DrogeMiester's Billboard Analysis - November 2, 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- "Someone You Loved" - Lewis Capaldi (+2) -- I'm genuinely surprised right now to see "Someone You Loved" at No. 1. Pleasantly surprised, I might add. Granted, "Truth Hurts" has been bleeding quite a bit in the last few weeks, so I was expecting something else to rise up and top it, but I was at the point where I thought "Someone You Loved" had peaked and was going to fall down with "Truth Hurts" and "Señorita." In hindsight, "Someone You Loved" has been in the top 10 for a much shorter time than "Truth Hurts" and "Señorita," so this makes sense. And I had mentioned this fact in many previous weeks. It's just that it seemingly got stuck behind those two, and since Billboard in their weekly article gave up on posting specific numbers for "Señorita" and "Someone You Loved," while also throwing a lot of their other smaller charts behind a pay wall, I was forced to play a guessing game with this and I didn't think it was going to make it. But hey, all that allows for a pleasantly surprise. Granted, this also isn't the strongest No. 1 at the moment. It's No. 2 on radio with 106.5 million audience impressions (down 2 percent), No. 2 on sales with 24,000 downloads sold (up 41 percent) and No. 8 on streaming with 25.2 U.S. streams (up 2 percent). So I suppose we can say it got here because it remained consistent enough in all categories, and was helped this week by a spike in sales from some source. I don't know what that specific source is, though. It's also worth noting that "Someone You Loved" reached No. 1 in its 24th week on the Hot 100, which is the fifth leggiest journey to No. 1 of all-time. The record there belongs to "Amazed" by Lonestar, which took 31 weeks to get to No. 1, which it accomplished on March 4, 2000.

2- "Truth Hurts" - Lizzo (-1) -- Last week Lizzo tied Iggy Azalea for the longest running No. 1 ever for a rap song by a woman. This week the two ladies remain tied for that record. And now that Lizzo has been pushed down (for a second time in three weeks), I imagine they're going to have to share that record for a while. Because even though the margins for "Someone You Loved" and "Truth Hurts" are pretty close, "Truth Hurts" is sliding down a lot faster. It's No. 1 on radio with 111.9 million audience impressions (down 3 percent), No. 5 on sales with 17,000 downloads sold (down 15 percent) and No. 11 on streaming with 21.7 million U.S. streams (down 7 percent).

3- "Señorita" - Shawn Mendes (-1) -- Although no numbers were reported for "Señorita," I imagine it also is falling at a similar rate as "Truth Hurts." However, both songs have been here for long enough to have already clinched high spots on the year end list. In my personal tracking, "Señorita" is No. 4 while "Truth Hurts" is No. 6. "Señorita" still has a significant lead over "Truth Hurts." And as long as they stay one spot away from each other, that's going to stay that way.

4- "Circles" - Post Malone (=) -- Although I have no data to back it up, I still think "Circles" might be in the best position at the moment in the top five. The three songs ahead of it have all plateaued to some degree, if not on the downward trend. "Circles" seems to have enough life in the tank to hang around for a while longer, though.

5- "No Guidance" - Chris Brown featuring Drake (=) -- I really have no idea why this is still around. I want it to start losing traction already.

6- "Panini" - Lil Nas X (+3) -- Wait... what? I don't understand. I was thinking this might drop out of the top 10 this week, but instead it rises three spots. I is confused.

7- "HIGHEST IN THE ROOM" - Travis Scott (-1) -- I won't count this song out just yet. There was a point in time where "SICKO MODE" was in a similar spot as this song is and I thought it was going away. But then it stuck around for a long time and joined the 30 week club in the top 10. I'm hoping this will only be here for a small while longer, but I have no idea at this point.

8- "Ran$om" - Lil Tecca (-1) -- Make this go away.

9- "bad guy" - Billie Eilish (-1) -- I think we only have a few more weeks left of Billie in the top 10. But what an amazing run this has been. If you missed my comments from last week, this has officially moved up to No. 2 on my personal tracking for most popular songs of the year, sneaking past Post Malone and Swae Lee's "Sunflower."

10- "10,000 Hours" - Dan + Shay & Justin Bieber (+1) -- OK. I'll take this. I knew that Juice WRLD and Young Boy Never Broke Again song was only going to last a week in the top 10 since it only got a boost due to the album. But I thought it was going to be Maroon 5's "Memories" that took its place in the top 10. Instead, "Memories" gets stuck at the illustrious No. 11 spot while "10,000 Hours" returns to the region. Maybe this is an early sign that this song might actually be gaining traction after its big debut a couple of weeks ago. And I'm good with that. I think this is a good song.

Rising on the Hot 100:

14- "Good as Hell" - Lizzo (+6) -- I'm still expecting "Memories" to hit the top 10, even though it didn't qualify for this list this week as it only rose one spot up to No. 11. But I certainly hope that "Good as Hell" will also rise. It's the better of the two top Lizzo songs and deserves to be in the top 10. If we have to send Billie packing, this is a fine replacement. I just hope we can kick out "Ransom," "HIGHEST IN THE ROOM" and/or "Panini" as well, because those are the ones that seem like they're on the way out.

19- "Trampoline" - SHAED (+2) -- This entered the top 20 a few weeks ago and then it got stuck. Now I'm thinking that it might just hang out in this region instead of entering the top 10. But we'll see. "Someone You Loved" managed to be consistent enough to not only get in the top 10, but also hit No. 1. With there being a lot of falling songs right now, this song just needs enough traction to remain consistent in its chart points.

20- "Only Human" - Jonas Brothers (+4) -- Jonas Brothers are back in the top 20. And right now I think we have a decent set of risers. At least when it comes to the risers currently in the top 20. That gives me hope that good weeks are ahead. We just have to survive the Kanye West onslaught that is coming next week.

32- "One Man Band" - Old Dominion (+13) -- I finally listened to this song. And conceded that it was fine enough. It's still not memorable enough for me to really care, but if this is our next big country song, I won't complain that much.

34- "Even Though I'm Leaving" - Luke combs (+5) -- I'm in about the same position with this song as I am with Old Dominion. I suppose this is fine enough.

49- "Love You Too Late" - Cole Swindell (+11) -- I'm not going to be quite as nice with this country song, though. It's not that much worse, but it also doesn't have any redeeming qualities to it in my book, so it's a country song that just kind of exists.

51- "Dance Monkey" - Tones and I (+24) -- Two straight weeks of 20+ gains and I'm beginning to be convinced that this could be as huge in the U.S. as it has been across the world. Although it's a lot easier to cruise through the bottom half of the Hot 100. It'll start facing its real test as it gets to the top half of the Hot 100. I hope that it continues to soar as it has all the ingredients of an extremely entertaining pop song, even though it also qualifies for being the most annoying song you've ever loved. My roommate calls it the Betty Boop song. I think that's a hilariously accurate title for it.

