DrogeMiester's Billboard Analysis - March 2, 2018

The new Billboard charts have arrived and so it's time again for me to give you my thoughts! This is a weekly post where I cover three main sections of the charts: the Billboard Hot 100 top 10, the songs rising on the Hot 100, and the new arrivals. As pertaining to the rising songs, in order to be included, a song has to rise at least two spots between Nos. 11 and 20, five spots spots between Nos. 21 and 50, or 10 spots between Nos. 51 and 100. As pertaining to new arrivals, I used to dedicate myself to covering every single song that debuted, but that started to burn me out, especially with the high number of album bombs, so I've been a lot more selective recently and so far I've received no complaints. However, if I skip a song that you want to hear my thoughts on, feel free to let me know. I'll occasionally mix things up depending on the week, like throwing in a notable re-entry into the rising songs section, but generally this is what I go with. Most of the data I give you comes from Billboard.com, usually Gary Trust's weekly article. If I pull from elsewhere, I'll generally let you know. With all of that out of the way, let's dive in and see what this week has to offer!

Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:

1- "7 rings" - Ariana Grande (=) -- Ariana was dealt a hefty blow this week on the charts, as is typical for weeks after the album bomb, but she still managed to hang onto the top spot for a fifth straight week, despite her streaming crashing down 30 percent to 44.5 million U.S streams, with sales crashing down to 27,000 downloads sold. The good news for Ariana is that "7 rings" rose 16 percent on the radio charts with 71.3 million audience impressions. Although the bad news on that is she might be sabotaging herself again as "break up with your girlfriend, i'm bored" is also picking up on radio. So Ariana enjoyed a really good week last week, but that release strategy might herself in the long run as she's preventing her own songs from having a normal run. Overexposure also might be a serious problem for Ariana, especially with two album releases within six months. Word is she might be looking to take a bit of a break after this, which is probably a good thing for her long-term success.

2- "Without Me" - Halsey (+2) -- As I correctly predicted last week, Halsey is back at No. 2 this week. Although it wasn't that hard to see this coming, so don't praise me too much. Unlike Ariana's songs, Halsey is having a much more consistent run on the charts since she's not sabotaging herself with too many releases. And it's for that reason that Halsey currently holds the No. 1 song of 2019 spot on my Excel charts with "Without Me," despite only having two non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100.

3- "Sunflower (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)" - Post Malone & Swae Lee (+2) -- Speaking of consistency, the No. 2 spot on my 2019 Excel charts is "Sunflower" as it also jumps back up to No. 3 thanks to Ariana falling off a bit. And I'm curious as to what it'll do next week after "Spider-Verse" won the Oscar for best animated feature at the Oscars on Sunday. On top of that, "Spider-Verse" was also released on digital today, so could those two events help boost the song. Certainly this song would've been doing even better had it been nominated for best original song. But that didn't happen. On that note, though, expect a huge jump next from "Shallow" after Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga won the internet with their performance.

4- "thank u, next" - Ariana Grande (-1) -- As expected, Ariana falls this week, but "thank u, next" didn't tank quite as hard as I would've thought. Although it's certainly not going in a positive direction from here on out. With Ariana promoting both "7 rings" and "break up with your girlfriend, i'm bored," I'm expecting "thank u, next" to be out of here rather quickly as Ariana was the one holding it back from reach its full potential.

5- "Please Me" - Cardi B & Bruno Mars (new) -- When I saw that Cardi B and Bruno Mars had another collaboration up their sleeve, I had a sneaking suspicion that this would be another huge hit for them after "Finesse" peaked at No. 3 in January 2018. What was a bit surprising was seeing that this only debuted with 27.9 million U.S. streams, which is significantly lower than usual for major debuts, especially considering the star power of both Cardi B and Bruno Mars. But it also debuted with 51,000 downloads sold and seems to have some good radio traction behind. So I'm fully expecting this to stick around for the unforeseeable future, especially since most of the current top 10 hits are starting to run out of momentum. This seems like a song that has excellent timing. My personal thoughts on it are down below.

6- "Happier" - Marshmello & Bastille (=) -- In a bit of a surprising move, "Happier" manages to keep its No. 6 spot. I thought it was about to nosedive down the charts. But I guess it's here because the other songs below it aren't exactly super strong either.

7- "SICKO MODE" - Travis Scott (=) -- I'm also surprised that "SICKO MODE" stayed put. Although in its case, I was expecting it to rebound ahead of "Happier," perhaps sneaking into the top five again. I'm happy I was wrong with that prediction, though.

8- "break up with your girlfriend, i'm bored" - Ariana Grande (-6) -- I knew this was going to crash down this week, but I'm a bit surprised that it managed to still hold onto a spot in the top 10 as it maintains a decent chunk of its streaming from last week after the debut as it still has 31.9 million U.S. streams, although that's down 46 percent. The kicker here is that it has started to gain a bit of momentum on the radio. If that push continues and it holds onto enough streaming, Ariana could potentially be successful in sabotaging all three of her songs in the top 10 right now while helping this song stick around for longer. By that I mean I don't think this and "7 rings" are going to both be huge radio hits simultaneously. The radio is going to eventually pick one or the other, perhaps causing neither to hit the heights they could've hit.

9- "High Hopes" - Panic! At the Disco (-1) -- Speaking of radio songs, "High Hopes" still maintains its lead on radio, currently having 14 weeks at No. 1. The record is "Iris" by Goo Goo Dolls with 18 weeks, a record that "Girls Like You" by Maroon 5 nearly matched, yet stalled out in a three-way tie for second place at 16 weeks with "We Belong Together" by Mariah Carey and "Don't Speak" by No Doubt. "High Hopes" is falling on radio, but not super fast, so it has a chance to continue to climb the ranks. Although radio is the only thing the song has at this point, so I don't know how much longer it'll have in the top 10. If it ties or breaks the record after falling out of the top 10, I'll find a way to let you know about that.

10- "Wow." - Post Malone (-1) -- I also expected Post Malone to take advantage of nothing in the top 10 doing super well at the moment, but also seems to have peaked, which certainly makes me happy. If "Wow." became as big of a hit as "rockstar" or "Psycho," I would've thrown a fit.

Rising on the Hot 100:

13- "Thotiana" - Blueface (+7) -- Like is the case with most weeks following an album bomb, the rising songs section is rather crowded, so I'm going to plug through these rather quickly. And we start with the scary idea that this piece of garbage might be hitting the top 10 soon. I'm already prepared to be angry at that. I just hope that its one of those hits that hangs out for a weeks and disappears because we really need to not make this song a thing. And we shouldn't be giving Blueface a career, either.

14- "Murder on My Mind" - YNW Melly (+45) -- What in the heck happened here? Was a music video released for this or something? I don't care to find out. I just hope that whatever gave it a boost this week disappears next week because we don't need to be promoting songs about murder on the Hot 100. That's a disgusting trend in hip-hop right now that needs to go away.

16- "Money" - Cardi B (+3) -- Small boost for Cardi B this week thanks to Ariana falling, but thankfully this song hasn't had nearly enough traction to make it another smash hit for Cardi. If anything, her new release with Bruno could help push this song away.

20- "Better" - Khalid (+3) -- OK, I'm not a huge fan of this, but I'll take it over the other three songs ahead of it on this list.

23- "Beautiful Crazy" - Luke Combs (+13) -- Why is this the biggest country hit right now? I don't understand.

25- "Dancing with a Stranger" - Sam Smith & Normani (+5) -- OK, here's the first excellent song on this section this week. The only disappointing part is that it isn't rising faster. Hopefully that changes. I at least want this song in the top 20.

26- "Youngblood" - 5 Seconds of Summer (+8) -- Momentary rise for 5SOS. Although I'm certainly not upset at having to bring it up again. It's a good song.

29- "Sweet but Psycho" - Ava Max (+8) -- Another song that needs to be rising a lot faster than it is. I freaking love this song and I want it to be huge. If it gets stuck in the 20's, I might get upset. But at least it's consistently sticking around.

30- "Be Alright" - Dean Lewis (+16) -- The rest of the world bought into this song a long time ago. It's about time. A 16-spot rise means there's more to this song rising than Ariana falling out, so that's good news. This is an Ed Sheeran style of song and for me that's a positive thing.

33- "I Like It" - Cardi B, Bad Bunny & J Balvin (+12) -- Momentary rise for Cardi. Although it's interesting that both this and "Money" rose this week. Did her debut with Bruno somehow help her other songs as well?

34- "You Say" - Lauren Daigle (+6) -- I haven't had much of an opportunity to talk about this recently. For the longest time, it was yo-yo-ing on the bottom section of the Hot 100. Then a miracle happened and it shot up into the 30's one week and has hung out here ever since. The fact that a Christian song is doing this well makes me ecstatic. Lauren has a great voice and a great message to share with the world.

37- "Close to Me" - Ellie Goulding & Diplo featuring Swae Lee (+5) -- You know, I wouldn't mind if this song was doing a tad bit better. It's nowhere near as good as Ellie in her glory days, but it's a decent enough song. If it does well, that's a good sign for Ellie moving forward. And maybe she can remember how to write better songs.

38- "Baby Shark" - Pinkfong (+11) -- The fact that Billboard decided that this thing was worthy of being included on the Hot 100 is annoying. The fact that they're keeping it around is even worse. This has been around for eight weeks now, essentially hanging out in the 30's. The positive side of things is that it hasn't gotten higher, but I've learned recently that this is a super old song as my nieces and nephews, and thus their parents as well, have known about this song for several years. Why it's doing well right now is beyond me. And if it ends up making Billboard's year-end Hot 100, I'm going to both laugh and scream at the same time.

