Wednesday, June 19, 2019

DrogeMiester's Billboard Analysis - June 22, 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- "Old Town Road" - Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus (=) -- The countdown to the record continues this week as "Old Town Road" gets its 11th week at No. 1. The all-time record for most weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 is 16 weeks, held by "One Sweet Day" and "Despacito." Just five more weeks to tie the record and six more weeks to beat it. Surprisingly, this is the first week that "Old Town Road" has actually shown signs of weakness as it drops 14 percent in streaming to 99.9 million U.S. streams and 18 percent in sales to 71,000 downloads sold. Those streaming numbers narrowly miss the 100 million U.S. streams mark, which is the first time its fallen below that mark in nine weeks. Granted, even though the song did take a hit this week, it's going to need to continue like this and have another huge debut come out and steal its throne in order for it to fall short, and neither of those are guaranteed. Interestingly enough, last week I mentioned that if the Raptors win the NBA title, Drake should release a single to celebrate that gets big enough to top "Old Town Road." I had no hints that said thing was going to actually happens. The Raptors did win the title and Drake did release a double pack of singles that are set to hit the charts next week. Both songs suck and have nothing to do with the Raptors winning, outside the cover art being an NBA title trophy, but one of the songs, "Money in the Grave" has been No. 1 on Apple Music and Spotify for most of the week, so its set to have a great streaming debut. Is it going to be enough? I doubt it. But we'll see. Taylor Swift is going to take another jab at the top with "You Need to Calm Down." Personally I'm skeptic of that even making a top 10 debut.

2- "bad guy" - Billie Eilish (=) -- Billboard in their weekly article didn't actually provide numbers for how far behind "bad guy" is of "Old Town Road." Although I'm not sure it matters at this point. Unfortunately Billie has zero chance of topping "Old Town Road" in time unless "Old Town Road" randomly falls off the face of the earth in the next month. I'm just happy that Billie continues to be at this runner-up spot.

3- "Talk" - Khalid (=) -- I'm also still happy to see Khalid at No. 3 this week. This song is now the top song on the radio, so congratulations. That's Khalid's first radio No. 1.

4- "Sucker" - Jonas Brothers (+1) -- The Jonas Brothers' new album "Happiness Begins" was released on June 7, impacting the charts this week. That's the reason for this song boosting up to No. 4. It also helped "Cool" jump up a bit. The only new debut from the album was "Only Human." I'll be talking about that down below. I don't have a huge desire to go listen to the full album. I'll just take the singles as they come.

5- "I Don't Care" - Ed Sheeran & Justin Bieber (-1) -- Ed and Justin slip down just one spot, although that's more or less because of "Sucker" getting a boost from the album release. I could see the two songs swapping spots again next week because I don't know how much life "Sucker" has left in it, at least when it comes to the top five.

6- "Wow." - Post Malone (=) -- Post Malone remains stationed at No. 6 and No. 7 this week. And we really need to figure out a way to get this song out of here.

7- "Sunflower (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)" - Post Malone & Swae Lee (=) -- I've actually had this song stuck in my head for a good portion of the last few days. On Monday I re-watched "Spider-Verse." And I also listened to Taylor Swift's new song, which sounds a lot like "Sunflower." Those two things combined to getting this song ingrained in my head. And I'm fine with that. But for the record, I give almost all of the credit on this one to Swae Lee, not Post Malone.

8- "Suge" - DaBaby (=) -- Glad this didn't rise any. But let's get it to fall back down.

9- "No Guidance" - Chris Brown featuring Drake (new) -- Excuse me while I throw up.

10- "Dancing with a Stranger" - Sam Smith & Normani (-1) -- "Sweet but Psycho" sadly got pushed out of the top 10 this week and "Dancing with a Stranger" is probably not too far behind. Both songs have been heavily reliant on radio, which makes me glad that at least the radio has their priorities straight at the moment.


Rising on the Hot 100:





11- "Pop Out" - Polo G featuring Lil Tjay (+11) -- This is gross. But it probably has enough momentum to push "Dancing with a Stranger" out next week. That means I have to deal with "Suge" and "Pop Out" both being in the top 10.

12- "If I Can't Have You" - Shawn Mendes (+2) -- After notching a top five debut, Shawn Mendes is slowly trying to climb his way back into the top 10. And he has a good chance of getting there, I think. He's currently doing better than Taylor Swift's "ME!," which doesn't seem to have a whole lot of momentum at the moment.

17- "Truth Hurts" - Lizzo (+4) -- I'm totally fine with this song doing well. In fact, I would prefer it over "Suge" and "Pop Out" by a mile.

