Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:
1- "Bad and Boujee" - Migos featuring Lil Uzi Vert (=) -- This is the first time this year where a No. 1 song has stayed No. 1 for two straight weeks. Kind of a crazy start to the year. I was hoping for a different result, though. I don't get why people like this song and why its streaming has gone through the roof. We also have a Migos album that just dropped. That means if it follows the trend of every other rap album recently, there will unfortunately be a lot of Migos to cover next week. Oh joy. Billboard has also tweaked their formula again, as they do on a fairly regular basis to balance things, and they've also decide to include Pandora into the mix. It'll be interesting to see how that impacts the charts next week.
2- "Shape of You" - Ed Sheeran (=) -- The music video for this song just dropped, which will dramatically help its streaming. This song is also selling well still and soaring up the radio charts. I hope that means that this takes back that No. 1 spot before too long.
3- "Closer" - The Chainsmokers featuring Halsey (+1) -- This is hilarious to me. This song refuses to die and now it has jumped back into the top three for its 21st week. Yes, that means it has tied the record set by "Uptown Funk" by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars in 2015 for longest stay in the top three. It's also now spent 24 weeks in the top five and 26 weeks in the top 10. The record for most weeks in the top five is "Uptown Funk" with 25 weeks, which "Closer" is now just one week away from tying. The record for most weeks in the top 10 is LeAnn Rimes' "How Do I Live" from 1997-98 with 32 weeks, which "Closer" is six weeks away from tying.
4- "Bad Things" - Machine Gun Kelly & Camila Cabello (+2) -- This song was stuck in my head all week and that got really annoying. But I'd actually prefer this over all the other songs in the top five at this point, so congrats to Camila for her second top five hit and first as a solo artist. Machine Gun Kelly also gets his first top five hit, but I don't really care about that side of the story.
5- "I Don't Wanna Live Forever (Fifty Shades Darker)" - Zayn & Taylor Swift (+3) -- The music video for this song has also dropped, which not only will help the streaming here, but has also caused the sales for the song to jump significantly. In fact, this will be No. 1 in sales next week, which will give it a realistic chance of dethroning "Bad and Boujee" next week. At the very least, it should make for a close three-way fight for that top spot between this, "Shape of You" and "Bad and Boujee." And once again, Billboard has tweaked their formula again, so anything can happen.
6- "Black Beatles" - Rae Sremmurd featuring Gucci Mane (-3) -- And in fantastic news, "Black Beatles" has been shoved out of the top five. Now let's take it a step further and shove it out of the top 10 altogether. And shame on America for being so obsessed with the Mannequin Challenge and thus pushing this to No. 1 for seven weeks just because of that.
7- "Don't Wanna Know" - Maroon 5 featuring Kendrick Lamar (+2) -- I was hoping this song would drop out after falling to No. 9 last week. Why did it rise again? Let's get rid of this!
8- "Starboy" - The Weeknd featuring Daft Punk (-3) -- Oh sad day. "Starboy" has begun to bleed really hard. It might be gone before too long. But good thing "I Feel it Coming" should replace it in the top 10 before too long.
9- "Fake Love" - Drake (+2) -- Speaking of songs that shouldn't have risen on the charts, why is this back in the top 10? I can't say I'm surprised, though. It's been hanging out at No. 11 for a couple of weeks and it returns because of the fall of "24K Magic" and "Side to Side." Glad those two songs are gone, but a better replacement than Drake would be nice.
10- "Scars to Your Beautiful" - Alessia Cara (+3) -- It's been a long journey for this song to the top 10. 22 weeks to be exact! I don't know how long this is going to stay because sales are already dropping quite a bit, but I'm glad to see it here for however long it has. This is Alessia Cara's second trip to the top 10 and it's a well-deserved one. I really like this song. It's a catchy pop song with a good message and an emotional music video.
Rising on the Hot 100:
14- "Love on the Brain" - Rihanna (+3) -- Someone should inform Rihanna that she has a song that's about to hit the top 10. I don't know if she's even promoting this song at all. There's not even a lyric video for this song, let alone a music video. And it's been out for a while. But if she never does release anything, I won't be too offended. I actually like this song, but we've had an overexposure to Rihanna and I'm ready for her to fade away. But this will probably go top 10 anyways. Because, you know, it's Rihanna.
19- "All Time Low" - Jon Bellion (+3) -- This song was headed for the top 10, but then it stumbled backwards. Is it going to make a recovery or is this just a one week bump?