59- "Baby Sitter" - DaBaby featuring Offset (+13) -- This needs to go away.

79- "Rich as Hell" - YoungBoy Never Broke Again (+21) -- Why do we have YoungBoy songs rising this week. This one needs to fall with the rest of them.

81- "We Were" - Keith Urban (+16) -- This is one of those country songs that hasn't been able to make up its mind as to what it's going to do. I say let's send it up the country charts. Of all the country songs rising this week, this is the best.

New Arrivals:

15- "Lose You to Love Me" - Selena Gomez -- The top song of this week, and one of the only songs to debut in a rather quite week, is the new song from Selena Gomez, that previews a potential new album for her. And I'm always game for more Selena. I think she's matured quite a bit as a singer and has developed into one of my favorite female pop singers. "Lose You to Love Me" is a stripped down and somber break-up ballad. Even though it's not the most original song to ever be written, and is even quite a bit inferior to her recent songs like "Wolves" and "It Ain't Me," that Selena maturity still elevates this song into a solid pop song. Yeah, she singing about a toxic relationship that she had to get out of to find her self worth. That's nothing new. But she sells it with her vocals. And she's not belting anything. In fact, this is a fairly restrained song. There are times where the door is wide open for Selena to walk right through with some power, but she doesn't take it, instead letting the quality of her voice and the sincerity of her deliver carry it through and it works. It's a rather beautiful ballad. It's also a song that was released last Wednesday, the 23rd. If I have my tracking right, that means it debuted at No. 15 with only a partial week of tracking, so this could be in for a decent rise next week and I would love that because this is an excellent song. Perhaps I could've used a bit more substance on the chorus, but that's more of a nitpick than an actual issue I have with the song. And if this is a sneak peak of what a new album is going to sound like, I'm excited for that album! Selena also has another new song titled "Look at Her Now" that was released a tad bit later than this one. I'm assuming we'll get to that one next week because it didn't quite make the cut this week.

97- "Somebody" - Internet Money, Lil Tecca & A Boogie wit da Hoodie -- Nope. Not going to touch this one. Instead I'm going to facepalm at yet another extremely stupid rap name. Internet Money? Really?

98- "DHL" - Frank Ocean -- I've never really been that big of a Frank Ocean fan. He's one of those artists who I feel that I should like a lot more than I actually do. And this is another example of that. I'm assuming this is a song that a lot of people will like and I'm not going to be particularly angry at that. There's certainly a lot worse out there. This has a decent flow to it and an interesting key change partway through. And Frank's vocals are fine. It's just that there's not much in terms of content. I'm not sure what this song is about and there's nothing incredible about the music. It just kinda lulls me to sleep as Frank is rambling on about something. I don't know how big this song is going to be, but if it disappears, I probably won't remember it. And if it becomes a huge hit, I'll probably be more ambivalent towards it. So it's whatever.

DrogeMiester's Billboard Analysis - October 26, 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- "Truth Hurts" - Lizzo (+1) -- Ah, that feels better. That Travis Scott thing had me really nervous because his song simply wasn't good at all. Granted, I'm not a Travis Scott fan, but still. Him reigning at the top was not a pleasant sight to behold. Yet I was nervous that his song would stay there for a while given how strong "SICKO MODE" ended up being. But as it turns out, the floor fell out from under him in week two and now he'll have to rely on his song to gain traction in order to stick around. More on that later, but that song's dip causes the charts to reset themselves to the natural order of things, which allows Lizzo to go back on top for her seventh week, tying Iggy Azalea's "Fancy" for the longest ever reign on the Hot 100 for a rap song by a female artist. If it can hold on for one more week, it'll have that record all to itself. As I've said before, I roll my eyes a bit at that record because I still claim that "Truth Hurts" isn't a rap song. It's a hybrid of a few genres, but I think it's primarily a pop song. So a pop song now has the record for longest female rap song. Eh. Whatever. Regardless of what we call it, I'm glad it's back at No. 1. But it's not going to be here for long because it continues to tank across the board, falling 29 percent in sales, 9 percent in streaming and 5 percent in radio.

2- "Señorita" - Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello (+1) -- Likewise, "Señorita" moves back up to its No. 2 spot. Given how much "Truth Hurts" is falling, I can only assume that "Señorita" is falling equally as fast. Which means if there's a song that wants to jump up and take the top spot, the door is wide open.

3- "Someone You Loved" - Lewis Capaldi (+2) -- You would think with the weakness of "Truth Hurts" and "Señorita" that "Someone You Loved" would be the song that sweeps in and takes the top spot. But last week when Travis Scott and Justin Bieber swept in with their songs, "Someone You Loved" got bullied down to No. 5, so it might not have the necessary traction at the moment to make the move.

4- "Circles" - Post Malone (+2) -- I wasn't sure exactly what Post Malone was going to do with this song, but looking at things right now, this song might actually be the song with the best momentum going forward. And it wouldn't be a crazy idea to thing Post Malone getting another No. 1 single. And I wouldn't mind it, either.

5- "No Guidance" - Chris Brown featuring Drake (+2) -- This is just here because something has to be No. 5. I am surprised to see this song ahead of Travis Scott.

6- "HIGHEST IN THE ROOM" - Travis Scott (-5) -- As I've mentioned a few times now, I'm surprised to see this song fall so far in its second week. The problem here are those sales. There might be a few contributing factors here, but it tanked 87 percent in sales. That's a huge drop. It also dropped 37 percent in streaming, but still manages to be No. 1 this week in streaming with 37.2 million U.S. streams. And it's still very early on in radio. It's gaining in radio, up 61 percent, but that's only to 11.1 million in audience. So it's a long ways away from making a dent. If it's going stay around, it's going to need to somehow regain those sales and stop the bleeding in streaming. Personally I'm not convinced its going away, but I would love for it to do so.

7- "Ran$om" - Lil Tecca (+1) -- This only gains a spot because the Justin Bieber song fell out of the top 10. But let's hope we can get this song out of the top 10.

8- "bad guy" - Billie Eilish (+1) -- With "bad guy" sticking in the top 10 for one more week, it officially moves past "Sunflower" for the No. 2 spot on the year in my personal tracking. Taking the No. 1 spot away from "Old Town Road" is out of the question, but seeing "bad guy" as the second most popular song of the year makes me really happy. There may have been a lot of unfortunate things that happened on the Billboard charts in 2019, but at least one positive was Billie getting her first huge Billboard hit.

9- "Panini" - Lil Nas X (+1) -- I don't think "Panini" is going to stick around in the top 10 for much longer, but it survives for one more week. And maybe it'll hang out in the bottom section of the top 10. That wouldn't offend me.

