The year has come to a close and thus it's time to reveal the results of my ongoing Billboard project with the most popular songs of 2018. If you don't know what I'm talking about when I say "Billboard project," a few years back I got curious as to what the most popular songs of all-time were based on a formula I came up with to keep track of the Billboard charts. So I started in 1958, the first year that the Billboard Hot 100 was officially created, and I went week by week giving points to songs that made the top 10. The No. 1 song got 10 points, the No. 2 song got nine points, and so on until the No. 10 song got one point. After I finished doing that, I created this specific blog so I could have a place to post the results. So yeah, one week at a time I posted a new top 10 list for a specific year until I ran out of years to post about, which is when I then posted the final results. Said final results were posted last year. If you're curious about any specific year or that all-time list, you can search the archives of this blog or ask me and I can give you the links. But for now, here's the final results of how 2018 turned out, which was not a pleasant year for me when it came to popular music.
I also do like pointing out each year that my point in this was never to recreate Billboard's official lists. As they do each year, they posted their top songs of 2018 early in December. If you want to go look at that list, head over to Billboard.com and check it out. They have all sorts of fancy lists from each year of the charts that are often fun to look through. If you do, you'll note that my list is quite a bit different from there's, especially this year. There's three reasons for that. First, they have access to actual chart points that I don't have access to. That's kinda of a big deal. Second, they keep track of the entire Hot 100. I don't do that because that would be extremely time-consuming, so I'm content with sticking to the top 10. Third, their tracking year starts in December and finishes in November so that they can post their list at the beginning of December. I think that's weird. My calendar year starts in January and finishes in December, so that's what I go by. I don't care if internet traffic is a bit slower after the holidays. It feels right to include December on the charts in the year that it actually belongs. So with all of that out of the way, let's take a look at the most popular songs of 2018.
10- "Better Now" - Post Malone
9- "SICKO MODE" - Travis Scott
8- "In My Feelings" - Drake
7- "Nice for What" - Drake
6- "Lucid Dreams" - Juice WRLD
5- "I Like It" - Cardi B, Bad Bunny & J Balvin
4- "Perfect" - Ed Sheeran
3- "Psycho" - Post Malone featuring Ty Dolla $ign
2- "Girls Like You" - Maroon 5 featuring Cardi B
1- "God's Plan" - Drake
Thursday, December 27, 2018
Wednesday, December 26, 2018
DrogeMiester's Billboard Analysis - December 29, 2018
The new Billboard charts have arrived and so it's time again for me to give you my thoughts! In this weekly post, I cover three sections. First, I give my thoughts on the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. Second, I give my thoughts on the songs that experienced significant gains below the top 10. Third, I give my initial thoughts on our new arrivals this week. I reserve the right to switch things up in the future, but for now this is what I'm sticking with. I've followed the Billboard charts for a long time now and this is a great way for me to express my thoughts to the world. I hope you enjoy!
1- "thank u, next" - Ariana Grane (=) -- Ariana captures her sixth week at No. 1 thanks mostly to her large streaming numbers. Said streaming numbers are down 14 percent overall compared to last week to 43.5 million U.S streams, but said number is still significantly ahead of Halsey, who is down 1 percent to 31.9 million. As that margin continues to decrease, Halsey's chances of dethroning Ariana increase as Halsey is ahead in both sales and radio play. In overall chart points, Halsey is up 2 percent while Ariana is down 7 percent. I imagine it'll continue to be a close race in the next month or so. I'll be intrigued to see how this plays out.
2- "Without Me" - Halsey (=) -- Yeah, I mostly covered both of these songs in that last paragraph. I'll just add here that I'm glad our two ladies are taking control of the top two spots. Neither song is all that wonderful, but both songs are miles better than the Travis Scott song that is right below them and it's also good to see some ladies doing well on the charts in a very male dominant era for the Billboard charts as a whole.
3- "SICKO MODE" - Travis Scott (=) -- I'm glad this song continues to get held back by Ariana and Halsey. Now it would be even better if it could start to fall so we don't have to be subjected it anymore in the top 10.
4- "Sunflower (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)" - Post Malone & Swae Lee (+3) -- I'm not sure how much this song is being boosted on its own merits as compared to how much it's being boosted by the movie that it plays in the background of. The soundtrack for "Into the Spider-Verse" debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 this week, so I'm guessing that played a big part in "Sunflower" soaring even higher this week. All of that means I question the long-term potential for this song on the charts, but if this song does well as result of the movie continuing to do well, I'll accept that since the movie is absolutely fantastic. This song isn't that memorable. But it's also harmless.
5- "Happier" - Marshmello & Bastille (-1) -- Marshello and Bastille get bullied down a spot thanks to "Sunflower," but they still manage to hang on in the top five. It's been an absolutely solid run for this song, so I have no qualms with its run seeming to be coming to an end. It's done way better than I ever thought it would.
6- "High Hopes" - Panic! At the Disco (-1) -- I am a bit upset that this song hasn't been able to do better. The radio has things right at the moment as this remains the top radio song for a fifth week. But streaming and sales just never got on board on the same level, which is unfortunate.
7- "All I Want for Christmas is You" - Mariah Carey (-1) -- Here's a surprise. I expected Mariah Carey to break into the top five this week with this Christmas song, but instead she backtracks a spot? Well, as it turns out, she did gain 21 percent in overall chart points. But said gain wasn't enough to get her past the songs ahead of her while "Sunflower" gained 35 percent in overall chart points. Hence the fall. Now for this song and all of the other Christmas songs (there's now 20 of them on the charts), there's technically one more week for them to perform and said week will include Christmas and Christmas Eve, which is obviously huge, but it's also only going to be a partial week with Christmas coming in the middle of the tracking week. So we'll see what transpires next week, but for now I'm glad that all the songs are here.
8- "ZEZE" - Kodak Black featuring Travis Scott & Offset (+1) -- "ZEZE" and "Drip Too Hard" both refuse to go away, which is really annoying. They also continue this odd trend of flip-flopping positions every week. This week it's "ZEZE" in the No. 8 spot thanks to Kodak Black's new album, which thankfully only debuted three new songs towards the bottom half of the charts. Not that I would've covered them, anyways. I've been avoiding all the album bombs these last couple of months. But it still gives me joy to see him failing in compared to his peers.
9- "Drip Too Hard" - Lil Baby & Gunna (-1) -- Who still cares about Lil Baby and Gunna? And who are the annoying punks that are still streaming this awful piece of trash?
10- "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" - Andy Williams (+3) -- IT DID IT! THIS SONG HAS REACHED THE TOP 10! I was legitimately worried that it was not going to make after the last week or two saw this song struggling to break into the top 10. But it did it! And now we have two Christmas songs in the top 10 and a whole bunch more right below. This is just the sixth Christmas song to ever reach the top 10 and it's well deserved as this is an absolute Christmas classic. In regards to Andy Williams, this is his first top 10 entry since 1971, making it 47 years since he was last year, which breaks a record for the longest gap between top 10 hits for an artist, a mark that was previous held by Dobie Gray at 30 years thanks to his own version of "Drift Away" in 1973 and Uncle Cracker's cover in 2003, which credited Gray in a featured role. Andy Williams also also sets the record for the longest span of Hot 100 top 10 hits as his first top 10 entry was in 1959, just over a year after the formation of the Billboard Hot 100, meaning there's very few that are eligible to break that record in the near future. The only person that I can think of that could break that record is if Elvis Presley's holiday classic "Blue Christmas" were to debut and hit the top 10. But that's currently No. 20 on the Holiday 100, so it didn't quite have enough momentum to chart on the Hot 100.
11- "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" - Brenda Lee (+7) -- Just below the top 10 is Brenda Lee, who finally bests her previous high, which was No. 14. Now if only we had another full week of Christmas tracking, perhaps this could join Mariah and Andy in the top 10. That would be cool. But for now, I'm just happy to see so many Christmas songs in the top 20 as there's six of them this year. And, as I previously mentioned, there's a total of 20 Christmas songs on the Hot 100 this week with even more new arrivals adding to the already impressive long list.
12- "A Holly Jolly Christmas" - Burl Ives (+9) -- Last week Burl Ives snuck ahead of a Brenda Lee, but this week she jumps back ahead, leaving "A Holly Jolly Christmas" as the fourth highest charting Christmas song this week. Now in a perfect world, Brenda and Burl would be able to replace Kodak and Lil Baby in the top 10, giving us four songs in the bottom half of the Hot 100. But as it's a partial week for Christmas songs next week, I'm not sure that's possible.
13- "Jingle Bell Rock" - Bobby Helms (+2) -- Making it three in a row right below the top 10 is "Jingle Bell Rock." And being that it's now after Christmas, I hope all of you had a great time rocking the Christmas night away.
17- "The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)" - Nat King Cole (+7) -- Welcome back to the top 20, Nat King Cole! Prior to this song, the last time Nat King Cole was in the top 20 was in 1963 with "That Sunday, That Summer." It's a great thing that these rules for Christmas re-entries allows for us to have Nat King Cole back in the region.
27- "Last Christmas" - Wham! (+4) -- A great Christmas for Wham! and the late George Michael. I wish he were still with us to celebrate his song's success, but sadly he passed away two Christmases ago. And we all still miss him.
28- "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" - Gene Autry (-1) -- OK, I know this is *supposed* to be a region for rising songs, but I said previously that I'm going to be following all the Christmas songs. So Rudolph got pushed down a spot because of "Last Christmas." Oh well. I still wanted to include it here, anyways. Maybe next year I'll include a new section just for Christmas songs.
32- "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow" - Dean Martin (=) -- Dean Martin *almost* hits top 30. He also didn't quite get his version of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" to debut as that sits at No. 22 on the Holiday 100 this week. But hey, it was Dean's first year back on the charts, so that alone is a huge success.
33- "Sleigh Ride" - The Ronettes (+8) -- This was one of last week's new entries and it still makes me happy to see that "Sleigh Ride" has now become a part of our yearly Christmas tradition. Hopefully we can bring it back again next year.
34- "Feliz Navidad" - Jose Feliciano (+8) -- This was also a returning entry from last week that gains a bit this week. "Feliz Navidad" entered the charts last Christmas season for the first time, so it was good to see it come back again this year and hopefully it will be able to remain a Christmas tradition on the Hot 100.
35- "Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane)" - Gene Autry (+5) -- Last week's surprise entry for me gains five spots this week. This is one of those Christmas songs that I didn't know quite as well, so I enjoyed the experience of giving it a closer look and I really appreciated the implementation of Christian themes together with mainstream Christmas because it shows we can have both.
48- "White Christmas" - Bing Crosby (re-entry) -- OK, I'm not sure if this was a part of last year's crops of returning Christmas entries. All I can gather in my research of the song is that it peaked at No. 12 back in 1962 and has now spent a total of 14 weeks on the charts. But regardless of whether or not it has been here recently, this is certainly a song that belongs here as it's reported that this song has sold over 50 million copies, making it the highest-selling single ever, Christmas or not. So yeah, you can easily call this the most iconic Christmas song ever. According the the ASCAP, this is also the most recorded Christmas song ever with over 500 versions of this song existing. And of course this song deserves the honor. Bing Crosby's Christmas music is some of my favorite. He just has such a great voice that makes his music perfect for everyone. And this is such a delightful tune. Me and snow don't always get along, but I do like for it to look like Christmas on Christmas. This year I was dreaming of a white Christmas because it was mostly a green Christmas with occasional patches of white. But this song isn't just about wishing for snow, it's pleasantly wishing people to have a great Christmas, which is why it's so delightful to listen to.
56- "Nothing Breaks Like a Heart" - Mark Ronson featuring Miley Cyrus (+24) -- Well, we're done with Christmas songs in this rising songs section, but there's a total of seven new Christmas songs below in my new arrivals, so go down there for more Christmas talk. Given that there's so much Christmas songs right now, the inevitable truth is that this section will be quite busy when all of them sadly disappear. I can only hope for good songs to replace them. And this is certainly one of the best candidates.
61- "Talk to Me" - Tory Lanez & Rich the Kid (+13) -- I barely even remember that this song exists. I guess it's time to be paying attention now?
73- "No Stylist" - French Montana featuring Drake (+12) -- It's because of Drake, isn't it?
80- "Ella Quiere Beber" - Anuel AA & Romeo Santos (+13) -- I'm not sure if this song will last. A lot of these songs on the bottom half of the charts are rising big because of the recent album bombs that dominated this specific region. This wasn't an awful song, but it was forgettable and I really hope we don't make Anuel AA a thing here in the states.
81- "Beautiful Crazy" - Luke Combs (+16) -- Finishing the rising songs sections with a pair of country songs. "Beautiful Crazy" is one of the more forgettable and generic country songs. Luke Combs did slightly better with "One Number Away" earlier in the year.
84- "This Is It" - Scotty McCreery (+12) -- I'm sure there's a lot of people that will be happy to see Scotty McCreery doing well on the charts. I've just never understood his appeal. He was one of the more boring contestants on "American Idol" in the year he won. I wasn't a fan of him then and I've never really enjoyed much of his music since and this song is no different.
24- "imagine" - Ariana Grande -- So this just in. Ariana has a new album coming out. Her fifth studio album "thank u, next" is scheduled to be released January 25, 2019, just five months after the release of "Sweetener." This is weird to me because the first thing I think about when albums get released this close to each other is that the artist is thinking about quantity over quality. I would rather see Ariana focusing on making good music rather than throwing out as many songs as possible just to see what sticks. But I suppose I'll take things as they come. "thank u, next" the song I think is a passable song has a really nice sentiment to it. It doesn't strike me as a song that necessarily deserves to be a No. 1 hit given that there are a lot of songs from Ariana that are a lot better. It feels more like a lifetime achievement award than anything. But if I ignore that, I think it's totally fine. However, "imagine" feels like more of a lazy effort. There's not much to this song. She's just imagining a perfect life with this guy. There's two quick verses that are boring musically and a chorus that feels cut and pasted from various other generic pop songs about love. The only time Ariana does anything interesting with her voice is in the outro, which is Ariana repeating the line "Can you imagine it?" for well over a minute. Cut the outro out and Ariana only had enough content to get the song barely passed two minutes. So if this is the type of music we're getting from this upcoming album, I'm not that excited. I'm hoping for the best, though.
41- "(There's No Place Like) Home for the Holidays" - Perry Como -- Now that we've got Ariana's new song out of the way, it's time for our string of seven new Christmas entries, five classic entries and two modern entries. We start here with Perry Como, a singer who I honestly don't know much about outside he has a great, classic voice and some amazing Christmas songs on his resume. "Home for the Holidays" was a song composed by Robert Allen with lyrics by Al Stillman. I'm not sure of Como was the first to record a version of the song, but his recording was the most popular and was released shortly after it was initially released. Like many of these songs, the lyrics here are simple as it gives the sentiment of exactly what is suggested in the title, that of there being no place like home for the holidays. And although that's a simple sentiment, it's also a powerful one that rings true. Because there really is nothing like going home for the holidays to spend some quality time with family and friends. And although I have no problems with this Como version being here, the Carpenters also have a rendition of this on their Christmas album. Wouldn't it be amazing if we could get the Carpenters to return to the charts one of these Christmas seasons?