39- "Look Back at It" - A Boogie wit da Hoodie (+8) - Don't care.

42- "Envy Me" - Calboy (+8) -- Don't care.

43- "Swervin" - A Boogie wit da Hoodie featurin 6ix9ine (+8) -- Don't care.

45- "This Is It" - Scotty McCreery (+7) -- Not the highest peak for Scotty. He hit No. 42 a few weeks ago before being temporarily pushed down. But he's back in the top 50 this week and I imagine he'll stick around for a while. This seems like the type of boring country song that will be popular with country radio.

47- "Backin' It Up" - Pardison Fontaine featuring Cardi B (+6) -- Another older Cardi B song getting a boost this week? What's going on?

54- "What Makes You Country" - Luke Bryan (+10) -- Of course this song is doing well. A country song about country music and country people seems like the type of thing that country radio would be obligated to play, regardless of quality.

60- "Mixed Personalities" - YNW Melly featuring Kanye West (+33) -- Ew, gross. It's bad enough that the other YNW Melly song shot up to the top 20. But at least I could sleep well at night knowing that this new one with Kanye was tanking, but yet here we are. I hope this was a one week sort of deal. I want this gone.

67- "Here Tonight" - Brett Young (+25) -- OK, I'll take this. Still not Brett Young's best. I'm thinking more and more that me loving one of his songs was an outlier regarding me and him, but this is still better than some of the other country things right now.

72- "Nights Like This" - Kehlani featuring Ty Dolla $ign (+17) -- This is a song that I totally forgot existed. Now I don't have an inherent problem with Kehlani doing well. This is not as bad as some of the stuff on the charts. But she's also not a singer that I'll ever miss when she's gone as I have a hard time remembering her other music.

81- "Miss Me More" - Kelsea Ballerini (+10) -- One of my favorite rising songs this week! Country radio really needs to drop all of the boring dudes and pick up more country girls like Kelsea. Or heck, send this to pop radio. I don't care. Just let someone pick it up because I would love to see this continue to do well. On that note, I am upset that "Rainbow" by Kacey Musgraves fell off the charts this week. If that was just a one week appearance, that's really upsetting and should be the cause of everyone managing country radio to get fired so that the good country music can actually do well!

New Arrivals:

5- "Please Me" - Cardi B & Bruno Mars -- I mentioned above that I expect this song to be around for a while in the top 10. Am I happy about that? Well, no, not really. Although you probably saw that coming since I'm not really a fan of either Cardi B or Bruno Mars. With Bruno, I think "Uptown Funk" is a really fun song, but I give more credit to Mark Ronson for that one. His own stuff I haven't been a fan of in quite a while. I like him as a performer and he has an excellent voice, it's just that his content turns me off. This song is a tough one to crack because Bruno's voice is very soulful and Cardi B has a decent presence with her rap. And the music itself is very smooth and mesmerizing. It's just that Bruno's lyrics sound like a lustful, sex-craved dude begging this girl to have sex with him, while Cardi B being Cardi B enjoys the position of power she's in with this scenario. She's willing to play this game with him, but she's also enjoying making him beg. So I don't know. Give me time with this one. If the lyrics were more romantic and less lustful, I'd probably be on board. But as of now, I think I'm going to sit on the sidelines here while quietly letting other people enjoy it.

27- "Robbery" - Juice WRLD -- Don't care.

49- "Red Room" - Offset -- Don't care.

80- "Talk You out of It" - Florida Georgia Line -- I never know what to think with Florida Georgia Line. One day they're putting out catchy and fun country pop music, with "Simple" diving more into folk. But then the next day they're putting out boring country nonsense that I'll completely forget exists. This one kinda slips into the middle. They're going for a more tone-downed ballad sort of thing and I liked that. But they didn't quite get the lyrics to completely suck me. I was hoping for a romantic song after what I heard when it started, but this feels more manipulative than anything. He's not looking to just have a good time with this girl. He sees her at the beginning of the day and his goal is to get her naked by the end of the night. So he starts by luring her to the bar with her favorite drink. Then he compliments her dress, but states that he's going to try to talk her out of it. I think they were going for sexy and romantic with this, but it comes off as more creepy and wrong, so I'm going to pass on this one and stick to "Simple."

84- "Eyes on You" - Chase Rice -- I think this is what Florida Georgia Line was trying to go for with "Talk You out of It," but the difference here is Chase sticks the landing. This is also a romantic country ballad, but it's actually romantic, not creepy. He's talking about all the places they've been together, but how he doesn't remember any of them because he just had his eyes on her. Having this girl in his arms is the best view for him. It's simple and sweet. I like it. I'm also kind of annoyed and jealous that he went sightseeing to all of these places that I've wanted to go, but can't remember a single one. I'd love to go to Paris and London while remember the girl AND the trip, yet chase just remembers the girl, so he might as well have just stayed home and not wasted all that travel. But that's more of a tongue-in-cheek comment. I approve of this song.

86- "365" - Zedd & Katy Perry -- Have you seen this music video for this song? Katy's going for a weird and trippy "Ex Machina" style of movie where she's an android trying to have a relationship with a dude, which goes completely wrong. But I'm not sure she realizes that it's not as clever or original as she probably thinks it is. It's just strange and kind of off-putting. I saw the video trending back on or shortly after Valentine's Day when it premiered and I can't get the weird images out of my brain. And I mean that in a bad way. If you want to see this idea done better, go watch "Ex Machina," or even "Alita: Battle Angel." The latter does the human/cyborg relationship surprisingly well and "Ex Machina" is a masterpiece.

But I digress. I just had to get that out since I've been waiting for two weeks to comment on that. The video doesn't have anything to do with the song, outside attempted romance. As one who still loves Katy's "Chained to the Rhythm," I think this more electronic edge to her music is something that really fits her. So I was intrigued when I saw she had a song with Zedd because on paper that sounds like it would work great. But unfortunately this commits one of the worst sins you can commit when you have Zedd working with you. It's boring. Zedd is one of my favorite DJs as he's excellent at coming up with fun, dance rhythms that, if nothing else, will at least have your head bobbing up and down while you listen. But this song has no substance to it, both rhythmically and lyrically. It feels like Zedd was relegated to background noise with a beat pattern that probably took him 30 seconds to put together so that he can collect a quick paycheck while Katy is just saying she wants this person with her at all times. That's basically it. Granted, this isn't repulsive like several songs from Katy's "Witness" album, like "Bon Apetit," but it's just not memorable at all. I have a hard time even seeing die hard Katy fans ranking this one high when compared to the rest of her discography, but I'm sure they'll let me know if I'm wrong on that.   

87- "Worth It" - YK Osiris -- I almost skipped this one, but I decided to be fair because I had no idea who YK Osiris was as this is his first Hot 100 entry. I thought this was going to be another trashy rap song by an untalented punk who went viral for some unknown reason. Turns out this song is slightly more interesting than your typical hip-hop nonsense. In fact, I feel this leans more R&B. And there's some interesting piano melodies throughout the song and an interesting guitar riff towards the end. But the lyrics are a bit bare-bones and I can't decide if he's being complimentary or condescending towards this girl. "I would give you the world, baby girl, you just gotta be worth it. You don't gotta be perfect, you just gotta be worth it." Repeating that section is pretty much the whole song. There's one verse outside that with scattered thoughts him and his girl, but I still can't crack this. And it gets more annoying on repeat listenings with his whiny vocals and too much filler with all of his "oh's," "mmm's" and "yeah's." So at this point I'm not repulsed by this song. But I have a feeling that if it sticks around for too long that I'd get really annoyed by it real quick.

91- "There Was This Girl" - Riley Green -- I read this title and I felt like I've already heard this song a thousand different times, even though I'm not sure if I know who Riley Green is. And yep, I 30 seconds in and I was ready to be done. Just a twangy, generic country boy singing about a girl with a heavy southern rock rhythm that doesn't match the attempted romantic lyrics. I have nothing else to say outside being upset that this is the type of trash that country radio falls in love with instead quality country from the likes of Kacey Musgraves. It's a shame.

100- "One That Got Away" - Michael Ray -- Well, speaking of Katy Perry, I had to go listen to "The One That Got Away" before checking out this song because that's one of my favorite Katy Perry songs. It might even be my favorite from her "Teenage Dream" album. I especially like the acoustic version of the song because it makes it even more raw and emotional. But I'm not here to talk about that song. I'm here to talk about this Michael Ray song, which is not a whole lot better than the Riley Green song. As expected, Michael is talking about a girl he had a lot of fun with, but he doesn't seem super sad that she got away. He says she's going to be one heck of a one that got away. If this was more mellow and toned down, maybe I could've felt some emotion with these lyrics. But this just feels like an upbeat party song about a girl he wasn't able to hold onto. The lyrics and the music just don't fit. There's conflicting tones. Michael has a bit more personality than Riley does, but his song as a whole is not much better.

DrogeMiester's Billboard Analysis - February 23, 2019

The new Billboard charts have arrived and so it's time again for me to give you my thoughts! This is a weekly post where I cover three main sections of the charts: the Billboard Hot 100 top 10, the songs rising on the Hot 100, and the new arrivals. As pertaining to the rising songs, in order to be included, a song has to rise at least two spots between Nos. 11 and 20, five spots spots between Nos. 21 and 50, or 10 spots between Nos. 51 and 100. As pertaining to new arrivals, I used to dedicate myself to covering every single song that debuted, but that started to burn me out, especially with the high number of album bombs, so I've been a lot more selective recently and so far I've received no complaints. However, if I skip a song that you want to hear my thoughts on, feel free to let me know. I'll occasionally mix things up depending on the week, like throwing in a notable re-entry into the rising songs section, but generally this is what I go with. Most of the data I give you comes from Billboard.com, usually Gary Trust's weekly article. If I pull from elsewhere, I'll generally let you know. With all of that out of the way, let's dive in and see what this week has to offer!

Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:

1- "7 Rings" - Ariana Grande (=) -- It's the week of Ariana as her new album "thank u, next" impacts the charts this week, giving her nine new arrivals as all 12 songs from the album have charted in the top 50. Regarding the top 10, Ariana is the first artist to monopolize the entire top three since The Beatles in 1964, who notably monopolized the entire top five on April 4, 1964. Now I said this when Drake had seven simultaneous top 10 hits last year and I'll say it again with Ariana's trifecta. I'm not impressed. We live in a day where streaming has completely changed the music industry and album bombs like this are the normal. Last year alone we had five different artists have three or more simultaneous top 10 hits. Prior to last year, only 14 artists in the history of the Hot 100 had accomplished that feat, 12 of them coming since 2002. This type of thing has become normal. So I'm not going to salivate at some sort of grand achievement that Ariana has pulled off because something like this happens with every new major album bomb. "7 Rings" would've remained No. 1 regardless, but the boost with the album bomb has pushed it up 10 percent to 63.5 million U.S. streams. That will come down next week, but not enough for anything else to take over the top spot, especially with radio continuing to catch fire, up 23 percent to 61.7 million audience impressions.

2- "Break up with Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored" - Ariana Grande (new) -- Entering in at No. 2 is Ariana's latest lifeless song. I'll give you a more detailed rundown of my thoughts below, but this song bows with 59.2 million U.S. streams as well as 36,000 in sales. Unlike "7 Rings," I don't expect this one to last in the top 10 for very long, unless Ariana decides to sabotage herself again by making this a fourth single from the album that she pushes to the radio. This rushed release pattern with her singles may have helped her gain a trifecta at the top this week, but it's going to hurt her in the long run as spreading the songs out in a more traditional release pattern would've helped maximize each song's individual potential. But Ariana probably doesn't care about that. Nor do I think she actually cares about this album. But hey, it helped her achieve huge success and that's what really matters, right? To heck with quality music. It's all about fame and fortune in 2019. And yes, give yourself a pat on the back if you detected the bitter sarcasm there. I hate what the music industry has transformed into today and what is required to actually gain popularity.

3- "thank u, next" - Ariana Grande (+4) -- "thank u, next" the song is another beneficiary of the "thank u, next" album bomb as it surges 52 percent to 36.8 million U.S. streams. But Ariana had already started to push this song out with her premature release of "7 Rings," so this is going to come crashing down again next week. I wouldn't be surprised to see it fall out of the top 10 altogether, but we'll see what happens next week.

4- "Without Me" - Halsey (-1) -- Halsey has actually positioned herself pretty well despite Ariana coming crashing in as "Without Me" only falls one spot this week despite two Ariana songs soaring in ahead of it. I think "7 Rings" is way too strong for "Without Me" to jump back to No. 1, but I would bet on this song jumping back to No. 2 next week and hanging out there until we get the next rotation of top five songs, whenever that is.

5- "Sunflower (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)" - Post Malone & Swae Lee (-1) -- Like Halsey, Post and Swae are also positioned nicely as I'd say this song goes back up to No. 3 next week. After a long run in theaters, "Spider-Verse" is finally starting to fade away, but the movie will have one more boost this upcoming Sunday as it's likely to win best animated feature at the Oscars. That could help this song possibly even sneak ahead of Halsey. But after that final boost, I'm wondering if this song is going to start slipping away as the movie continues to slip away.

6- "Happier" - Marshmello & Bastille (-4) -- I don't have as much confidence regarding "Happier" as I do the two songs ahead of it. This song was on its way out before it got a random "Fortnite" boost. Now as that boost continues to fades away, I imagine this song's time in the top 10 will shortly come to an end.

7- "SICKO MODE" - Travis Scott (-2) -- As much as I don't want it to happen, sadly I think its "SICKO MODE" that's going to jump back into the top five next week. But even so, this song has been here for a while, so I'm thinking its about time for our next wave of songs to show up, but I have no idea what those are or when they're going to come.

8- "High Hopes" - Panic! At the Disco (-2) -- I hope that Panic! also gets one final boost next week, but I really don't know. All this song has ever really had is radio. And I'm really happy that this became such a huge radio hit, but that radio is starting to slip away, even though it still managed to get a 13th week on top of the radio charts.

9- "Wow." - Post Malone (=) -- Logically speaking, you would think that this song is in great position as nearly everything above it is slipping away and this is one of the newer top 10 entries. But the song just doesn't seem to be having as much traction as some of Post Malone's previous hits, which I'm personally happy with since this is one of the worst Post Malone songs, which is saying something because Post Malone is one of the least talented superstars around. If this went away, I would be happy, but I think it will at least stubbornly stick around in the bottom section of the top 10.

10- "Eastside" - Benny Blanco, Halsey & Khalid (+1) -- I'm really happy to see this song back because it gives us another quality song in the top 10. In the process, it also kicked out "Girls Like You" as the latter falls to No. 12, which is worth celebrating. Lets just hope that Maroon 5 STAYS out because the fact that the song tied the record for longest time in the top 10 is an absolute stain on the music industry. But back to "Eastside," I don't know what the song's overall potential is. It could benefit slightly if the songs ahead of it continue to fall, but it's not been that strong overall, so I'm thinking this is only a temporary thing, but I hope I'm wrong.

Rising on the Hot 100:

13- "Going Bad" - Meek Mill featuring Drake (+2) -- There's not many rising songs this week given Ariana debuted nine new songs in the top 50, but "Going Bad" continues to inch its way back to the top 10 after debuting in the region several weeks ago. I'm glad that it never became a monster hit, but the song has had enough traction to make it stubbornly stick around for so long. If Ariana falls hard next week, I can see this song benefiting from that. And even though I won't be too happy about it, better this song hitting top 10 than Maroon 5 going back.

18- "Shallow" - Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper (+6) -- Did y'all see Gaga's performance of this song at the Grammy's? That's why this got a boost this week. If I'm being blatantly honest, I wasn't a huge fan of it. One of the things that made Gaga so good in "A Star is Born" is that, even though she was a singer playing a singer, her character of Ally was a much different pop star than Gaga is in real life. "Shallow" is very much a song by Ally and Bradley Cooper's character of Jackson Maine. Gaga turned it into a Gaga song at the Grammy's. That's not inherently bad. I like Gaga's music. But she sang both parts and went a little crazy on stage. That didn't fit the tone of the song. When she performs at the Oscars this week, I hope she's able to channel her inner Ally for the performance and do a duet with Bradley Cooper rather than going wild on stage. But we'll see.

21- "Imagine" - Ariana Grande (re-entry) -- I decided to include this song on the list this week in case anyone goes counting the Ariana Grande songs. Yes, there's 12 of them in the top 50. Nine new arrivals and her three previous singles leading up to the album release. This song had fallen off the charts, but is back this week. However, I imagine it will be back off the charts in a week or two.

59- "Murder on My Mind" - YNW Melly (+14) -- It's interesting that out of the two YNW Melly songs that charted a while back, the one that's sticking around is the older song from several years ago rather than the new song with Kanye West. Granted, I'm glad that Kanye didn't get any new traction. The more we keep him out of the spotlight, the better it will be for the rest of the world. But I hate how one of the current huge trends in the rapping industry is rapping about murder as if murder is the cool thing to do. No. Murdering another human being should earn you a lifetime trip to prison, not earn you a spot in the hip-hop spotlight. That just disgusts me.

68- "Close Friends" - Lil Baby (+31) -- Don't know why we continue to make Lil Baby a thing. I don't know if I've listened to this song, but I don't care. Get it out of here.

New Arrivals:

2- "Break up with Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored" - Ariana Grande -- The last couple of months I've been avoiding the album bombs and doing so has made me really happy. But given that this is a pop album bomb from Ariana, I figured it would be worth going through real quick, mostly to see if there was anything worthwhile that Ariana put on this album since I do like her as a singer, even though I'm constantly frustrated with her inconsistent quality. But surely this can't be all bad, right? But in starting off with this song, I listened to it about a week or so ago when the music video debuted and the biggest thing I can say is that I was bored with the song. It's not as awful and trashy as her Cardi B impression with "7 Rings," but the content of the song just makes me facepalm. Now we'll ignore the fact that the music video spends more time with Ariana hitting on the girlfriend rather than the boy she's singing about, ending with the two girls about to kiss. That's just the music video being dumb. Sure, you could argue the girlfriend is Ariana herself and that she's telling her own boyfriend to break up with her so she can spend more time loving herself, but that's not what the lyrics actually say. She sees an attractive dude at a party and becomes disappointed in learning that he is dating someone else, so she expresses that she wants him to break up because she is bored and wants someone to love. Yes, you can write songs about this subject that are rather emotional. Seeing a person you love dating someone else is a heartbreaking sentiment and selfishly wanting them to break up is a real, human emotion that's not uncommon. But Ariana doesn't bring any of that emotion to the table in the same way that someone like Adele does in "Someone Like You." Ariana's song is just dull. Thus instead of feeling emotional and real, it comes off as classless and desperate. 

14- "Needy" - Ariana Grande --  Next up for Ariana, she explains to us that she can be really needy. That's all there really is to this song. I like the honesty here as Ariana describes the emotional roller coaster she has been on and how she explains that it has led her to feel an over-obsessive desire to have love and attention. In an interview about this song, she explains how she thinks its OK to feel vulnerable and show emotion with how you're feeling. It's a bit of a contrast from society's common view today that we have to learn how to be independent. That causes a lot of female pop singers to emphasize how much they don't need any guys in their life. But here Ariana is being honest that she craves love and attention when it comes to a partner and I respect that honesty. I just wish there was a bit more to the song. I got a lot more from Ariana's comments about the song rather than the lyrics of the song itself. And the music is very stripped down to the point where it sounds like there's only two notes played throughout as Ariana sings about feeling needy. So there was a solid idea behind the song, but on its own it comes off feeling a bit empty and unfinished.

