Billboard Hot 100 Top Ten (2018)

Also, great idea for a thread.

Does anyone like G-Eazy? For a guy with a couple of rap hits he seems surprisingly lacking in charisma, or really talent for anything besides looking cool in a leather jacket.

the first time i heard the g-eazy song i figured there was little chance of it becoming big even with the well-timed cardi b feature, naturally it's now on its way to being the biggest hit of his career lol

idk if anyone's ever kept track of how many white rappers have been successful at the same time.* but there's more where that came from! "let you down" by the white christian rapper nf (he somehow sounds like a crass combination of eminem and every other white rapper who's ever been successful since) is #17 and rising -- pop and pop-leaning stations are the source of the majority of its radio support. and speaking of em, his ed sheeran collab "river" takes a big nosedive this week, but will likely recover in the coming weeks (once again due to pop stations, who are already jumping on it).

as recently as 2016, the seemingly best bet for an artist like g-eazy to get exposure was to focus on pop radio, get bebe rexha to sing the hook, and guest on britney spears's lead. now that the sound pop radio favors is becoming less of a sure shot chart- and especially streaming-wise (big pop radio hits are now routinely missing or just barely scraping the hot 100's top 10), it's actually just as viable a strategy for him, even as a white artist, to try to carve out space at urban radio. (the pop side has so far barely touched "no limit" even though they played the shit out of "me myself & i".)

meanwhile, the only rap song to cross from the r&b/hip-hop airplay top 10 to the pop airplay top 10 in 2017 was post malone's. (the other two songs that did so were "wild thoughts" and "unforgettable" -- "that's what i like" crossed in the opposite direction.) i don't know if i've ever seen a situation like this in my lifetime, where music by black artists is popping so distinctly on the charts but is being almost entirely passed up by supposed top 40 stations.

what i find myself wondering in light of all this is whether we will see urban radio ceding more space to the increasing number of white artists who want to make on-trend music, leaving less room for black artists, especially emerging ones, at the only radio format that seems to be willing to play them.

(* despite the billboard charts columnists' propensity to dispense annoyingly trivial and often context-free chart records whenever possible, including female- and age-specific records, the publication seems to generally tiptoe around the issue of race whenever possible unless they're churning out a gossip-mill story about a celebrity's race-related viral tweet or something -- this despite much of the industry's promotional machinery still being implicitly or explicitly organized by the race of its recording artists. but it wasn't always so! in 04 or 05 there was mention of the fact that the entire top 10 one week was by black artists, and even back in 1992 the latin columnist at the time pointed out when jon secada became the first black artist to go #1 on the latin tracks chart.)

Good analysis, dyl.

i hate almost every song in the top 10 right now... havana, thunder, rockstar, bat at love are some of my least fav songs of the year period. i like gucci gang.

bad at love** bat at love would be more interesting

one of the only interesting things to me on the chart right now is whether "end game" becomes a proper big hit once the video comes out or if every single off the taylor album is gonna be kinda floppy except for the one that's like the worst song of her career

i like havana

Ohh na na.

I like "Havana", something appealingly lazy about it

lol that the song beats the actual city in Google search results

I like Havana too, but as with that Shawn Mendes song, it's with the video. We watch a lot of top 40 videos around here. That's probably why I ended up enjoying "Feels" also: the only Katy Perry moment of the year I couldn't get enough of.

i would like seeing "new rules" make the top 10 even briefly. not even a huge fan of the song but i feel like it ~deserves~ it whatever that means.

one of the only interesting things to me on the chart right now is whether "end game" becomes a proper big hit once the video comes out or if every single off the taylor album is gonna be kinda floppy except for the one that's like the worst song of her career

even that one is like one of the most frontloaded #1 hits in the history of the charts (w/ the exception of the early-mid-2000s american idol singles), almost definitely the most frontloaded since britney spears's "hold it against me".

e almost every song in the top 10 right now... havana, thunder, rockstar, bat at love are some of my least fav songs of the year period. i like gucci gang.

― J0rdan S.

