Billboard Hot 100 Top Ten (2018)

i will rep for "filthy"! not a patch on his more essential work but much better than the other singles he has put out from the album. it is eyeroll-inducing and dad-ish but its awkwardness works somehow for me lol. like, i want to groan at him for starting the song with 'haters gonna say it's fake!' the way i do at every #brand trying to use hip slang that twitter denizens were using ages ago, but it is pretty amusing in the context of all the handwringing about a 'country album' being forthcoming that was going on before we had even heard anything.

Filthy video reminds me of GM's "Freeek", a similarly disappointing attempt at a comeback

Dang "Filthy" is already out of the top ten.

the JT/stapleton track is taking its place. it's a much better song, i wouldn't change the station if it came on.

i'll also sorta rep for "filthy." the hook feels like something i might hear on an electro r&b song as well as last train to paris, aka it's extremely fauntleroy. helps me overlook the brief sections of the song that are like my least favorite timbaland modes overlapping (shitty-sounding polygonal horns a la "4 minutes," his sense of what arena rock is a la the chris cornell record)

i find the horns super distracting! the first time hearing the song, *horns -> "haters gonna say it's fake..."* had me cringing, but now it's okay I can deal with a little noise

and "filthy" is now off the hot 100 entirely after 6 weeks on the chart. in related news, taylor swift's "end game" nosedives 26 rungs to #91 -- it was at its #18 peak just 5 weeks ago, but has spent the last few weeks declining at an alarming rate in airplay, which was its only strong charting metric. barring the unexpected, next week there will be no reputation songs left on the chart. (timberlake still has his chris stapleton collab "say something", which is shaping up to be a solid pop/adult radio hit.)

one of the less musically interesting but more surprising top 10 entries in recent weeks is bebe rexha's "meant to be" featuring florida georgia line. it's a pretty straightforward tune with some lightweight hi-hats and harmonies sprinkled here-n-there -- hardly the sort of thing you'd expect to be pulling heavy streams. but it actually is streaming, and especially selling, surprisingly well, and has managed to coast nearly effortlessly into the top tier off of that and some gradually building airplay not only at pop and adult but also country radio. (the way it's been parked at #1 on billboard's country songs chart ever since billboard suddenly decided it counted as country is surely eliciting some groans.)

given good prospects for timberlake/stapleton, rexha/fgl and now zedd/maren morris (already at #13 just 4 weeks in), i'm tempted to surmise that these bizarre-on-paper-but-predictable-in-sound collabos (the zedd single is basically a carbon copy of previous hit "stay") will be more the norm in the near future as pop adjusts to find its new down-the-middle style.

drake's massive smash, which will probably be the hot 100's #1 for a while longer, will probably make a solid cross to pop radio, but otherwise 'urban' tracks are still struggling to find themselves accepted as 'pop' even as they perform so well on the big chart. kendrick's "love.", arguably the pop-friendliest cut he's ever made, is sputtering around in the lower end of the pop radio top 20 with khalid's "young dumb & broke", which has been making its slow climb for ages. (top 40 playlists are so tight these days that songs below the top 10 at the format are often not even being played during daytime hours by most stations.)

the exceptions to pop's resistance to rap, of course, are with the pallid rappers mentioned earlier in the thread. nf's "let you down" is probably going to break the hot 100's top 10 soon enough (#12 now) and is about to rise to #1 on pop radio. g-eazy's halsey duet "him & uy" is also top 10 at pop radio (#14 hot 100) and don't look now, but this bazzi fellow is surely next. (i imagine some marketing agency received a fat check for this cringey excuse for a 'meme' going 'viral'.)

next week should see a splashy debut from post malone near the top of the chart.

"(top 40 playlists are so tight these days that songs below the top 10 at the format are often not even being played during daytime hours by most stations.)"

I made a point of listening to pop radio in the car for a couple weeks earlier this year and it was incredible how few songs you'd hear.

idk if it's more "the new down-the-middle style" per se so much as Top 40 radio noticing country radio is getting a lot of airplay, wanting that audience, but being reluctant to play actual country hits. (that, and being so reluctant to play hip-hop and R&B that they're grasping at anything else)

that might be what you posted, just worded differently, idk

yeah that is what i was trying to say, just poor word choice on my part to call it a style :)

the other day i had "if it's meant to be, it'll be, it'll be, baby just let it be" & "in the kitchen, wrist twistin like it's stir fry" interchangeable stuck in my head

that bebe rexha / florida georgia line song is so bad. it's a gravitron that goes around and around and around and then you feel sorta sick and then it just... ends

also it's march 1 and there have only been 22 songs (including 8 2017 holdovers that include 'all i want for christmas is you') in the top 10

can iheart just have its loans called in already

i hate the way the florida georgia line dude sings so much

oh man i hadn't heard about this current iHeartMedia news, is that being talked about on any threads?

i wonder if all the stations are just going to be bought by some other company that will resume business-as-usual or if something substantive might actually change programming-wise. will be interesting to see.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-01/iheart-is-said-to-prepare-for-bankruptcy-as-soon-as-this-weekend

forbes posted a piece claiming that sirius xm wanted to buy it?

maybe Spotify will purchase their husk

aw just after they got back in the podcast charts too

If it's meant to be, it'll be, it'll be, baby just let it be.

