Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:
1- "Old Town Road" - Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus (=) -- This song has been annoyingly stuck in my head a lot recently. Maybe it's because Billy Ray Cyrus is having a lot of fun with his parts and that is what sticks in my head. With that in mind, perhaps they should release a version of this song where it's just Billy Ray because Lil Nas X's part is still incredibly stupid and awful. As far as its numbers this week, this is the song's fourth week at No. 1 and it got there with 114.4 million U.S. streams (down 9 percent), 89,000 downloads sold (down 2 percent) and 55.4 million audience impressions on the radio (up 23 percent). Keep those numbers in mind because Taylor Swift is going to make a play for the No. 1 spot next week with her new song "ME!," which managed to sneak onto the charts at No. 100 this week off of a few days of airplay alone. If Taylor is going to get there, the bar is still super high and "Old Town Road" isn't falling very fast.
2- "Wow." - Post Malone (=) -- I'm sick of this song being here. I would love for us to find a way to dump it. But at least it's being prevented from hitting No. 1. And with the numbers for "Old Town Road" holding consistent, that much is guaranteed.
3- "Sunflower (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)" - Post Malone & Swae Lee (=) -- It's official. "Sunflower" has passed "Without Me" on my personal Excel charts for the No. 1 most popular song of 2019. And unless this somehow manages to bottom out and leave the top 10 before "Without Me," it looks like it might hold that spot for a while.
4- "7 rings" - Ariana Grande (=) -- Ariana has managed to entrench herself at No. 4. But I totally wouldn't mind if we found a way to get her out of this spot. So let's bring on "Sucker" and "Dancing with a Stranger"!
5- "Sucker" - Jonas Brothers (+1) -- After camping out at that No. 6 spot for a few weeks, Jonas Brothers have managed to sneak back into the top five. With "Wow.," "Sunflower" and "7 rings" on the downward trend in terms of their numbers, Jonas Brothers have positioned themselves quite well. I don't know how fast this is going to rise, but with the strong radio that continues to build as it holds the top spot on the radio charts for a second week, this is going to stick around much longer than those other three. The trio of brothers just might have to battle it out for positioning with Taylor Swift in that top five as their biggest competition.
6- "Without Me" - Halsey (-1) -- As I previously noted, Halsey has given up her spot to Post Malone and Swae Lee's "Sunflower" for top song of the year. Although the two songs are still very close in total points, Halsey seems to be the one who is most vulnerable at this point. I could see her falling even further in the next few weeks to these other songs right below her.
7- "Dancing with a Stranger" - Sam Smith & Normani (=) -- While this still has an incredible amount of radio play, sales and streaming seem to be holding this back from rising too much higher at the moment. But I think its only a matter of time before it naturally sneaks up higher. The radio is going to keep this around for a while, which positions it quite well given the other songs in the top 10 that are going to fall.
8- "Talk" - Khalid (+12) -- I didn't see this coming. And honestly I'm kinda mad it leapfrogged "Sweet but Pyshco," which is now stuck at No. 11, thus meaning it would've hit top 10 had it not been for this song's sudden surge. But OK, I can't get too mad at this. It's an alright song. Better than Khalid's other song that made the top 10 a couple weeks ago. Although I do wish Khalid would've actually given feature credit to Disclosure since they're the only reason this song works. Khalid's lyrics are a bit empty as this song has zero depth to it and his vocals aren't that great. He just managed to strike gold because his style fits well with Disclosure, making this a solid song to have playing in the background on the radio or whatever.
9- "bad guy" - Billie Eilish (=) -- I love seeing this sticking around thanks mainly to strong streaming. Now if only the radio would pick this up then this might be around for a lot longer. The good news is that is does now seem like it's getting some sort of radio promotion. If you look at the radio numbers on Kworb.net, this song is now on there, even if it hasn't cracked the top 100 yet. So yeah, it might have a long way to go, but that's a step in the right direction because it was previously M.I.A.
10- "Middle Child" - J. Cole (+1) -- I guess I'm not surprised here. With BTS nosediving down to No. 40 this week and "Please Me" from Bruno Mars and Cardi B thankfully going away, this song had enough consistency to sneak back up to the No. 10 spot as it held off "Sweet but Psycho," which annoyed me. But hey, "Talk" and "Middle Child" are certainly better than BTS and "Please Me," so this is a bit of an improvement over last week even though the improvement will be astronomically better if "Sweet but Psycho" can break into the range. Let's hope that happens soon.