42- "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" - Perry Como & The Fontane Sisters -- We get a double dose of Perry Como this week as he also gets his version of this Christmas classic to chart. Two weeks ago when "Let It Snow" debuted, I was wondering if we were going to get this song as well because those are the two songs that I immediately think of when it snows. Because of that, this song is probably one of the Christmas songs that I sing most often. I also have fond memories of the song, especially when it comes to my mom's siblings singing it together for family get togethers. They do a few things with this will be positively ingrained in my memory forever and all of my uncles have voices that fit this perfectly. So yeah, there's a lot of nostalgia for this song. As I stated in my previous entry, a lot of these Christmas songs have simple lyrics powered by relatable sentiments rather than complex verses and choruses. And while there's nothing wrong with that, there's a lot of lyrics to "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas." A lot more than some of your classic Christmas songs. There's also a few different parts that are musically creative. Those two elements combine to make this a really fun song to sing while caroling. The only nitpick I have with this specific version is that I like Bing Crosby's version better. But that's nothing against Perry Como and The Fontane Sisters. They do just fine with this song.
45- "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" - John & Yoko / The Plastic Ono Band with The Harlem Community Choir -- OK, first of all with this song, I'm not a huge fan of using "Xmas" instead of "Christmas," although I'm not going to throw too much of a fit since this stylization originated not with the idea of using the X to replace Christ, but rather because the X stood for the Greek letter "chi," which is the first letter in the Greek word for Christ. The second thing with this song is that it's a very unique Christmas song to be charting. It's a lot of fun seeing John Lennon and Yoko Ono on the charts in 2018, but this song isn't them just casually wishing everyone a merry Christmas... and a happy Christmas, too (both lyrics are in the song). This song was written in 1971, during the Vietnam War. John and Yoko were begging for the war to be over, using the template of Christmas in more of an ironic way. There's a happy, positive feel to the song, which stands as a dream of what life could be like without any war or violence. The music video for the song has a lot of gruesome, sad war images that'll make you cry while watching, knowing that many people aren't having a merry Christmas. But maybe they could if we didn't have such a violent world. Anti-war songs were very popular in the 70's and I appreciate them because they often had a lot of emotion and meaning to them rather than just being empty songs.
47- "Wonderful Christmastime" - Paul McCartney -- Speaking of former members of The Beatles, it's not very often we have John Lennon AND Paul McCartney getting new songs on the charts. Call that a wonderful Christmas gift from Billboard to the world. Unlike John and Yoko's song, this song doesn't have any added political layer to it. It is what you think it is when you're casually listening to it. It's another one of those simple Christmas songs that characterize most of our Christmas tunes this season, but Paul McCartney as one of the all-time greats brings a lot of character and charm to the song. And the instrumentals behind the lyrics and vocals provide the perfect amount of levity to make this song work. It makes a simple song feel well thought out and genuine, thus giving audiences listening a very positive feeling. You can understand why this has became a holiday classic ever since its release in 1979.
50- "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" - Darlene Love -- Well this is fun. We have so many Christmas songs on the charts this year that one has snuck in that I'm really not that familiar with. I mean, it's quite possible that I've listened to this song many times. I mean, I even have this exact version and the Michael Buble version on my Christmas playlist. But the songs itself has just not stuck in my memory before. There's also popular covers by the likes of Mariah Carey and U2, so maybe I should be embarrassed? However, listening to this version made me rather pleased. Darlene Love has a lot of soul to her voice and her belting the lyrics out are quite powerful. Then we have the saxophone part that stood out to me, giving this a classic 60's groove to it. I'm not sure why my brain missed this one, but I'll be certainly paying attention to it from now on because this fits right in with "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" and "Jingle Bell Rock" as a fun, groovy Christmas song to balance out the calm music.
58- "MoshPit" - Kodak Black featuring Juice WRLD -- I'm finishing the year off strong by completely ignoring the three Kodak Black songs that charted this week.
68- "Cozy Little Christmas" - Katy Perry -- I was wondering if we were going to see this song on the charts this year. I've seen the charts in the bubbling under section, but I didn't think it was going to find its way onto the Hot 100. If you're curious, the reason why we haven't had more Christmas songs below the top 50 is because the Billboard rules are such that an older song can only chart if it has significant gains in multiple metrics and has enough points to make the top 50. "Cozy Little Christmas" doesn't meet those specific qualifications, but it made it because it's a new song, so the rules don't apply. Without even listening to the song, I do commend Katy for her attempt at writing a new Christmas song since all most artists do is cover all of the older classics. The problem here is that she released this as an Amazon Music exclusive. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but I deactivated my Amazon Prime account this year, which means I don't currently have access to this. There is a 45 second clip of the song on Katy's YouTube account and I liked what I heard there. But I suppose I'll get back to you in the future when I get a chance to listen to the full song?
74- "Testimony" - Kodak Black -- I'm finishing the year off strong by completely ignoring the three Kodak Black songs that charted this week.
87- "Sweet but Psycho" - Ava Max -- We have one more Christmas song to get to, but first we get to pause and discuss a new single from pop singer Ava Max, who was born Amanda Ava Koci. I'm not exactly sure where she came from as this is her very first hit on the Hot 100, but this is an example of a song where the rest of the world caught on long for the United States jumped on the bandwagon. This has hit No. 1 in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Ireland, Belgium, Switzerland, Poland and Scotland. The song starts off rather jarring with a scream that I wasn't expecting, but it sets the tone for the lyrics of the song as Ava is describing a girl that is sweet, but psycho. She'll make you go crazy, but you won't be able to keep away. There's not a whole lot of depth to the song beyond that, but the song is ultimately super infectious. It has a really catchy, semi-electronic groove to it and Ava's voice is excellent. This is the type of pop song that I would hope becomes more popular as we move forward. If you couldn't tell, I am beyond sick of this hip-hop revolution that has poisoned the charts in 2018, so I'm hoping we can turn a page and get more songs like this to be popular. After I finish this post, I'm going to dive into my list of favorite songs of 2018. As such, I kinda wish this song charted a week later so that I can give it time to grow on me. I think it has the potential to become worthy of my end-of-year list, but it'll have a huge disadvantage by only being on my mind for a day or two when I create my 2018 list. But hey, we'll see if it can sneak onto the list anyways.
88- "Gnarly" - Kodak Black featuring Lil Pump -- I'm finishing the year off strong by completely ignoring the three Kodak Black songs that charted this week.
90- "The Christmas Song" - Lauren Daigle -- Our final Christmas song of the year (most likely, anyways) surprisingly comes from Lauren Daigle. Like with Katy, she was able to chart below the top 50 because this is a new cover of the song, thus the rules for all of the older Christmas songs don't apply. The other surprising thing is that Lauren Daigle released a full Christmas album this year titled "Behold," but this song was NOT on that. Yet it's the only one to chart from her. I'm not sure how she pulled that one off, but hey. This also makes it the second version of "The Christmas Song" to chart this year with Nat King Cole of course being the other one. Perhaps it's not fair to compare Lauren Daigle to Nat King Cole, so I'm not going to do much of that. Obviously Nat King Cole's version is much better. Lauren uses a little too much voice, if you know what I mean. She slows the song down and includes a lot of vibrators and it doesn't work as well. But hey, I have a hard time being too picky when it comes to Christmas music. This might not be the version of this song that I'll turn to first, but it's still a good song and given that Lauren is a good singer, it's hard to give a good singer a good song and have it turn out too bad. This is still a solid cover of this song. This might be the only ever week that this specific cover of this song is here on the charts, but I'm not upset that it's here. In fact, I hope we see more of Lauren in 2019 and beyond.
91- "Envy Me" - Calboy -- Speaking of the hip-hop revolution that I spoke of on my "Sweet but Psycho" entry right above Lauren Daigle's song, here's a prime example of that. Who is this guy and why should I care about him? I listened to about a minute of him mumbling something about his life and was already done with this guy. On the chorus he's talking about him having the keys, him being able to ball like the NBA and people envying him because he has money. And I don't know, I have a hard time buying rappers' empty flexing when it's their first ever hit on the Hot 100. Some of these guys talk as if they're as popular as Drake before they've even really become popular. So why should I envy yet when I know nothing about him? He says people are gravitating to this song because it's real and people respond to that. Sure, I can respect that. But I'm going through these lyrics trying to find WHAT exactly is "real." It's just the same dumb nonsense that I hear in every stupid hip-hop song. So he needs to do better than that in order to get my attention. And some people wonder why I hate this genre. I try not to. But when all I get is crap like this, what's there to like?
Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:
1- "thank u, next" - Ariana Grane (=) -- Ariana captures her sixth week at No. 1 thanks mostly to her large streaming numbers. Said streaming numbers are down 14 percent overall compared to last week to 43.5 million U.S streams, but said number is still significantly ahead of Halsey, who is down 1 percent to 31.9 million. As that margin continues to decrease, Halsey's chances of dethroning Ariana increase as Halsey is ahead in both sales and radio play. In overall chart points, Halsey is up 2 percent while Ariana is down 7 percent. I imagine it'll continue to be a close race in the next month or so. I'll be intrigued to see how this plays out.
2- "Without Me" - Halsey (=) -- Yeah, I mostly covered both of these songs in that last paragraph. I'll just add here that I'm glad our two ladies are taking control of the top two spots. Neither song is all that wonderful, but both songs are miles better than the Travis Scott song that is right below them and it's also good to see some ladies doing well on the charts in a very male dominant era for the Billboard charts as a whole.
3- "SICKO MODE" - Travis Scott (=) -- I'm glad this song continues to get held back by Ariana and Halsey. Now it would be even better if it could start to fall so we don't have to be subjected it anymore in the top 10.
4- "Sunflower (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)" - Post Malone & Swae Lee (+3) -- I'm not sure how much this song is being boosted on its own merits as compared to how much it's being boosted by the movie that it plays in the background of. The soundtrack for "Into the Spider-Verse" debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 this week, so I'm guessing that played a big part in "Sunflower" soaring even higher this week. All of that means I question the long-term potential for this song on the charts, but if this song does well as result of the movie continuing to do well, I'll accept that since the movie is absolutely fantastic. This song isn't that memorable. But it's also harmless.
5- "Happier" - Marshmello & Bastille (-1) -- Marshello and Bastille get bullied down a spot thanks to "Sunflower," but they still manage to hang on in the top five. It's been an absolutely solid run for this song, so I have no qualms with its run seeming to be coming to an end. It's done way better than I ever thought it would.
6- "High Hopes" - Panic! At the Disco (-1) -- I am a bit upset that this song hasn't been able to do better. The radio has things right at the moment as this remains the top radio song for a fifth week. But streaming and sales just never got on board on the same level, which is unfortunate.
7- "All I Want for Christmas is You" - Mariah Carey (-1) -- Here's a surprise. I expected Mariah Carey to break into the top five this week with this Christmas song, but instead she backtracks a spot? Well, as it turns out, she did gain 21 percent in overall chart points. But said gain wasn't enough to get her past the songs ahead of her while "Sunflower" gained 35 percent in overall chart points. Hence the fall. Now for this song and all of the other Christmas songs (there's now 20 of them on the charts), there's technically one more week for them to perform and said week will include Christmas and Christmas Eve, which is obviously huge, but it's also only going to be a partial week with Christmas coming in the middle of the tracking week. So we'll see what transpires next week, but for now I'm glad that all the songs are here.
8- "ZEZE" - Kodak Black featuring Travis Scott & Offset (+1) -- "ZEZE" and "Drip Too Hard" both refuse to go away, which is really annoying. They also continue this odd trend of flip-flopping positions every week. This week it's "ZEZE" in the No. 8 spot thanks to Kodak Black's new album, which thankfully only debuted three new songs towards the bottom half of the charts. Not that I would've covered them, anyways. I've been avoiding all the album bombs these last couple of months. But it still gives me joy to see him failing in compared to his peers.
9- "Drip Too Hard" - Lil Baby & Gunna (-1) -- Who still cares about Lil Baby and Gunna? And who are the annoying punks that are still streaming this awful piece of trash?
10- "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" - Andy Williams (+3) -- IT DID IT! THIS SONG HAS REACHED THE TOP 10! I was legitimately worried that it was not going to make after the last week or two saw this song struggling to break into the top 10. But it did it! And now we have two Christmas songs in the top 10 and a whole bunch more right below. This is just the sixth Christmas song to ever reach the top 10 and it's well deserved as this is an absolute Christmas classic. In regards to Andy Williams, this is his first top 10 entry since 1971, making it 47 years since he was last year, which breaks a record for the longest gap between top 10 hits for an artist, a mark that was previous held by Dobie Gray at 30 years thanks to his own version of "Drift Away" in 1973 and Uncle Cracker's cover in 2003, which credited Gray in a featured role. Andy Williams also also sets the record for the longest span of Hot 100 top 10 hits as his first top 10 entry was in 1959, just over a year after the formation of the Billboard Hot 100, meaning there's very few that are eligible to break that record in the near future. The only person that I can think of that could break that record is if Elvis Presley's holiday classic "Blue Christmas" were to debut and hit the top 10. But that's currently No. 20 on the Holiday 100, so it didn't quite have enough momentum to chart on the Hot 100.
Rising on the Hot 100:
11- "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" - Brenda Lee (+7) -- Just below the top 10 is Brenda Lee, who finally bests her previous high, which was No. 14. Now if only we had another full week of Christmas tracking, perhaps this could join Mariah and Andy in the top 10. That would be cool. But for now, I'm just happy to see so many Christmas songs in the top 20 as there's six of them this year. And, as I previously mentioned, there's a total of 20 Christmas songs on the Hot 100 this week with even more new arrivals adding to the already impressive long list.
12- "A Holly Jolly Christmas" - Burl Ives (+9) -- Last week Burl Ives snuck ahead of a Brenda Lee, but this week she jumps back ahead, leaving "A Holly Jolly Christmas" as the fourth highest charting Christmas song this week. Now in a perfect world, Brenda and Burl would be able to replace Kodak and Lil Baby in the top 10, giving us four songs in the bottom half of the Hot 100. But as it's a partial week for Christmas songs next week, I'm not sure that's possible.
13- "Jingle Bell Rock" - Bobby Helms (+2) -- Making it three in a row right below the top 10 is "Jingle Bell Rock." And being that it's now after Christmas, I hope all of you had a great time rocking the Christmas night away.
17- "The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)" - Nat King Cole (+7) -- Welcome back to the top 20, Nat King Cole! Prior to this song, the last time Nat King Cole was in the top 20 was in 1963 with "That Sunday, That Summer." It's a great thing that these rules for Christmas re-entries allows for us to have Nat King Cole back in the region.
27- "Last Christmas" - Wham! (+4) -- A great Christmas for Wham! and the late George Michael. I wish he were still with us to celebrate his song's success, but sadly he passed away two Christmases ago. And we all still miss him.
28- "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" - Gene Autry (-1) -- OK, I know this is *supposed* to be a region for rising songs, but I said previously that I'm going to be following all the Christmas songs. So Rudolph got pushed down a spot because of "Last Christmas." Oh well. I still wanted to include it here, anyways. Maybe next year I'll include a new section just for Christmas songs.
32- "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow" - Dean Martin (=) -- Dean Martin *almost* hits top 30. He also didn't quite get his version of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" to debut as that sits at No. 22 on the Holiday 100 this week. But hey, it was Dean's first year back on the charts, so that alone is a huge success.