Oh come onnn these aren't that bat

would be happy to see End Game or New Rules crack the Top Ten

Oh come onnn these aren't that bat

― rap is dad (it's a boy!), Thursday, January 4, 2018 7:26 PM (thirty-three minutes ago) Bookmark

name some worse major songs from 2017

shape of you

yeah i actually like that one

1. Ed Sheeran "Perfect" - would be alright with this guy being put in jail for the rest of his life
2. Post Malone "Rockstar" - this is garbage
3. Camila Cabello "Havana" - this gets stuck in my head every now and again but that doesn't mean i like it in any way
4. Lil Pump "Gucci Gang" - same
5. G-Eazy "No Limit" - Cardi's verse is okay, the rest is garbage
6. Imagine Dragons "Thunder" - this is garbage
7. Migos "Motorsport" - i like this but mostly just for cardi's verse and the beat
8. Sam Smith "Too Good at Goodbyes" - this is slightly ruffly garbage
9. Mariah Carey "All I Want For Christmas" - Christmas is over
10. Halsey "Bad At Love" - had not heard this, tried it once and who knows maybe it would grow on me but my knee jerk is this is garbage

okay some of those songs are pretty bad

"name some worse major songs from 2017"

idk The Chainsmokers & Coldplay - "Something Just Like This", Logic "1-800-273-8255."

i like "something like this"... the logic song is terrible

we're due for the "worst song" poll.

is there a thread for people who quite like rockstar

Ed Sheeran "Perfect" might be my least favorite song this year. How pathetic is it that's No. 1.

every time I hear the intro to Havana I expect to hear Rob Thomas "man it's a hot one"

then they follow it up with "Wild Thoughts" and I feel time closing in on itself and struggle to remember my own name

i just think of "same old love" when i hear "havana" tbh. and sometimes jason derulo's "talk dirty" b/c of an approximately shared brief melodic turn it used in its verses to connote ~exoticism~, blech

she's cuban-american

'havana' is solidly 2nd tier starrah but thats still p good

to clarify i was bleching at "talk dirty" in general and am aware that camila cabello actually has cuban heritage

she's exotifying East Atlanta though

lol

Does ANYBODY on ILM like Ed Sheeran?

Shape of You is pretty good wannabe Bieber.

"thinking out loud" is a classic

Shape Of You is honestly the worst song I've ever heard, although some of the stuff on his first album was fine enough.

I actually don't mind Rockstar!

"thinking out loud" is the greatest richard marx song since "keep coming back"

i actually have a video all plotted out in my head for thinking out loud. (i have never seen the real video, don't even know if there is one) ed's a barback a little nightspot in the village. people are leaving, laughing, oh i forgot to mention this is all in black and white with a bluish tint (i'm probably getting this from a richard marx video). everybody's ignoring our man ed, who's picking up ashtrays and sweeping up. the owner throws ed the keys as he leaves with a tipsy date. ed looks around. the place is still a mess. aside from dim lights behind the bar, there's just a single spotlight, centered on the tiny stage in the corner. half the chairs are already up on the tables. the opening chords come in. who's playing them? it's non-diegetic, don't worry about it. or is it....? ed picks up an old acoustic guitar leaning against the stool. he sits down in the spotlight. he sings and plays the song. the camera gets more into it, swooping around, dolly shots, the works. the last chord rings out and ed leans the guitar back against the stool. he pauses, half a smile on his face. and picks up a dishrag. needs an ending but i think you get the idea

no no no no no we're not reassessing "thinking out loud' noooooo

"let's take 'let's get it on,' remove the sex, and replace it with red facial hair"

almost reassessed stevie wonder when he said from the grammys stage that he thought "thinking out loud" was a great song

(not really tho + wasn't particularly surprised that stevie likes it either)

10. Halsey "Bad At Love" - this is okay!

this song sucks

I usually prefer songs with people good at love, but all things considered that one has grown on me

"Havana" climbs a spot and "Bad At Love" climbed four. "Bodak Yellow" is back in the charts and Ed Sheeran still sits at the top. not much has changed... At least "Let You Down" by NF didn't move from 18, and Dua Lipa "New Rules" is on the cusp at 11.

xxxxxpost i really like rockstar :\

this week's chart reflects the data-tracking week straddling new year's day, which tends to be a pretty quiet time. if you peek below the top 10, you'll see a surprising number of the chart's older hits rising a bit or even a lot: "feel it still", "shape of you", "believer", "that's what i like", "attention" etc. my understanding is that this is largely because of the year-end countdown shows that many radio stations, esp top 40 ones, play around that time, which gives an airplay-fueled boost to whichever big radio hits from the year are still charting. new year's eve playlists i saw on spotify and such seem to have helped too. (itunes gift card redemptions post-christmas used to also make a big impact, but with fewer people buying singles on itunes these days i'm not sure it made much of a difference this year.)

next week things should shake up a bit with bruno mars's "finesse" remix (in at #35 this week) jumping toward the top + the debut of justin timberlake's latest. the latter has not launched as stratospherically as one might expect from jt (his trolls soundtrack song debuted at #1 on the back of massive download sales in 2016) but maybe it'll be able to hold on until he performs at the super bowl in a few weeks.

that explains a lot!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LfJnj66HVQ

The Justin Timberlake song is good.

