Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:
1- "Old Town Road" - Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus (=) -- "Old Town Road" captures its 15th week at No. 1, breaking free from the log jam of songs that got stuck at 14 weeks (there's seven of them) and is now just one week away from tying the all-time record for most weeks at No. 1, which is currently a tie between "Despacito" and "One Sweet Day." With Post Malone falling short this week (his new song "Goodbyes" debuted at No. 3) and no huge debuts set for next week (I don't think anything from Ed Sheeran's new project is set for a top 10 debut), one would think that "Old Town Road" is locked in to get week No. 16 at the top, moving into a three-way tie for the record.
HOWEVER, this is no longer a race that's set in stone as things got really interesting this week. First, "Old Town Road" plummeted this week in all three categories, falling 21 percent in streaming to 70.5 million U.S. streams, 24 percent in sales to 43,000 downloads sold, and 14 percent in radio to 65.2 million audience impressions. Billboard reports that it is down 20 percent in overall chart points while "bad guy" remained pretty steady, increasing 1 percent in overall chart points. Thus the margin that was 1.9 to 1 last week as narrowed down to 1.5 to 1 this week.
Second thing here is that "bad guy" has a new remix out that will impact the charts next week as Justin Bieber has been added to the song. Notably, Justin Bieber is one of the three acts on "Despacito," so it seems like he wants to do his best to keep his record in tact. Lil Nas X counteracted by adding yet another remix to "Old Town Road" (that's the fourth version of the song, if you're counting), this time adding Young Thug and Mason Ramsey to the song, because, you know, internet memes and dumb rappers have to unite, right? That might lead one to believe that said remix will give "Old Town Road" enough of a boost to survive "bad guy" next week. But the "bad guy" remix seems to be performing a lot better than the latest "Old Town Road" remix. So I'm not confident in predicting how this is going to play out. If you make me guess, I'd say that "Old Town Road" narrowly gets week No. 16, but I'm excited to see what the charts look like.
2- "bad guy" - Billie Eilish (=) -- Not a whole lot to add here that I didn't say in the recent comment. What I will add is that if "bad guy" continues to remain steady and "Old Town Road" continues to stumble, "bad guy" seems like it will eventually surpass it on the charts, even if it doesn't do so in time. I'm not necessarily predicting that "bad guy" will go No. 1. In theory, there could be a song that ends up leapfrogging both of them. But I do think it's quite possible that "bad guy" ends up higher on the charts than "Old Town Road" as "Old Town Road" seems to be losing all momentum while "bad guy" seems to have a lot left in the tank, especially on radio where it rose again this week, entering the top five on the radio charts. And quick opinion on the Justin Bieber remix coming to the charts next week. I find it amusing. Of course Billie's original is much better, but giving Justin a verse is inoffensive and doesn't destroy the song, even though his lyrics are really dumb and he doesn't do a good job of making himself sound like a bad guy. But if adding him is the push needed to get the song over the edge, then I think it was worth it. Plus, we have to remember that Billie is still a teenage girl. If Bieber's camp was the one to contact her camp in an effort to keep his record in tact, I can see her jumping on that without hesitation, because, you know, teenage girls love Bieber.
3- "Goodbyes" - Post Malone featuring Young Thug (new) -- Out of the frying pan and into the fire. The moment we get one Post Malone song to finally leave the top 10 (I'm talking about "Wow." - "Sunflower" I still enjoy because of Swae Lee), another one takes its place. That, my friends, is how you properly push singles. A huge part of the reason why Post Malone is so successful is that his team is doing an excellent job of properly pushing singles at the right time, whereas a lot of other rappers and hip-hop artists (yes, that's where I categorize Post Malone - I don't see him as a pop artist - sue me) just throw everything at the wall and see what sticks, which creates overexposure. So props to Post Malone for that. "Goodbyes" enters the charts with 40.8 million in streaming, 41,000 in sales and 22.9 million in radio. While some of those numbers are bound to drop in its second week, unlike Taylor Swift of late, Post Malone has a habit of sticking around. So for better or for worse, I could envision a 15-20 week run in the top 10 for "Goodbyes." My opinion of the song will be below.