33- "Sleigh Ride" - The Ronettes (+8) -- This was one of last week's new entries and it still makes me happy to see that "Sleigh Ride" has now become a part of our yearly Christmas tradition. Hopefully we can bring it back again next year.
34- "Feliz Navidad" - Jose Feliciano (+8) -- This was also a returning entry from last week that gains a bit this week. "Feliz Navidad" entered the charts last Christmas season for the first time, so it was good to see it come back again this year and hopefully it will be able to remain a Christmas tradition on the Hot 100.
35- "Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane)" - Gene Autry (+5) -- Last week's surprise entry for me gains five spots this week. This is one of those Christmas songs that I didn't know quite as well, so I enjoyed the experience of giving it a closer look and I really appreciated the implementation of Christian themes together with mainstream Christmas because it shows we can have both.
48- "White Christmas" - Bing Crosby (re-entry) -- OK, I'm not sure if this was a part of last year's crops of returning Christmas entries. All I can gather in my research of the song is that it peaked at No. 12 back in 1962 and has now spent a total of 14 weeks on the charts. But regardless of whether or not it has been here recently, this is certainly a song that belongs here as it's reported that this song has sold over 50 million copies, making it the highest-selling single ever, Christmas or not. So yeah, you can easily call this the most iconic Christmas song ever. According the the ASCAP, this is also the most recorded Christmas song ever with over 500 versions of this song existing. And of course this song deserves the honor. Bing Crosby's Christmas music is some of my favorite. He just has such a great voice that makes his music perfect for everyone. And this is such a delightful tune. Me and snow don't always get along, but I do like for it to look like Christmas on Christmas. This year I was dreaming of a white Christmas because it was mostly a green Christmas with occasional patches of white. But this song isn't just about wishing for snow, it's pleasantly wishing people to have a great Christmas, which is why it's so delightful to listen to.
56- "Nothing Breaks Like a Heart" - Mark Ronson featuring Miley Cyrus (+24) -- Well, we're done with Christmas songs in this rising songs section, but there's a total of seven new Christmas songs below in my new arrivals, so go down there for more Christmas talk. Given that there's so much Christmas songs right now, the inevitable truth is that this section will be quite busy when all of them sadly disappear. I can only hope for good songs to replace them. And this is certainly one of the best candidates.
61- "Talk to Me" - Tory Lanez & Rich the Kid (+13) -- I barely even remember that this song exists. I guess it's time to be paying attention now?
73- "No Stylist" - French Montana featuring Drake (+12) -- It's because of Drake, isn't it?
80- "Ella Quiere Beber" - Anuel AA & Romeo Santos (+13) -- I'm not sure if this song will last. A lot of these songs on the bottom half of the charts are rising big because of the recent album bombs that dominated this specific region. This wasn't an awful song, but it was forgettable and I really hope we don't make Anuel AA a thing here in the states.
81- "Beautiful Crazy" - Luke Combs (+16) -- Finishing the rising songs sections with a pair of country songs. "Beautiful Crazy" is one of the more forgettable and generic country songs. Luke Combs did slightly better with "One Number Away" earlier in the year.
84- "This Is It" - Scotty McCreery (+12) -- I'm sure there's a lot of people that will be happy to see Scotty McCreery doing well on the charts. I've just never understood his appeal. He was one of the more boring contestants on "American Idol" in the year he won. I wasn't a fan of him then and I've never really enjoyed much of his music since and this song is no different.
New Arrivals:
24- "imagine" - Ariana Grande -- So this just in. Ariana has a new album coming out. Her fifth studio album "thank u, next" is scheduled to be released January 25, 2019, just five months after the release of "Sweetener." This is weird to me because the first thing I think about when albums get released this close to each other is that the artist is thinking about quantity over quality. I would rather see Ariana focusing on making good music rather than throwing out as many songs as possible just to see what sticks. But I suppose I'll take things as they come. "thank u, next" the song I think is a passable song has a really nice sentiment to it. It doesn't strike me as a song that necessarily deserves to be a No. 1 hit given that there are a lot of songs from Ariana that are a lot better. It feels more like a lifetime achievement award than anything. But if I ignore that, I think it's totally fine. However, "imagine" feels like more of a lazy effort. There's not much to this song. She's just imagining a perfect life with this guy. There's two quick verses that are boring musically and a chorus that feels cut and pasted from various other generic pop songs about love. The only time Ariana does anything interesting with her voice is in the outro, which is Ariana repeating the line "Can you imagine it?" for well over a minute. Cut the outro out and Ariana only had enough content to get the song barely passed two minutes. So if this is the type of music we're getting from this upcoming album, I'm not that excited. I'm hoping for the best, though.
41- "(There's No Place Like) Home for the Holidays" - Perry Como -- Now that we've got Ariana's new song out of the way, it's time for our string of seven new Christmas entries, five classic entries and two modern entries. We start here with Perry Como, a singer who I honestly don't know much about outside he has a great, classic voice and some amazing Christmas songs on his resume. "Home for the Holidays" was a song composed by Robert Allen with lyrics by Al Stillman. I'm not sure of Como was the first to record a version of the song, but his recording was the most popular and was released shortly after it was initially released. Like many of these songs, the lyrics here are simple as it gives the sentiment of exactly what is suggested in the title, that of there being no place like home for the holidays. And although that's a simple sentiment, it's also a powerful one that rings true. Because there really is nothing like going home for the holidays to spend some quality time with family and friends. And although I have no problems with this Como version being here, the Carpenters also have a rendition of this on their Christmas album. Wouldn't it be amazing if we could get the Carpenters to return to the charts one of these Christmas seasons?
42- "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" - Perry Como & The Fontane Sisters -- We get a double dose of Perry Como this week as he also gets his version of this Christmas classic to chart. Two weeks ago when "Let It Snow" debuted, I was wondering if we were going to get this song as well because those are the two songs that I immediately think of when it snows. Because of that, this song is probably one of the Christmas songs that I sing most often. I also have fond memories of the song, especially when it comes to my mom's siblings singing it together for family get togethers. They do a few things with this will be positively ingrained in my memory forever and all of my uncles have voices that fit this perfectly. So yeah, there's a lot of nostalgia for this song. As I stated in my previous entry, a lot of these Christmas songs have simple lyrics powered by relatable sentiments rather than complex verses and choruses. And while there's nothing wrong with that, there's a lot of lyrics to "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas." A lot more than some of your classic Christmas songs. There's also a few different parts that are musically creative. Those two elements combine to make this a really fun song to sing while caroling. The only nitpick I have with this specific version is that I like Bing Crosby's version better. But that's nothing against Perry Como and The Fontane Sisters. They do just fine with this song.
45- "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" - John & Yoko / The Plastic Ono Band with The Harlem Community Choir -- OK, first of all with this song, I'm not a huge fan of using "Xmas" instead of "Christmas," although I'm not going to throw too much of a fit since this stylization originated not with the idea of using the X to replace Christ, but rather because the X stood for the Greek letter "chi," which is the first letter in the Greek word for Christ. The second thing with this song is that it's a very unique Christmas song to be charting. It's a lot of fun seeing John Lennon and Yoko Ono on the charts in 2018, but this song isn't them just casually wishing everyone a merry Christmas... and a happy Christmas, too (both lyrics are in the song). This song was written in 1971, during the Vietnam War. John and Yoko were begging for the war to be over, using the template of Christmas in more of an ironic way. There's a happy, positive feel to the song, which stands as a dream of what life could be like without any war or violence. The music video for the song has a lot of gruesome, sad war images that'll make you cry while watching, knowing that many people aren't having a merry Christmas. But maybe they could if we didn't have such a violent world. Anti-war songs were very popular in the 70's and I appreciate them because they often had a lot of emotion and meaning to them rather than just being empty songs.
47- "Wonderful Christmastime" - Paul McCartney -- Speaking of former members of The Beatles, it's not very often we have John Lennon AND Paul McCartney getting new songs on the charts. Call that a wonderful Christmas gift from Billboard to the world. Unlike John and Yoko's song, this song doesn't have any added political layer to it. It is what you think it is when you're casually listening to it. It's another one of those simple Christmas songs that characterize most of our Christmas tunes this season, but Paul McCartney as one of the all-time greats brings a lot of character and charm to the song. And the instrumentals behind the lyrics and vocals provide the perfect amount of levity to make this song work. It makes a simple song feel well thought out and genuine, thus giving audiences listening a very positive feeling. You can understand why this has became a holiday classic ever since its release in 1979.
50- "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" - Darlene Love -- Well this is fun. We have so many Christmas songs on the charts this year that one has snuck in that I'm really not that familiar with. I mean, it's quite possible that I've listened to this song many times. I mean, I even have this exact version and the Michael Buble version on my Christmas playlist. But the songs itself has just not stuck in my memory before. There's also popular covers by the likes of Mariah Carey and U2, so maybe I should be embarrassed? However, listening to this version made me rather pleased. Darlene Love has a lot of soul to her voice and her belting the lyrics out are quite powerful. Then we have the saxophone part that stood out to me, giving this a classic 60's groove to it. I'm not sure why my brain missed this one, but I'll be certainly paying attention to it from now on because this fits right in with "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" and "Jingle Bell Rock" as a fun, groovy Christmas song to balance out the calm music.
58- "MoshPit" - Kodak Black featuring Juice WRLD -- I'm finishing the year off strong by completely ignoring the three Kodak Black songs that charted this week.
68- "Cozy Little Christmas" - Katy Perry -- I was wondering if we were going to see this song on the charts this year. I've seen the charts in the bubbling under section, but I didn't think it was going to find its way onto the Hot 100. If you're curious, the reason why we haven't had more Christmas songs below the top 50 is because the Billboard rules are such that an older song can only chart if it has significant gains in multiple metrics and has enough points to make the top 50. "Cozy Little Christmas" doesn't meet those specific qualifications, but it made it because it's a new song, so the rules don't apply. Without even listening to the song, I do commend Katy for her attempt at writing a new Christmas song since all most artists do is cover all of the older classics. The problem here is that she released this as an Amazon Music exclusive. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but I deactivated my Amazon Prime account this year, which means I don't currently have access to this. There is a 45 second clip of the song on Katy's YouTube account and I liked what I heard there. But I suppose I'll get back to you in the future when I get a chance to listen to the full song?
74- "Testimony" - Kodak Black -- I'm finishing the year off strong by completely ignoring the three Kodak Black songs that charted this week.
87- "Sweet but Psycho" - Ava Max -- We have one more Christmas song to get to, but first we get to pause and discuss a new single from pop singer Ava Max, who was born Amanda Ava Koci. I'm not exactly sure where she came from as this is her very first hit on the Hot 100, but this is an example of a song where the rest of the world caught on long for the United States jumped on the bandwagon. This has hit No. 1 in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Ireland, Belgium, Switzerland, Poland and Scotland. The song starts off rather jarring with a scream that I wasn't expecting, but it sets the tone for the lyrics of the song as Ava is describing a girl that is sweet, but psycho. She'll make you go crazy, but you won't be able to keep away. There's not a whole lot of depth to the song beyond that, but the song is ultimately super infectious. It has a really catchy, semi-electronic groove to it and Ava's voice is excellent. This is the type of pop song that I would hope becomes more popular as we move forward. If you couldn't tell, I am beyond sick of this hip-hop revolution that has poisoned the charts in 2018, so I'm hoping we can turn a page and get more songs like this to be popular. After I finish this post, I'm going to dive into my list of favorite songs of 2018. As such, I kinda wish this song charted a week later so that I can give it time to grow on me. I think it has the potential to become worthy of my end-of-year list, but it'll have a huge disadvantage by only being on my mind for a day or two when I create my 2018 list. But hey, we'll see if it can sneak onto the list anyways.
88- "Gnarly" - Kodak Black featuring Lil Pump -- I'm finishing the year off strong by completely ignoring the three Kodak Black songs that charted this week.
90- "The Christmas Song" - Lauren Daigle -- Our final Christmas song of the year (most likely, anyways) surprisingly comes from Lauren Daigle. Like with Katy, she was able to chart below the top 50 because this is a new cover of the song, thus the rules for all of the older Christmas songs don't apply. The other surprising thing is that Lauren Daigle released a full Christmas album this year titled "Behold," but this song was NOT on that. Yet it's the only one to chart from her. I'm not sure how she pulled that one off, but hey. This also makes it the second version of "The Christmas Song" to chart this year with Nat King Cole of course being the other one. Perhaps it's not fair to compare Lauren Daigle to Nat King Cole, so I'm not going to do much of that. Obviously Nat King Cole's version is much better. Lauren uses a little too much voice, if you know what I mean. She slows the song down and includes a lot of vibrators and it doesn't work as well. But hey, I have a hard time being too picky when it comes to Christmas music. This might not be the version of this song that I'll turn to first, but it's still a good song and given that Lauren is a good singer, it's hard to give a good singer a good song and have it turn out too bad. This is still a solid cover of this song. This might be the only ever week that this specific cover of this song is here on the charts, but I'm not upset that it's here. In fact, I hope we see more of Lauren in 2019 and beyond.
91- "Envy Me" - Calboy -- Speaking of the hip-hop revolution that I spoke of on my "Sweet but Psycho" entry right above Lauren Daigle's song, here's a prime example of that. Who is this guy and why should I care about him? I listened to about a minute of him mumbling something about his life and was already done with this guy. On the chorus he's talking about him having the keys, him being able to ball like the NBA and people envying him because he has money. And I don't know, I have a hard time buying rappers' empty flexing when it's their first ever hit on the Hot 100. Some of these guys talk as if they're as popular as Drake before they've even really become popular. So why should I envy yet when I know nothing about him? He says people are gravitating to this song because it's real and people respond to that. Sure, I can respect that. But I'm going through these lyrics trying to find WHAT exactly is "real." It's just the same dumb nonsense that I hear in every stupid hip-hop song. So he needs to do better than that in order to get my attention. And some people wonder why I hate this genre. I try not to. But when all I get is crap like this, what's there to like?
Wednesday, December 19, 2018
DrogeMiester's Billboard Analysis - December 22, 2018
The new Billboard charts have arrived and so it's time again for me to give you my thoughts! In this weekly post, I cover three sections. First, I give my thoughts on the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. Second, I give my thoughts on the songs that experienced significant gains below the top 10. Third, I give my initial thoughts on our new arrivals this week. I reserve the right to switch things up in the future, but for now this is what I'm sticking with. I've followed the Billboard charts for a long time now and this is a great way for me to express my thoughts to the world. I hope you enjoy!
95- "Look Back at It" - A Boogie wit da Hoodie -- Don't care. I also don't know why we're still giving this thug a career, especially since he has one of the worst rap names.
Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:
1- "thank u, next" - Ariana Grande (=) -- After an absolute monster week last week for Ariana wherein she set the record for the highest weekly streaming total for a female artist (93.8 million U.S. streams), those numbers came crashing down, nearly in half, to 50.7 million U.S. streams this week. Her sales also crashed 41 percent to 25,000 downloads sold. Luckily for her, though, said numbers were still high enough for her to hold onto that top spot as she's No. 1 on streaming and No. 2 on sales. The other positive note for her is that the song had great radio traction this week, up 36 percent to 77.6 million audience impressions, which vaulted her from No. 11 to No. 5. If she can stop the bleeding in sales and streaming, the song has the potential to stick around for a while, especially with that radio traction. Even if she doesn't maintain her lead at the top, the lucky thing for me personally is that our new runner-up is not very scary.