10- "Bandit" - Juice WRLD & YoungBoy Never Broke Again (+1) -- This debuted at No. 11 last week and sneaks into the top 10 mainly because Justin Bieber fell out, so something had to fill up the last slot. The second week numbers on this song aren't that great. It fell 3 percent in streaming and 49 percent in sales. But I'm certain that fall would've been worse had it not been for YoungBoy's album this week giving it a boost. Granted, I don't know if this song is on the album, but I've still seen non-album songs from an artist getting a boost along with the rest of the album songs. So regardless, I still think this got a boost from the album. Which means I expect this to drop next week. If it does, that's good. And no, I'm not going to touch that album, but you knew that already, right?

Rising on the Hot 100:

12- "Memories" - Maroon 5 (+8) -- Anyone surprised at this one? The radio has a new Maroon 5 song to play on repeat for the next year. I'm just glad that this one doesn't annoy me. I expect it to be in the top 10 sooner rather than later.

20- "Good as Hell" - Lizzo (+4) -- It's great seeing this song continue to rise, even if it is on a slower basis. I guess it makes sense since it is an older song from Lizzo and not a brand new release. But I'm still glad that it's in the top 20 and I hope a trip to the top 10 is coming up next!

22- "On Chill" - Wale featuring Jeremih (+5) -- Go away.

32- "Hot" - Young Thug featuring Gunna (+6) -- Go away.

38- "One Thing Right" - Marshmello & Kane Brown (+5) -- Snooze.

39- "Even Though I'm Leaving" - Luke Combs (+10) -- I suppose I'm not too upset at this. It's one of those songs that I have to keep reminding myself that I didn't think it was awful. And I have to keep doing that because it's a song that just doesn't stick.

41- "Heat" - Chris Brown featuring Gunna (+6) -- Go away.

45- "One Man Band" - Old Dominion (+9) -- Is this my first time covering this song? It debuted back in September during Taylor Swift week and I skipped it then. But I don't know if I ever got around to talking about it. It's a song that's stripped down and mellow, so it's a pleasurable listen. I've not ever really cared about Old Dominion, nor have I paid much attention to them. But this is fine, I suppose. Nothing worth salivating over and not one that I will play for friends on a long drive. But if it shows up somehow, I don't think I'll be too upset.

46- "Time" - NF (+6) -- Meh. I'm not angry. But I'm not ecstatic with this, either.

48- "Good Vibes" - Chris Janson (+8) -- No good vibes from me.

50- "Self Control" - YoungBoy Never Broke Again (+48) -- Only rising this much due to YoungBoy's album that I'll be gladly ignoring this week. 

56- "F.N" - Lil Tjay (+28) -- Go away.

75- "Dance Monkey" - Tones and I (+21) -- So I don't know how many people closely follow my week by week commentary on every song that shows up or remembers what I said in previous weeks. If you don't, I don't blame. I often forget myself and I don't get too worried because I often treat each week as if there are new people reading through this who haven't read one of my music posts before. But last week I mentioned that I was nervous about showing this to people because I could envision people reacting in a very negative way. Now I can't speak for everyone, but I did play this for my roommate and, to my pleasant surprise, the reaction from him was quite positive. Looking in the comment section of this very bizarre music video taught me that this song is everywhere all over Europe. Granted, I figured that was the case when I realized how many countries it had become No. 1 in, but the comment section confirmed this. And now it celebrated a 21 spot jump in its second week on the U.S. charts. Yeah, I don't want to speak too fast because there's a lot of worldwide hits that don't connect as well in the U.S. for some reason, but this has all the ingredients to become a huge smash hit here as well. And I'm on board with that.

New Arrivals:

17- "Lights Up" - Harry Styles -- Well this is easy. Only one new arrival to talk about with a whole lot of nope coming after it. And the song that debuted is the one song that I expected to debut. We just had Niall Horan sneaking in a new song a week before his former One Direction band member. Speaking specifically about Harry Styles, his debut album was quite the shocker as he delivered what had the feel of a 70's rock album, which was insane coming from a dude straight out of a pop boy band group. With that shock in the rear view mirror, I most certainly elevated myself to the excited stage when it came to a new Harry Styles song. And this is another slick groove from Harry. I'm not going to try to pinpoint an exact decade with this one as it does have a different feel to it when compared to his first album. At this point I'm not sure what type of different it is for me, whether it be for bad or good, but simply calling it different is sufficient. It does hit a few weird notes on the chorus, like he switches to a minor key out of the blue or something like that. But overall this is still solid. It's a bit toned back, but it doesn't slide into ballad territory, but rather has a very subtle groove that keeps it moving forward. I like what they do with the piano in this. It added a good touch to the song. There's also plenty of other instruments layered in with a gospel-style backing vocal arrangement that all adds together to create a pleasant song. I'm not sure if I like the song as much as Niall song last week. But this is another good entry from Harry and I hope that both of their songs perform well in the weeks and months to come.

44- "Lonely Child" - YoungBoy Never Broke Again -- Nope.

57- "Makes No Sense" - YoungBoy Never Broke Again -- Nope. 

62- "Carter Son" - YoungBoy Never Broke Again -- Nope.

64- "Kinfolks" - Sam Hunt -- It's funny, I almost completely forgot to include this song. I almost published without it. So I'm including this last second. However, at this current time, I'm not in the mood to go back and listen to this. Sue me. It's Sam Hunt. He sucks. Why would this be any different? Nevertheless, this is bound to become a hit, so I'll talk about it next week.Or whenever it shows up in my rising songs section.

66- "Hot Now" - YoungBoy Never Broke Again -- Nope.

70- "All Dat" - Moneybagg Yo & Megan Thee Stallion -- Nope.

73- "In Control" - YoungBoy Never Broke Again -- Nope.

79- "Time I'm On" - YoungBoy Never Broke Again -- Nope.

100- "Rich as Hell" - YoungBoy Never Broke Again -- Nope.

DrogeMiester's Billboard Analysis - October 19, 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- "HIGHEST IN THE ROOM" - Travis Scott (new) -- I had a feeling we were going to get a new No. 1 before too long since "Truth Hurts" wasn't exactly the strongest No. 1. But this isn't how I envisioned it. I knew Travis Scott was coming because his new single was getting a lot of hype, but I was surprised to see it debut this high. It becomes his second No. 1 following "SICKO MODE" and the 35th song to debut at No. 1. It's the third song to do so this year following Ariana Grande's "7 rings" and Jonas Brothers' "Sucker." If you're curious, the first song to debut at No. 1 was Michael Jackson's "You are Not Alone" in 1995. Travis Scott hit No. 1 with 59 million U.S. streams and 51,000 downloads sold, which is No. 1 on streaming, but No. 2 on sales, behind our other top 5 debut that we'll get to in a second. The song didn't exactly register on the radio charts, but I'm sure that'll come around. Now the question will be what it does from here. After huge debuts, songs usually dip in their second weeks before either free-falling or gaining actual traction. Given how huge "SICKO MODE" was (it was in the top 10 for over 30 weeks), I'm guessing "HIGHEST IN THE ROOM" is going to be around for a while. With only 10 weeks left in the calendar year, it wouldn't be too crazy of an idea to predict that this finishes the year at No. 1, especially considering the competition right now isn't too terribly strong. But that would be predicated on the streaming and sales remaining consistent with it needing to also catch up on radio. So we'll see.

