'in the list' vs 'on the list'

 When I was in primary and secondary school, I was taught to say 'in the list', but I've noticed in recent years that 'on the list' has become more and more common. So I did a Google Ngram search: the turning point happened towards the end of the 70s. 

ESL teaching materials like to lay down often over-simplified rules for preposition usage (e.g., 'in' vs 'on'). But how useful and reliable are these rules? The case of 'in/on the list' again points to the need for enriching grammar teaching with language awareness training (or what Larsen-Freeman calls 'grammaring').