4- "Talk" - Khalid (-1) -- While "Old Town Road" and "bad guy" were strong enough to hold off a new Post Malone debut, "Talk" wasn't quite so lucky. While it remains king of the radio, up another 5 percent to 133.2 million audience impressions for its fifth week on top there, it just doesn't have enough in sales and streaming to get it any higher. With said radio that strong, I can still see this hanging around for a while. And if Post Malone collapses a bit in its second week, I can see this jumping back up to No. 3 next week. But I do feel like the song overall has peaked. You can only go so far in today's world when radio is the only thing on your side. You need streaming and sales.
5- "Señorita" - Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello (=) -- With a new Post Malone debut this week, "Señorita" staying steady at No. 5 is a good sign for the song moving forward. Shawn's other song was long gone from the top 10 at this point, so adding Camila to this new single is helping him stay put this time around. And I'm fine with this. This is still a fun song for me to listen to, so long as I don't pay too close attention to the lyrics, which aren't that wonderful. However, even though it appears the song is going to stick around, I'm not sure how much higher it's going to get. It feels like it's going to be more like Ed and Justin's song "I Don't Care," which kinda just got stuck in the bottom half of the top five for a while after its huge debut.
6- "I Don't Care" - Ed Sheeran & Justin Bieber (-2) -- Speaking of which, "I Don't Care" finally gets bullied out of the top five this week, pushed back by "Goodbyes" and "Señorita." However, this isn't quite done yet. While I don't anticipate Ed Sheeran getting a new song in the top 10 next week, I do think his collaboration album, which impacts the charts next week, is going to give this a boost. I can see it jumping as high as No. 3 next week, but I'm guessing it'll end up somewhere in the top five.
7- "Truth Hurts" - Lizzo (-1) -- Honestly I'm a bit surprised that "Truth Hurts" could crack top five this week and in fact fell a spot with the Post Malone debut. Maybe I spoke too soon when I predicted last week that this was going to be one of 2019's huge hits. A similar thing also happened with "The Git Up." I was expecting that to soar up into the top 10 this week, but instead it fell three spots to No. 19. But I don't think that spells doom for either song. I still think "Truth Hurts" is going to hit top five and camp out there for a while. But it might just require a bit more time to do so.
8- "Sucker" - Jonas Brothers (-1) -- Meanwhile, "Sucker" continues to slowly slide down the charts. It's been an excellent run, though. With how consistent the song has remained, I think it's secured a spot in the top 10 of my year end most popular songs of 2019. At the very least it'll be a top 15 entry. That's a solid comeback for the Jonas Brothers. Now they just need to figure out how to successfully get a second single to stick. Step one there is to write or release a song that is on par with "Sucker" because their other charting songs this year have certainly not been up to par.
9- "Sunflower (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)" - Post Malone & Swae Lee (-1) -- Thanks to this one final boost for "Sunflower," the song has now accumulated 30 weeks in the top 10, which in my opinion is a more impressive feat than getting 10+ weeks at No. 1. "Old Town Road" may eventually pass it on my most popular songs of 2019 list (at this point it still hasn't, though), but I'm not sure if "Old Town Road" is going to make it to 30 weeks in the top 10 given that the floor for that song seems to be about to completely disappear from under it.
10- "Suge" - DaBaby (=) -- After getting "Money in the Grave" out of the top 10 last week, we successfully kicked out "No Guidance" this week. I'm not quite ready to take a sigh of relief as those two songs are at No. 11 and No. 12 respectively, but it's a momentary win. Next step is to get "Suge" out of here and replace it with something more worthy, like maybe "Hey Look Ma, I Made It" or "The Git Up." That might not be next week, though, as both of those songs got stuck in the bottom half of the top 20 this week. But something needs to step up and kick "Suge" out.
Rising on the Hot 100:
26- "Ran$om" - Lil Tecca (+9) -- What I don't want to happen is for "Ran$om" to be the song that soars up and replaces "Suge." That's not an improvement at all. Let's all hope that this song somehow gets stuck in either the teens or the 20's.