17- "NASA" - Ariana Grande -- "This is one small step for woman. One giant leap for woman kind." That's how we start this song off and I was wondering where it was going. Turns out Ariana simply uses a whole lot of cheesy space analogies to tell this guy that she needs space. The guy hasn't done anything wrong. In fact, she says that she still really cares for him. But she can't miss him if she's with him. And if she misses him, it'll change the way she kisses him. In other words, if I was the guy in this situation, I'd be really confused right now. In the previous two songs, she sings about how she is desperate for love and attention. But this song she has it, yet she decides to push the guy away so she can spend more time missing him. It's like she secretly enjoys the feeling of being alone and desperate for love while she gets bored with love itself. At this point in the relationship, I'd walk away and find a girl who is more willing to actually settling down rather than staying with the emotionally unstable girl.

22- "Bloodline" - Ariana Grande -- Continuing with the trend from "NASA," Ariana is again telling us here about her lack of desire for love. She's not looking to settle down or find her one true love. She's just out looking to have a good time. Now if we separate each song from the album as a whole, they all describe a very different feeling that a girl often feels about love. Each song can be relatable in its own way. But together as a whole, this project is really confusing. There's no running theme about what Ariana is going through in her life. In fact, it's the exact opposite. Each song directly conflicts with what the previous song is expressing. One song she describes how needy and desperate she is for love. The other song she expresses her desire for some space so that she can learn to love this guy more. And in this song she has no desire to find true love. She's just wanting a one-night stand or a brief fling where she can have fun. The lack of focus is frustrating. But I will admit that the music for this song is the best so far. Instead of sounding boring or lazy, this song actually has a groove to it. If it showed up on the radio, I might have a fun time jamming to it.

25- "Ghostin" - Ariana Grande -- We're switching gears again with Ariana's love roller coaster. This time around, Ariana is happily in a relationship with a guy, but can't help crying over a previous ex of her's. Despite the confusing nature of the album continuing, this is actually the best song so far. I was immediately impressed with the haunting nature of a song called "Ghostin." The song is a slower, more emotional song that fits Ariana's style much better in my opinion. You can feel the pain in her voice when she's lying on the bed thinking about this guy she is no longer with. You can also feel the guilt come over her as she feels bad that she's hurting her current lover's feelings by not being able to get over the previous guy that she obviously loves a lot more than the current guy. I think in previous songs, Ariana has tried to be honest and emotional, but everything instead came off as cheap, rushed and a bit lazy. "Ghostin" is a song that actually works. It feels like she put effort into. Or maybe she's just throwing everything at the wall right now to see what sticks and for me this is the one where she got luck and actually had it stick the landing. But regardless, I give credit where credit is due and say that I appreciate this effort from Ariana.

26- "Fake Smile" - Ariana Grande -- Here's a bit of a twist. This is song where Ariana isn't talking about her emotional romance roller coaster. Instead, she seems to be talking about all the pressure of what everyone is saying about her getting to her head, causing her to emotionally fall apart. I don't know, maybe it's rude of me to say this, but I don't really buy this. There's a lot of singers who sing about all their haters and how they're reacting to it. Taylor Swift's recent album "reputation" was all about this. In all honesty, I think Taylor had a great reputation until she started singing about how bad of a reputation she has. Thus her singing about her bad reputation is the only thing that hurt her reputation. That's kinda the vibe I'm getting from Ariana here. I will give her credit that she's willing to show emotion here. Most people when they sing about their haters are telling us that they don't care about the haters. Ariana is saying that she reads what they write about her and hears what they are saying on the TV and sometimes it hurts her. This is an instance where it's good to remember that celebrities are humans, too. Angry YouTube comments and fiery Twitter posts can be upsetting. So I like that element of the song. It's just that it feels a bit superficial in this instance because I honestly don't think Ariana gets a lot of hate. She's singing about all of her haters that don't really exist. She's a well liked, well respected pop star at the pinnacle of her success. It just seems like she wrote this song because she felt it would connect with people rather than writing based on personal experience.   

27- "Bad Idea" - Ariana Grande -- Back to Ariana's love roller coaster, this time around she has a bad idea. That bad idea is that they should take some time away. Which sounds a lot like what she was saying back in "NASA." But then in the next part, she's talking about the bad idea being that she wants him to cover over and numb the pain. We go back and forth between those two ideas without giving a whole lot of detail as this is a super repetitive song that doesn't dive deep. The only context we get is a brief part in the middle where she admits that this is a bad relationship that she wants to get out of, but can't get herself to do so. Something like that. I actually like how the music is put together in this one. It has a bit of a darker touch to it that dives into some interesting places musically, which fits well with Ariana's voice in the song. I just wish the lyrics made a little more sense. It seems like there's more of a story here that could've been told, yet Ariana skims over it in favor of a repetitive chorus.

38- "In My Head" - Ariana Grande -- One thing I haven't touched on yet is that most of these songs have introductory quotes at the beginning that are played before Ariana starts singing. This song's quote is from Doug Middlebrook, who says, "Here's the thing. You're in love with a version of a person that you've created in your head that you are trying to, but cannot, fix. The only person you can fix is yourself." I really like that quote. It causes me to actually ponder. I just wish the song that followed were as interesting as the quote. Ariana gets a little too fancy with this song as she does a lot of weird things with her vocals and it doesn't blend together very well. There's a skeleton of this initial idea from the quote, but not one that's fleshed out very well.

44- "Talk" - Khalid -- We briefly interrupt the Ariana show to bring you a song from Khalid. Despite it not being credited, this is Khalid collaborating with the electronic duo Disclosure, who have been mostly MIA on the Hot 100. They got a top 10 hit with Sam Smith in "Latch" back in 2012. Then "Omen," also with Sam Smith peaked at No. 64 in 2015. And that's hit. They've been rather huge in the U.K. and have also shown up quite a bit on the EDM charts in the states, but the U.S. Hot 100 hasn't been their thing. And it'll continue to not be their thing unless Khalid decides to list them as a featured act, which so far doesn't appear to be the case. But they do turn what is mostly a basic song into a decently upbeat tune. Khalid in his lyrics is asking his girl if they can talk about their relationship since they're moving a lot faster than he was expecting. Granted, if that were the case, I would hope they would already be talking because communication is how relationships work, which is why the lyrics don't really work for me that well. But I've always felt that Khalid's vocals work really well when combined with an electronic act or producer and that's exactly why this song works. It's not upbeat and dancy enough to be a hit on the dance floor, but it has enough of a groove to be a perfect song to be playing quietly in the background during a nice evening, perhaps during the dinner before a fancy dance party, if that makes sense.

48- "Make Up" - Ariana Grande -- And the final Ariana song this week is a straight-up sex song. She says it right in the first line. "I like to ---- with you." Then she goes on to essentially describe how bad of a relationship this really is because she's always mad at him. But she loves to make up with him so they can really make it right in the bed at night. Because, you know, nothing's more healthy than a broken relationship that's taped together with some good love making. Now I'm no love expert, but that seems like the type of relationship that's built on both parties thinking the other person is super attractive rather than the relationship being built on them loving each other as human beings. But eh, it's whatever. Probably one of the worst songs on the album, but it makes me facepalm more than it makes me angry. Overall, this album does have some good tracks on it, but it just feels like Ariana threw a whole bunch of ideas together quickly to see what sticks. Given how quickly this was released after her previous album last year, I think it could've benefited by her spending a little more time on it, but what do I know? Based on these first week numbers, this is her biggest album to date and it'll unfortunately probably teach her that quantity is better than quality when it comes to music. It's sad that that's the era we live in.

56- "Who Do You Love" - The Chainsmokers featuring 5 Seconds of Summer -- It almost seems like forever ago when The Chainsmokers were a huge thing. But the "Closer" era wasn't that long ago for them. Problem is, they've kinda slipped into oblivion as people stopped caring. They get plenty of songs to chart, but they can't replicate the success that they once had. But they continue to try and now their latest attempt at relevancy comes with them teaming up with 5SOS, hoping to ride off that group's success following their smash hit "Youngblood." I always find it funny when I look at a song like this and find on Genius that it has 12 different writing credits because the song itself is extremely simple. 5SOS are taking turns accusing their girlfriends of cheating on them. That's all there is to the lyrics. The beat that's added by The Chainsmokers is a very basic groove. So why did it take 12 people to write this song? I mean, it's not bad. It's a tolerable song from The Chainsmokers and I always give them props when they bring someone else on to do the vocals because Andrew Taggart is NOT a good singer even though he thinks he is. But if this song were to fail to get traction on the charts, I would probably forget it exists rather quickly, so by no means is this a return to form.