2- "Truth Hurts" - Lizzo (-1) -- If Travis Scott falls off the face of the cliff in the next week or two, it wouldn't be surprising to see "Truth Hurts" go back to No. 1. The song is still consistent across the board, even though its also peaked in all categories as well as its down 1 percent in radio (120.4 million), 8 percent in streaming (25.8 million) and 7 percent in sales (28,000). So yeah, Travis Scott is going to have to tumble quite a bit for "Truth Hurts" to go back to the top. That radio number will help her out, though, as she has over 100 million more audience impressions than Travis Scott at the moment.

3- "Señorita" - Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello (-1) -- Having never been able to catch back up to "Truth Hurts," Shawn and Camila slide down to No. 3 with Travis Scott's debut However, "Señorita" is still ahead of "Truth Hurts" on my personal tracking for the year end list. And if it remains just one spot behind like this, it's going to take a significant number of weeks for "Truth Hurts" to actually get ahead. But with 10 weeks left in the year, anything can still happen.

4- "10,000 Hours" - Dan + Shay & Justin Bieber (new) -- I was extremely confused when I first saw this on the charts because all my brain saw was Dan + Shay. How in the world did Dan + Shay debut in the top five? For context, their highest charting hit is "Tequila," which peaked at No. 21. In fact, no duo or group who primarily records country music has ever debuted in the top five on the Hot 100. So this is quite strange. But then I saw the second name. Oh. That's how. This had nothing to do with Dan + Shay and everything to do with Justin Bieber. At first I thought it was a bit of a strange combination of artists, but mixing pop and country has worked wonders in the past, most notably with "Meant to Be," which teamed Florida Georgia Line with Bebe Rexha, resulting in one of the top songs of that year. Given that Justin Bieber is a malleable artist who will team up with just about anyone, he now adds a No. 1 hit on the Hot Country Songs chart to his resume, making him the only artist to have a No. 1 hit on the Hot Country Songs, Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, Hot Latin Songs, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, Hot Rap Songs and Hot R&B Songs charts, while obviously also topping a whole bunch of pop songs charts. So yeah, it's been quite the career for Justin.

5- "Someone You Loved" - Lewis Capaldi (-2) -- One of the losers this week is Lewis Capaldi, who gets bullied down to No. 5 this week. While previously being in good position to eventually take over the top spot, being that "Truth Hurts" and "Señorita" have been around for a lot longer, that now seems a lot more unlikely with the added competition of Travis Scott and Justin Bieber. But still, for a global hit that is new to the U.S., being here in the top five in the first place is an impressive feat. And this could still sneak up a bit in the top five if Travis and Justin fall off their debuts and/or if "Truth Hurts" and "Señorita" continue to tank when it comes to chart points.

6- "Circles" - Post Malone (+2) -- The big winner this week is Post Malone as "Circles" manages to rise two spots despite two songs debuting ahead of it. That's a solid sign moving forward, meaning that Post Malone might actually have a song that will gain real traction with "Goodbyes" taking a surprise exit from the top 10 this week following a run that, while not disappointing, didn't quite live up to previous Post Malone tracks. Maybe "Circles" will? It still has a long way to go if its going to overcome everything in its way, but it's still positioned quite well to finish off the year strong.

7- "No Guidance" - Chris Brown featuring Drake (-2) -- Tumbling out of the top five is, thankfully, "No Guidance." We don't need any more Chris Brown or Drake, so it would be really nice if we could bully this song out of here.

8- "Ran$om" - Lil Tecca (-4) -- With Travis Scott getting huge streaming numbers, Lil Tecca was the big loser as all the services that force new songs onto people's playlists now have a new song to push. It's made zero sense to me as to how and why this song has had such huge streaming numbers. Certainly people aren't voluntarily listening to this song on repeat, right? Thus even though I'm not super ecstatic about Travis Scott being around, if he forces Lil Tecca out, that's at least something good.

9- "bad guy" - Billie Eilish (-3) -- After a bit of a rebound last week, Billie again falls down due to this week actually being an active week for the Hot 100. "bad guy" has been in the top 10 for 27 weeks now, so I can't complain that its time is up. However, if it can manage just one more week in the top 10, it'll officially move past "Sunflower" on my personal year end tracking of the most popular songs of the year. I think it can do that. If not, a close third for the year is nothing to be upset about.

10- "Panini" - Lil Nas X (-1) -- Ladies and gentleman, the time has finally come. "Old Town Road" is OUT of the top 10 as it fell to No. 14 this week. And a bit surprisingly, "Panini" is about to follow suit. Even though Lil Nas X is an expert at promoting his songs, there's only so much he can do when he writes a song as boring and dull as this one. "Old Town Road" was an earworm that was easy to get stuck in your head. People might be singing that one for years to come. No one is going to ever remember "Panini."

Rising on the Hot 100:

16- "Playing Games" - Summer Walker (+59) -- In a strange turn of events, it's the week of Summer Walker as the music gods rather quickly expedited her into being a thing. The only reason she charted in the first place was because Drake remixed one of her songs. And now only a short time later, she has her own album bomb. So far I've not found her to be a bad artist, but more of a boring one. I can understand her appeal, but she's just not for me. Thus I'm not interested in spending my whole day covering her album. I'll wait to see which of her songs become hits and talk about them when the time comes. Speaking of which, this song is now a top 20 hit, but I imagine it will come crashing back down next week. Whether or not it will be able to maintain enough traction to become a real hit after that remains to be seen.

20- "Memories" - Maroon 5 (+9) -- For better or for worse, this song has got be on a "Canon in D" kick. I've listened to that so many times in the last couple of weeks, even putting it on repeat while I do things, which is an excellent way to help me keep focused. I've learned, though, that most of the crowd that usually hates or dislikes Maroon 5 stuff also is about equally unimpressed with this song, making me a bit unique in not hating it. But oh well. I certainly won't lose any sleep if it fails to gain traction. But I mean, come on. It's Maroon 5. The radio will endlessly play ANYTHING the release. So this is going to stick around.

24- "Good as Hell" - Lizzo (+6) -- Can we make this a hit? I would love to see this go into the top 10, especially if "Truth Hurts" is going to start declining. I think most people, even those who love Lizzo, will agree that this is the better song. Even though I'm not in the Lizzo fan base, I totally agree with the assessment that "Good as Hell" is better.