Of the three new additions this week, Juice WRLD was the most compelling. I'd be fine with them all going away for Ariana to be back in the Top Ten

Top 10 Top Ten:

All The Stars - SZA a literal queen IMO
Boo'd Up - nuff said
God's Plan - sounds OK walking around
I Like It - probably great over any Sample
Never Be The Same - hot
Nice For What - great video
Psycho - who the fuck is Post Malone
SAD! - the Cure meets *fill in the blank*
Say Something - JT is good IMO
This Is America - great song

^alphabetical order

wtf I forgot Ariana Grande

how dare you

Honorable mention: The Middlol

although that song would be much better if she stamped her feet, hollered and demanded more than a compromise

i don't really like the middlol. a bit confused that people seem to think of it as anything more than a rewrite of zedd's previous hit "stay", which was also merely fine. i suspect the overdrawn search for the right demo-vocal imitator, which was heavily publicized following the song's release, has lent it a little extra appeal over the prior iteration. since the nyt put out a feature about its creation, similar to the one they did on "where are ü now" a couple years back (altho i actually love that song), it has seemed nearly assured that this will be among the token 'pure pop' cuts that centrist-poptimist critics will be voting into pazz & jop (if it still exists) come year-end.

its definitely “stay” with a less paper-mothy vocal

"the middle" is so middle of the road, i would be shocked if it did well in pazz & jop or eoy lists generally

new to the top 10 since last update to this thread:

drake "nonstop"
drake "in my feelings"
drake "i'm upset"
drake "emotionless"
drake feat. mj "don't matter to me"
6ix9ine feat. nicki minaj & murda beatz "fefe"
tyga feat. offset "taste"
dj khaled feat. justin bieber, chance the rapper & quavo "no brainer"
travis scott "sicko mode"
travis scott "stargazing"
ariana grande "god is a woman"

almost all of them either debuted in the top 10 due to heavy streams right out of the gate (either as an album cut or, in the case of "fefe" and "no brainer", as standalone singles) or due to a massive streaming boost during the release week of a top-tier star's album ("god is a woman", "i'm upset"). the one exception is tyga's "taste" which steadily rose to the region based on strong streams and solid airplay gains courtesy of rap and crossover, but not pop radio.

many of those new top 10s would not stick around, with two of them ("emotionless" and "don't matter to me") having already fallen off the hot 100 entirely. of the ones that are likely sticking around, only "in my feelings" has been fully embraced at radio, with "fefe" and "sicko mode" still in the early-breaking stages, buoyed by their comfortable perches near the top of the streaming lists. ("no brainer" quickly became a bona fide radio hit but is not likely to stick around for long, as its sales and streaming stats are a bit tepid compared to last year's #1 hit "i'm the one", which had nearly the same artist roster.) "nonstop", which departed the top 10 immediately after its entry, is also seeing solid airplay gains and could return.

so what's actually gonna rise into, rather than debut in, the top 10? it wasn't tswift's "delicate", which stopped at #12 even tho it nearly topped the all-format airplay chart. no, nowadays you actually have to have decent streams (sales are nearly negligible).

right below the current top 10 is "love lies" by khalid and normani. it's been pulling respectable streaming numbers ever since its release back in february but was nearly ignored by radio for months and consequently spent the first 3 months of its charting career below the top 40. early in the summer crossover radio got firmly on board, with pop radio (surprise surprise!) holding out for another 2+ months after that. now that the airplay picture is finally in place and its streaming numbers remain as solid as they ever were, it may at long last get its chance to sneak into the top 10. this is its second week at #11.

other strong contenders: 5 seconds of summer's "youngblood" is #15 right now. who would have thought that they would actually get another hit, much less the biggest of their career? like "love lies", it had good streaming numbers from the get-go, but only took like 2 months to break at pop, compared to 6 months for "love lies".