I feared SAD! was a song full of Trump-style punchlines or something. Was pleasantlys urprised.

Also, I'm relatively certain "Freaky Friday" by Lil Dicky (feat. Chris Brown) is the worst song I've heard in a while.

I can't believe "featuring Chris Brown" is still happening.

Seeing is believing

i will have officially lost all hope for pop radio if it picks up on the lil dicky song after having passed on heaps of more deserving rap songs

(i have already stopped actively choosing to tune into pop radio but you know what i mean)

<3 Ex-Factor forever all-time

the iheart urban chr station here 'premiered' that lil dicky abomination so i'm guessing there's a substantial push behind it

the station in my city (not iheart-owned) occasionally plays a succession of song clips w/ one of the dj-bot voices announcing the artist and title over each clip. they announce the lil dicky song simply as "chris brown - freaky friday" which makes me lol every time

(they also mispronounce xxxtentacion as 'extension')

four debuts in the top 10 on this week's chart: ariana + three j. cole cuts from his just-released album. two of cole's three were also supported by the simultaneous premieres of their videos, but it's clear by now that blockbuster streaming albums'* ability to instantly launch the entirety of its tracks onto the hot 100, w/ a few near the top, is now an unavoidable reality of the chart.

tough luck for those artists/teams trying for the old-fashioned method of trying to gently push your steadily-but-not-tremendously strong-selling/steaming hit to a top 10 peak on the strength of radio spins when your best shot for it comes the same week that such an album -- like, say, post malone's -- is going to make its impact.

take a look at camila cabello's "never be the same": it's now a big airplay hit, about to rise to #1 at pop radio, and has been a steady top-20 seller for much of its run, but its streaming numbers are outside the top 50, lagging behind even her former hit "havana". so while it's been sitting pretty just outside the hot 100's top 10 for some time now (#13 now), it's looking less likely, even with its radio spins maxed out, that it can snag that coveted peak, especially with post malone's lp just dropping.

gratuitous pop/country collab to the rescue: a remix with kane brown was dropped last friday. it will likely be the top digital seller of the week, and altho even top sellers pull pretty pathetic numbers for the most part nowadays, it will probably be just enough to do the trick for its hot 100 position. (as far as how well it 'works' as a recording: it sounds hastily slapped together, more "s&m" rih-mix than "till the world ends" femme fatale version.)

also: billboard's previously announced plan to apply different weights to streaming numbers based on whether they're supported by ad money or consumer subscriptions will go into effect in a couple of months, starting with the july 14-dated chart. this will diminish the impact of, among others, youtube and spotify's free tier. given that subscription streamers' tastes seem to lean heavily toward rap music, i assume this change will be good for rap artists' charting prospects. they might not be so good for latin artists' hits, many of which can be seen bouncing around in the lower tiers of the chart (even without spanglish remixes), often on the strength of astronomically huge youtube numbers.

there will probably be many more pop-radio #1s failing to reach the top 10 on the hot 100, unless these last-minute sales-boosting remixes become a mainstay.

(* which is to say 'blockbuster albums' in general: the blockbuster that is carried primarily by retail rather than streaming is basically extinct now, save for tswift/adele releases and such.)

there will probably be many more pop-radio #1s failing to reach the top 10 on the hot 100, unless these last-minute sales-boosting remixes become a mainstay.

addendum to this: or, you know, if pop radio starts playing streaming hits that aren't just by white people. but who knows when or if they'll do that at this point.

remixes have been a mainstay for a while. (the one i remember most vividly is the missy elliott remix of “last friday night” that sent her to no. 1.) but the directions those remixes take will probably change.

