it fell from the top spot that that video was released, thus the airplay of the song was eligible.
Remixes In the early years of the Hitlist, remixes were eligible to chart if it was a dance remix or "radio" mix of an album's cut. It means that a remix's eligibility to chart depends entirely on the original version, since both versions are credited as one. The more popular the remix is, the higher the chart position. In 1999, Mariah Carey's single "
I Still Believe" came out with a remix featuring Da Brat and Krayzie Bone entitled "I Still Believe/Pure Imagination." Since it was an entirely different track from the original, it was considered to chart as a different entry. Conflict arose with her next remixes for singles "
Heartbreaker" and "
Thank God I Found You," which the former was said to be based on the original version, and the latter to only adapt the chorus of the original version as an adlib. "Thank God I Found You" was given an exception, since the remix version was entirely of a different structure and it no longer resembled the original recording. The same trend followed in the 2000s, wherein
Jennifer Lopez' remixes for "
I'm Real" and "
Ain't It Funny" topped the chart. Both the original versions of the song were able to chart during its release, but their follow-up remixes were of higher popularity and airplay. "
Ain't It Funny" peaked at #10 and one year later, the remix version topped the charts. The original version of "I'm Real" also topped the charts in 2001, and when sales started to decline, the remix version was released and was enabled to chart as a different single. This made history as "I'm Real" became the first song with both the original version and remix version staying at the chart at the same time, as well as both versions being able to top the charts as well. An arising conflict fell once again when Britney Spears released "
Overprotected" in 2002. In January, the album version (or more commonly known as the "International Version") of the song was released and peaked at #3. After "
I'm Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman," which topped the charts that year, the "Darkchild Remix" was released in the US. Considering that the song resembled the original structure and melody of the song, it was at first, prohibited to chart. The video was extensively played on MTV Non-Stop Hits, but never charted. Extreme airplay and viewer requests increased at the hype of the video's popularity, giving it enough points to break in the Top 20. Considering the fact that it was a North American release, and the song was commercially viable, it was finally enabled to chart. Surprisingly, the song peaked #2, one notch higher than the placement of its original version. Spears became the second artist (and the third instance) to which both the original version and remix version were able to chart in the countdown.
Edited Videos Video editing has been the most controversial act imposed by MTV Asia. It rarely happens but once it is imposed on a video, it is never revoked. Videos are edited for several reasons. Nudity, explicit viewing content, and
violence are certain examples of reasons for editing videos. The first video to be edited was "
Thank U" by
Alanis Morissette. In the video, Alanis is nude, but her private parts aren't shown in the video. However, this has been marred too explicit especially to the younger generation, and other religious sects in Asia. An edited version of the video was released, covering almost the whole screen except for Morissette's face. "Thank U" topped the chart in early 1999. Another video that was edited is
George Michael's "
Outside." Due to its sexual content, it was never fully shown on MTV. Even when it charted, only about 57 seconds of the video were shown due to enormous sexual content. The most controversial video to have been extensively edited by the network was "
Dirrty" by
Christina Aguilera. In the part where Aguilera is in a boxing ring with her dancers at the beginning, a Thai poster is situated at the background while the dance is shown. Depicted in Thai language in the poster were the words "Thai Sex Tourism" and "Young Underage Girls." The video was banned in Thailand but in other parts of Asia, the dance sequence in the beginning were shortened. A live version of the video was mostly played. Regardless of the video's limited release, the song still topped the charts. After the video for "Dirrty," Aguilera drew more controversy with her next single "
Beautiful". In the video, two men were seen kissing each other and were deemed too racy for MTV viewers. Again, MTV Asia edited the video by completely removing the gay scenes out of the video. "Beautiful" became her next number one single and the edited version was played throughout MTV Asia. ==Records==