2- "Without Me" - Halsey (+1) -- Because, yes, I was really nervous that Ariana would crash hard enough that it would cause "SICKO MODE" to go back to No. 1, which is the one thing I didn't want. But now we have Halsey at No. 2 instead, thanks to continued momentum on the radio with 82.4 million audience impressions, good for No. 4 this week; good consistency on streaming with another 32.1 million U.S. streams, down only 1 percent; and her continued dominance on top of the sales chart with 37,000 downloads sold, albeit down 26 percent from last week. I'm not sure if Halsey is going to take over next week or not. That depends on how strong Ariana's streaming numbers are. But if it happens, I'll certainly be grateful that it's Halsey on top and not Travis Scott. Also, this is the first time this year where two women have controlled the top two spots. It's kinda sad that this didn't happen earlier.
3- "SICKO MODE" - Travis Scott (-1) -- I can breathe a good sigh of relief because it appears that Travis Scott won't go back to No. 1. I still have no idea why this song is so popular, but it's good to see that it appears to be finally declining in overall chart points. Now if it could fall a bit faster, that would be nice.
4- "Happier" - Marshmello & Bastille (=) -- "Happier" appears stuck here at No. 4, which is alright. Although I would be happy if it traded places with "SICKO MODE."
5- "High Hopes" - Panic! At the Disco (=) -- It kinda makes me sad that Panic! doesn't seem to be able to get any higher at the moment. It has great radio, but not enough streaming or sales to help it take over. I had visions of this being a chart-topping song, yet sadly it doesn't appear that'll happen. But hey, at least it got to the top five. And at least the radio has good taste for what songs deserve to be played more.
6- "All I Want for Christmas is You" - Mariah Carey (+1) -- I'm not going to lie, I am a bit disappointed that Mariah was only able to jump up one spot this week. But hey, at least we can celebrate the fact that this is now the highest charting holiday song since "The Chipmunk Song" by David Seville & The Chipmunks hit No. 1 in 1958. Last week the song entered a tie with "Auld Lang Syne" by Kenny G (2000) and "This One's for the Children" by New Kids on the Block (1990). Now Mariah stands by herself as the second highest charting holiday song. So that's something to celebrate. I have a feeling that next week is the final week for the Christmas songs on the charts, so let's hope that it can have a good jump. Can it get to the top three?
7- "Sunflower (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)" - Post Malone & Swae Lee (+10) -- I'm not surprised to see this song here. I saw the movie "Into the Spider-Verse" this past weekend and got my review up on my main blog yesterday. It was an excellent movie. My second favorite Spider-Man movie behind only "Spider-Man 2," which is one of my all-time favorite superhero movies. As far as this song goes in "Spider-Verse," it doesn't really have much of an impact. It plays in the background as soundtrack at one point in the movie and if you're not looking for it, you're going to completely miss it. I think that's kinda what I expected, so I suppose it doesn't matter that the song has nothing to do with the movie. It's just noise. That's also how I see it in context of the Hot 100. It's not an awful song by any means, like the current two songs below it, but it's also not that memorable. If it sticks around, I'll be fine with that.
8- "Drip Too Hard" - Lil Baby & Gunna (+1) -- I'm really annoyed as to why this song and "ZEZE" are still here. They take turns flip-flopping spots on the charts, but neither song will go away. What's the appeal here? Especially with this one. I kinda get how people are obsessed with Kodak Black, Travis Scott and Offset, but is there one person on Earth who really loves Lil Baby and Gunna?
9- "ZEZE" - Kodak Black featuring Travis Scott & Offset (-1) -- See previous comment. I'm mad that this song won't go away.
10- "Girls Like You" - Maroon 5 featuring Cardi B (+1) -- A definite facepalm here. I'm not surprised that "Mo Bamba" fell out or that the Meek Mill song dropped out following its debut last week. But I was hoping for a second Christmas song to take this spot.
Rising on the Hot 100:
11- "Wake up in the Sky" - Gucci Mane, Bruno Mars & Kodak Black (+8) -- We have one more week of Christmas songs after this week. If this song enters the top 10 next week instead of "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" or "Jingle Bell Rock," I will be rather upset. Because the only thing that this song has going for it are the names of the artists involved. None of them put any effort into recording this track, but apparently they didn't need to because the sheer sight of a Kodak Black, Bruno Mars and Gucci Mane collaboration is enough for people to drool all over themselves in 2018.
13- "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" - Andy Williams (+3) -- A three spot jump this week. Next week will be the strongest week for the Christmas songs, so I'm really crossing my fingers that this song can make it into the top 10.
15- "Jingle Bell Rock" - Bobby Helms (+11) -- Here's a bit of a surprise. "Jingle Bell Rock" leapfrogs past "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" to be the third highest Christmas song. Both songs are a whole lot of fun, so I'm happy either way. Now if we can just get one of these Christmas songs to enter the top 10 next week along with Mariah.
16- "Eastside" - Benny Blanco, Halsey & Khalid (+2) -- Halsey seems primed to hit No. 1 in the next week or two. And that's totally fine, I suppose. But this duet with Khalid is the more deserving song if I were to pick a Halsey song to explode.
18- "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" - Brenda Lee (+3) -- It's been an excellent year for our Christmas songs. Seeing this song in the top 20 yet again is another huge win. Although it's worth noting that this song previously peaked at No. 14, making it the only one of our main Christmas songs to not hit a new peak yet this season. But there's still a chance for it to do so next week.
21- "A Holly Jolly Christmas" - Burl Ives (+1) -- Burl Ives stalled out just a tad bit this week, but he has a chance to go top 20 next week. Even if we don't get a second Christmas song into the top 10 next week, if "A Holly Jolly Christmas" jumps at least one more spot, that'll make five Christmas songs in the top 20, which is a huge win.
24- "The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)" - Nat King Cole (+5) -- Nat King Cole was the artist to get the biggest Christmas jump last week and he gets another five spots this week, which is an excellent sign. If both this and "A Holly Jolly Christmas" go top 20, that'll make six Christmas songs in the top 20!
27- "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" - Gene Autry (+9) -- I'll also be cheering for Rudolph to do well in this song's first ever appearance on the Hot 100. It's not the song I expected to hit the Hot 100, but that's what has made this year so fun for our Christmas. There's been a lot of surprises and I'm looking forward to at least one more week of surprises next week.
31- "Last Christmas" - Wham! (+3) -- We now have seven Christmas songs to enter the top 30 this year and if "Last Christmas" gets just one more spot up, which seems very likely at this point, that'll make for eight Christmas songs in the top 30!
32- "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow" - Dean Martin (+9) -- Can we even go for nine Christmas songs in the top 30 next week? Last week Dean Martin charted for the first time in nearly 50 years, making this song a welcome addition to our annual Christmas tradition. Next week Dean Martin has a chance to get a second Christmas song on the Hot 100 as his version of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" is gaining a lot of momentum following the song's dumb controversy, rising from No. 31 to No. 17 on the Holiday 100. Even if the song doesn't chart on the Hot 100, I'm happy that the attempted ban of the song has seemingly backfired and I'll be excited to talk about it if it does chart next week. If not, that was my quick plug right there.
33- "BAD!" - XXXTENTACION (+42) -- It's boycott XXXTENTACION week on the Hot 100 for me. People are still taking advantage of his death to earn some quick cash as a new posthumous album has been released this week, which I think is disgusting.
34- "Speechless" - Dan + Shay (+6) -- Here's our new top country song. I'm alright with that. It's a nice, little wedding song from Dan + Shay. Not a song I'd put on my own wedding playlist, but it's fine.
42- "Feliz Navidad" - Jose Feliciano (re-entry) -- I was waiting for this song to re-enter! It officially debuted on the Hot 100 last Christmas season, spending two weeks on the charts. This year I was hoping that we could include it in our annual Christmas Hot 100 tradition. It took a few weeks longer than some of the other Christmas songs, but it made it! Now this might be the most simple Christmas song out there, in terms of the lyrics, but it's also one of the most infectious with some absolutely fantastic instrumentation. Those two elements combine together to make a song that everyone on Earth will immediately sing along with, regardless of what language you speak. It's easy to memorize and it's an absolute joy to sing along with. In fact, I can guarantee you that this song's re-entry on the charts this week will cause it to get stuck in my head for the remainder of the holiday season, which I'm fine with.
44- "Uproar" - Lil Wayne (+6) -- This is the one surviving song from Lil Wayne's album from this year that I already almost forgot about. According to my notes, I actually thought it was one of his more tolerable songs on the album, but I don't feel like giving it a re-listen at this moment. I'm too busy listening to "Feliz Navidad" on repeat.
53- "Calling My Spirit" - Kodak Black (+11) -- This debuted last week and I boycotted it because there were 9,000 rap songs that debuted thanks to two album bombs hitting at the same time and I just got in a mood to avoid them all. If this continues to rise, I suppose I'll give it a listen so I can officially tell you how awful it is.
56- "Lost in Japan" - Shawn Mendes & Zedd (+15) -- Speaking of the two album bombs from last week, the section of the Hot 100 that was most affected was the bottom half. So there's a lot of songs that showed up this week due to the charts resetting itself. This is one that I'm happy got a boost. Zedd adds some good spice to a surprisingly decent Shawn Mendes song in this remix. I'd be happy if it got more of a mainstream push.
57- "Arms Around You" - XXXTENTACION & Lil Pump featuring Maluma & Swae Lee (+17) -- I still refuse to listen to this song. The only reason why it got a boost this week was because of the XXXTENTACION album that I will be boycotting. Artists need to stop taking advantage of the death of X in order to get them some quick money.
58- "You Say" - Lauren Daigle (+11) -- This song has had an extremely confusing run. I've been waiting for it to become a mainstream hit because I love the song, but I'm kinda sad that it hasn't been able to get over the hump. However, at the same time this has managed to stick around on the bottom half of the charts for quite a long time that it almost makes up for it, so overall I'm impressed with its run. But seriously. If it can somehow get higher, that would be fantastic.
59- "Close to Me" - Ellie Goulding & Diplo featuring Swae Lee (+34) -- Here's a big surprise. I wasn't sure what Ellie's song would do on the charts. It took several weeks to show up in the first place, then it camped out at the very bottom, making me wonder if it was going to fizzle out. But now it jumped 34 spots this week, meaning this might actually be gaining traction. I'm totally fine with that. It's still not as good as classic Ellie from her second album, but it's a perfectly tolerable Ellie song that I'm content with.
63- "Be Alright" - Dean Lewis (+16) -- The Australian Ed Sheeran slowly gains more attention here in the United States after already being a huge sensation everywhere else. Perhaps this will become a big thing in 2019. That'll be great because I genuinely love this song, as I do with a lot of Ed Sheeran's songs. I guess that style just gets to me.
66- "Backin' it Up" - Pardison Fontaine featuring Cardi B (+20) -- I still don't think the world has any idea who Pardison Fontaine is. This song has only gained traction because of Cardi B. But hey, it debuted back in October and still has yet to hit top 50, so maybe there's a chance that it never goes anywhere.
71- "This Feeling" - The Chainsmokers featuring Kelsea Ballerini (+16) -- Are we going to make this song a thing or not? I'm fine with it. I like Kelsea Ballerini and I think she certainly outshines the Chainsmokers on the song. I've been upset with that duo ever since their mainstream success caused them to be extremely lazy, but this is a decent effort from them, so I'd be fine if it became a success.
72- "Consequences" - Camila Cabello (+22) -- OK, we really need to make this song a thing in 2019. I still maintain my stance that it's one of the best songs from Camila's album, an album that she herself seemed to forget about. But I'm glad she's pushing another single from the album and I'm glad it's this one. It's a perfectly selection and one that deserves to at least get a good radio push.
73- "Burning Man" - Dierks Bentley featuring Brothers Osborne (+17) -- Not quite as solid as "It Ain't My Fault" from Brothers Osborne last year, but this is a great effort from the brothers and Dierks. This is a country song that I can legitimately get behind, so I hope it becomes a huge hit.
76- "Sixteen" - Thomas Rhett (+23) -- Speaking of country, we got a couple more of them here. I wanted a bit more from Thomas Rhett on this song, but as I'm usually pretty harsh with his music, this is another one that I'll give a pass to. His songs usually become huge, so I won't be complaining if this follows suit.
81- "Good Girl" - Dustin Lynch (+15) -- Well, out of our trio of country songs on this section of the charts this week, this is most certainly the lesser of the bunch. I guess that means I'm glad that it's also the lowest one.
83- "You" - Jacquees (+17) -- I don't really care much about this song. I'm not super offended by it, either. But I'll give it more attention if it actually goes anywhere.
85- "No Stylist" - French Montana featuring Drake (+10) -- Sneaking onto this list is French Montana and Drake. Because more Drake is definitely what the world needs. And yes, that is sarcasm. This song sucks.
New Arrivals:
37- "whoa (mind in awe)" - XXXTENTACION -- There's only three new songs that I'm going to be talking about this week. The two new Christmas songs and the Scotty McCreery song on the bottom of the list. I've said this a couple of times now in the new arrivals section, but I'm really upset that we're STILL taking advantage of XXXTENTACION's death to earn money. That's the only reason this new album is here. It's almost like the record label and the other artists are the ones who conspired to get him killed so they could squeeze all that they could out of a dead artist. It's disgusting. I never liked the dude's music anyways, even though I am sad a human being lost his life, so there's no reason for me to give this project any attention.
40- "Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane)" - Gene Autry -- After Gene Autry surprised me by getting his version of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" to chart last, he's back again this week for another surprise. I mean, out of all the Christmas songs that could've charted this week, how many of you would've picked this song to chart? Yeah, sure, I would call it a Christmas classic, but it's one of the slightly lesser known Christmas classics. I feel everyone could sing the main line, but people might get lost when the verses start and resort to humming the tune because I don't think the lyrics are that well known. However, despite this, I was glad that I was given the chance to give it a closer look this week because this is one of the rare Christmas songs that combines the mainstream element of Christmas with the religious part of Christmas that the holiday is meant for. In verse three, the song reads as follows, "Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus, right down Santa Claus lane; he doesn't care if you're rich or you're poor, he loves you just the same; Santa Claus knows we're all God's children, that makes everything right; So fill your hearts with Christmas cheer because Santa Claus comes tonight." Then in the fourth verse, there is a line that reads, "Peace on Earth will come to all if we just follow the light; so let's give thanks to the Lord above 'cause Santa Claus comes tonight." That right there is a solid message to teach kids that makes this song more than just another fun, mainstream Christmas song like all the other Christmas songs on the charts right now.
