Here we are! The top 20 most popular songs of the 2010s. We spent four days swimming through the memories of the songs that weren't quite big enough, but we've finally arrived to the list of heavy hitters. The songs that made the biggest impact on this past decade, at least in terms of chart performance. Given that there might be a number of people who check out this portion of the list instead of the other four sections, I'll spend a bit more detail explaining what this is for any newcomers. I've been referring to this project this week as the capstone to my Billboard Project that I've spent much of the past decade on. I started back in 1958 and went through each year and decade, creating lists of the most popular songs. Before I even started doing that, I was tracking this past decade we just finished, so revealing this list feels like a decades-long project that I've been super excited to share. And now I get to!
As far as methodology goes, this is me tracking just the top 10. And it's using my own tracking system where I give the No. 1 song 10 points, with a one-point sliding scale for the rest of the top 10. Is it the most efficient system? Perhaps not. In fact, I've recently created a new tracking system that I think gives more accurate results. But since I've used the same exact system on every other yearly list that I've posted on this blog, it only felt right to finish it off here. Regardless of what system I use, the top song will probably still be the same. In fact, looking at Billboard's "official" end-of-decade list for the 2010s, our No. 1 songs match. And most of the top 20 are also the same, including four of the top five, just in a slightly different order. So I don't think things would look too terribly different, so I feel comfortable with this. Personally I also weighted 2013-2019 differently since that's when Billboard implemented YouTube into their formula. That made songs last longer in the top 10. And songs that spanned two decades were included in the decade where they had the most points. But that doesn't apply to any of these 20 songs, just a few that showed up in previous sections. Anyways, I hope you've enjoyed this journey. If any questions arise about anything, feel free to let me know!
20- "One More Night" - Maroon 5
19- "All About That Bass" - Meghan Trainor
18- "Call Me Maybe" - Carly Rae Jepsen
17- "bad guy" - Billie Eilish
16- "Perfect" - Ed Sheeran
15- "We Are Young" - fun. featuring Jannelle Monae
14- "Sunflower (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)" - Post Malone & Swae Lee
13- "We Found Love" - Rihanna featuring Calvin Harris
12- "Party Rock Anthem" - LMFAO featuring Lauren Bennett & GoonRock
11- "rockstar" - Post Malone featuring 21 Savage
10- "Without Me" - Halsey
9- "God's Plan" - Drake
8- "Somebody That I Used to Know" - Gotye featuring Kimbra
7- "That's What I Like" - Bruno Mars
6- "Despacito" - Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber
5- "Girls Like You" - Maroon 5 featuring Cardi B
4- "Old Town Road" - Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus
3- "Shape of You" - Ed Sheeran
2- "Closer" - The Chainsmokers featuring Halsey
1- "Uptown Funk" - Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars
Friday, May 1, 2020
Thursday, April 30, 2020
Top 100 MOST POPULAR Songs of the 2010s: 40 - 21
We're almost there! Either you're dying of anticipation to see what the final results are or you are cheering in celebration that I'm finally almost finished posting these. Hopefully it's more of the former, but who knows. If you're randomly jumping in right now and you've never come across any of my music posts before, a more detailed explanation is in the first part of this. But yeah, over the course of the past decade I went through all of the Billboard charts, creating lists for each year and each decade. This here feels like the capstone to all of that. Then I'll decided later what to do with this upcoming decade. For now this is looking at just the top 10. Since I don't have access to Billboard's official chart points, I created my own tracking system. Songs that crossed two decades are put into the decade where they had the most post, which comes into play again in this section. And songs from 2013-2019 are weighted more heavily since the implementation of YouTube into Billboard's formula in 2013 caused songs to stay around for longer. With that out of the way, let's dive into part four of this list!