30- "Ballin'" - Mustard featuring Roddy Ricch (+23) -- Make this go away.

34- "Lover" - Taylor Swift (+11) -- Taylor Swift is hanging in there as "Lover" ever so slowly climbs up the charts. It still has a long way to go to get back to where it was when Taylor's album was released, but the momentum for it is currently positive, which pleases me. If this song does well, that means some of Taylor's future singles might also have hope. Even though her initial singles for the album were a bit rough, it turns out that there's a lot of good songs on her album that I would love to see become hits.

36- "Prayed for You" - Matt Stell (+10) -- Matt Stell praying his way up the country charts. I suppose I'm not upset. This song is fine.

44- "Graveyard" - Halsey (+16) -- I still contend that the time lapse music video for this song was more impressive than the song itself, but this is a serviceable song for Halsey. If pop radio needs something to play, they should give this one some spins.

47- "Heat" - Chris Brown (+10) -- Make Chris Brown go away.

49- "Even Though I'm Leaving" - Luke Combs (+9) -- I suppose this is better than some of the other Luke Combs songs that have been hits, but I still can't get too excited about this. The Matt Stell song I'm fine with. This one I'm indifferent towards.

56- "Good Vibes" - Chris Janson (+10) -- I'm also not on board with this one.

64- "What Happens in a Small Town" - Brantley Gilbert & Lindsay Eli (+21) -- It's a good week for country as country radio pushes it's new slate of songs. But I'm also not on board with this generic country song.

66- "Hot Girl Bummer" - blackbear (+10) -- NO!!! Make it go away!

85- "Higher Love" - Kygo & Whitney Houston (+10) -- Yes, please! This song hasn't been able to decide if it's going to be a fun novelty that quickly goes away or if it wants to be a legitimate hit. I'm totally on board with the latter. Let's give Whitney another hit! Sure, EDM isn't the best fit for Whitney's voice, but it's fine enough and a remix like this is probably the only way to bring Whitney back to the charts.

New Arrivals:

1- "HIGHEST IN THE ROOM" - Travis Scott -- OK, fine. Normally I ignore Travis Scott. But given that he currently has the No. 1 hit, I'll subject myself to this. In the most unsurprising turn of events, I don't like this. And I have no idea why Travis Scott has been knighted by so many as one of the most talented hip-hop artists in the business. Sure, he's fairly inoffensive comparatively. But that's not a very high bar to jump over when the competition is people like Lil Tecca, Juice WRLD, YoungBoy Never Broke Again, A Boogie wit da Hoodie, or Chris Brown. And I like the fact that Travis Scott at least sounds like a real name (even though his real name is Jacques Berman Webster II). All of these goofy rap names drive me crazy. But all Travis is doing in this song is talking about how high he is, discussing his relationship with his ex-girlfriend Kylie Jenner (who he broke up with two days before releasing this song), and doing some occasional flexing. All the bars are the same length and Travis' vocals never change beyond singing the same two or three notes for the most of the song, meaning the flow is boring and we also do the annoying thing of throwing in a whole bunch of echoes. So there's nothing to grasp onto with this. And now you know why I normally skip Travis Scott. 

4- "10,000 Hours" - Dan + Shay & Justin Bieber -- When I first saw Dan + Shay and Justin Bieber listed on the same song, I was initially quite confused as it seemed like a strange combination. The more I thought about it, though, the more it kinda made sense. Again, when we have country and pop crossovers, that's where we hit chart gold, like "Meant to Be" with Florida Georgia Line and Bebe Rexha. And as I stated above, the definition I came up with for Justin Bieber is malleable. He can jump on a Latin song like "Despacito" and fit in. He's good at balancing out a hip-hop song. I did a song with Ed Sheeran earlier this year where it was hard to tell the two apart. And he's a great fit for an EDM song. So why not dip his feet into country? It's especially helpful that Dan + Shay often lean into the more country pop realm anyways, so this is an easy fit. Now I'm not always madly in love with Dan + Shay. They can easily fall into country tropes that annoy me, which is most of "Tequila" for me. But then they have potential to step aside and do a nice wedding song, which is exactly what this one is. If you totally remove Justin Bieber from this song, this fits as quite a nice wedding song and one of Dan + Shay's better songs. It's simple in its lyrics, but it also feels genuine with the delivery and is toned back with the music. Throw in Justin Bieber and he mixes quite nicely with them. In fact, my biggest concern with the song is Justin fits in a little too well, making his inclusion fairly unnecessary. There's no reason to have him on the song as he doesn't add anything different to it. He's just doing his best Dan + Shay impression. At the same time, though, he doesn't do anything to retract from the song, so I'm not upset he's here. If his sole purpose is to push a nice wedding song to a much larger audience than Dan + Shay would've otherwise had, then I'd say this is a big win. Thus it parallels "Despacito." Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee didn't NEED Bieber on their song and he didn't add anything outside a bit of English. But he didn't detract from the song either and he helped them immensely with the sales.

11- "Bandit" - Juice WRLD & YoungBoy Never Broke Again -- This song did not crack the top 10, so I will gladly ignore it.  

42- "Come Thru" - Summer Walker & Usher -- As I stated above, I'm not interested in covering a Summer Walker album bomb. I have better things to do with my day.

61- "I'll Kill You" - Summer Walker featuring Jhene Aiko -- I'm not covering Summer Walker's album bomb today.

68- "Stretch You Out" - Summer Walker featuring A Boogie wit da Hoodie -- I'm not covering Summer Walker's album bomb today.

73- "Body" - Summer Walker -- I'm not covering Summer Walker's album bomb today.

79- "Drunk Dialing...LODT" - Summer Walker -- I'm not covering Summer Walker's album bomb today.

80- "Over It" - Summer Walker -- I'm not covering Summer Walker's album bomb today.

83- "Nice to Meet Ya" - Niall Horan -- Recently I've been thinking about where our One Directioners went. And this was because Liam Payne did one of those Wired autocomplete interviews. Then I saw that Harry Styles released a new song titled "Lights Up," so I was expecting a return from them, but Niall wasn't the one that I was anticipating. I thought we'd get to cover Harry or maybe Liam. Maybe they'll be in future weeks. For now we talk about Niall. If I'm being honest, Niall hasn't been the most interesting of the One Directioners in terms of their solo adventures. With songs like "Slow Hands" and "This Town," he's been the one that's sounded the most like One Direction, delivering simple, basic music that has nothing much to offer. Which is why I'm surprised a bit by "Nice to Meet Ya" because this has a solid groove to it. It's significantly different and it's super infectious. If I was a super nerdy music person, I'd dissect all the individual elements of the song, but I'm not actually good at doing that. But what I do hear is a solid mix of hand claps, piano and a bass guitar, with some excellently timed backing vocals and good drum work. I'm also trying to nail down exactly what era this sounds like its from. I'm almost thinking it reminds me of some 70's or 80's grooves. But maybe there's a bitter fit that's not coming to me at the movie. Either way, this song is a lot of fun and if Niall's second album is like this, bring it on. I didn't listen to his first album, but I'll check out his second album if it's this fun.