24- "This Town" - Niall Horan (+5) -- Same story here. This was on the rise, but then it crashed. It got as high as No. 20 and now it's back at No. 24. Does it have the momentum now to go top 10 or even go back to the top 20?
26- "Water Under the Bridge" - Adele (+8) -- Adele didn't crash with this song, but it did stall last week. And now it's back on the move. As I've said the last few weeks when this has been here, this needs to rise faster. The world could use a bit more Adele.
32- "Rockabye" - Clean Bandit featuring Sean Paul & Anne-Marie (+6) -- It's up to No. 32. Can it get top 30 next week? Let's hope so!
35- "Better Man" - Little Big Town (+6) -- Country had a pretty good week this week. This song is now our No. 1 song on the Hot Country chart. Lyrics are nothing special here, but I like the vocals and I'm fine with the song overall. It's one of the better country songs on the charts right now.
37- "T-Shirt" - Migos (+6) -- Based on "Bad and Boujee" and "T-Shirt," I'm dreading having to listen to most of Migos' album for next week. It can't get any worse than this song, can it?
40- "Party" - Chris Brown featuring Usher & Gucci Mane (+5) -- Gross. Someone stop this song from going up.
42- "A Guy with a Girl" - Blake Shelton (+9) -- A boring Blake Shelton song.
44- "Dirt on My Boots" - Jon Pardi (+13) -- A boring Jon Pardi song.
45- "Star of the Show" - Thomas Rhett (+10) -- A fine song by Thomas Rhett, but not a particularly memorable one.
51- "Goosebumps" - Travis Scott (+20) -- Why in the fetch did this song jump 20 spots? I don't understand. Go away!
52- "Down" - Marian Hill (+47) -- Holy cow! This debuted at No. 99 last week. I really liked the song and I thought the overall album was fairly creative. I was hoping this would climb to the 70's or 80's this week. I was not expecting it to jump nearly half the chart, but I'm certainly not complaining. Also I learned that this song may have got people's attention based on a commercial before the NFC Championship game, which I'm cool with. Commercials often have good songs.
54- "Way Down We Go" - Kaleo (+31) -- Finally! This is so far the best new song of the year after debuting on January 14. It wasn't gaining a ton of traction, though. Until now. If you haven't heard this song yet, go fix that now. It's fantastic. I would love for this song to eventually go top 10. But let's take it one step at a time and hope for top 50 next week.
55- "Seein' Red" - Dustin Lynch (+11) -- This country song I enjoy. Although admittedly it's not much of a country song. But maybe that's why I kinda enjoy it.
58- "Congratulations" - Post Malone featuring Quavo (+23) -- No congratulations from me here. Post Malone should disappear as should anyone involved in that Migos trio.
62- "Think a Little Less" - Michael Ray (+14) -- Eek. This is more than just a boring country song. The song's lyrics drive me crazy. Kiss a little more, think a little less? No! Bad Michael Ray!
63- "Sober Saturday Night" - Chris Young featuring Vince Gill (+12) -- Another boring country song.
74- "Today" - Brad Paisley (+18) -- Now here's a good country song. Also, if you are in the mood to cry, go watch this music video. It's crammed full of so many feel good moments that enhance the song's lyrics of today being a great day. It's essentially the perfect wedding song, but it's not just limited to that. If more country music was like this, I might actually like the genre.
77- "Despacito" - Luis Fonsi featuring Daddy Yankee (+11) -- I'm fine with this rising. This is a fun song that I imagine is super popular at Latin dances.
79- "The Weekend" - Brantley Gilbert (+10) -- And now we're back to a boring country song. Not everyone can be like Brad, I suppose.
83- "Not Nice" - PARTYNEXTDOOR (+12) -- It's not nice that we let this song rise. Don't encourage this Drake wannabe whose caps lock is apparently stuck.
New Arrivals:
81- "Fast" - Luke Bryan -- I can get behind this song. It's not as good as "Today" and I'd even put it a touch below "Better Man" because I'm not a big fan of Luke Bryan's vocals. But the sentiment of the song is relatable. When you're younger you want time to speed up, but when you're older you just want time to slow down.