lol J. Cole is now gone from the top 10. Gonna have to listen to that Camila Cabello song

its very similar to that taylor 50 shades song only with drug references instead of zayn

not bad

heroween

haha

i've seen some recent handwringing on twitter, including from veteran chartwatchers like chris molanphy, over the recent streaming blockbuster albums launching so many songs onto the hot 100 at once. some, apparently not remembering the days when entire taylor swift albums would show up on the hot 100 post-lp release due to itunes sales or the literally hundreds of short-lived glee cast entries, believe this is evidence that streaming has 'broken' the hot 100, and that doing what the uk's official charts company has done -- deflate streams from all but the most popular of a hit album's tracks, deflate the impact of streams from long-running hits -- would be to 'fix' it.

this is hot garbage. the uk charts -- which had already been a mess for years before streaming arrived, imo -- are now only 'fixed' in the sense that they are permanently manipulated in a manner that will make label promotions staffers happier, i.e. literally fixed. apparently we would prefer to pretend that people still consume music in the same manner that they used to -- with a succession of hits gradually coming into earshot and then just as gradually fading away, + almost nothing except by huge stars shaking up the parade -- than to recognize the way people actually listen to music now.

this has led to some, including molanphy, crossing their fingers that billboard's forthcoming tiered streaming formula will magically revert things back to something they recognize as normal (even tho again, blockbuster albums launching tons of album tracks onto the hot 100 simultaneously is a years-old holdover from the itunes era).

molanphy in particular should know better. random drake album tracks will do better under a policy favoring subscription streamers. so will those of cardi b. and j cole. and post malone.

subscription streamers are likelier to prefer rap music + likelier to listen repeatedly to the albums they enjoy through streaming than to actually purchase the album. it's astonishing that people think drake would have to work harder to succeed under such rules. (molanphy's slate columns have made it clear he's a bit mystified by drake's recent hits, "god's plan" especially, being as big as they are, but that doesn't mean that literally everything drake 'coughs up', to use his words, is destined to be a hit. sometimes artists are just very famous and happen to have their finger pretty firmly on the pulse for the moment! it happened to the black eyed peas. it happened to usher. it happened to mariah carey. again, it's nothing new or uniquely nefarious.)

this isn't to say that there aren't serious problems with how the streaming ecosystem exposes music to its users and how that can systematically shortchange certain artists, notably women and independent artists. but the idea that we ought to massage the numbers until we can make it look like things aren't any different from the supposed halcyon days -- rather than, say, pressuring streaming services and labels to change how they do business -- is preposterous.

rant over. sorry i keep dumping my thoughts on this thread.

don't be sorry, your thoughts are enlightening

otm, please keep posting dyl - and others w/ chart insight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYOjWnS4cMY

dyl your posts are v generous and appreciated

if he keeps posting, it'll block the Zedd-Maren Morris collaboration from playing in my head for three minutes.

damn now that's in my head

tbh no one should know better

i kinda like that song, at least the chorus. i don't know if i could pick the verses out of a lineup.

Take a seat
Right over there, sat on the stair

didn't see this coming: post malone's "psycho" is currently at #2 for its third nonconsecutive week. the first time around was its debut week, and the second was a temporary boost from album release-week streaming ("rockstar" jumped 32-8 the same frame). this time, with streams still strong but cooled off somewhat, the main culprit is a massive gain in airplay courtesy of pop radio, which has recently decided to embrace the song wholeheartedly. (it's gone 8-4-2 in the last few weeks on the pop songs airplay chart.) i assume he's within striking distance of the top, not only of the pop airplay chart, but also the hot 100, as his label initiated an itunes discount for the song last week...

drake's new one debuted at #19, in case you were semi-justifiably worried that he could release basically anything and automatically have it challenge for the top based on streams... the lil baby collab, in the top 10 for a second week, is holding on better than i expected it would.

cardi b's partystarter "i like it" w/ bad bunny and j balvin has not-unexpectedly exploded back into the top 10 following its video's premiere. by contrast, ella mai's "boo'd up" snuck in there pretty steadily and quietly, appropriately enough for its mood. i'd say both have a lot of room to grow. cardi's is just starting to make big gains at radio, not only at rhythmic/urban but also pop and latin radio (it would be her first hit as a non-guest at the latter two formats). ella's mostly been carried by urban radio (it's looking like it'll be #1 soon there) and strong youtube/apple music streaming. it's terrific that she didn't need pop radio to get this far, but i will be interested to see if she and/or pop radio programmers have any interest in taking the song further.

one more thing about "psycho's" recent fortune: although it doesn't *sound* particularly different from post's former hits, which were carried far more by urban radio than pop, this one got solid-but-not-great urban-side support and is now getting dropped by the format. (meanwhile, "rockstar" only crossed to pop after urban radio had been hammering it for ages.) it seems like his next single will be aimed primarily at the pop side of the dial. i can't say i'd be surprised, but it may be that he and black radio will be going their separate ways for good...

I love your posts in this thread, dyl