98- "Rainbow" - Kacey Musgraves -- I was rather shocked when I was watching the Grammy's and it was revealed that Kacey Musgraves won best album with "Golden Hour." I was certain that it was going to either Cardi B, Drake, Post Malone, or the "Black Panther" album, since it was those albums that were the biggest. But nope. They gave it to Kacey Musgraves and I was stoked simply because it meant that everything else lost. I hadn't listened to "Golden Hour," just like there were a lot of albums from last year that didn't listen to. But I decided to fix that after the album's win and I immediately became obsessed. I wasn't sure which song was going to chart for Kacey as "Butterflies" won best country solo performance while "Space Cowboy" won best country song, but it turns out that her performance of "Rainbow" during the Grammy's was the most impactful as said performance is what got Kacey to finally chart a song on the Hot 100 for the first time since 2013, which is a real shame after finally diving into her music. Kacey is the type of country girl that the world needs and "Rainbow" is an absolutely beautiful song. Kacey said she wrote it about six years ago and was the final inclusion on the album that made everything feel complete. She initially wrote it for herself, but said that it can apply to anyone going through a hard time. The song paints a picture of someone going through an awful time. It's pouring outside and they are having a hard time staying above the rising water line. But then Kacey tells the person that if they could see in themselves what she sees in them, they'd be blinded by the colors of this rainbow hanging over their head. I love the imagery she paints and the strong feeling of optimism that comes with the song as she successfully portrays that life is better than we often give ourselves credit for. I hope this sticks around for longer than one week at No. 98, but if not, you can count on this remaining one of my favorite new arrivals of 2019 because it doesn't get much more beautiful than this when it comes to music.

DrogeMiester's Billboard Analysis - February 16, 2019

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!

Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:

1- "7 Rings" - Ariana Grande (=) -- This is going to be here for a while. The song fell again on streaming, but only 9 percent to 57.7 million U.S. streams. Plus, it rose in sales to 42,000 downloads sold and cracked the top 10 on radio with 50.6 million audience impression and quickly climbing. I'm not sure why people are gravitating to this song. It's an awful song. Possibly Ariana's worst in terms of quality. But eh. Whatever. The only thing that has the potential to stop it in the immediate future is Ariana herself. Her new album dropped and is set for a huge debut next week. It's a 12-track album and we've already seen three of the songs, so I'm expecting the other nine to be new entries next week. Leading the charge out of those nine is "break up with your girlfriend, i'm bored." I'm not sure what the streaming numbers on that one are, though.

2- "Happier" - Marshmello & Bastille (+6) -- This is where I sound like an old man. In Billboard weekly article regarding the top 10, I read that "Happier" got a huge boost because of a "Fortnite" concert. I don't even know what "Fortnite" is outside the fact that it's a huge game that's blown up recently. Apparently you can have live concerts inside the game, though, which is what Marshmello did. Because of him uploading at least a portion of the concert set to his YouTube channel and other gamers uploading various clips from it, "Happier" soared up to 51.8 million U.S. streams. So that's cool. I don't know how long that'll last, but I'm totally fine with that. The "Fortnite" concert also caused Marshmello's song "Alone," perhaps my favorite Marshmello song, to re-enter the Hot 100 at No. 28, which is a new high for that song. It had previously reached No. 60 in November 2016 after being Marshmello's first Hot 100 entry.

3- "Without Me" - Halsey (-1) -- All this means that Halsey is the big loser this week, being forced down to No. 3. And who knows what's going to happen next week. I could predict "Happier" crashing back down to earth next week, helping Halsey to go back up to No. 2. But I have no idea if a new Ariana song is going to come screaming into the top five next week or not. We'll have to wait and see.

4- "Sunflower (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)" - Post Malone & Swae Lee (-1) -- Post and Swae are in the same position as Halsey. This could go back up to No. 3 next week. But we'll have to see how things shape out next week. At the very least, I could see these two songs recovering in two weeks. I don't think they're going away.

5- "SICKO MODE" - Travis Scott (=) -- The good news of the week is that Travis Scott got a huge boost from the Super Bowl halftime show, but it wasn't enough for the song to actually go anywhere on the charts. It was up 63 percent in sales to 17,000 downloads sold and up 5 percent in streaming to 41.7 million U.S. streams. But all that accomplished was keeping it ahead of "High Hopes" at No. 6. J. Cole crashed down this week, but he was replaced by Marshmello, as I've previously talked about. And I'm guessing there will be an after effect here with Travis Scott collapsing next week. I'm hoping that's the beginning of this song going away.

6- "High Hopes" - Panic! At the Disco (+1) -- Due to Ariana cannibalizing herself by releasing too many singles in a short period of time, "High Hopes" is able to sneak back up to No. 6. And if it wasn't for that Ariana album bomb next week, I'd say this may have the potential to sneak ahead of "SICKO MODE" next week. But the reality is that both songs might be pushed down next week.

7- "thank u, next" - Ariana Grande (-1) -- The long term prognosis for this song isn't good thanks to "7 Rings" dominating. But this is going to get a good album boost next week. But I imagine it could be in danger of falling out of the top 10 the week after.

8- "Middle Child" - J. Cole (-4) -- I was expecting "Middle Child" to crash this week after it soared high last week on its first full week of tracking. But it manages to not bleed too much. The next few weeks will be the big indicator as far as what this song is going to do going forward. If it can manage to survive Ariana next week and start gaining traction, then I could see it sticking around. Or it can continue to bleed and flat out disappear. I hope it stays around, though. If we have to have some rap songs in the top 10 at all times, I'd rather this song hold a place because its one of the more tolerable rap songs. J. Cole seemed to actually try with this one, which is something that I can't say for most rappers that find success today.

9- "Wow." - Post Malone (=) -- I've been expecting this song to start gaining in the top 10, but I'm certainly glad to see that it's not getting as much traction as previous Post Malone songs. Maybe people are realizing that this song sucks?

10- "Girls Like You" - Maroon 5 featuring Cardi B (=) -- The bad news of the week is that "Girls Like You" has officially tied Ed Sheeran's "Shape of You" for the longest run in the top 10 with 33 weeks. How and why Maroon 5 pulled that off is really disgusting. The good news is that the Super Bowl halftime performance wasn't able to get the song to move anywhere. I was partially expecting this to soar up into the top five, or at least get close. But the boost only managed to keep the song clinging on to this final spot. Once those numbers collapse next week, I'm hoping that'll cause the song to FINALLY fall out of the top 10. And stay out. The fact that this song was able to stay in the top 10 for over half a year is an absolute stain against the music industry.

Rising on the Hot 100:

12- "A Lot" - 21 Savage (+14) -- Is this song getting a huge push because 21 Savage's legal troubles? Because a convicted felon getting busted for living here illegally for over a decade is some sort of social injustice? The evil police officers arrested a black rapper, so we're going to revolt? That's disgusting.

14- "bury a friend" - Billie Eilish (+60) -- On the exact opposite note from the last song, I'm in a state of pure joy right now in seeing the news that "bury a friend" has jumped up 60 spots this week. I'm also stunned at that news as well. I realize that it debuted last week after only a few days of tracking, but I didn't think that would mean a top 20 appearance this week. As successful as Billie has been with her consistent number of debuts and surprising longevity, she's been the queen of the bottom half of the Hot 100 as she had yet to cross over to the top 50. Until now. Is this where Billie gets her big break? I hope so. This song is about as strange and unique as it comes, which is part of the reason why I love it. I just don't know if it's too strange or not for the general public. Streaming seems to be on board, which is great news. But will the radio pick up on this? I have no idea. It might get pushed back next week thanks to Ariana's album combined with a natural second week fall. But I hope this can gain traction and stick around. Billie deserves to be 2019's biggest rising star. Her debut album comes in late March, hopefully that's good timing that'll give this song a boost.

18- "Better" - Khalid (+5) -- Here's a Khalid song that's been slowly gaining traction. I'm not sure how much potential the song has, given how slow it has risen. But maybe that's just me being a Grinch since I think this is a very weak song for Khalid. But I suppose if it keeps climbing and hits top 10, it won't be the end of the world. It would still be better than a lot of the songs that have hit the top 10 recently.

19- "MIA" - Bad Bunny featuring Drake (+3) -- This song has had its time in the spotlight. It's not managed to get back into the top 10, which is a good thing. But it's done a good job at sticking around in the mid section of the Hot 100.

20- "Thotiana" - Blueface (+8) -- Why this song has now gained top 20 status confuses me. It's a piece of trash. Let's get it out of here.

26- "Dancing with a Stranger" - Sam Smith &Normani (+5) -- I would appreciate it if this song would climb a bit faster. I want it to be a big hit, but it's taking its time to break out, which has me nervous. Same thing goes with Ava Max's "Sweet but Psycho," which I haven't even been able to include here because it only rises one or two spots each week. It's currently standing at No. 30 this week. Both songs deserve to be big hits.

32- "Look Back at It" - A Boogie wit da Hoodie (+8) -- Why is this song gaining traction?

42- "This is It" - Scotty McCreery (+7) -- I suppose I'm not surprised to see Scotty doing well. I'm still not particularly happy about it, though. But it's whatever.

58- "Take It from Me" - Jordan Davis (+10) -- I have a hard time even remembering this one. Just another boring country song from an untalented country singer.

61- "when the party's over" - Billie Eilish (+15) -- This is what I mean when I saw that Billie is the queen of the bottom half of the Hot 100. "when the party's over" has now spent 16 weeks on the charts. But it's peak is at No. 52. It's a bit of a strange run, but I'll take it. As as long as Billie can stick around, that's great news for me.

66- "lovely" - Billie Eilish & Khalid (+15) -- Speaking of which. Here's Billie again. This is a song that debuted way back in June. It keeps falling off the charts, then re-entering, climbing and falling again. It's accumulated a total of 15 weeks on the charts, but its peak is at No. 64. Maybe Billie's album in March will finally vault all of these songs into the top 50 as she slowly gains recognition with the general public.

83- "Talk to Me" - Tory Lanez & Rich the Kid (+11) -- I don't care about this.

New Arrivals:

56- "One Call" - Gunna -- Only two new arrivals this week. And I'm going to ignore one of them. I don't care about Gunna and neither should you. Let's move onto Kelsea!