84- "Guys My Age" - Hey Violet -- This is essentially an "all guys suck" type of song, which is mildly annoying. Or at least all guys her age. Which in the case of lead singer Rena Lovelis is age 18. In the song she's mad at her ex-boyfriend for being immature and so she's now projecting that on all guys her age, saying that they don't know how to treat her right. That's a very immature reaction to a breakup, in my opinion. I'm personally a fan of female rock bands. I think there needs to be more of them, but the lyrics of this song sound very immature and it sounds a lot more like a simple pop group as opposed to a rock group. The vocals by Rena Lovelis are fine, but I was waiting for her to go to a higher register to drive home her message, but she never does. Perhaps I shouldn't judge their whole group based on one song, but this is not a very good first impression. As it turns out, they recently signed onto 5SOS's record label, which makes sense I guess. 5SOS is a group of guys that think they are a lot cooler than they actually are. Which is my first impression of Hey Violet. A female version of 5SOS.
86- "Road Less Traveled" - Lauren Alaina -- Well here's a blast to the past. Perhaps a little known fact is that I used to be a huge fan of American Idol. From seasons 2 through 10, I watched practically religiously, only missing during the years where I was gone for two years on a church mission. But season 10 made me so mad that I never watched one episode after that. That's the season when the untalented Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina were the final two. Ahead of actual talent that included Hailey Reinhart, Casey James, James Durbin and Pia Toscano. Just a few days ago she released her second studio album following her second place finish on American Idol. And this is only the second song that's ever charted on the Billboard Hot 100 after... yes, you guessed it... her very first single after season 10 finished. I suppose it's better than most of the country songs here, but that's not saying very much. I'd call this a sub-par country song from a sub-par talent. Yeah, I'm not still bitter about season 10 at all...
87- "Issues" - Julia Michaels -- Take note girls from Hey Violet. If you're struggling in a relationship, instead of claiming you are perfect and every problem is the guy's fault, then continuing to project that onto every other guy your age, maybe you should instead take this approach that Julia Michaels. She notes that her guy has issues, but she also states that she has her own issues and they should give each other their issues so they can work things out and actually improve their relationship. This is a simple song that's fairly short, but it's a good one. And Julia Michaels has a fantastic voice. I first heard of her when she was a featured artist on Kygo's song "Carry Me" from his album "Cloud Nine" last year and thus I was happy to see her on the charts with her first single as a lead artist. Apparently she's done a lot of writing for various artists, but this is her time as a lead artist.
92- "Good Drank" - 2 Chainz, Gucci Mane & Quavo -- Did I mention that purposefully bad grammar drives me crazy? Drank is past tense. Not present. Apparently "Good Drank" is slang for a weird concoction including cough syrup used inconsistently with it's labeling, making it a recreational drug. So dumb concoction that was given a dumb name that this three morons are all singing about. Quavo, a member of Migos, also decides to throw the lyrics "drop top" in this song again, which are the lyrics that gave the Migos trio their current No. 1 hit. So we have a song about drugs and fornication, which are most rap songs these days, that tries to play of Migos' lyrics that sent them to No. 1. Gross.
93- "Any Ol' Barstool" - Jason Aldean -- I'm no Jason Aldean expert, but I seem to recall that he's done some songs in the past that I've been fine with. But this is not one of them. Categorize this into the long list of boring, cliche country songs on the charts right now. Girl upset him and caused him to start drinking. She didn't think she did as much damage as she did, so he tells her to go ask any ol' barstool about what he's been up to. Nope. I take a pass on this.
94- "Dancing on My Own" - Calum Scott -- Funny story. I forgot that this song HADN'T debuted on the charts here in the U.S. Calum Scott auditioned on Britain Got's Talent by performing a cover of Robyn's "Dancing on My Own," a song I am mostly unfamiliar with. The audition was apparently so good that Simon Cowell immediately raved about him and he ended up doing pretty well. Shortly after, he released a cover of the song as an official single and it went to No. 2 in the U.K. and also hit the top 10 in several other countries around the world, mainly in Europe. And well-deserved. This is a pretty solid ballad and Calum Scott owns it with the vocals. I have since listened to Robyn's original and this is a very different cover that takes a pretty great song and turns it into a solid ballad. All things considered, it makes sense that this is more popular over in the U.K., but I roll my eyes at how late to the party we are with many of these quality worldwide hits.
100- "Running Back" - Wale featuring Lil Wayne -- Apparently Wale actually did play running back in high school, so he's qualified to write these lyrics, using football references as a double meaning for... well, other things that rappers always sing about concerning girls and money. That's mildly creative. And if I were to compare this to all the other awful rap songs on the charts right now, this is the lesser of all the evils, I suppose. That doesn't make it a good song, though. It just shows how awful a good majority of the songs on the charts are right now.
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