91- "Leave Em Alone" - Layton Greene, Lil Baby, City Girls & PnB Rock -- I have no idea who Layton Greene is, but give the other three acts on this song, this is also worth ignoring.

92- "Potential" - Summer Walker -- I'm not covering Summer Walker's album bomb today.

96- "Dance Monkey" - Tones and I -- The last thing to do this week is figure out who Tones and I are. As it turns out, Tones and I aren't a they, they're a she. One person. And she's a 19-year-old Australian singer-songwriter who released her debut single, "Johnny Runs Away" back in March, then followed it up with "Dance Monkey" in May. I haven't been as up to speed on my worldwide hits as I should, but "Dance Monkey" has been absolutely huge, having gone No. 1 in over 20 different countries. Like is always the case, the U.S. is behind everyone because we choose to shove a bunch of crappy hip-hop artists down everyone's throats instead of releasing quality music. But whatever. This is finally here and we'll see how people here take to it. Lewis Capaldi is currently in the top five after taking forever to finally crossover, so it can happen. As far as "Dance Monkey," I'll admit that this is a bit of a strange song, mostly because Tones and I has a unique vocal delivery that switches back and forth from being a normal pop voice to growling to singing in a higher-pitched baby voice. I like playing these more obscure songs for my friends on car drives and in other situations and I honestly don't how they're going to take to this one, but I'm awfully curious to try. Regardless of what people think of the vocals, the thing this absolutely does have going for it is a fun, dancy groove. Once I get used to the vocals, I can see this becoming a song that grows on me. The dance craze of 2020? Well, maybe not. But I could envision a world wherein that happens given that the rest of the world has already taken to it.

DrogeMiester's Billboard Analysis - October 12, 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- "Truth Hurts" - Lizzo (=) -- It's a sixth week at No. 1 for "Truth Hurts." In previous weeks I've said this song is vulnerable. And I still think it is. But this week it actually rose in all three categories, with the biggest gain coming in sales as it increased 19 percent. I'm not quite sure what sparked this boost, but there must've been something that happened recently with it. We'll see what happens in the upcoming weeks. If you're on the train of thinking this is a rap song, then "Truth Hurts" is one week away from tying Iggy Azalea's "Fancy" for longest run at No. 1 for a female rapper. I actually don't think this is a rap song, so I don't put much weight on that record. I think this song is a hybrid of a few different genres, which is why I think it's here. If you're able to appeal to multiple different musical fan bases, then that's obviously going to help you out.

2- "Señorita" - Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello (=) -- Billboard seems to have given up on reporting what the margins are between the top two songs. Then they decided to make people pay to see some of the charts. So I have nothing to report on here. When Billboard decides to tell me something, I'll relay the message.

3- "Someone You Loved" - Lewis Capaldi (=) -- Same story here. Billboard didn't even report what the numbers are here. I would assume this is in good position to sneak ahead of the two songs in front of it, but I have no idea if its even rising or falling in the individual categories. If I learn something, I'll let you know.

4- "Ran$om" - Lil Tecca (=) -- People are still streaming this song like crazy. And I have no idea why.

5- "No Guidance" - Chris Brown featuring Drake (=) -- Surprise! The whole top five is the same as it was last week. And I'm fine with the top three. But I'd really like it if Nos. 4 and 5 got knocked out.

6- "bad guy" - Billie Eilish (+1) -- Oh my goodness! A song moved on the charts compared to last week! And it's Billie Eilish rising a spot due to "Panini" collapsing a bit this week. And I'm glad Billie stabilized after last week's fall.

7- "Circles" - Post Malone (+1) -- Post Malone also rising a spot thanks to "Panini" falling.

8- "Panini" - Lil Nas X (-2) -- Last week's fall was expected after it hit top five following the music video and the new remix. If there's anything I'll give Lil Nas X credit for, it's knowing how to take advantage of the system to boost his songs. But Lil Nas X can only do so much if he doesn't have a song that's really catching on. So it fell a spot last week. And now it fell two spots this week. To me that seems to say that this song is on its way out, but I'm going to go find some wood to knock on so me saying that doesn't cause it to reverse course and start rising again.

9- "Goodbyes" - Post Malone featuring Young Thug (=) -- This song is still here because there's NOTHING below the top 10 that seems to want to enter the region.

10- "Old Town Road" - Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus (=) -- Same thing here. The charts are stuck this week, meaning this song is only still here because nothing is rising fast enough. Let's hope that changes because I'm ready for some movement here.

Rising on the Hot 100:

13- "INTRO" - DaBaby (+4) -- I learned after my post last week that this song is actually a real song and not just some weird intro thing that somehow chart. DaBaby just decided to name it "INTRO," which is weird to me. But whatever. It only rose this week because of DaBaby's album bomb that I'll be ignoring. Next week will be the real test.

18- "Trampoline" - SHAED (+14) -- Oh, here's a better idea! Let's get "Trampoline" into the top 10 instead! I love that idea! I actually never believed that it would get there because this has been one of those really slow rising songs. And I'm not yet convinced that it'll get over the hump. There's a lot of songs that slowly rise, then camp out in the teens before hitting the top 10. I'm not sure what route this one is going to take. And if it does hit the top 10, I don't know if it will be there for just a few weeks like "Sweet but Psycho" or if it will randomly shoot up to No. 3 like "Someone You Loved." I obviously hope it's the latter, but at this point I'm just happy that its a top 20 hit because that means more and more people are realizing this song exists.

22- "Only Human" - Jonas Brothers (+6) -- Can Jonas Brothers get another top 10 hit? I'd be fine with that. Although top 20 is the more immediate goal, which I assume it'll hit next week. Then it has to work its way through the teens, which is often the toughest part of actually cracking the top 10.

23- "On Chill" - Wale featuring Jeremih (+6) -- I'm in a really dumb mood right now. I saw Jonas Brothers, then I saw Wale and suddenly I think it should be the Jonas Brothers collaborating with Wale instead of Jeremih? Why? Well, because Jonas is like Jonah and Wale is like whale. The whale didn't swallow Jeremiah. It swallowed Jonah. So it only makes sense, right? OK, I'll see myself out.