41- "Sleigh Ride" - The Ronettes -- My history with this song is a rich one. Outside of being a very beloved Christmas classic, performing "Sleigh Ride" was a Christmas tradition for Mr. King's Millcreek Junior High School ninth grade band. And Mr. King wasn't a band director who messed around. His bands always sounded great, so by the time you got to ninth grade, being able to play this song was quite the honor and I had a lot of fun doing so when it was my turn to play. For a bit of history, "Sleigh Ride" was composed by Leroy Anderson in 1948 and was originally purely instrumental. The first recording of it was by Arthur Fielder and the Boston Pops Orchestra in 1949. After listening to several versions of the song, that original recording is the version that we played and thus the version that I know best. Lyrics to the song were written by Mitchell Parish in 1950 and the first vocal performance was recorded by the Andrews Sisters. It has since been recorded by, well, everyone, but the most popular version was this one that is charting, The Ronettes in 1963. Produced by Phil Spector, it turns the song from an orchestral piece to a fun poppy Christmas song with a horse sound at the beginning and end with the added touch of "ring-a-ling-a-ling, ding-dong-ding" as background vocals. The song works perfectly as an instrumental piece. The orchestra is composed in such a way that you imagine a sleigh ride, especially with the clap of the blocks imitating hitting the reigns of the horse. But the lyrics are rather inspired as they beautifully bring to life this sleigh ride. The vocals from The Ronettes are a perfect addition. It has a classic 60's feel to it that makes one feel all warm and fuzzy inside. And seeing it on the charts brings me so much joy. Let's please bring this back every year.
48- "Guardian Angel" - XXXTENTACION -- I'm boycotting this album. Read my previous comments to learn why.
51- "I Don't Let Go" - XXXTENTACION -- I'm boycotting this album. Read my previous comments to learn why.
62- "One Minute" - XXXTENTACION featuring Kanye West & Travis Barker -- I'm boycotting this album. Read my previous comments to learn why.
64- "Train Food" - XXXTENTACION -- I'm boycotting this album. Read my previous comments to learn why.
65- "What Are You so Afraid Of" - XXXTENTACION -- I'm boycotting this album. Read my previous comments to learn why.
68- "Staring at the Sky" - XXXTENTACION -- I'm boycotting this album. Read my previous comments to learn why.
84- "Difference (Interlude)" - XXXTENTACION -- I'm boycotting this album. Read my previous comments to learn why.
95- "Look Back at It" - A Boogie wit da Hoodie -- Don't care. I also don't know why we're still giving this thug a career, especially since he has one of the worst rap names.
96- "This is It" - Scotty McCreery -- Our American Idol boy is last on this list this week. I've never been a huge fan of his. He's a deep voice that people fell in love with even though he doesn't have a whole lot of talent. Here we have another generically written country song about a guy in love with a girl. In this version of the country love song, Scotty takes the girl to a point in the mountains where they can feel on top of the world. And then he finishes off by talking about her walking down the isle on their wedding day. And I suppose it's fine. The song actually starts pretty nice with the first verse before it then disappears into generic country with its sound on the chorus. I won't hate life if it does well, but I won't ever remember it in the future, just like I can't even name any Scotty McCreery song for you off the top of my head. I think if I even looked at his discography I'd have a hard time remembering what his songs sounded like. They just all blend together into one giant bunch of country nothingness. But if you like Scotty's voice and style, then of course you'll love this song.
Tuesday, December 11, 2018
DrogeMiester's Billboard Analysis - December 15, 2018
The new Billboard charts have arrived and so it's time again for me to give you my thoughts! In this weekly post, I cover three sections. First, I give my thoughts on the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. Second, I give my thoughts on the songs that experienced significant gains below the top 10. Third, I give my initial thoughts on our new arrivals this week. I reserve the right to switch things up in the future, but for now this is what I'm sticking with. I've followed the Billboard charts for a long time now and this is a great way for me to express my thoughts to the world. I hope you enjoy!
1- "thank u, next" - Ariana Grande (+1) -- Just like everyone who follows the Billboard charts predicted, Ariana Grande is back at No. 1 this week thanks to the arrival of her music video, which broke records on YouTube for views in the first 24-hours. Like I mentioned last week, Billboard only counts U.S. views from YouTube in its streaming formula, not all of the views, but the boost from the music video was enough to help Ariana soar to 93.8 million U.S. streams this week, boasting the highest ever weekly streaming total for a female artist, a record previously held by Taylor Swift with 84.5 million U.S. streams during the first week of "Look What You Made Me Do" in September 2017. Ariana also soars to 43,000 in sales (No. 2 this week) and 57 million in radio audience (No. 11 this week). Sales and streaming are going to plummet next week, but given the high streaming total this week, I still think she might have a chance at holding this No. 1 spot for another week or two, especially if radio keeps climbing.
2- "SICKO MODE" - Travis Scott (-1) -- Yet if I'm being objective about things, "SICKO MODE" also gained in all categories this week with 43.3 million U.S. streams, 25,000 sales and 65.7 million in radio audience. And those numbers are going to fall a lot slower than Ariana's numbers, so Travis Scott is still in good position to go back to No. 1 if Ariana tanks too hard, which is an awful prospect to think of. I still have no idea why this song has such a strong appeal. But yet we are in 2018, one of the all-time worst years in the history of the Billboard charts when it comes to popular music.
3- "Without Me" - Halsey (+1) -- If Ariana falls hard, there's also a chance that Halsey takes the top spot as "Without Me" has 32.7 million U.S. streams (up 29 percent), 50,000 in sales (up 75 percent and good enough for No. 1 on sales for a third week) and 71.7 million in radio audience (up 10 percent). So it'll be a three-headed race for the top spot in the short term. Even though I'm not madly in love with this Halsey song, I'll be cheering for either this song to jump up to No. 1 or for Ariana to hold that top spot long enough for Travis Scott to start bleeding.
4- "Happier" - Marshmello & Bastille (-1) -- The loser in all of this, when it comes to the top five anyways, seems to be "Happier" as its momentum has seemingly stalled out. And I'm not too upset. Sure, I might put it a notch above "thank u, next" and "Without Me" in terms of my personal enjoyment, but it's not like it's the greatest song by either artist. I am still glad that it's here and I do hope that it holds on to enough momentum to stick around for a while because I'm not a huge fan of most of the alternatives.
5- "High Hopes" - Panic! At the Disco (=) -- This is the song that I would really love to see break out and hit that top spot. Unfortunately it seems that the song's sales and streaming numbers aren't doing it a whole lot of favors at the moment, which is why it remains stuck at No. 5 instead of going higher. It's still got that strong radio, though, so at least the radio people have their priorities straight because this is easily the best song around at the moment. At least when it comes to the top part of the charts.
6- "Going Bad" - Meek Mill featuring Drake (new) -- Meek Mill has a new album out titled "Champions" in which he gathered together all the popular artists that he could following his release from prison this year so he could take full advantage of the fame that being in prison brought him. Because, you know, when a rapper does something awful in 2018, society doesn't punish them like they do athletes and actors. Instead there's a double standard where awful living and prison-worthy acts get celebrated by society and the rappers get rewarded with successful careers. It's beyond disgusting, especially considering the B.S. controversy surrounding the Christmas song "Baby, It's Cold Outside" right now. So no, I'm not touching Meek Mill's album this week. I'll have the track listing below in the new arrivals, but that's it. This specific song is only here because of the Drake feature. And if there's one artist I want gone this year, it has to be Drake because he's a good contender for the most overrated artist in the history of music and it's a darn shame that society worships this useless piece of trash as a god.
7- "All I Want for Christmas is You" - Mariah Carey (+7) -- On a more positive note, I was a bit shocked to see Mariah Carey jump all the way up to No. 7 this week. A friend and I had a discussion after last week's post about how high Mariah would get this year. Last Christmas season she peaked at No. 9 with this song after hitting the top 10 for the first time. My prediction after looking at our current top 10 was that it would peak at No. 5. Last week the song was at No. 14, so I figured it might jump to No. 11 or maybe even sneak into the top 10. But it jumped seven spots up to No. 7, which is fantastic. And it has all sorts of momentum right now in all categories with 28.5 million U.S. streams (up 29 percent), 15,000 sales (up 28 percent) and 30.4 million in radio audience (up 11 percent). That radio number will remain the song's handcuff, but the streaming and sales momentum looks strong enough to blow away my prediction that it will peak at No. 5. This looks like a top three hit this season as there's at least two more weeks for the song to gain in points, with those two weeks being the weeks that the song will be the strongest. Can it get to No. 1? I'm not sure. Those streaming numbers for Ariana are incredibly high right now while Travis Scott and Halsey are also doing rather well. But I think the this can still sneak into that No. 3 slot, which has me excited.
8- "ZEZE" - Kodak Black featuring Travis Scott & Offset (-1) -- It's good to see this song fall a spot this week, but I'm upset that it isn't falling faster.
9- "Drip Too Hard" - Lil Baby & Gunna (-1) -- It's good to see this song fall a spot this week, but I'm upset that it isn't falling faster.
10- "Mo Bamba" - Sheck Wes (-4) -- Well how's this for a pleasant surprise? I was worried that this might trade places with "High Hopes" this week, but instead it plummets down to No. 10. Merry Christmas to me! Now let's make it even better by kicking the song out all together. Perhaps replacing it with another Christmas song? Maybe Andy Williams or Brenda Lee? That would be great! In other good news, Maroon 5's "Girls Like You" is officially gone from the top 10. When I saw that news, I just about threw a party to honor the song's departure. Now that it's gone (and hopefully it stays that way), I can guarantee you that the world will completely forget that the song ever existed in a year or two from now. "Lucid Dreams" also exited this week, which I'm fine with. The song was pretty good, but it ran its course and didn't overstay its welcome.
16- "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" - Andy Williams (+5) -- I will make sure to keep you up to date on every Christmas song on the charts throughout the Christmas season, even if they don't rise high enough to qualify being included in this section. Because I created those rules, so I'm allowed to break them. But seeing this song's continued momentum this week into the top 20 was a great thing. And with the bottom half of the top 10 being extremely weak at the moment, I'm thinking, or at least hoping, that this song will claim a spot in the top 10 as early as next week.
21- "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" - Brenda Lee (+2) -- I would also love to see this song jump into the top 10, but it only climbed two spots this week, so I'm not feeling especially hopeful at the moment. But hey, the next two weeks on the charts are the prime week for Christmas and Christmas music, so maybe its fortunes will change!
22- "A Holly Jolly Christmas" - Burl Ives (+4) -- Can Burl Ives sneak past Brenda Lee? It's only one spot away at the moment. Personally I hope both songs will jump into the top 20 next week. I'm not concerned at which order the do so since both are great songs.
26- "Jingle Bell Rock" - Bobby Helmes (+7) -- Two more Christmas entries into the top 30 this week, so I'm very pleased. "Jingle Bell Rock" has always been a favorite of mine. It's just so catchy and contagious and does seem to have a bit more momentum at the moment than the two songs ahead of it, so I'm curious to see what's going to happen!
29- "The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)" - Nat King Cole (+10) -- Our second new entry into the top 30 this week! And also well deserved. Out of all the Christmas songs this week, this had the highest gain, jumping 10 spots up to No. 29? Now I don't know how many Christmas songs we're going to get in the top 10 this year, but imagine how cool it would be if we could at least get them all into the top 20?
31- "Dangerous" - Meek Mill featuring Jeremih & PnB Rock (+17) -- How dare Meek Mill interrupt my Christmas list! I did listen to this song when it debuted and while not awful, it also wasn't that great. It's only getting a one-week boost due to the album bomb. It'll drop back down next week.
34- "Last Christmas" - Wham! (+9) -- Our final Christmas riser of the week sees Wham! scoring a top 40 hit. Hopefully it'll be onto the top 30 next week! But hey, this is not the last Christmas song that I'll be talking about this week. Head down to the new arrivals section to see my thoughts on two additional Christmas songs entering the Hot 100 for the first time, that being Gene Autry's "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" at No. 36 and Dean Martin's "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow" at No. 41. Two additional Christmas classics. What other Christmas songs have the potential to enter or re-enter in future weeks? Well, on the Holiday 100 this week, the next five songs below our current entries are "Feliz Navidad" by Jose Feliciano, "White Christmas" by Bing Crosby, "Here Comes Santa Claus (Down Santa Claus Lane)" by Gene Autry, "Sleigh Ride" by The Ronettes, and "Blue Christmas" by Elvis Presley. I also hear that there are three versions of "Baby It's Cold Outside" that are gaining strong momentum in backlash to some radio stations banning the song, with Dean Martin's version having the most momentum. So I wouldn't be surprised to see that show up.
43- "MAMA" - 6ix9ine featuring Nicki Minaj & Kanye West (+15) -- I hear that 6ix9ine released his album mid-week instead of on Friday, which is the beginning of the tracking week. That means last week his album bomb was based on only a partial week while this week is the album's first full week of tracking. That's why three of the songs had strong gains this week. I don't expect them to stick around, though. Or at least I hope they don't. That would be gross.
44- "KIKA" - 6ix9ine featuring Tory Lanez (+15) -- See previous comment.
51- "WAKA" - 6ix9ine featuring A Boogie wit da Hoodie (+20) -- See previous comment.
6- "Going Bad" - Meek Mill featuring Drake -- As I stated above, I will not be covering any songs from Meek Mill's new album this week. Read my thoughts on this above if you are curious as to why. Also, in addition to what I said above, there are a total of 26 new songs on the charts this week, half of them being from Meek Mill. I deem it not worth my time to cover that many songs. With so many album bombs that consumed so much of my time this year, I began to wonder if it was even worth doing this post each week. I thought about discontinuing this. Instead, my compromise is to pick and choose what I cover. When it comes to album bomb weeks, my thought is to completely avoid them unless it's an album that I'm actually excited about. Most songs from album bombs don't stick around, anyways, so I figure that I'll let the dust settle for a week or so and if there's any of the songs that stick around, I'll talk about them in the rising songs section in future weeks. Ever since deciding on this plan, it's relieved a lot of stress and pressure, thus making me happier about the idea of continuing forward.
20- "What's Free" - Meek Mill featuring Rick Ross & JAY-Z -- I will not be covering Meek Mill's new album this week. Read above to learn why.
30- "On Me" - Meek Mill featuring Cardi B -- I will not be covering Meek Mill's new album this week. Read above to learn why.
36- "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" - Gene Autry -- I wasn't sure what to expect with the new Christmas songs this week. In fact, I thought there would be a few more re-entries that we've seen in previous years. I was not expecting Rudolph to show, but it was certainly a pleasant surprise. I mean, who doesn't love the story of Rudolph and this ensuing song? I think when it comes to Christmas songs, this one is especially popular with the younger crowd as every kid born on Earth since the song was written in 1949 has probably grown up loving it and singing it every Christmas. Although this song showing up did make me curious as to the history of Rudolph. A quick search helped me learn that the character of Rudolph was created by Robert. L. May in 1939. It was May's brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, who adapted the story into a song, which was first sung by Harry Brannon in November 1949, right before this specific version hit No. 1 on U.S. charts during Christmas 1949. It has since been recorded by a whole heck of a lot of people, just like with every other popular Christmas song, with the other most notable version being from the Burl Ives, who recorded it for the 1964 stop-motion animation special. That same special where Ives' "A Holly Jolly Christmas," currently No. 22 on the Hot 100 this week, comes from. Which version of "Rudolph" is better? Well, I don't know. They're both good. It would be fun for Burl Ives to have two songs on the Hot 100, but it's also cool that Gene Autry's version, which first popularized the song, is the one to chart. Better question, though. Which phrases do you say as echoes?