32- "Middle Child" - J. Cole (+11) -- Honestly I don't really know what this Dreamville project is that impacted the charts this week. Nor do I really care. All I know is that it has something to do with J. Cole. Yet instead of making a ton of noise itself (there's only two new Dreamville songs on the charts this week), it seems to have just pushed J. Cole's "Middle Child" up a bit. I'll take that as a win.
36- "Someone You Loved" - Lewis Capaldi (+10) -- Hey look! Some good news in this rising songs section. It's been a slow rise for Lewis Capaldi. Said slow rise usually equates to the song getting stuck in the 20's or 30's at this point. But seeing "Someone You Loved" jump up 10 spots this week makes me really happy.
38- "Shotta Flow" - NLE Choppa (+7) -- I'm glad that this song's momentum seems to have slowed down a bit. There's been a few weeks where I had the luxury of not including it. But nonetheless, it has now entered the top 40 and I can only hope that it doesn't get much higher. We don't need this to continue spamming the charts.
49- "Some of It" - Eric Church (+6) -- Eric Church hits top 50 this week. OK. It's not a song that has stuck with me. This guy has done much better in the past. But this is also inoffensive, so it's whatever. I'll let country radio have this.
67- "My Type" - Saweetie (+14) -- I'm not surprised that this song rose high this week. I'm just hoping that Cardi B 3.0 doesn't get too much success because we could use some actual talent on the charts rather than a whole bunch of Cardi B wannabes.
68- "Lalala" - Y2K & bbno$ (+16) -- Gross. Let's please not make this a thing.
74- "Cash S---" - Megan Thee Stallion featuring DaBaby (+12) -- Also not surprised that Cardi B 2.0 is having success by throwing DaBaby on her song. Her last song failed to do much on the charts, though, so I'm hoping that repeats here.
78- "Trampoline" - SHAED (+11) -- This song hiccuped a bit last week, falling a few spots. That tells me that this probably isn't going to be a mega hit. But I'm still glad that I found it and I will continue to show it to friends and listen to it throughout the year. At the least I hope it ends up like "Someone You Loved" by slowly finding its way to the top 50. The fact that I was able to include in this section this week is a good sign.
84- "The Ones that Didn't Make It Back Home" - Justin Moore (+11) -- Given the subject matter, the only thing that surprises me here is that this hasn't risen faster. I just wish I liked the song more than I do.
New Arrivals:
3- "Goodbyes" - Post Malone featuring Young Thug -- Filled with strong amounts of auto-tune and a useless Young Thug verse, Post Malone's team has created another song that sounds like its bound to be a huge hit. And if it is, well, I suppose I won't be too upset. "Goodbyes" is not unique by any means. It has the same exact feel lyrically as "Better Now" and "Sunflower," given that the three songs are underlined by a broken relationship that. But I'll take that side of Post Malone over the side of him that sings about empty flexing, as in his songs about jewelry, drugs, cars, fame, and hot girls he's going to sleep with. In other words, most of his "beerbongs & bentleys" album. And I'll never give Post Malone credit for being a good singer because he's not, but in "Goodbyes" he's auto-tuned himself enough to sound tolerable. Thus in casually listening to this song if it shows up on the radio or other means, this is pretty solid. In fact, I'd call it his second best single he's released behind "Sunflower." Granted, as I've tried to repeat as often as possible, Swae Lee does most of the heavy lifting on "Sunflower" and doesn't get hardly any credit for it. Everyone says "Sunflower" is a great Post Malone song. No it's not. It's a great Swae Lee song wherein Post Malone comes in at the end and is tolerable enough to not destroy the song. But on that note, perhaps the reason why "Goodbyes" isn't as good is because Post Malone's partner on the song, that of Young Thug, is no Swae Lee. Instead of doing the heavy lifting, Young Thug comes in with a quick verse that sounds like he had a hard time remembering what the subject of the song was supposed to be. He's awful and off topic. "Goodbyes" also doesn't have as great of a production as "Sunflower," a song that is extremely catchy. "Goodbyes" is simply decently tolerable, not catchy. But if we have to have a Post Malone song in the top 10 at all times, I'll take "Goodbyes" as an excellent placeholder.