Rising on the Hot 100:
11- "Sweet but Psycho" - Ava Max (+2) -- I hate the No. 11 spot. This is where some songs go to die. I want them to hit the top 10, but the end up peaking at No. 11. With Taylor Swift set to soar into the top 10 somewhere and none of the current top 10 looking particularly week, I'm just hoping "Sweet but Pyscho" can continue to maintain its consistency because I really want this to be a top 10 hit. I guess we're going to have to take it a week at a time, though. Crossing my fingers for next week.
14- "break up with your girlfriend, i'm bored" - Ariana Grande (+4) -- This is what happens when you have a really weak slate of songs right below the top 10. This song is not actually on the rise. It just happened to have a bit more left in the tank than some of the other songs in the teens.
23- "Pure Water" - Mustard & Migos (+10) -- If you wonder why I've now completely boycotted Migos and will never voluntarily listen to another one of their songs, go look up misophonia. I literally can't tolerate all of their sound effects and echoes.
28- "Look Back at It" - A Boogie wit da Hoodie (+9) -- Gross.
30- "Act Up" - City Girls (+6) -- Gross.
34- "Con Calma" - Daddy Yankee & Katy Perry featuring Snow (+22) -- Yep. I had a feeling that something like this was coming. Whenever Daddy Yankee has a major hit on his hands, a remix with an English speaking star is usually not too far away. I'm just a bit surprised that Katy Perry was his choice for "Con Calma" since her star power has faded significantly in recent years. She used to be one of the more safer picks to find success with whatever she released, but a combination of an awful album with her latest album, poor choice in her single selection with the album before, and the general trend of female pop singers fading in popularity as rap started to take over the world has really changed things for Katy. But hey, with pop on the rise in 2019 and the successes of other female pop singers like Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, Lady Gaga and perhaps Taylor Swift next week, maybe this is the point where Katy's fortunes change? I have to be honest, though, her addition to the song made me flat-out laugh out loud and I'm not sure that was a good thing. She says that she knows they don't speak the same language, so she's going to let her body talk for her. Points for honesty, I guess. Justin Bieber simply pretended he could speak Spanish for "Despacito" and confessed later that he had no idea what he was singing, nor did he really have the ability to perform it live. Katy's like, "Well, I'm not even going to try." But it works fine enough, I suppose. Yes, the original Spanish-only mix is much better, but if this English/Spanish remix gets it more popular, I think that's a win. Now are you all ready for Maluma and Madonna? Because that was just released. "Medellin" is the song.
39- "Clout" - Offset featuring Cardi B (+33) -- Gross.
46- "Suge" - DaBaby (+5) -- Gross.
48- "Whiskey Glasses" - Morgan Wallen (+7) -- A country song called "Whiskey Glasses." It doesn't get any more generically country than that.
60- "Pop Out" - Polo G featuring Lil Tjay (+14) -- Gross.
68- "Love Ain't" - Eli Young Band (+13) -- When it comes to good country, this song ain't.
78- "Talk You Out of It" - Florida Georgia Line (+15) -- This song ain't, either.
80- "Hey Look Ma, I Made It" - Panic! At the Disco (+16) -- If you read my opinion of this song last week, you'll know that I'm not a huge fan. It's just that in comparison to "Saturday Night" and "High Hopes," this song just has a lot less energy and flare to it. Granted, not every Panic! song has to be loud and boisterous. But this song feels more like second-rate filler than a change of pace. A halfhearted copy of the other two without the passion. But still, I'll still gladly take it over most of the rest of this stuff this week. Lots of rap and dull country having a great week. Because of that, this definitely stands out as one of the more acceptable rising songs.
81- "i'm so tired..." - Lauv & Troye Sivan (+13) -- I didn't expect this song to get a resurgence. It debuted in February and quickly disappeared. I kinda forgot it existed until now. But I'm fine with it. It's a little overly repetitive, thus it can get annoying real fast. Lauv and Troye Sivan also aren't distinguishable enough in terms of the way their voices sound to make a good pair. "I Like Me Better" is a MUCH better Lauv song. But still, this song is decent enough for me to not be upset that it's around. And again, in compared to most everything else on this section this week, I'll take this.
89- "On My Way to You" - Cody Johnson (+11) -- I suppose this is better than "Whiskey Glasses," "Love Ain't" and "Talk You Out of It" this week. But this still doesn't make this a great week for quality country rising on the charts.