95- "Miss Me More" - Kelsea Ballerini -- I almost missed this song. It was hidden among a handful of re-entries in the 90's. I'm glad I caught it, though, or else I would have nothing to talk about. Kelsea is a country pop singer who I really enjoy and this song comes from her 2017 album "Unapologetically." I didn't do a favorite albums list for 2018 because I didn't listen to enough albums last year. But I did one for 2017 and "Unapologetically" made the cut, so "Miss Me More" isn't a really a new song for me. The only thing strange here is the timing. Kelsea didn't release any singles from this album last year after releasing it at the end of 2017. Not any that charted, that is. So it's a bit strange to see her wait so long before finally getting another song from the album out there. But hey, I'm not complaining. In terms of the song, it has a fun, upbeat tune mixed with the right amount of attitude. It's a breakup song, but it's a bit of a sassy breakup song as she states that she thought she would miss her now ex-lover, but it turns out she misses herself more. In others, she's realizing how much she missed her previous life before she was with this person. So she's kinda shoving it in his face. In terms of songs from the album, "In Between," "End of the World" and "I Hate Love Songs" are my favorite three. But this is an enjoyable one, too.

DrogeMiester's Billboard Analysis - February 9, 2019

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!

Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:

1- "7 Rings" - Ariana Grande (=) -- No surprise here. After launching last week with 85.3 million U.S. streams, "7 Rings" grabbed another 63.2 million U.S. streams this week, down 26 percent, to go along with 39,000 downloads sold, which was down a hefty 59 percent. Despite the drops, both of those numbers were still good enough to top both the streaming and sales charts and give Ariana her second week at No. 1 for the song. Notably, she was also up 53 percent to 41.9 million audience impressions on the radio charts, meaning this looks like it's getting serious radio traction, which I think is unfortunate. As I said last week, this is Ariana trying to mimic Cardi B for some odd reason. Not that I like Cardi B in the first place, but even on those standards, Ariana sucks at trying to be Cardi B and should just stick to pop music. Not that this really surprises me. Ariana has always had a lot of talent, but I've also seen her as one of the most inconsistent in terms of putting out quality music and her rushing out another album so soon after her previous one has caused her to throw quality out the window in favor of huge Billboard success. And it's a shame that it's working because it's going to encourage Ariana to repeat this in the future. If crappy, rushed music is what finally gets you the most success, why try to write quality music, right?

2- "Without Me" - Halsey (=) -- Ariana's huge success means that Halsey probably has to settle with those two weeks she got at No. 1 with this song. But this song still has a lot of staying power, so I'm guessing that it'll sit here at the runner-up spot for a while, which is a decent consolation prize for Halsey.

3- "Sunflower (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse") - Post Malone & Swae Lee (=) -- Same thing goes with "Sunflower." It's moment of glory at the top only lasted one week, but I imagine it'll be camped out in the top five for a while. I'm curious as to what will happen when the "Spider-Verse" hype dies down, though. Will the song disappear with it?

4- "Middle Child" - J. Cole (+22) -- Part of me was hoping that this song would skyrocket to No. 1. It hit No. 26 last week after just a couple of days of tracking. Now in its first full week, its monster streaming total comes in at 54.4 million U.S. streams. Which in this case is only good enough for No. 2 on the streaming charts, so it couldn't quite topple Ariana's song there. It also clocked in 24,000 downloads sold, which is a decent number. But radio isn't touching it quite yet. So is it going to be able to maintain this momentum going forward? I'm expecting a bit of a drop next week since this is only being held up by streaming. But if it does hold, it wouldn't mind it. This is not the type of song that I would add to my playlist and actually listen to on a regular basis. But in terms of rap music, this is certainly a lot better than most of the crap that charts today.

5- "SICKO MODE" - Travis Scott (=) -- I want this song gone, but I have to face the unfortunate reality that this will probably get a huge bump next week thanks to Travis Scott's Super Bowl halftime appearance. I was planning on muting him anyways because Travis Scott is pure trash, but CBS practically did it for me with how much he was censored because most rappers can't help but swear up a storm when they're given a mic, which is no bueno for live TV. I was also disappointed that the SpongeBob skit was used as a means to introduce "SICKO MODE." What a slap in the face to SpongeBob fans that were looking forward to that. I'm not a fan of SpongeBob, so I wasn't really one of those. But I was offended for them in what amounted to the worst Super Bowl halftime show that I have ever watched.

6- "thank u, next" - Ariana Grande (-2) -- "7 Rings" gaining traction on radio means that Ariana is sabotaging "thank u, next." She could've spaced them out a bit more to get the most out of each song. But oh well. It is what it is.

7- "High Hopes" - Panic! At the Disco (-1) -- The rest of these songs essentially stayed put from last week. They just all got pushed down a spot thanks to "Middle Child" surging to No. 4. We'll see what happens next week when/if "Middle Child" falls back down. Panic! still has the top spot on the radio charts this week, giving the song a total of 11 weeks on top. That lead won't last too longer, though, as its finally starting to bleed on radio.

8- "Happier" - Marshmello & Bastille (-1) -- Same thing for "Happier" as with "High Hopes." It essentially stayed even, but got pushed down a spot thanks to "Middle Child." Of note, "Happier" has now crowned the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart for a 20th week, which makes me think that the should do some adjusting on those individual genre charts. Songs shouldn't be lasting that long at No. 1 on a regular basis.

9- "Wow." - Post Malone (-1) -- It made me happy to see that this song didn't gain any additional traction this week. I'm not going to celebrate, though, because I'm expecting this song to stick around for a while. If it fails, though, that would amazing!

10- "Girls Like You" - Maroon 5 featuring Cardi B (-1) -- Curse you Super Bowl halftime committee! This song was about to fall out this next week, but Maroon 5's halftime performance, which I think was the worst I've ever heard, is going to cause the sales of this song to surge. The sad thing about that is doing so will cause "Girls Like You" to tie Ed Sheeran's "Shape of You" for the longest ever stay in the Hot 100 top 10 at 33 weeks. It's at 32 weeks right now. And then I'm sure that surge is going to have a bit of a hangover that will cause the song to break the record. So congratulations. This will be your new all-time record holder. Y'all happy that such a boring, lifeless song can be talked about as one of the most successful Billboard hits of all-time? Now in regards to that halftime performance, Maroon 5 actually played some of their older classic songs that are actually good. And Adam Levine sounded like he was out of tune the whole performance, as if he hadn't practiced anything prior to the performance and/or hadn't sang most of those songs in years. After the first couple songs, I simply muted the whole thing and watching him without sound, he looked like he was bored up there. No stage presence. No personality. But of course he had to take off his shirt and expose his ugly body full of gross tattoos. It was awful in every sense of the word.

Rising on the Hot 100:

16- "Shallow" - Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper (+8) -- Wouldn't it be amazing to see awards season buzz help this song resurge into the top 10? I'm already happy that it's back in the top 20 this week and we still have several weeks until the Oscars, where it'll most certainly win best original song. It's already become a mega hit in other countries. It would be nice if it could do the same here.

26- "A Lot" - 21 Savage (+8) -- The big news of this week is that 21 Savage was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after it was discovered that he's actually a U.K. native who's been illegally living in the U.S. since 2006. He legally came here in 2005 when he was 12 years old, but his visa expired in 2006 and he hasn't done anything about it since. He's also a convicted felon, which doesn't help his case. All of this means that he faces deportation and a potential 10-year ban for the U.S. The funny thing is that his attorney said that he "is a role model to the young people in the community." That floored me because they have a funny definition of role model. All the dude sings about is drugs, sex, and murder while having all sorts of legal issues and has apparently been lying to everyone about where he's from because everyone thought he was an Atlanta native. Yet we also have a huge percentage of people calling this a racial issue? I don't care if his skin is black, green, purple, blue, orange, or white. The dude is a convicted felon who has been illegally living in this country for the last 13 years and is an all-around awful human being. Let's get his sorry face out of here.

28- "Thotiana" - Blueface (+38) -- I about threw up when I saw that this song jumped 38 spots this week.

31- "Dancing with a Stranger" - Sam Smith & Normani (+10) -- This is a great song from Sam Smith and Normani. I wish it was more of a duet where the two are responding to each other rather than taking turns singing the same thing. But that aside, I'm glad to see this gaining traction and I hope that continues.

44- "Be Alright" - Dean Lewis (+6) -- Dean Lewis has been a huge hit everywhere else in the world with "Be Alright." I would love for this song to be a hit here as well, but I have a feeling that it's not going to gain a whole lot more traction than this. It's still good to see it in the top 50, though.

56- "Pure Cocaine" - Lil Baby (+33) -- Why did this get a boost this week? Lil Baby singing about cocaine is something that should disappear forever.

61- "Saturday Nights" - Khalid & Kane Brown (+14) -- I forgot that this song existed, so I had to go look it up to remind myself what I thought about it. Well, as it turns out, I forgot about it because it was a song that debuted back in November, but only lasted two weeks on the charts. And the reason it's back is that this is a remix. The version that debuted in November was Khalid only. And now Khalid has added Kane Brown to the song. No wonder I didn't remember a Khalid and Kane Brown duet. I hadn't listened to it before. First off, I reminded myself of the Khalid only version and it's a solid song from Khalid. It's nothing super special. In fact, the lyrics are a bit troubling when Khalid is claiming that he cares more about this girl than her parents do. That aside, it's a relaxing, mellow song from Khalid that works well enough. As far as the remix goes, well, Khalid and Kane Brown mix together a little too well. They sound too similar on this song. And lyrically adding Kane Brown doesn't make sense. Instead of one guy talking to a girl, it's two guys talking to this girl. Kane doesn't make the song worse, necessarily. But he doesn't make it better, either. So I don't know. It is what it is.