41- "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow" - Dean Martin -- This was another surprise Christmas entry for me. For those curious, this song was written by Sammy Cahn and Jule Style in 1945 during a heat wave in California when the two were imagining cooler conditions. It was first recorded by Vaughn Monroe. But this time, it's Dean Martin's version from his 1966 Christmas album that showed up. This makes it 49 years since Dean Martin's last entry on the charts, which almost breaks the record for longest time period between Hot 100 entries for an artist. That record is set at 57 years when Louis Prima showed up on Kid See Ghosts' "4th Dimension" earlier this year. I imagine it might now have the record when it comes to being a lead singer as opposed to just being featured 57 years later on a random song. But Billboard didn't report that, so I don't know. In regards to "Let It Snow," this is more of a winter song than a Christmas song and thus I have a love/hate relationship with the idea of wanting to let it snow. I don't like the cold and I'm fine with warm Christmases. But hey, the song is certainly a classic as it's the first song (or one of the first) that will come to your mind when it does start snowing and you are one that's happy about it. That random tangent aside, the song itself is great. It puts warm images in your mind as the singer talks about cuddling up by the fire during the bitter storm. And of course Dean Martin brings such a warm, friendly charisma to the song. So you'd have to be a Grinch to hate the song.
46- "Pure Cocaine" - Lil Baby -- While I'm in the mood of skipping albums, I will also be avoiding Lil Baby's new album. Given that he's leading with the song "Pure Cocaine" as the top new arrival, can you really blame me?
54- "24/7" - Meek Mill featuring Ella Mai -- I will not be covering Meek Mill's new album this week. Read above to learn why.
55- "Intro" - Meek Mill -- I will not be covering Meek Mill's new album this week. Read above to learn why.
57- "Respect the Game" - Meek Mill -- I will not be covering Meek Mill's new album this week. Read above to learn why.
60- "Good Form" - Nicki Minaj featuring Lil Wayne -- Eh. There's a lot of awful hip-hop this week. Most weeks I would get a non-album bomb song like this over with. But I don't feel like it. These two rappers are trash anyways, especially when they team up.
61- "Trauma" - Meek Mill -- I will not be covering Meek Mill's new album this week. Read above to learn why.
62- "Time" - Lil Baby featuring Meek Mill -- A Lil Baby and Meek Mill crossover on a week where both get an album bomb? It's almost like it was planned that way. But no, I'm not covering this, either.
63- "Nuketown" - Ski Mask the Slump God featurng Juice WRLD -- Ski Mask the Slump God? With a rap name like that, the dude is begging me to ignore him. So I will.
64- "Calling My Spirit" - Kodak Black -- I don't care about Kodak Black.
66- "Ready" - Lil Baby featuring Gunna -- I'm not covering Lil Baby's album. But speaking of him and Gunna, didn't they just release a collaborative album together? So what's the point of this song existing?
67- "Nothing Breaks Like a Heart" - Mark Ronson featuring Miley Cyrus -- Buried in all the muck this week is actually a song worth covering. Surprise, right? I really hope this doesn't get lost in the mix because this is a solid effort from both Mark Ronson and Miley. In regards to Miley, she's a singer who shocked me last year with an album that was really good as she seems to have left her crazy life behind her while becoming an elegant woman writing good pop music. Thus I was curious as to where she'd go next with her music and a team-up with Mark Ronson is a great place. Lyrically this song is another breakup song that's not super unique. The lovers were once drunk in love, but now they're not and nothing can save them. What makes the song work, though, is Miley's voice as she powers through the lyrics with fire and emotion. Regardless of what I've thought of Miley over the years, what has remained consistent is that she's always had talent and potential. It's just a matter what she did with that and I'm glad that she's using it in the right ways now by creating solid pop songs like this. What also makes the song work is Mark Ronson's production. If you forgot who Mark Ronson is, he's the actual lead act in "Uptown Funk" as he provided the platform for Bruno Mars to explode with one of the biggest hits ever. And he again constructs a great song musically in "Nothing Breaks Like a Heart." There's a variety of instruments here from great use of various strings (violin, viola, bass, cello) to the implementation of the guitar, drums and piano. On Genius, Mark Ronson is credited for playing the piano. When they performed the song on the Graham Norton Show, he strummed along on the guitar. So maybe he did a little bit of both on the actual recording? Either way, good work for both of these artists and anyone else who contributed here to the music.
70- "Championships" - Meek Mill -- I will not be covering Meek Mill's new album this week. Read above to learn why.
72- "Tic Tac Toe" - Meek Mill featuring Kodak Black -- I will not be covering Meek Mill's new album this week. Read above to learn why.
73- "Almost Slipped" - Meek Mill -- I will not be covering Meek Mill's new album this week. Read above to learn why.
77- "Splash Warning" - Meek Mill featuring Future, Roddy Ricch & Young Thug -- I will not be covering Meek Mill's new album this week. Read above to learn why.
78- "Pay You Back" - Meek Mill featuring 21 Savage -- I will not be covering Meek Mill's new album this week. Read above to learn why.
81- "Foot Fungus" - Ski Mask the Slump God -- "Foot Fungus" by Ski Mask the Slump God. That is the most disgusting sounding title/artist combo that I've heard.
82- "Crush a Lot" - Lil Baby -- I'm not covering Lil Baby's album bomb.
85- "Oodles O' Noodles Babies" - Meek Mill -- I will not be covering Meek Mill's new album this week. Read above to learn why.
91- "Global" - Lil Baby -- I'm not covering Lil Baby's album bomb.
98- "Word on the Street" - Lil Baby -- I'm not covering Lil Baby's album bomb.
Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:
1- "thank u, next" - Ariana Grande (+1) -- Just like everyone who follows the Billboard charts predicted, Ariana Grande is back at No. 1 this week thanks to the arrival of her music video, which broke records on YouTube for views in the first 24-hours. Like I mentioned last week, Billboard only counts U.S. views from YouTube in its streaming formula, not all of the views, but the boost from the music video was enough to help Ariana soar to 93.8 million U.S. streams this week, boasting the highest ever weekly streaming total for a female artist, a record previously held by Taylor Swift with 84.5 million U.S. streams during the first week of "Look What You Made Me Do" in September 2017. Ariana also soars to 43,000 in sales (No. 2 this week) and 57 million in radio audience (No. 11 this week). Sales and streaming are going to plummet next week, but given the high streaming total this week, I still think she might have a chance at holding this No. 1 spot for another week or two, especially if radio keeps climbing.
2- "SICKO MODE" - Travis Scott (-1) -- Yet if I'm being objective about things, "SICKO MODE" also gained in all categories this week with 43.3 million U.S. streams, 25,000 sales and 65.7 million in radio audience. And those numbers are going to fall a lot slower than Ariana's numbers, so Travis Scott is still in good position to go back to No. 1 if Ariana tanks too hard, which is an awful prospect to think of. I still have no idea why this song has such a strong appeal. But yet we are in 2018, one of the all-time worst years in the history of the Billboard charts when it comes to popular music.
3- "Without Me" - Halsey (+1) -- If Ariana falls hard, there's also a chance that Halsey takes the top spot as "Without Me" has 32.7 million U.S. streams (up 29 percent), 50,000 in sales (up 75 percent and good enough for No. 1 on sales for a third week) and 71.7 million in radio audience (up 10 percent). So it'll be a three-headed race for the top spot in the short term. Even though I'm not madly in love with this Halsey song, I'll be cheering for either this song to jump up to No. 1 or for Ariana to hold that top spot long enough for Travis Scott to start bleeding.
4- "Happier" - Marshmello & Bastille (-1) -- The loser in all of this, when it comes to the top five anyways, seems to be "Happier" as its momentum has seemingly stalled out. And I'm not too upset. Sure, I might put it a notch above "thank u, next" and "Without Me" in terms of my personal enjoyment, but it's not like it's the greatest song by either artist. I am still glad that it's here and I do hope that it holds on to enough momentum to stick around for a while because I'm not a huge fan of most of the alternatives.
5- "High Hopes" - Panic! At the Disco (=) -- This is the song that I would really love to see break out and hit that top spot. Unfortunately it seems that the song's sales and streaming numbers aren't doing it a whole lot of favors at the moment, which is why it remains stuck at No. 5 instead of going higher. It's still got that strong radio, though, so at least the radio people have their priorities straight because this is easily the best song around at the moment. At least when it comes to the top part of the charts.
6- "Going Bad" - Meek Mill featuring Drake (new) -- Meek Mill has a new album out titled "Champions" in which he gathered together all the popular artists that he could following his release from prison this year so he could take full advantage of the fame that being in prison brought him. Because, you know, when a rapper does something awful in 2018, society doesn't punish them like they do athletes and actors. Instead there's a double standard where awful living and prison-worthy acts get celebrated by society and the rappers get rewarded with successful careers. It's beyond disgusting, especially considering the B.S. controversy surrounding the Christmas song "Baby, It's Cold Outside" right now. So no, I'm not touching Meek Mill's album this week. I'll have the track listing below in the new arrivals, but that's it. This specific song is only here because of the Drake feature. And if there's one artist I want gone this year, it has to be Drake because he's a good contender for the most overrated artist in the history of music and it's a darn shame that society worships this useless piece of trash as a god.
7- "All I Want for Christmas is You" - Mariah Carey (+7) -- On a more positive note, I was a bit shocked to see Mariah Carey jump all the way up to No. 7 this week. A friend and I had a discussion after last week's post about how high Mariah would get this year. Last Christmas season she peaked at No. 9 with this song after hitting the top 10 for the first time. My prediction after looking at our current top 10 was that it would peak at No. 5. Last week the song was at No. 14, so I figured it might jump to No. 11 or maybe even sneak into the top 10. But it jumped seven spots up to No. 7, which is fantastic. And it has all sorts of momentum right now in all categories with 28.5 million U.S. streams (up 29 percent), 15,000 sales (up 28 percent) and 30.4 million in radio audience (up 11 percent). That radio number will remain the song's handcuff, but the streaming and sales momentum looks strong enough to blow away my prediction that it will peak at No. 5. This looks like a top three hit this season as there's at least two more weeks for the song to gain in points, with those two weeks being the weeks that the song will be the strongest. Can it get to No. 1? I'm not sure. Those streaming numbers for Ariana are incredibly high right now while Travis Scott and Halsey are also doing rather well. But I think the this can still sneak into that No. 3 slot, which has me excited.
8- "ZEZE" - Kodak Black featuring Travis Scott & Offset (-1) -- It's good to see this song fall a spot this week, but I'm upset that it isn't falling faster.
9- "Drip Too Hard" - Lil Baby & Gunna (-1) -- It's good to see this song fall a spot this week, but I'm upset that it isn't falling faster.
10- "Mo Bamba" - Sheck Wes (-4) -- Well how's this for a pleasant surprise? I was worried that this might trade places with "High Hopes" this week, but instead it plummets down to No. 10. Merry Christmas to me! Now let's make it even better by kicking the song out all together. Perhaps replacing it with another Christmas song? Maybe Andy Williams or Brenda Lee? That would be great! In other good news, Maroon 5's "Girls Like You" is officially gone from the top 10. When I saw that news, I just about threw a party to honor the song's departure. Now that it's gone (and hopefully it stays that way), I can guarantee you that the world will completely forget that the song ever existed in a year or two from now. "Lucid Dreams" also exited this week, which I'm fine with. The song was pretty good, but it ran its course and didn't overstay its welcome.
Rising on the Hot 100:
16- "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" - Andy Williams (+5) -- I will make sure to keep you up to date on every Christmas song on the charts throughout the Christmas season, even if they don't rise high enough to qualify being included in this section. Because I created those rules, so I'm allowed to break them. But seeing this song's continued momentum this week into the top 20 was a great thing. And with the bottom half of the top 10 being extremely weak at the moment, I'm thinking, or at least hoping, that this song will claim a spot in the top 10 as early as next week.
21- "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" - Brenda Lee (+2) -- I would also love to see this song jump into the top 10, but it only climbed two spots this week, so I'm not feeling especially hopeful at the moment. But hey, the next two weeks on the charts are the prime week for Christmas and Christmas music, so maybe its fortunes will change!
22- "A Holly Jolly Christmas" - Burl Ives (+4) -- Can Burl Ives sneak past Brenda Lee? It's only one spot away at the moment. Personally I hope both songs will jump into the top 20 next week. I'm not concerned at which order the do so since both are great songs.
26- "Jingle Bell Rock" - Bobby Helmes (+7) -- Two more Christmas entries into the top 30 this week, so I'm very pleased. "Jingle Bell Rock" has always been a favorite of mine. It's just so catchy and contagious and does seem to have a bit more momentum at the moment than the two songs ahead of it, so I'm curious to see what's going to happen!
29- "The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)" - Nat King Cole (+10) -- Our second new entry into the top 30 this week! And also well deserved. Out of all the Christmas songs this week, this had the highest gain, jumping 10 spots up to No. 29? Now I don't know how many Christmas songs we're going to get in the top 10 this year, but imagine how cool it would be if we could at least get them all into the top 20?
31- "Dangerous" - Meek Mill featuring Jeremih & PnB Rock (+17) -- How dare Meek Mill interrupt my Christmas list! I did listen to this song when it debuted and while not awful, it also wasn't that great. It's only getting a one-week boost due to the album bomb. It'll drop back down next week.
34- "Last Christmas" - Wham! (+9) -- Our final Christmas riser of the week sees Wham! scoring a top 40 hit. Hopefully it'll be onto the top 30 next week! But hey, this is not the last Christmas song that I'll be talking about this week. Head down to the new arrivals section to see my thoughts on two additional Christmas songs entering the Hot 100 for the first time, that being Gene Autry's "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" at No. 36 and Dean Martin's "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow" at No. 41. Two additional Christmas classics. What other Christmas songs have the potential to enter or re-enter in future weeks? Well, on the Holiday 100 this week, the next five songs below our current entries are "Feliz Navidad" by Jose Feliciano, "White Christmas" by Bing Crosby, "Here Comes Santa Claus (Down Santa Claus Lane)" by Gene Autry, "Sleigh Ride" by The Ronettes, and "Blue Christmas" by Elvis Presley. I also hear that there are three versions of "Baby It's Cold Outside" that are gaining strong momentum in backlash to some radio stations banning the song, with Dean Martin's version having the most momentum. So I wouldn't be surprised to see that show up.
43- "MAMA" - 6ix9ine featuring Nicki Minaj & Kanye West (+15) -- I hear that 6ix9ine released his album mid-week instead of on Friday, which is the beginning of the tracking week. That means last week his album bomb was based on only a partial week while this week is the album's first full week of tracking. That's why three of the songs had strong gains this week. I don't expect them to stick around, though. Or at least I hope they don't. That would be gross.
44- "KIKA" - 6ix9ine featuring Tory Lanez (+15) -- See previous comment.
51- "WAKA" - 6ix9ine featuring A Boogie wit da Hoodie (+20) -- See previous comment.