New Arrivals:
17- "Earth" - Lil Dicky -- I saw a Lil Dicky song trending on YouTube the other week and I immediately got of "Freaky Friday" by him and Chris Brown, thus I dreaded having to cover this song and I avoided it as long as possible. Well, turns out this is a song that was released three days before Earth Day and is meant to raise awareness for environmental problems that face our society. All proceeds for the song are going to the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, which fights to help vulnerable animals from going extinct as Leo is one of the more vocal celebrities when it comes to how we treat our planet. So I guess that makes things different. But the song itself features over 30 artists, most of whom voice different animals who say gross, random things. Lil Dicky manages to curse quite a bit while being raunchy on his own in the midst of trying to relay the message that we need to do something right now to solve this environmental crisis that we're currently in. So I suppose I can praise the intentions behind this song. I don't have an inherent problem with writing a song that attempts to raise awareness for a cause someone believes in. But the execution of this leaves me grossed out and confused. Lil Dicky was not the right person to put this together.
75- "Before I Let Go (Homecoming Live)" - Beyonce -- Oh, I was hoping to avoid this one. If you didn't hear, Beyonce wrote and directed a musical documentary about Beyonce that debuted on Netflix recently. I hear its screaming with egotistical, pretentious nonsense that will only appeal to hardcore Beyonce fans and no one else. Since I am not a part of that group, I abstained from watching. I like a lot of Beyonce's early music, but I've never been a huge fan of her as an artist and all of her recent stuff just does not sit well with me. I got myself into a lot of trouble when "Lemonade" came out and I had to admit that I didn't think it was the greatest piece of musical genius ever written in the history of the world, which a lot of people apparently do think. And I'm not got to watch a 137-minute Netflix documentary about Beyonce stroking her ego just so I can understand the context of this song that happened to chart. All that said, I'm going to step aside and let Beyonce fans enjoy this while I move on with life.
90- "Slide" - French Montana featuring Blueface & Lil Tjay -- French Montana recruiting two new losers who are currently popular in the moment just so he can try to make himself feel relevant again. Nope. I'm going to pass.
93- "Love Someone" - Brett Eldredge -- It's the second song called "Love Someone" to chart on the Hot 100 in 2019, with the other one being written by Lukas Graham. This version makes me a lot less happy, though. Just a factory-churned country song coming right off the conveyor belt and onto country radio. I'll give it credit for being upbeat and exciting enough that you could probably have a lot of fun dancing to if country dancing is your thing. So I'm guessing this will become huge in the country realms. But it's just another dude named Brett singing about a girl he loves. It doesn't feel personal and it doesn't bring anything unique to the table. Once it goes away, I'll forget it ever existed.
96- "Shotta Flow" - NLE Choppa -- I have no idea who NLE Choppa is. But with a name like NLE Choppa and a song called "Shotta Flow," this is not a song I feel like checking out. If I'm wrong and this is the best song of 2019, feel free to let me know. But I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm not wrong with the exact song I think this is.
100- "ME!" - Taylor Swift featuring Brendon Urie -- I didn't expect to be covering this song this week. Taylor released it right on Friday morning, or late Thursday night depending on what time zone you live in. That's the exact time you need to release a song in order to perfectly take advantage of your first week of streaming and sales. So I thought I had a week to think about it before it exploded on the scene next week. But radio play is on a slightly different schedule with its tracking week and Taylor managed to get enough radio play to sneak in at No. 100, meaning she has the opportunity to set an unbeatable record by rising from No. 100 to No. 1. You can't have a bigger jump on the charts than going from the very bottom to the very top. But Taylor is going to need a very high streaming total if she wants to dethrone "Old Town Road," meaning she might have timed this a few weeks too early if she wanted to pull this off, but we'll see. In terms of a marketing play, I do think it's good for Taylor's brand to do a quicker turnaround with her seventh album after "reputation" wasn't received super well. If you wait a long time to release your next album after releasing a disappointing album, you can get awfully close to committing career suicide.
However, as one who was a defender of "reputation" and thus has not bought into this "hate Taylor Swift" trend, I have a hard time loving this song. Now Apple Music does have a 45 second clip with Taylor introducing "ME!" to everyone. I liked how excited she said she was to work with Brendon Urie. And I love her message about celebrating individuality. She states that we often feel like there's a better version of us out there somewhere and thus we're pretty hard on ourselves, but you're the only one of you. I like that message. Thus if people gravitate to this as an uplifting song celebrating individuality, then I'm all for that. It's good to have a strong sense of confidence, but I find the song itself fairly obnoxious. I have a hard time pinpointing exactly why, but the best way I can put it is that it feels like a song that was written for a kid's TV show rather than a song written for grown adults wanting to listen to Taylor Swift music. When it comes to Taylor, I like her more intimate, personal country pop music that she did early in her career. "Love Story" is still probably my favorite Taylor Swift song. Going over her discography, this reminds me more of "I Knew You Were Trouble," "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" or "Shake It Off" and that was an era of Taylor that I didn't really like. It's loud, obnoxious and empty. And her and Brendon Urie don't have very good musical chemistry. Maybe they could've worked, but it would've required better writing.