68- "Take It from Me" - Jordan Davis (+10) -- I also forgot this song existed. The problem here is that it debuted in January, so that's a bad sign for Jordan Davis. Another boring country song that's completely forgettable.

76- "When the Party's Over" - Billie Eilish (+11) -- I love how much staying power Billie has on the charts. I just wish that she could get one of her songs to at least crack the top 50. I'm waiting for her to become a huge hit in 2019 and hopefully her debut album that's getting released soon will do that for her. More on that later because a new song from that upcoming album debuted this weeks and gives us a lot to talk about.

78- "Murder on My Mind" - YNW Melly (+17) -- So I went and actually read these lyrics to see if I was off base by judging this song last week by title only. Nope. I was justified in what I said. The dude is complaining about being in prison as if it was someone else's fault that he's there. Then he talks about waking up with murder on his mind, name dropping plenty of gun names. The next verse he talks about him accidentally killing someone because the dude caught him by surprise. I think that verse was supposed to sound emotional, but instead it sounded messed up to me. And it's not made worse because, after another chorus, he then starts bragging about being a murderer as if that now makes him cool. And no, I didn't listen to the song. I just read the lyrics. After reading them, I don't need to listen to this song. If these are the type of lyrics that are being accepted into our culture today, I'm not even going to add one number to its streaming total. Y'all should join me in this effort, too.

85- "Roses" - benny blanco & Juice WRLD featuring Brendon Urie (+12) -- Let's not make this song a thing.

New Arrivals:

65- "Put a Date on It" - Yo Gotti featuring Lil Baby -- Don't care.

74- "bury a friend" - Billie Eilish -- Billie Eilish's debut album titled "WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?" is right around the corner. In the Apple Music description of the album, it quotes an interview with Billie wherein she said she wanted the album to sound like a bad dream. Or maybe a good dream. Her goal was that if 14 people who like different genres were all in the room listening to her album, she wants every single person to like at least one song. So the idea is to be crazy and different here. I'm really excited to see how that turns out. I think it totally fits her because she's quite the spunky 17-year-old if you've listened to interviews with her or watched her music videos. She's not someone who has a desire to fall into all the typical conventions. Her goal is to be different. And she has the personality to pull it off.

And with that context in mind, this song. Yeah, I'm obsessed with this. Yet at the same time, I'm nervous to share this with anyone because of how weird, creepy and different it is. I first listened to the audio only, with zero context of what it was about. And it was dark and creepy. But I had to listen to it again. And I decided that I loved the song as a creepy Halloween-like song. Then I dove deeper and learned that Billie said in an interview that the song is literally from the perspective of the monster under her bed. Now go listen to the song with that perspective in mind and suddenly everything makes sense. Then in the same interview, Billie said that she might be the monster under her own bed. As in, she's her own worst nightmare at times. Then the song adds another layer to it, making it deep and personal. Finally, Billie says that she also might be the monster under YOUR bed. Yeah, this girl is awesome. Musically, I don't even know how to describe the song. The construction of it is certainly unconventional. I was trying really hard to think of what song it reminded me of and it eventually hit me. "Knights of Shame" by AWOLNATION. Or at least it reminds me of certain segments of that song. "Knights of Shame" is a 14-minute long song from their album "Megalithic Symphony" that's the strangest, weirdest song, but I love the creativity and the uniqueness of it. And maybe that's why I love "bury a friend." If Billie wanted different, she succeeded. I have no idea how the general public will react to this one or if it's even possible to become a radio hit, but I love it. And if you love it, too, then we can be friends. 

And finally, I have to give a shout out to that music video. It does a perfect job and representing the who song. And quite frankly, it's scarier and creepier than most horror movies. And as I think about it, this song would work perfectly as a trailer song for a horror movie. I think that gives it bonus points. I have the music video embedded above this section, so give it a watch! If you're brave enough, haha.

86- "i'm so tired..." - Lauv & Troye Sivan -- It's hard to go from "bury a friend" by Billie Eilish to, well, anything else. You almost have to take a bit of a break before diving into all of the generic stuff. Luckily for me, though, "I Like Me Better" by Lauv is a really catchy song that I enjoy, especially when you get to some of the remixes that add even more groove to it. But he doesn't win any awards for originality there. And he won't with "i'm so tired..." either. He's tired of love songs. He's partying and trying to have a good time, but all he sees is other people falling in love to his song. Or "our song" as he states. Who is "our"? I don't know. He doesn't explain. But whatever the song is, he's sad that he can't find someone to fall in love with. So yeah, super basic. But like with "I Like Me Better," the song has an upbeat groove to it that makes it fun, so I give it a pass. And yeah, Troye Sivan is on the song, too. But it's another one of those collaboration errors. Troye Sivan and Lauv sound too similar to make a collaboration interesting. And Troye Sivan adds nothing to the song. He just sings the second verse of a song that sounds like it was initially written for just one singer.

88- "Shot Clock" - Ella Mai -- Ella Mai's bid to be included in some sort of NBA content? She's using shot clock metaphors to tell a guy that he's got a limited time to make a move or else she's out of there. Later in the song she complains that she's been waiting five years for him to make a move and is running out of patience, which I find a bit curious. If you've been dating a guy for that long and you want the relationship to move forward, why don't you just say something instead of continuing to wait? The song isn't as choppy and annoying as "Trip," but it's also a song that I find mostly boring with vocals that are way over the top for a song with lyrics that feel so underwritten. Too many uses of the n-word as well. I know that's a thing in black culture to use that word a ton. I just don't think it fits at all into this style of slow, R&B song about a relationship.

89- "Sauce!" - XXXTENTACION -- Can we please stop taking advantage of X getting killed to make money? I may have said this before, but at this point I'd almost believe that the record label hired someone to kill him so that they could earn a ton of money off of him being dead. It's horrible. And I have thus vowed to never listen to a song by him again.

90- "Con Calma" - Daddy Yankee featuring Snow -- I don't know who the singer Snow is, but it is snowing outside as I type that, so that's a random coincidence for you. I do know who Daddy Yankee is, though, and as such I don't really feel the need to translate his songs. They're all the same. So with this, I pay attention to the beat to see if Daddy Yankee has delivered a good enough for groove for this song to be a fun one on the dance floor. And he's succeeded. This is a fun Latino dance song that I can dance to. If the lyrics are randomly super awful, I'll just play the language card because I don't understand Spanish. Both Daddy Yankee and Snow, when the latter finally decides to show up during the last 30 seconds, have solid flows and the groove well together.

98- "Night Shift" - Jon Pardi -- I scrolled through Jon Pardi's discography to see if there was a song of his that stood out to me because his name stood out to me. But the list was just a long list of generic-sounding country songs, so I gave up. In searching "Night Shift" on my Apple Music, I learned its a song from 2016. So I have no idea why it's here. And all Jon Pardi has to say on this song is about he loves working the night shift with this girl. If you were to take that premise in your head and think of a generic country song to go along with it, you'd probably come up with this exact song. So there's no need to spend anymore time with this, is there?

DrogeMiester's Billboard Analysis - February 2, 2019

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!

Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:

1- "7 Rings" - Ariana Grande (new) -- Is 2019 going to be the year of the Ariana? In principle I don't really have a problem with that. For some reason, Ariana has found favor with the streaming gods, which is now why she's had two No. 1 debuts in less than three months as "7 Rings" debuts with 85.3 million U.S. views, just below the 93.8 million total of "thank u, next," which was the highest weekly streaming total ever for a female artist. The reason why I think that in principle this is a good thing is that we are seeing a female pop singer dominate the Billboard charts, proving that "thank u, next" wasn't just a fluke. If Ariana can do this, then perhaps other female pop singers can begin to also find favor with the streaming gods. And maybe pop music in general can see a bit of a revolution. But I specifically say "in principle" because this song is just pure trash. It doesn't hurt my ear drums or offend me. But it makes me facepalm at Ariana. Just... why? My detailed opinion of the song is below.

2- "Without Me" - Halsey (-1) -- Poor Halsey. She just can't catch a break. After her little duel with Post Malone over the last few weeks, she was set to repeat at No. 1, accumulating a third week at the top total. But then she's denied again thanks to the monster debut of "7 Rings." And if Halsey is going to win back the crown, she's going to have to hope that "7 Rings" falls faster than "thank u, next." The latter spent seven total weeks at No. 1. If "7 Rings" repeats that feat, "Without Me" will be long gone. At least in terms of having a chance to go No. 1 again. It'll probably be in the top 10 somewhere in seven weeks from now since the radio loves this song.

3- "Sunflower (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)" - Post Malone & Swae Lee (-1) -- Like Halsey, Post Malone and Swae Lee will probably be here a while with "Sunflower." It just appears that their time at No. 1 is officially in the history books. Halsey seems to have gained a solid footing on the song and now Ariana is also ahead. But still. "Spider-Verse" continues to do well at the box office and the radio has also seemed to latch onto the song, allowing it to maintain longevity beyond the run of "Spider-Verse" in theaters.

4- "thank u, next" - Ariana Grande (+1) -- Ariana's other song in the top five also gains, and now she's forming a Halsey and Post Malone sandwich as she now surrounds both of the songs. But I've gotta wonder how long both of Ariana's songs can last? Yeah, if streaming continues to favor them, then they can co-exist. But is radio going to play both songs consecutively? Usually that's not how that rolls. If the radio decides to pick up on "7 Rings" instead of "thank u, next," that could cause this song to tank. Or maybe both songs with cannibalize their own radio play, causing neither to perform as great as they could've. But we shall see. Drake did well with both "God's Plan" and "Nice for What" overlapping, so maybe I'm over-analyzing this.