New Arrivals:
6- "Going Bad" - Meek Mill featuring Drake -- As I stated above, I will not be covering any songs from Meek Mill's new album this week. Read my thoughts on this above if you are curious as to why. Also, in addition to what I said above, there are a total of 26 new songs on the charts this week, half of them being from Meek Mill. I deem it not worth my time to cover that many songs. With so many album bombs that consumed so much of my time this year, I began to wonder if it was even worth doing this post each week. I thought about discontinuing this. Instead, my compromise is to pick and choose what I cover. When it comes to album bomb weeks, my thought is to completely avoid them unless it's an album that I'm actually excited about. Most songs from album bombs don't stick around, anyways, so I figure that I'll let the dust settle for a week or so and if there's any of the songs that stick around, I'll talk about them in the rising songs section in future weeks. Ever since deciding on this plan, it's relieved a lot of stress and pressure, thus making me happier about the idea of continuing forward.
20- "What's Free" - Meek Mill featuring Rick Ross & JAY-Z -- I will not be covering Meek Mill's new album this week. Read above to learn why.
30- "On Me" - Meek Mill featuring Cardi B -- I will not be covering Meek Mill's new album this week. Read above to learn why.
36- "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" - Gene Autry -- I wasn't sure what to expect with the new Christmas songs this week. In fact, I thought there would be a few more re-entries that we've seen in previous years. I was not expecting Rudolph to show, but it was certainly a pleasant surprise. I mean, who doesn't love the story of Rudolph and this ensuing song? I think when it comes to Christmas songs, this one is especially popular with the younger crowd as every kid born on Earth since the song was written in 1949 has probably grown up loving it and singing it every Christmas. Although this song showing up did make me curious as to the history of Rudolph. A quick search helped me learn that the character of Rudolph was created by Robert. L. May in 1939. It was May's brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, who adapted the story into a song, which was first sung by Harry Brannon in November 1949, right before this specific version hit No. 1 on U.S. charts during Christmas 1949. It has since been recorded by a whole heck of a lot of people, just like with every other popular Christmas song, with the other most notable version being from the Burl Ives, who recorded it for the 1964 stop-motion animation special. That same special where Ives' "A Holly Jolly Christmas," currently No. 22 on the Hot 100 this week, comes from. Which version of "Rudolph" is better? Well, I don't know. They're both good. It would be fun for Burl Ives to have two songs on the Hot 100, but it's also cool that Gene Autry's version, which first popularized the song, is the one to chart. Better question, though. Which phrases do you say as echoes?
41- "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow" - Dean Martin -- This was another surprise Christmas entry for me. For those curious, this song was written by Sammy Cahn and Jule Style in 1945 during a heat wave in California when the two were imagining cooler conditions. It was first recorded by Vaughn Monroe. But this time, it's Dean Martin's version from his 1966 Christmas album that showed up. This makes it 49 years since Dean Martin's last entry on the charts, which almost breaks the record for longest time period between Hot 100 entries for an artist. That record is set at 57 years when Louis Prima showed up on Kid See Ghosts' "4th Dimension" earlier this year. I imagine it might now have the record when it comes to being a lead singer as opposed to just being featured 57 years later on a random song. But Billboard didn't report that, so I don't know. In regards to "Let It Snow," this is more of a winter song than a Christmas song and thus I have a love/hate relationship with the idea of wanting to let it snow. I don't like the cold and I'm fine with warm Christmases. But hey, the song is certainly a classic as it's the first song (or one of the first) that will come to your mind when it does start snowing and you are one that's happy about it. That random tangent aside, the song itself is great. It puts warm images in your mind as the singer talks about cuddling up by the fire during the bitter storm. And of course Dean Martin brings such a warm, friendly charisma to the song. So you'd have to be a Grinch to hate the song.
46- "Pure Cocaine" - Lil Baby -- While I'm in the mood of skipping albums, I will also be avoiding Lil Baby's new album. Given that he's leading with the song "Pure Cocaine" as the top new arrival, can you really blame me?
54- "24/7" - Meek Mill featuring Ella Mai -- I will not be covering Meek Mill's new album this week. Read above to learn why.
55- "Intro" - Meek Mill -- I will not be covering Meek Mill's new album this week. Read above to learn why.
57- "Respect the Game" - Meek Mill -- I will not be covering Meek Mill's new album this week. Read above to learn why.
60- "Good Form" - Nicki Minaj featuring Lil Wayne -- Eh. There's a lot of awful hip-hop this week. Most weeks I would get a non-album bomb song like this over with. But I don't feel like it. These two rappers are trash anyways, especially when they team up.
61- "Trauma" - Meek Mill -- I will not be covering Meek Mill's new album this week. Read above to learn why.
62- "Time" - Lil Baby featuring Meek Mill -- A Lil Baby and Meek Mill crossover on a week where both get an album bomb? It's almost like it was planned that way. But no, I'm not covering this, either.
63- "Nuketown" - Ski Mask the Slump God featurng Juice WRLD -- Ski Mask the Slump God? With a rap name like that, the dude is begging me to ignore him. So I will.
64- "Calling My Spirit" - Kodak Black -- I don't care about Kodak Black.
66- "Ready" - Lil Baby featuring Gunna -- I'm not covering Lil Baby's album. But speaking of him and Gunna, didn't they just release a collaborative album together? So what's the point of this song existing?
67- "Nothing Breaks Like a Heart" - Mark Ronson featuring Miley Cyrus -- Buried in all the muck this week is actually a song worth covering. Surprise, right? I really hope this doesn't get lost in the mix because this is a solid effort from both Mark Ronson and Miley. In regards to Miley, she's a singer who shocked me last year with an album that was really good as she seems to have left her crazy life behind her while becoming an elegant woman writing good pop music. Thus I was curious as to where she'd go next with her music and a team-up with Mark Ronson is a great place. Lyrically this song is another breakup song that's not super unique. The lovers were once drunk in love, but now they're not and nothing can save them. What makes the song work, though, is Miley's voice as she powers through the lyrics with fire and emotion. Regardless of what I've thought of Miley over the years, what has remained consistent is that she's always had talent and potential. It's just a matter what she did with that and I'm glad that she's using it in the right ways now by creating solid pop songs like this. What also makes the song work is Mark Ronson's production. If you forgot who Mark Ronson is, he's the actual lead act in "Uptown Funk" as he provided the platform for Bruno Mars to explode with one of the biggest hits ever. And he again constructs a great song musically in "Nothing Breaks Like a Heart." There's a variety of instruments here from great use of various strings (violin, viola, bass, cello) to the implementation of the guitar, drums and piano. On Genius, Mark Ronson is credited for playing the piano. When they performed the song on the Graham Norton Show, he strummed along on the guitar. So maybe he did a little bit of both on the actual recording? Either way, good work for both of these artists and anyone else who contributed here to the music.
70- "Championships" - Meek Mill -- I will not be covering Meek Mill's new album this week. Read above to learn why.
72- "Tic Tac Toe" - Meek Mill featuring Kodak Black -- I will not be covering Meek Mill's new album this week. Read above to learn why.
73- "Almost Slipped" - Meek Mill -- I will not be covering Meek Mill's new album this week. Read above to learn why.
77- "Splash Warning" - Meek Mill featuring Future, Roddy Ricch & Young Thug -- I will not be covering Meek Mill's new album this week. Read above to learn why.
78- "Pay You Back" - Meek Mill featuring 21 Savage -- I will not be covering Meek Mill's new album this week. Read above to learn why.
81- "Foot Fungus" - Ski Mask the Slump God -- "Foot Fungus" by Ski Mask the Slump God. That is the most disgusting sounding title/artist combo that I've heard.
82- "Crush a Lot" - Lil Baby -- I'm not covering Lil Baby's album bomb.
85- "Oodles O' Noodles Babies" - Meek Mill -- I will not be covering Meek Mill's new album this week. Read above to learn why.
91- "Global" - Lil Baby -- I'm not covering Lil Baby's album bomb.
98- "Word on the Street" - Lil Baby -- I'm not covering Lil Baby's album bomb.
Thursday, December 6, 2018
DrogeMiester's Billboard Analysis - December 8, 2018
The new Billboard charts have arrived and so it's time again for me to give you my thoughts! In this weekly post, I cover three sections. First, I give my thoughts on the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. Second, I give my thoughts on the songs that experienced significant gains below the top 10. Third, I give my initial thoughts on our new arrivals this week. I reserve the right to switch things up in the future, but for now this is what I'm sticking with. I've followed the Billboard charts for a long time now and this is a great way for me to express my thoughts to the world. I hope you enjoy!
1- "SICKO MODE" - Travis Scott (+1) -- Help me understand this one because I'm lost. I have no idea why this is No. 1. OK, yeah, as far as statistic go, it's consistent across the board and thus got here by default. But why do people love this song so much? I even re-listened to it just now AND I listed the remix with Skrillex. The best I can come up with is that it has a decent beat to it. Lyrically, though, Travis and Drake bring NO energy and NO fire to the track, which is unfortunate because the song is all about how awesome they are. If they actually sounded ominous and braggadocious, then maybe I can understand. But they sound bored and lazy. Heck, the first line of the song is "Sun is down, freezing cold; That's how we already know winter's here." Where's the intensity in that? I don't see it. In fact, it barely edges out Post Malone's "Psycho" as my least favorite No. 1 hit of 2018. And no, the Skrillex remix doesn't help the song out at all. It's just Skrillex inserting his super annoying robotic sounds into the song. The original mix actually has a better beat, which is kinda embarrassing for Skrillex.
2- "thank u, next" - Ariana Grande (-1) -- Ariana was falling fast compared to "SICKO MODE," so I'm not at all surprised she tumbled this week. In fact, I wouldn't have been surprised if she had tumbled to No. 4 or No. 5. And unless she's able to get some serious radio traction (the song is only at No. 23 on the radio charts this week -- up from No. 36 last week, granted), I have a hard time seeing this song stick around for very long in the top 10 given how much it's bleeding in sales and not being super steady on streaming. THAT SAID, it probably will go back to No. 1 next week since the music video debuted and broke all kinds of YouTube records. It's already had 128 million views since posting on November 30. Billboard only counts the U.S. views when it comes to the Hot 100, but that's still probably enough to get Ariana a fourth week at No. 1 next week. That's only a brief fix, though. I just hope it's enough to hold off "SICKO MODE" for a bit before we get a more consistent No. 1 hit.
3- "Happier" - Marshmello & Bastille (=) -- I thought that this song was destined for No. 1. Now I think it's destined to get stuck behind Ariana and Travis Scott. But hey, this is still a solid showing for Marshmello and Bastille as I didn't even think this song would get close to hitting top 10 when it debuted earlier this year. So I'm not complaining.
4- "Without Me" - Halsey (=) -- I'm curious about what this song is going to do. It also seems stuck right here. Halsey does have some radio momentum, but I'm not sure it's strong enough to get her over the hump for a No. 1 hit. But hey, if this song can hold it's place in the top five over the awful rap songs just below the top five, that will be a win.
5- "High Hopes" - Panic! At the Disco (+1) -- The absolute best news of the week is seeing Panic! break the top five. It gets a second week on top of the radio charts, and it's audience there is still climbing, which bodes well for this song's future. A dream of mine at this point is that "High Hopes" remains consistent enough while the four songs ahead of it start to drop, priming this song to be a No. 1 hit. I'm not going to bet on that, though. For now I'll just be happy that it made the top five and cross my fingers that it can hold its place in the region.
6- "Mo Bamba" - Sheck Wes (+1) -- The good news here is that "Mo Bamba" doesn't seem to have a ton of momentum at the moment. It's holding its place in the top 10, but only rose a spot because "Lucid Dreams" collapsed. Unfortunately I could see it sneaking into the top five, I just hope it's not at the expense of "High Hopes."
7- "ZEZE" - Kodak Black featuring Travis Scott & Offset (+3) -- This song had it's music video debut. That's why it jumped three spots. Hopefully it will fall back down.
8- "Drip Too Hard" - Lil Baby & Gunna (+1) -- This song also rose simply because "Lucid Dreams" collapsed and "Girls Like You" continues to tumble. The fact that it's remained consistent enough to stick around in the bottom half of the top 10 is troubling, though.
9- "Girls Like You" - Maroon 5 featuring Cardi B (-1) -- I'm counting down the weeks until this drops out of the top 10. It only has a week or two left, which is super exciting. If Mariah Carey is the one to officially kick it out, that would be excellent.
10- "Lucid Dreams" - Juice WRLD (-5) -- This shocked me. I mean, I know this song was losing momentum and wasn't going to stick around in the top five for much longer, but I expected a more gradual descend, not a week where it suddenly dropped like a rock.
14- "All I Want for Christmas is You" - Mariah Carey (+15) -- You know it's Christmas time when Mariah Carey is shooting up the charts with this song! We're only in the first full week of December and the song is already knocking on the door to the top 10. Last Christmas season, the song finally cracked the top 10 and peaked at No. 9. It's time to get it even higher this year!
21- "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" - Andy Williams (re-entry) -- And hey, more Christmas news. Mariah got here a week before everything else, but this week we see the rest of the annual Christmas entries, starting with Andy Williams, who earns a new high in terms of peak position. Does that mean we can get two Christmas songs into the top 10 this year? If so, this would be very much deserved as this is an absolute Christmas classic. In fact, this is more deserving of a top 10 appearance than Mariah is, in my opinion. But hey, we can have both, right?
23- "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" - Brenda Lee (re-entry) -- Our third Christmas song of the week is also in great position. Wouldn't it be great if we could even get THREE Christmas songs in the top 10? OK, I'm not holding my breath there. Just dreaming. Brenda Lee previously got to No. 14 with this song, so unlike Andy Williams, she didn't enter at a new high. But I think she has potential to beat her previous high, even if she doesn't get her top 10 entry. In terms of Christmas songs, this is one of the most fun and exciting Christmas songs out there, so I'm glad it's here each year.
26- "A Holly Jolly Christmas" - Burl Ives (re-entry) -- Like Andy Williams, Burl Ives is debuting this year at a new high, with a chance of at least getting close to the top 10, which is an exciting prospect. "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" and "A Holly Jolly Christmas" make a great duo, so it's good to see both of them debuting in the 20's.
29- "Better" - Khalid (+14) -- The only song interrupting our Christmas groove this week is Khalid as most of the other songs around this year either fell or stayed in the same general area as the previous week. And I'm fine with Christmas entries cause everything else to go stagnant. And I would've been fine with this being a song that also went stagnant since it's one of Khalid's more forgettable entries on the charts.
33- "Jingle Bell Rock" - Bobby Helms (re-entry) -- "Jingle Bell Rock" combined with "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" also make for one exciting Christmas duo, so I'm glad both of them are around. This song previously peaked at No. 29, so it also has a chance to beat its previous record. In fact, it's quite likely since that's only four spots away and we have the whole Christmas season in front of us.
39- "The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)" - Nat King Cole (re-entry) -- I always forget that this is called "The Christmas Song." That seems like a fairly generic title. But the second you sing the first line, "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire," I know exactly what you are talking about. In fact, I kinda attribute it as the Chestnuts song. But this is yet another Christmas classic that is a joy to have around. It's previous peak was No. 37, so it's a great year all around for our Christmas songs.