30- "Good as Hell" - Lizzo (+13) -- In addition to "Truth Hurts" rising in overall chart points this week, "Good as Hell" shoots up to No. 30. That makes me happy because "Good as Hell" is my favorite of the two songs. It also adds to my theory that Lizzo must've performed the two songs somewhere recently in order to cause both of them to get a boost. I do hope that leads this song to continue to rise.

38- "One Thing Right" - Marshmello & Kane Brown (+9) -- Meh.

46- "Prayed for You" - Matt Stell (+8) -- Thanks for praying for me, Matt.

New Arrivals:

19- "BOP" - DaBaby -- I'm not covering DaBaby's album bomb.

21- "VIBES" - DaBaby -- I'm not covering DaBaby's album bomb.

28- "TOES" - DaBaby featuring Lil Baby & Moneybagg Yo -- I'm not covering DaBaby's album bomb. Also, Moneybagg Yo? What the heck? Let's never make this guy a thing because that almost takes the cake for dumbest rap name I've seen.

43- "iPHONE" - DaBaby & Nicki Minaj -- I'm not covering DaBaby's album bomb.

47- "OFF THE RIP" - DaBaby -- I'm not covering DaBaby's album bomb.

49- "POP STAR" - DaBaby featuring Kevin Gates -- I'm not covering DaBaby's album bomb.

51- "RAW S---" - DaBaby featuring Migos -- I'm not covering DaBaby's album bomb.

55- "GOSPEL" - DaBaby featuring Chance the Rapper, Gucci Mane & YK Osiris -- I'm not covering DaBaby's album bomb.

56- "Writing on the Wall" - French Montana featuring Post Malone, Cardi B & Rvssian -- This is weird combination of human beings. And I'm not interested in hearing how it turned out.

63- "REALLY" - DaBaby featuring Stunna 4 Vegas -- I'm not covering DaBaby's album bomb.

69- "XXL" - DaBaby -- I'm not covering DaBaby's album bomb.

73- "PROLLY HEARD" - DaBaby -- I'm not covering DaBaby's album bomb.

81- "Chicken Noodle Soup" - j-hope featuring Becky G -- Well this is awkward. Given that I'm not covering DaBaby's album bomb, that almost gives me nothing to talk about. But there are two songs I will cover. The first of which is Becky G with... j-hope? I first thought that j-hope was some sort of Latino dude that I've never heard of. But turns out he's one of the 10,000 members of BTS. So we have an odd combination of Spanish and Korean, with both of them singing English every once in a while. And I know I skipped DaBaby's album, but I'm sure that there was probably some better songs from that album than this song because this is annoying. I don't care to translate any of the non-English lyrics, but I'd be willing to guess that they're as meaningless as the English, which doesn't even equate to anything. Then we get the chorus that repeats "Chicken noodle soup. Chicken noodle soup. Chicken noodle soup with a soda on the side." What? This better disappear ASAP because this is more of an annoying earworm than "Old Town Road" and "Baby Shark. And that's saying something.

84- "Heartache Medication" - Jon Pardi -- And we end the week with a country song. And Jon Pardi is singing about drinking at a bar while trying to get over his broken heart. In other words, you've heard this song a thousand times and it's as boring and generic as it comes. But do you know what? I just barely listened to "Chicken Noodle Soup," so this was a breath of fresh air simply because it's actually a real song that can be listened to. More than likely I'll forget this song exists when it leaves the charts. And if it becomes a huge hit, I might get annoyed. But this week I'm fine with it as it puts something else in my head. And it has enough of a folky touch to it to make it a decent song to dance to. So don't get too excited country friends, but this week I'm giving this song a pass.

86- "By My Lonely" - Kevin Gates -- I don't care about Kevin Gates.

89- "THERE HE GO" - DaBaby -- I'm not covering DaBaby's album bomb.

DrogeMiester's Billboard Analysis - October 5, 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- "Truth Hurts" - Lizzo (=) -- "Truth Hurts" holds at No. 1 for a fifth week thanks to its increased lead on radio, up 3 percent to 119.4 million audience impressions, as well as good enough numbers on sales and streaming, down 5 percent in sales to 26,000 downloads sold and down 6 percent in streaming to 27.5 million U.S. streams. Again, I don't think this is that strong of a No. 1 hit right now. Despite leading on the radio, it fell to No. 2 on sales and is at No. 7 on streaming. It's just holding the fort until something stronger comes around. And I'm not upset at that.

2- "Señorita" - Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello (=) -- Shawn and Camila hang out at No. 2 again this week. Although Billboard gave up several weeks ago on reporting what the song's numbers are, so your guess is as good as mine as to how for behind "Truth Hurts" it is. At this point, I'm guessing it's not doing well enough to overtake it.

3- "Someone You Loved" - Lewis Capaldi (+1) -- Honestly the song that seems to be in strong position to take over for "Truth Hurts" at No. 1 is this song right here, judging solely on the fact that it's only been around for a few weeks in the top 10 while the other two songs ahead of it have been around significantly longer. But again, Billboard didn't report what the numbers on this one were, so we'll have to wait and see. The song did take forever to hit the top 10, so if it's hit its peak, I wouldn't be too surprised.

4- "Ran$om" - Lil Tecca (+2) -- We really need to stop streaming this song. I don't get the appeal. But that's what it's back at No. 4. That and some of the songs ahead of it fell.

5- "No Guidance" - Chris Brown featuring Drake (+2) -- Chris Brown gets his first top five hit since 2008 while Drake collects his 15th career top five. And I couldn't care less about either artist and their achievements this week. I'm just happy the song hasn't blown up too much, but I'm equally as annoyed that it hasn't started losing traction.

6- "Panini" - Lil Nas X (-1) -- We'll have to wait and see what this song ends up doing. At this point, I currently have no idea. It shot up to No. 5 last week due to the arrival of the music video. Now it's fallen one spot. It would be nice if it continued to fall.

7- "bad guy" - Billie Eilish (-4) -- Ouch. That's quite the tumble for Billie this week. But the song did spend 19 weeks in the top five and is at week No. 25 in the top 10, so I guess it was inevitable that it would fall at some point. It's currently the No. 3 song of the year according to my personal tracking and it's sneaking up behind "Sunflower" for that No. 2 spot. Whether or not it catches it will depend on how long it manages to stay in the top 10. If it has anymore tumbles like this week, that might not be very long.

8- "Circles" - Post Malone (+1) -- Post Malone remains stagnant with his two remaining top 10 hits. They just switched spots, which infers that "Circle" may be gaining traction? We'll have to see it if can get any stronger momentum and actually climb higher.

9- "Goodbyes" - Post Malone featuring Young Thug (-1) -- After a surprisingly disappointing run compared to previous Post Malone singles, "Goodbyes" might be finally on the way out since it has nothing else to prop it back up and "Circles" seems to be the new single that's being pushed.