44- "Under the Sun" - Dreamville featuring J. Cole, Lute & DaBaby -- I don't care about this Dreamville project, especially not with DaBaby added onto a song. In fact, I care so little that I don't even feel like looking up who or what Dreamville actually is, even though that would only take a 10 second Google search.
60- "BLOW" - Ed Sheeran, Chris Stapleton & Bruno Mars -- I'm sure we're going to get plenty of Ed Sheeran next week when his collaborations album "No. 6 Collaborations Project" impacts the charts. Looking at the track listing, most of the tracks make me super nervous, but "BLOW" was another one that sounded like it had enough potential. Granted, that didn't exactly work last week with "Beautiful People," a Khalid collaboration that should've been a lot better than it was, so I tempered my expectations on this one a bit. But... WOW! This song is not what I was expecting from these three. At this point, I don't know if I mean that "WOW!" in a positive or a negative way, but rather in a "that caught me off guard" sort of way. This is a rock song. Or at least an attempt at a rock song. Ed Sheeran is good at his slower ballads and the occasional upbeat pop song. In the description of this album on Apple Music, he said he really stepped out of his comfort zone for this project and that's evident here. Ed starts off by imitating an aggressive version of Chris Stapleton mixed with Bruno Mars and it kinda works. Then Chris Stapleton steps in for a while and owns the song. This is by no means a country song, but it seems to be the most in his comfort zone and it works great for him. According to Genius, Bruno Mars does all the work with the guitar, drums and piano, which is especially impressive given his guitar solo in the song is pretty great. But Bruno's verse and chorus are also solid. I don't know if I'm a huge fan of the lyrics, especially when Ed yells out that he wants to make a baby with this woman. And that's basically what most of the song is. All three of them are basically blown away by how amazing this woman is and we get a little too much details there, which feels like Bruno's influence since that's kinda his wheelhouse. But most of all, this is a unique and fun song that I'm down with jamming to. Stay tuned next week for more Ed Sheeran.
75- "Costa Rica" - Dreamville featuring Bas, JID, Guapdad 4000, Reese LAFLARE, Jace, Mez, Smokepurpp, Buddy & Ski Mask the Slump God -- With THIS many artists attached to a song, can you blame me for not caring about this project? The only act I even recognize here is Ski Mask the Slump God. And he is terrible. So I assume they all are as well, especially with all of these atrocious names.
95- "No Me Conoce" - Jhay Cortez, J Balvin & Bad Bunny -- This is a remix. The original is just Jhay Cortez. But of course the Latinx songs have to always add J Balvin and Bad Bunny, or artists like them, in order to get them popular. I listened to the original first and I wasn't that impressed. It feels kinda staticky and slurred. So I wasn't really that interesting in listening to the remix that added J Balvin and Bad Bunny because I knew it was going to make it even worse. And of course it does. Bad Bunny mumbles his way through his sections, as is his signature, and that clashes heavily with Jhay Cortez's already unimpressive original. J Balvin comes in and is fine, but his sections are mostly boring and thus don't even come close to saving the song. If it was just J Balvin, I'd say this song was fairly inoffensive, yet forgettable. But with the three of them, this is like fingernails on a chalkboard. And that's not even me bothering with the lyrics.
98- "I Don't Know About You" - Chris Lane -- This is exactly what I said when I saw Chris Lane on the charts. I always assume songs like this are going to be boring, generic country songs, but I'm willing to give them a try. Yet Chris Lane is one who I don't know well enough to know if he's capable of putting out an exception. Granted, I can't speak for his whole discography, but this is certainly not an exception. The song starts out slow and mellow, making me feel like this could work. But then Chris comes in and is super twangy in a way that sounds purposely forced rather than natural. And his lyrics are crap. Just more assembly line country lyrics straight out of the country music factory with no feelings or emotions attached to them. Then we get the heavy guitars and drums slowly coming in as the song progresses, betraying the initial slow and mellow feel. Sure, country radio might eat this up, but not me.
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