43- "Last Christmas" - Wham! (re-entry) -- Our final Christmas entry is the one that's the lesser of the bunch. I don't necessarily love "Last Christmas" like I do all the others, but it's undoubtedly a catchy, fun song that'll get stuck in everyone's head once one person starts singing it. Thus it makes perfect sense that it's now part of the annual Christmas tradition. Overall, I'm glad it's around. It's previous peak was No. 41, so again, everyone is going to break their records this year. And I do anticipate some of our other entries at some point in December. In previous years we had "Feliz Navidad" and Pentatonix's arrangement of "Mary Did You Know?" show up, so I'm wondering if those two are going to make a reappearance this year. I believe Billboard just has rules that if an older song re-enters, it has to be a top 50 song in terms of chart points, which might be why some of the other songs aren't here yet.
61- "STOOPID" - 6ix9ine featuring Bobby Shmurda (+14) -- GROSS
65- "Be Alright" - Dean Lewis (+11) -- I expected to see more songs below the top 50 rise up this week, but I guess we had the Christmas songs dominate the top 50 and 6ix9ine dominate the bottom 50, so I suppose it makes sense. But out of all the songs that could've gained this week, I'm glad it's this one. Again, I look at this song and think that it's a country song since Dean Lewis is very much a country singer name, but no. This is an Australian singer doing his best Ed Sheeran impression. And since I love Ed Sheeran's style, I find myself really loving this song, too. If it can continue to gain momentum, I think this is a perfect song for pop radio to simply fall in love with.
58- "MAMA" - 6ix9ine featuring Nicki Minaj & Kanye West -- NOPE
59- "KIKA" - 6ix9ine featuring Tory Lanez -- NOPE
62- "TIC TOC" - 6ix9ine featuring Lil Baby -- NOPE
69- "Come Out and Play" - Billie Eilish -- Yes, I'm ignoring 6ix9ine this week. Maybe if he had only one song, I could bite the bullet and cover it. But five new 6ix9ine songs? Nope. You can't make me. That leaves an awfully short list of new arrivals for me to actually cover, with just Billie Eilish and Jacquees. Now when I saw Billie Eilish debuting last week, I was surprised that it was "Ocean Eyes," a two year old song, rather than "Come Out and Play." Not that I'm complaining. The more Billie Eilish, the better. But "Come Out and Play" is the song on that "Share Your Gifts" commercial/short film from Apple, which is why I have that video headlining the new arrivals. Now I'm not exactly sure what that video has to do with Apple, but it's a nice, little Christmas short about a girl being too afraid to share her gifts until her dog causes what she's been writing to blow out the window. She's nervous and wants to get them back, but is pleasantly surprised when people react positively to what she has written. Now there's an even shorter version of this that plays as a commercial, so I recommend you watch the whole thing above if you haven't. It's pretty good. As far as the song goes, it's the perfect backdrop to this video as Billie shows off her versatility by writing a smooth and toned-back pop song, gently encouraging people to come out of their bubble. On it's own, it's still a really good Billie Eilish song, but it's made even better with the video.
71- "WAKA" - 6ix9ine featuring A Boogie wit da Hoodie -- NOPE
90- "You" - Jacquees -- If you don't know who Jacquees is, don't worry. You're not alone. He's only had two previous entries on the Hot 100, "B.E.D.," which debuted last year and "At the Club" with DeJ Loaf, which charted in February. Neither song was particularly memorable as I had to look them up myself before typing this. I recognized the name, but I didn't remember what exactly he had done. After jogging my memory, I can say I don't like "B.E.D.," and am not impressed with "At the Club," although the latter is the more tolerable song from Jacquees. And now as the third Jacquees song to chart on the Hot 100, we have "You," an extremely undescriptive and vague song title, which is fitting, I suppose, because the song isn't much of anything, either. It's not particularly bad and probably falls into the R&B genre, which is a genre I don't hate, but get mostly bored with. I will say that Jacquees has a decent voice that carries the song, but all he's doing in this song is hating on this girl for all the things that bother him, but then, in a very wishy-washy, not committal way, claims that he would rather be with her and all her B.S., which I don't believe would get him very far in whatever broken relationship this is. I'm not sure what he's trying to get at with this song, but he comes off as more of a jerk and thus if I were the girl, I'd say, "screw you" and walk out. Thus is why I'm not gravitating towards this song at all, even though it's not particularly bad, music-wise, minus the annoying water drops that are scattered throughout for some reason.
Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:
1- "SICKO MODE" - Travis Scott (+1) -- Help me understand this one because I'm lost. I have no idea why this is No. 1. OK, yeah, as far as statistic go, it's consistent across the board and thus got here by default. But why do people love this song so much? I even re-listened to it just now AND I listed the remix with Skrillex. The best I can come up with is that it has a decent beat to it. Lyrically, though, Travis and Drake bring NO energy and NO fire to the track, which is unfortunate because the song is all about how awesome they are. If they actually sounded ominous and braggadocious, then maybe I can understand. But they sound bored and lazy. Heck, the first line of the song is "Sun is down, freezing cold; That's how we already know winter's here." Where's the intensity in that? I don't see it. In fact, it barely edges out Post Malone's "Psycho" as my least favorite No. 1 hit of 2018. And no, the Skrillex remix doesn't help the song out at all. It's just Skrillex inserting his super annoying robotic sounds into the song. The original mix actually has a better beat, which is kinda embarrassing for Skrillex.
2- "thank u, next" - Ariana Grande (-1) -- Ariana was falling fast compared to "SICKO MODE," so I'm not at all surprised she tumbled this week. In fact, I wouldn't have been surprised if she had tumbled to No. 4 or No. 5. And unless she's able to get some serious radio traction (the song is only at No. 23 on the radio charts this week -- up from No. 36 last week, granted), I have a hard time seeing this song stick around for very long in the top 10 given how much it's bleeding in sales and not being super steady on streaming. THAT SAID, it probably will go back to No. 1 next week since the music video debuted and broke all kinds of YouTube records. It's already had 128 million views since posting on November 30. Billboard only counts the U.S. views when it comes to the Hot 100, but that's still probably enough to get Ariana a fourth week at No. 1 next week. That's only a brief fix, though. I just hope it's enough to hold off "SICKO MODE" for a bit before we get a more consistent No. 1 hit.
3- "Happier" - Marshmello & Bastille (=) -- I thought that this song was destined for No. 1. Now I think it's destined to get stuck behind Ariana and Travis Scott. But hey, this is still a solid showing for Marshmello and Bastille as I didn't even think this song would get close to hitting top 10 when it debuted earlier this year. So I'm not complaining.
4- "Without Me" - Halsey (=) -- I'm curious about what this song is going to do. It also seems stuck right here. Halsey does have some radio momentum, but I'm not sure it's strong enough to get her over the hump for a No. 1 hit. But hey, if this song can hold it's place in the top five over the awful rap songs just below the top five, that will be a win.
5- "High Hopes" - Panic! At the Disco (+1) -- The absolute best news of the week is seeing Panic! break the top five. It gets a second week on top of the radio charts, and it's audience there is still climbing, which bodes well for this song's future. A dream of mine at this point is that "High Hopes" remains consistent enough while the four songs ahead of it start to drop, priming this song to be a No. 1 hit. I'm not going to bet on that, though. For now I'll just be happy that it made the top five and cross my fingers that it can hold its place in the region.
6- "Mo Bamba" - Sheck Wes (+1) -- The good news here is that "Mo Bamba" doesn't seem to have a ton of momentum at the moment. It's holding its place in the top 10, but only rose a spot because "Lucid Dreams" collapsed. Unfortunately I could see it sneaking into the top five, I just hope it's not at the expense of "High Hopes."
7- "ZEZE" - Kodak Black featuring Travis Scott & Offset (+3) -- This song had it's music video debut. That's why it jumped three spots. Hopefully it will fall back down.
8- "Drip Too Hard" - Lil Baby & Gunna (+1) -- This song also rose simply because "Lucid Dreams" collapsed and "Girls Like You" continues to tumble. The fact that it's remained consistent enough to stick around in the bottom half of the top 10 is troubling, though.
9- "Girls Like You" - Maroon 5 featuring Cardi B (-1) -- I'm counting down the weeks until this drops out of the top 10. It only has a week or two left, which is super exciting. If Mariah Carey is the one to officially kick it out, that would be excellent.
10- "Lucid Dreams" - Juice WRLD (-5) -- This shocked me. I mean, I know this song was losing momentum and wasn't going to stick around in the top five for much longer, but I expected a more gradual descend, not a week where it suddenly dropped like a rock.
Rising on the Hot 100:
14- "All I Want for Christmas is You" - Mariah Carey (+15) -- You know it's Christmas time when Mariah Carey is shooting up the charts with this song! We're only in the first full week of December and the song is already knocking on the door to the top 10. Last Christmas season, the song finally cracked the top 10 and peaked at No. 9. It's time to get it even higher this year!
21- "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" - Andy Williams (re-entry) -- And hey, more Christmas news. Mariah got here a week before everything else, but this week we see the rest of the annual Christmas entries, starting with Andy Williams, who earns a new high in terms of peak position. Does that mean we can get two Christmas songs into the top 10 this year? If so, this would be very much deserved as this is an absolute Christmas classic. In fact, this is more deserving of a top 10 appearance than Mariah is, in my opinion. But hey, we can have both, right?
23- "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" - Brenda Lee (re-entry) -- Our third Christmas song of the week is also in great position. Wouldn't it be great if we could even get THREE Christmas songs in the top 10? OK, I'm not holding my breath there. Just dreaming. Brenda Lee previously got to No. 14 with this song, so unlike Andy Williams, she didn't enter at a new high. But I think she has potential to beat her previous high, even if she doesn't get her top 10 entry. In terms of Christmas songs, this is one of the most fun and exciting Christmas songs out there, so I'm glad it's here each year.
26- "A Holly Jolly Christmas" - Burl Ives (re-entry) -- Like Andy Williams, Burl Ives is debuting this year at a new high, with a chance of at least getting close to the top 10, which is an exciting prospect. "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" and "A Holly Jolly Christmas" make a great duo, so it's good to see both of them debuting in the 20's.
29- "Better" - Khalid (+14) -- The only song interrupting our Christmas groove this week is Khalid as most of the other songs around this year either fell or stayed in the same general area as the previous week. And I'm fine with Christmas entries cause everything else to go stagnant. And I would've been fine with this being a song that also went stagnant since it's one of Khalid's more forgettable entries on the charts.
33- "Jingle Bell Rock" - Bobby Helms (re-entry) -- "Jingle Bell Rock" combined with "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" also make for one exciting Christmas duo, so I'm glad both of them are around. This song previously peaked at No. 29, so it also has a chance to beat its previous record. In fact, it's quite likely since that's only four spots away and we have the whole Christmas season in front of us.
39- "The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)" - Nat King Cole (re-entry) -- I always forget that this is called "The Christmas Song." That seems like a fairly generic title. But the second you sing the first line, "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire," I know exactly what you are talking about. In fact, I kinda attribute it as the Chestnuts song. But this is yet another Christmas classic that is a joy to have around. It's previous peak was No. 37, so it's a great year all around for our Christmas songs.
43- "Last Christmas" - Wham! (re-entry) -- Our final Christmas entry is the one that's the lesser of the bunch. I don't necessarily love "Last Christmas" like I do all the others, but it's undoubtedly a catchy, fun song that'll get stuck in everyone's head once one person starts singing it. Thus it makes perfect sense that it's now part of the annual Christmas tradition. Overall, I'm glad it's around. It's previous peak was No. 41, so again, everyone is going to break their records this year. And I do anticipate some of our other entries at some point in December. In previous years we had "Feliz Navidad" and Pentatonix's arrangement of "Mary Did You Know?" show up, so I'm wondering if those two are going to make a reappearance this year. I believe Billboard just has rules that if an older song re-enters, it has to be a top 50 song in terms of chart points, which might be why some of the other songs aren't here yet.
61- "STOOPID" - 6ix9ine featuring Bobby Shmurda (+14) -- GROSS
65- "Be Alright" - Dean Lewis (+11) -- I expected to see more songs below the top 50 rise up this week, but I guess we had the Christmas songs dominate the top 50 and 6ix9ine dominate the bottom 50, so I suppose it makes sense. But out of all the songs that could've gained this week, I'm glad it's this one. Again, I look at this song and think that it's a country song since Dean Lewis is very much a country singer name, but no. This is an Australian singer doing his best Ed Sheeran impression. And since I love Ed Sheeran's style, I find myself really loving this song, too. If it can continue to gain momentum, I think this is a perfect song for pop radio to simply fall in love with.
New Arrivals:
58- "MAMA" - 6ix9ine featuring Nicki Minaj & Kanye West -- NOPE
59- "KIKA" - 6ix9ine featuring Tory Lanez -- NOPE
62- "TIC TOC" - 6ix9ine featuring Lil Baby -- NOPE
69- "Come Out and Play" - Billie Eilish -- Yes, I'm ignoring 6ix9ine this week. Maybe if he had only one song, I could bite the bullet and cover it. But five new 6ix9ine songs? Nope. You can't make me. That leaves an awfully short list of new arrivals for me to actually cover, with just Billie Eilish and Jacquees. Now when I saw Billie Eilish debuting last week, I was surprised that it was "Ocean Eyes," a two year old song, rather than "Come Out and Play." Not that I'm complaining. The more Billie Eilish, the better. But "Come Out and Play" is the song on that "Share Your Gifts" commercial/short film from Apple, which is why I have that video headlining the new arrivals. Now I'm not exactly sure what that video has to do with Apple, but it's a nice, little Christmas short about a girl being too afraid to share her gifts until her dog causes what she's been writing to blow out the window. She's nervous and wants to get them back, but is pleasantly surprised when people react positively to what she has written. Now there's an even shorter version of this that plays as a commercial, so I recommend you watch the whole thing above if you haven't. It's pretty good. As far as the song goes, it's the perfect backdrop to this video as Billie shows off her versatility by writing a smooth and toned-back pop song, gently encouraging people to come out of their bubble. On it's own, it's still a really good Billie Eilish song, but it's made even better with the video.
71- "WAKA" - 6ix9ine featuring A Boogie wit da Hoodie -- NOPE
90- "You" - Jacquees -- If you don't know who Jacquees is, don't worry. You're not alone. He's only had two previous entries on the Hot 100, "B.E.D.," which debuted last year and "At the Club" with DeJ Loaf, which charted in February. Neither song was particularly memorable as I had to look them up myself before typing this. I recognized the name, but I didn't remember what exactly he had done. After jogging my memory, I can say I don't like "B.E.D.," and am not impressed with "At the Club," although the latter is the more tolerable song from Jacquees. And now as the third Jacquees song to chart on the Hot 100, we have "You," an extremely undescriptive and vague song title, which is fitting, I suppose, because the song isn't much of anything, either. It's not particularly bad and probably falls into the R&B genre, which is a genre I don't hate, but get mostly bored with. I will say that Jacquees has a decent voice that carries the song, but all he's doing in this song is hating on this girl for all the things that bother him, but then, in a very wishy-washy, not committal way, claims that he would rather be with her and all her B.S., which I don't believe would get him very far in whatever broken relationship this is. I'm not sure what he's trying to get at with this song, but he comes off as more of a jerk and thus if I were the girl, I'd say, "screw you" and walk out. Thus is why I'm not gravitating towards this song at all, even though it's not particularly bad, music-wise, minus the annoying water drops that are scattered throughout for some reason.
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