10- "Old Town Road" - Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus (=) -- One more week for "Old Town Road." Mainly because there's nothing too strong below the top 10.

Rising on the Hot 100:

16- "Money in the Grave" - Drake featuring Rick Ross (+2) -- This isn't going anywhere. It's just kinda coasting here in the teens, rising up and down based on what the songs around it are doing.

18- "Suge" - DaBaby (+2) -- DaBaby has an album set to impact the charts next week. So unfortunately we might see this get a huge boost next week.

20- "Hot Girl Summer" - Megan Thee Stallion, Nicki Minaj & Ty Dolla $ign (+2) -- I'm a bit surprised that this song hasn't gained enough traction to make much of an impact, but it snuck back into the top 20 this week.

21- "Baby" - Lil Baby & DaBaby (+6) -- DaBaby's presence here might help this surge next week thanks to his album. And that's unfortunate.

28- "Only Human" - Jonas Brothers (+10) -- Jonas Brothers are getting a second big hit following "Sucker." Good for them, I suppose.

38- "223's" - YNW Melly & 9lokknine (+21) -- Make this go away.

39- "I Don't Know About You" - Chris Lane (+8) -- Eh.

43- "Good as Hell" - Lizzo (+7) -- I'm a bit surprised this is still around given how old it is. But I'm not complaining. Out of the two Lizzo songs charting right now, this is certainly the better of the two. So if it can continue to gain traction, I'll be happy.

44- "Lover" - Taylor Swift (+5) -- Taylor really needs a win with this song. She had an excellent week when her album debuted, but it was rough before that and it's continued to be rough after that. If "Lover" doesn't gain traction, she's going to be in danger of falling into obscurity.

47- "One More Night" - Marshmello & Kane Brown (+5) -- This one refuses to go away.

71- "Baby Sitter" - DaBaby featuring Offset (+10) -- Again, thanks to DaBaby's album, this will probably do quite well next week. And that's upsetting.

74- "Playing Games" - Summer Walker (+20) -- I skipped this song when it debuted because it was Taylor Swift week that week and I decided I'd spent too much time on that charts with covering all of Taylor's songs. But I promised I'd get back to it if it started rising and I'm keeping to my word. And, well, turns out I wasn't missing anything. Granted, I've never been much of an R&B person. I don't hate the genre, I just find it mostly boring. That's the most accurate word to describe this song. Boring. It's too chopped up and really slow. There's not much in terms of content and it barely lasts more than two minutes. So if you're an R&B person and you love this, then I'm happy for you. It's just not my thing. It's not horrible or offensive, just dull and forgettable.

76- "Tip of My Tongue" - Kenny Chesney (+12) -- I can't even remember this song.

79- "Hot Girl Bummer" - blackbear (+12) -- Gross. Why are we making this a thing?

85- "Remember You Young" - Thomas Rhett (+15) -- Yes. I might've been a bit nitpicky here when I covered this song last week since it could've been a lot better. But as is, I'm still happy it's around and I'm more than happy if it becomes a pop country hit.

New Arrivals:

17- "INTRO" - DaBaby -- As I've said a few times now, I'm bracing for a DaBaby album bomb next week. I'm not going to cover any of the songs, but I'm expecting it to happen due to the strong presence the songs have on the Apple Music charts at the moment. Yet I'm really confused as to why this song showed up this week and why it's even here in the first place. Intro songs shouldn't exist on the charts. But whatever. If you're into nonsense like this, enjoy yourself, I guess.

22- "Memories" - Maroon 5 -- It's funny, yesterday Gwen Stefani did one of those Wired autocomplete interviews. She talked about "The Voice" for a second and it made me reflect on how refreshing it is to not have any Maroon 5 songs on the charts (although I would LOVE for more Gwen Stefani). I guess I forgot to knock on wood because then today I see this. Although I got 15 seconds in before I had to pause it and figure out what the heck the name of that classical song is that they interpolate here. Yes, I love classical music, but I'm not enough of a classic music nerd to always remember the names of the songs. And Googling doesn't ever help because they don't have lyrics. Luckily Genius helped me out and told me that "Memories" interpolates "Canon in D" by Pachelbel. So before returning to "Memories," I enjoyed myself some "Canon in D" on YouTube. I think the best version is when it's piano and cello combined. Brooklyn Duo has a beautiful version of that if you want to go treat yourself.

Back to the song "Memories," though, I suppose if you want me to not hate your music, interpolating "Canon in D" is a good way to do that. It makes for a soothing, reflective Maroon 5 song, which fits quite well into the themes of the song, with Adam singing about all the memories from the past and how said memories consequentially bring back this girl that he'd previously forgotten about. The song certainly doesn't break any ground for this group that for some reason still call themselves a band, but I'm personally a bit shocked that I'm not upset at this song's existence. Usually I'm upset at Maroon 5 because they put out nothing but boring, generic pop music with zero personality that the pop radio stations across the country completely salivate over. And that's disappointing because Adam has a unique voice and they were once a really cool rock band. So I'm still trying to digest this current song. I don't know if I'm happy because the song is actually good or if it's simply tolerable in contrast to all of their other boring nonsense from the past decade. I guess I'll update you on that as the weeks go by because I'm assuming this will be around on the charts for the majority of the next year due to how much the radio loves Maroon 5. 

86- "Adicto" - Tainy, Anuel AA & Ozuna -- I was going to just skip this song, but since there's only five new arrivals, I humored these three and gave it a shot. And it was about as boring as I expected. Tainy and Ozuna are tolerable enough, but they don't sound too interested in the song and Anuel AA just gets on my nerves, as always. I used my strong deductive skills to determine that "Adicto" translates to "Addicted." That's apparently 100 percent correct. So I translated the chorus and apparently this girl wants nothing to do with him, but he refuses to give up because he is addicted to her... skin? I mean, if you speak Spanish, please inform me if "piel" means something different. If not, then this is an extremely shallow song. He doesn't want her back because he still loves her or wants to be with her. She's just too attractive to let go.

93- "Stuck in a Dream" - Lil Mosey & Gunna -- Nope.

96- "Loco Contigo" - DJ Snake, J Balvin & Tyga -- There was once a point in time where I liked DJ Snake. But it's been a while since he's done anything worthwhile. Instead he's settled with collaborating with people like this that will help him become popular rather than trying to make good music. In fairness to this song, it's slightly more upbeat than "Adicto" as it at least has a background rhythm from DJ Snake this is kinda catchy, but no, this is another useless reggaeton song that has J Balvin sounding quite bored despite singing about how crazy he is for this girl. Tyga comes in and does something, although he seems more confused and out of place than anything. There's no reason for him to be here and it feels like he knows that, but gives them some sort of semblance of a useless verse anyways. And I'm sorry I translated the lyrics because then I found the line, "You beat it like grandma's oatmeal." What?