5- "SICKO MODE" - Travis Scott (-2) -- Do you know what? I'm not even going to praise the fact that this song fell two spots. It's not falling fast enough. And because Travis Scott is going to infest all of our ears by showing up at the Super Bowl halftime show, this song is set to get a good gain in two weeks. I just want this song gone.

6- "High Hopes" - Panic! At the Disco (-2) -- I was happy that Panic! managed to get over the hump and hit No. 4 after being stuck at No. 5 for a long time. But now it falls out of the top five again. It's still No. 1 on radio, though, and has been for 10 weeks.

7- "Happier" - Marhsmello & Bastille (-1) -- With Halsey debuting at No. 1, this falling one spot essentially means it stayed put when compared to last week. So it's being a little more stubborn than I thought as I initially assumed it was about to start tanking.

8- "Wow." - Post Malone (+1) -- This song is positioning itself rather well with the three songs above it (and perhaps four if Ariana hurts herself) not having a whole lot of positive traction at the moment. And that makes me upset because why do we have to have another trashy Post Malone song around?

9- "Girls Like You" - Maroon 5 featuring Cardi B (-2) -- This can't fall fast enough.

10- "Drip Too Hard" - Lil Baby & Gunna (-2) -- At least "ZEZE" fell out of the top 10 this week. Now we need BOTH of those songs to go away. I mean, really? Who is still listening to this song? And why?

Rising on the Hot 100:

14- "Going Bad" - Meek Mill featuring Drake (+3) -- This is not the top 10 entry that I want. Yet apparently we haven't got enough of Drake, so he's helping Meek Mill rise up the charts, set to be the next big rap hit in the top 10.

29- "Twerk" - City Girls featuring Cardi B (+25) -- Ew, gross. Why in the world did this song rise so high? Please let's not make City Girls a thing.

40- "Backin' It Up" - Pardison Fontaine featuring Card B (+5) -- More good news for Cardi B fans as she's not going away. Instead she's continuing to push other useless acts that no one cares about up the charts due to her presence.

43- "Crushed Up" - Future (+16) -- What? Future released a new album? I had no idea! 

57- "Jumpin on a Jet" - Future (+23) -- What? Future released a new album? I had no idea!

New Arrivals:

1- "7 Rings" - Ariana Grande -- The problem with this song? It feels like it was a song written for Cardi B, but accidentally got sent to Ariana, so Ariana recorded it just for the heck of it. Like, seriously. Cardi B's "I Like It" took a classic song and essentially interpolated it with a modern trap twist as Cardi listed off all the fancy things she likes. The only reason it was somewhat catchy is because the original song it used is fantastic. My personal evaluation of it was that it barfed all over the original. And that's exactly what Ariana is doing here. She took a classic song from "The Sound of Music" and turned it into a modern trap version of the song as Ariana lists off all of her favorite things, which is mostly her flexing about all the riches and fancy jewelry she has. The song really has no point to it outside Ariana deciding to dip super low to sing a song about empty flexing. The real shame is that "My Favorite Things" from "The Sound of Music" DOES have a point to it. Julie Andrews is listing off all of her favorite things to help cheer her up. When life gets hard, think of all the good things that you have going for yourself and that'll make you feel better. Like Cardi B barfing all over the original version of her song, Ariana is doing nothing but barfing all over "The Sound of Music," which is upsetting because that's one of my favorite musicals.

26- "MIDDLE CHILD" - J. Cole -- Apparently this song debuted at No. 26 with only a couple of days of tracking. On Apple Music it's currently ahead of "7 Rings." I don't know if that means anything in regards to its actual streaming numbers this next week, but if it can somehow manage to dethrone Ariana, that would be excellent. I'd rather have a decent rapper at top than a pop singer pretending to be Card B. While I can't say that I love J. Cole or this song, I've found him to be one of the more tolerable rappers recently. He actually seems like he cares about his music and especially his lyrics. With "MIDDLE CHILD," he's telling us that he's in the middle of two generations and plans on essentially being the bridge between the old rappers from back in the day as well as fitting in with the new crowd. And yeah, he's doing some flexing by telling us that he's the greatest and he's going to destroy everyone. But there's actually substance to his verses. It sounds like he put thought into what he wanted to say and was writing things that he felt passionately about. And when he raps what he wrote, he has good flow and musically the song sounds pretty good. So yeah, I'm happy with this.

38- "Keanu Reeves" - Logic -- Hey, Keanu Reeves has a movie coming out later this year. It's called "John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum" and I'm super excited. Oh wait, we're talking about a Logic song? Yeah, it sucks. He's the one, like Keanu Reeves. That's the only Keanu Reeves connection there. The rest of the song is just him flexing about how awesome he is with a lot of cheesy lines thrown in all over the place.

47- "First Off" - Future featuring Travis Scott -- What? Future released a new album? I had no idea!

65- "Never Stop" - Future -- What? Future released a new album? I had no idea!

68- "Secreto" - Anuel AA & Karol G -- I don't know why we've started to make Anuel AA a thing. And I don't know who Karol G is. But I'm going to wager a bet that the secreto translates to secret. So the two of them are talking about a secret they have. I actually don't care enough to translate the lyrics, especially since Anuel AA is really boring and Karol G doesn't add a whole lot of personality. The cover art for this single has a naked woman in it, so I'm also going to bet that this boring song is probably a dirty song that's not worth anything anyways. But that's all just a guess. If your desire to dive into this song is any higher than mine, feel free to explore it and tell me if I'm right or wrong.

71- "Mixed Personality" - YNW Melly featuring Kanye West -- I have no idea who YNW Melly is, but he collaborated with Kanye West, so I'm skipping this.

76- "Temptation" - Future -- What? Future released a new album? I had no idea!

79- "Rocket Ship" - Future -- What? Future released a new album? I had no idea!

81- "Pure Water" - Mustard & Migos -- Why in the world would you name yourself Mustard? Out of all the rap names I've seen, that's a contender for the strangest. Now he needs to find whoever decides to name themselves Ketchup and do a collaboration. But I'm also not giving him the time of day because Migos are the fellow collaborators. And I don't do Migos. I blame it on my misophonia. And the fact that they suck.

83- "F&N" - Future -- What? Future released a new album? I had no idea!

91- "On My Way to You" - Cody Johnson -- I don't know who Cody Johnson is. But I looked at this and guessed that it was a country song. I searched the song on Apple Music and saw the cover art of a man wearing a cowboy hat, so that seemed to prove my theory. "On My Way to You" sounds like an extremely generic title for a country song, so was this going to be just another boring country song by a dude worth forgetting about? Well, kinda. He's talking about all the hard times he's had and all the beers he's drank on the way to getting to this girl. So nothing special there. Sounds like the type of lyrics that any old country singer could've written. But this guy does actually have a decent voice and the music itself is more mellow. So it's a bit of a relaxing country song that I could totally accept if it started playing. Though I'm probably not going to remember it once it leaves the charts.

95- "Murder on My Mind" - YNW Melly -- Why has this become an acceptable topic to sing about? Everyone who glorifies murder in a rap song should be arrested, not given a musical career. But OK, fine. Freedom of speech. But still. Why is this appealing?

96- "GIRL" - Maren Morris -- Speaking of country, Maren Morris is a country pop girl that I mostly find myself enjoying. Although after her monster success that was "The Middle," in which she jumped on with Zedd and went pure pop, I have been wondering what she's planning. Is she going to go back to her country pop style or is she going to completely turn into a pop girl? While I suppose we won't fully know that answer until her new album comes out this year, I really don't hear much of any country in this. I'm going to classify this as a pop song. And as a pop song, this works pretty decently. Maren is talking to a girl, helping to encourage her to pull herself together and realize that everything is going to be OK. As I was listening, it initially sounded like she was speaking to another woman, but I began to wonder if this woman she was referring to was actually herself, as if she was speaking in the third person. In looking it up, I found Maren's commentary on the song and... yeah. It's kinda both. She initially was writing this to a female friend in the music industry. But then she realized the lyrics were more about herself. So it works both ways. It's a song with enough emotion to connect with me and decent enough vocals from Maren. While not a masterpiece by any means, I'd say it has a little more depth and character to it than "The Middle."

98- "Face My Fears" - Hikaru Utada & Skrillex -- I'm always a bit nervous seeing Skrillex on the charts. While he always has the potential to be amazing and creative with his music, more often than not his music becomes noise to me. He can sound very robotic and grating. But Hikaru Utada is a singer I knew nothing about. Turns out she's a Japanese-American who's a big deal over in Japan. She started singing in a trio with her parents in the early 90's. She released her debut solo album in 1999 and his since released a total of eight studio albums, all but one of which hit No. 1 on the Japanese album charts. She's also released a whole lot of singles in Japan that have hit top 10. But this is her first trip over to the American charts. After listening to this, I was rather captivated by how beautiful her voice was. And the song started off as a piano ballad of sorts before Skrillex jumps in. Luckily Skrillex is more restrained than normal, thus not overpowering the song with robotic noises, but giving it enough energy to compliment Hikaru. And actually, there's two versions of this song. A Japanese version and an English version. In both versions, she repeats the line "Let me face my fears" in English. I don't speak Japanese, but I think the Japanese version in a prettier song. I like the combination of the Japanese lyrics sprinkled with a little bit of English, rather than the whole thing being an American song. The song isn't super deep, but it's really pretty. Skrillex is fine in the song. But mostly it made me want to go look up more of this girl's music because I'm predicting that I'll love it. Final note on this is that it looks like it's a song from "Kingdom Hearts III," which is why it charted. Makes sense, I guess.

100- "Call the Coroner" - Future -- What? Future released a new album? I had no idea!