In western music, modal music dates from before the use of scales and keys. Modes are similar to tonal scales. In a tonal scale, each note in the sequence is a whole tone different from the next.

By Keith Caulfield The charity album Good Music to Lift Los Angeles makes a chart-topping debut, as the 90-track set arrives atop Billboard’s Compilation Albums chart (dated Feb. 22).

1s, dating to the chart’s December 1990 start: “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” on American Dogwood/EMPIRE and with country radio promotion by Magnolia Music, dominated the Country Airplay chart for ...