22- "Beer Never Broke My Heart" - Luke Combs (+16) -- This isn't going to get too much higher. "Whiskey Glasses" and "God's Country" both shot into the top 20 within the last few weeks, but then stalled out as expected. In order to breakthrough to the top 10, a country song needs some serious crossover with pop radio and I have huge doubts that this song is the one to get that.

31- "Hey Look Ma, I Made It" - Panic! At the Disco (+8) -- Believe it or not, "High Hopes" is actually still higher than this song. It's currently camped out at No. 21. "Hey Look Ma" is slowly closing the gap, though, to be the highest charting Panic! song. Although it doesn't look like it has a ton of momentum. I'm doubting that this comes to be anywhere close as popular as "High Hopes." And it doesn't really deserve to be.

33- "Speechless" - Dan + Shay (+15) -- Was there some sort of country thing recently that shot up a bunch of country songs or is it just normal country radio turnover time?

34- "Shallow" - Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper (+9) -- I have no idea why this song jumped up nine spots this week. But I'm really glad that it has. It's impressive that this song has managed to gain a life of its own beyond "A Star is Born."

44- "Cool" - Jonas Brothers (+15) -- This song has actually been hanging around towards the bottom of the charts after it collapses following its debut. But instead of falling off, it's slowly started to work its way back up, which is really unfortunate. However, as I said with "Sucker," this jump is only because of the album release. I expect that this will fall back down a bit next week.

65- "Ran$om" - Lil Tecca (+28) -- Gross.

68- "Rearview Town" - Jason Aldean (+20) -- Again, was there some sort of country thing that boosted these songs. Because that's a large jump for three different country songs.

89- "Trampoline" - SHAED (+10) -- I've had this song stuck in my head all week ever since its debut last week. Part of the week I even forgot which song it was that I was singing. The chorus of the song just got subconsciously stuck in my head to the point that I was singing it all week without even thinking about it. That's a great sign moving forward through this year. Songs that stick around in my head are the songs that end up being highlights of the year. So if you haven't yet heard this song yet, do yourself a favor and fix that. And if this song becomes huge, know that I loved it ever since it charted in mid-June. I would love to be able to include it in this section every week.


New Arrivals:





9- "No Guidance" - Chris Brown featuring Drake -- I usually cover songs that debut in the top 10, even if they suck. But for crying out loud this is Chris Brown. He doesn't deserve even one stream from me.

62- "Even Though I'm Leaving" - Luke Combs -- Wait, Luke Combs is leaving! Hallelujah, praise the Lord almighty! Oh wait... he just wrote a song about him leaving. Dangit. Yeah, you can tell that after "Beer Never Broke My Heart" how I excited I was to check out a new Luke Combs song. And, OK. This song is significantly better than that one. It's a mostly toned back that talks about a child being scared of his daddy leaving. But Luke assures his son that even though he's leaving, he's not going anywhere. Which... mostly makes sense. Although I really was curious to know where it is that Luke is going. He just says Uncle Sam is taking him away and he can't call or anything. I suppose if I thought hard enough about it or looked it up on Genius, I could figure it out. But eh. I have other songs to get to and stressing over Luke Combs lyrics that he doesn't make clear enough is not something I really care to do.

66- "The Git Up" - Blanco Brown -- I had no idea what to expect with this when I saw it on the charts. I don't know who Blanco Brown is and just looking at the song title, I wasn't sure what genre this was. When I pressed play, I couldn't help but laugh. This is one of those instructional line dance songs where the whole song is dance instructions. No, not like "Gangnum Style" or "Macarena" where a dance was created to go with the song. This is like "Cha Cha Slide" by Mr. C, aka DJ Casper. There's already a viral challenge via TikTok and YouTube and a video with Blanco Brown himself giving instructions on how to do his dance. I mean, of course there is. Normally I get mad at these music challenges because none of them make sense. But this one is kinda built for that. This song is meant for dance parties where everyone gets together and does the line dance with Blanco Brown as he tells them what moves to do. Part of me thinks this got popular because of "Old Town Road," because it's kind of a country/rap mix, but it's mostly just deep, twangy country vocals with shouts throughout. But said shouts aren't annoying like Migos rap songs. Thus I can't get mad at this. The song itself has no depth in the lyrics, but it's not meant to have that. It's not dirty. It's not offensive. It's just a song for people to have fun with at dance parties as they all dance together for a few minutes. And it has all the ingredients to be a mega hit in 2019. If it blows up like I think it might, just remember that you heard it here first in mid-June.