"eastside" by benny blanco, khalid & halsey is #31. it too is aimed at pop radio, though still in early stages of breaking, and is already pulling strong streams. you may remember benny blanco as the dr. luke protege who co-wrote/-produced hits like "teenage dream" during the luke heyday.

yg's "big bank" reached as high as #16 so far and is currently #24. its commercial picture is similar to that of tyga's "taste" and i think it could rebound. tbh i'm rooting for it!

"breathin" by ariana debuted at #22 this week. it seems to be the public's fav from her new album based on streaming stats and is apparently being pushed to radio now even tho current single "god is a woman" is not fully established there.

i find myself wondering how far recent edm tunes to have hit the hot 100 will go. the calvin harris/sam smith collab "promises" has just debuted at #65, plus "jackie chan" (yes that one does rhyme its title with japan smfh), "solo" and "side effects" are all posting solid gains. particularly interested in the latter (which i actually kinda like!) because basically all of the chainsmokers' many singles have bombed since last year's coldplay collab. but honestly if "one kiss" could only reach #26, the ceiling for these might not be that much higher. who knows!

love these posts

jackie chan is very bad lyrically and someone should write skylar spence a check for its beat

oh great eminem as a new song in the top ten

two of them!

i think this album is more likely to spawn hits with actual longevity than his last few that failed to do so. his team must have finally gotten the memo that even eminem's white-rapper fanbase would prefer to hear him do a contemporary-sounding rap album rather than reiterate the skylar grey/alex da kid formula from like 10 years ago

Listened to the new Eminem song. Realized that every time I hear about the latest dumb-Alt-Right thing, Eminem is rapping somewhere in my subconscious.

I guess 8 out the top 10 songs are rap songs and that's completely normal now? wow!

i thought “lucid dreams” was the new twenty one pilots song when i first heard it

what an incredibly mean thing to say about JUICE WRLD

i gotta be me

conversely the new 21 pilots album is good and i can't see anything from it really ascending the charts

Juice WRLD is only a little bit better than 21 Pilots

xp

its success is unsurprising but i don't like "lucid dreams", it's meandering and adolescent and not even in a ~compelling way

now that radio has gotten on board it has finally reached a new (#2) peak. given that it still has a lot of room to grow in airplay it could rise all the way to the top. its early streaming momentum hasn't let up either, as it has returned to #1 on the streaming songs list.

post malone has just released a video for "better now" so its significant airplay advantage + the inevitable streaming spike could also catapult it to the top -- it's #3 now.

so basically, two songs that have basically the exact same aesthetic are next in line.

or "mona lisa" from lil wayne's album could crash in at the top, depending on just how huge its first-week streams ended up being.

i am kinda surprised that 21 pilots had no big hits before releasing their album! like i am not surprised "jumps00t" et al didn't connect in the long run but i figured they would have at least one surefire hit up their sleeve given how much they blew up with their last album.

of all the potential edm crossovers to go pop that i mentioned in an earlier post, it looks like none of them is going to really take off. it turns out the winner is marshmello's "happier" w/ bastille. it's getting, only semi-surprisingly for 2018, a lot of alternative play in addition to top 40 play. its sentimental dying-dog video has given it a big boost too.

i guess that song and imagine dragons new screamer ("natural") will be the representatives for 'rock' in the upper echelons of pop culture this fall. sorry 21 pilots :(

trying to catch up on this. i think i've fallen out of step with pop - nothing in the top ten is really grabbing me. but i was one of those who similarly tried and failed to hear the chart-topping qualities of "bodak yellow." "uproar" at least has some energy but it's all borrowed from "special delivery."

Weird how TAKI TAKI is the top 50 global song on spotify but in the hot 100 it’s all the way down in 27.

I predict one or two songs from the “a star is born” soundtrack will break into the top 10 in the following weeks. Probably “shallow”. They’re very different to current top radio but the movie has been getting oscar buzz and it has been doing quite alright in the box office.

“Taki Taki” is great! I think we should decide on which thread it belongs in.

Latin / reggaeton?

Sure, you’d think that would be the most logical place for it, but that thread has never been very pop/reggaeton-oriented (and has barely seen 10 posts this year). Maybe that should change.

I was also thinking of Rolling Pop. Posting it in both then.

(The song’s video actually dropped today - it might hit the US top 10 yet)

How about just using the soca or dancehall thread for pop-oriented reggaeton?

Doesn’t seem very logical to me? They are different genres?

Unless you’re thinking of creating a Rolling pan-Caribbean Pop thread - was it you or rob who advocated merging the dancehall and soca threads next year?