69- "Callaita" - Bad Bunny & Tainy -- I saw this title and got excited because I thought I knew what that meant. But it turns out I wasn't quite right. I was thinking of "cállate," which means "shut up." Essentially. I use that all the time when I want people to be quiet. But that's not quite what "callaita" means. Google translate didn't help me out very much until I looked up the actually words of the song and learned that Bad Bunny is singing "ella e' calla'íta," which Google tells me means "she is quiet." Anyways, this is probably where Google Translate is not a very good tool. It's something along those lines. But I got close. As far as the song goes, yeah I'm not interested. Bad Bunny just mumbles his way through Spanish songs. His music sucks. And I can't understand his lyrics. But I translated the whole chorus and this song is apparently trash anyways.

83- "Heaven" - Avicii -- Featuring the vocals of Chris Martin. But Avicii never liked to draw attention to big name artists. He wanted his songs to be about the music, not about the person he was collaborating with. So Chris Martin isn't officially given a featured credit. But this song specifically came about due to the Coldplay sessions when Avicii was working with the band. They've already had several songs together, but this was a song that never fully materialized until after Avicii died. It was a mutual decision by both camps. Chris Martin wanted to get it done and so did Avicii's team. So they made it happen. As far as Avicii's new posthumous album, I really like it. It doesn't seem like something done to get money. It's seems like a labor of love. People wanting to finish an album that Avicii didn't quite finish himself before he died. As far as this song goes, having it called "Heaven" brings an extra layer of somber feelings for obvious reasons. Chris Martin sings the lyrics, "I think I just died and went to Heaven," which makes me want to burst out in tears. Although I don't think the song was necessarily intended on being a song that reflects on Avicii's life. It's a love song. Chris Martin sings that he's feeling down in the dumps with life, but when he meets this girl, he feels like he just died and went to Heaven because he's now been lifted up by her love. So had this song been released before Avicii's death, I still think it would've been a great song. But with the added tragedy that was Avicii, it becomes something even more.

Now although I'm glad to see this song charting, the song from the album that I really want to chart is "Heart Upon My Sleeve" featuring Imagine Dragons because I have a lot to say about that one. But I'll save said thoughts for when it does chart.

87- "Please Tell Me" - Future -- Future released an album? Glad to see that it barely made an impact on the charts. He can take his mumble rap and go burn in musical Hell.

92- "Amor Genuino" - Ozuna -- No question with this title. Genuine love. And given that Ozuna is way better than Bad Bunny, I actually listened to this whole song. No, I didn't understand it any better. But it's a much more relaxing song. It's a piano ballad from Ozuna. About halfway through the song, it starts to speed up a bit and I'm wondering if it's going to transform into an all-out dance song, but then it slows back down and ends on a sweet note. I'm assuming these lyrics and romantic and sweet. If they're not, Ozuna certainly does a great job of making them sound romantic. No, I won't do a deep dive with this, but as an outsider looking in, this works well for me on a first listen.

93- "Only Human" - Jonas Brothers -- We've gone one for two so far on the Jonas Brothers' new album. "Sucker" is a fun song. "Cool" is a pretty bad song. "Only Human" manages to land somewhere in between, but leaning more towards "Sucker." I wouldn't say it's an instant smash hit like "Sucker" was. And the lyrics aren't anything to write home about. But I suppose the Jonas Brothers have never really been known for their lyrics. They know their target audience and the give said audience exactly what they want, so props to that I suppose. I'm just not a part of said target audience, so I personally need a bit more if I'm going to rave about a song. Where "Only Human" works is the wide variety of instrumentation. Genius has listed credits for all sorts of various brass, winds and percussion that fit together quite well to make a decent groove. If we get an actual second single from this album following "Sucker," I would prefer this over "Cool" any day of the week.

98- "XanaX Damage" - Future -- Nope.

99- "Government Official" - Future -- Nope.  

100- "Otro Trago" - Sech featuring Darell -- Our third Spanish song of the week. And if we're playing this title game again, I didn't quite get this one. "Otro" is obviously other or another. But what does he want another of? Oh. A drink. "Another Drink." That's the title. That's not an encouraging start, but I went into this more open minded because I didn't know the styles of Sech or Darell. And Apple Music informed me that the song is explicit? That's also not a good sign. That means the lyrics are probably bad, even though I can't understand them. To be honest, though, Sech's parts were just fine. If it was only him on the song, I think I could be fine with this in judging him by his vocals and the beat of the song. But then Darell comes in and starts spitting at me. That's the best I could describe it. When he takes over the verse, it's completely trash. Like one of our punk rapper friends who has no idea how to sing. Thus the extremely conflicting tones and red flags that tell me that the lyrics are probably awful just combine to make a song that I would rather see disappear from the charts.

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