40- "See You Again" - Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth
39- "Havana" - Camila Cabello featuring Young Thug
38- "Thrift Shop" - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis featuring Wanz
37- "Payphone" - Maroon 5 featuring Wiz Khalifa
36- "Rolling in the Deep" - Adele
35- "Blurred Lines" - Robin Thicke featuring T.I. & Pharrell
34- "E.T." - Katy Perry featuring Kanye West
33- "One Dance" - Drake featuring WizKid & Kyla
32- "Love Yourself" - Justin Bieber
31- "All of Me" - John Legend
30- "Sorry" - Justin Bieber
29- "Psycho" - Post Malone featuring Ty Dolla $ign
28- "Moves Like Jagger" - Maroon 5 featuring Christina Aguilera
27- "Tik Tok" - Kesha
26- "Happy" - Pharrell Williams
25- "Sexy and I Know It" - LMFAO
24- "Dark Horse" - Katy Perry featuring Juicy J
23- "Royals" - Lorde
22- "SICKO MODE" - Travis Scott
21- "Señorita" - Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello
40- "See You Again" - Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth
39- "Havana" - Camila Cabello featuring Young Thug
38- "Thrift Shop" - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis featuring Wanz
37- "Payphone" - Maroon 5 featuring Wiz Khalifa
36- "Rolling in the Deep" - Adele
35- "Blurred Lines" - Robin Thicke featuring T.I. & Pharrell
34- "E.T." - Katy Perry featuring Kanye West
33- "One Dance" - Drake featuring WizKid & Kyla
32- "Love Yourself" - Justin Bieber
31- "All of Me" - John Legend
30- "Sorry" - Justin Bieber
29- "Psycho" - Post Malone featuring Ty Dolla $ign
28- "Moves Like Jagger" - Maroon 5 featuring Christina Aguilera
27- "Tik Tok" - Kesha
26- "Happy" - Pharrell Williams
25- "Sexy and I Know It" - LMFAO
24- "Dark Horse" - Katy Perry featuring Juicy J
23- "Royals" - Lorde
22- "SICKO MODE" - Travis Scott
21- "Señorita" - Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello
Wednesday, April 29, 2020
Top 100 MOST POPULAR Songs of the 2010s: 60 - 41
This week we're going through the most popular songs of the 2010s. Today's post sees us crossing the halfway point and begin the sprint towards the finish line. If you're jumping in halfway through, this is essentially the capstone to my major Billboard Project that I spent a good majority of last decade on. I have charts and lists for every year and decade in the archives of this blog for you to check out if you haven't already. In regards to methodology, today I will emphasize the fact that for songs caught between decades, I included the full run in the decade where they got the most post. That applies to the very first entry in this section. Yes, "Bad Romance" was released in 2009. But it got more points in 2010, which is it's here. Check out the first part for details on the other points. Yes, this only tracking the top 10. No, I don't have access to official chart points from Billboard, so I invented my own tracking system. And yes, 2013-2019 is weighted more harshly because Billboard decided in February 2013 to include YouTube views into their formula. That made a significant difference. With all of that out of the way, let's jump right into part three of five of this decades list.
60- "Bad Romance" - Lady Gaga
60- "Bad Romance" - Lady Gaga
59- "Happier" - Marshmello & Bastille
58- "Lucid Dreams" - Juice WRLD
57- "Trap Queen" - Fetty Wap
56- "Grenade" - Bruno Mars
55- "Firework" - Katy Perry
54- "Can't Feel My Face" - The Weeknd
53- "I Like It" - Cardi B, Bad Bunny & J Balvin
52- "Fancy" - Iggy Azalea featuring Charli XCX
51- "Thinking Out Loud" - Ed Sheeran
50- "Starboy" - The Weeknd featuring Daft Punk
49- "Hello" - Adele
48- "California Gurls" - Katy Perry featuring Snoop Dogg
47- "Love the Way You Lie" - Eminem featuring Rihanna
46- "Just the Way You Are" - Bruno Mars
45- "Someone You Loved" - Lewis Capaldi
44- "Someone Like You" - Adele
43- "Truth Hurts" - Lizzo
42- "Locked Out of Heaven" - Bruno Mars
41- "Shake it Off" - Taylor Swift
Tuesday, April 28, 2020
Top 100 MOST POPULAR Songs of the 2010s: 80 - 61
This week we are diving back through the 2010s decade in music, revisiting the most popular songs that either enriched our souls or were the bane of our existence. If you read through the intro in part one of this post, you know the drill. If you're randomly joining the party here in the middle, let me quickly recap. This list is the capstone of my ongoing Billboard Project that I've spent the majority of this decade on. I started with 1958 and now here we are reviewing the 2010s. As far as methodology goes, this is only a tracking of the top 10. Since I don't have access to official chart points, I created my own one-point sliding scale where the top song gets 10 points. Songs that crossed two decades are included in the decade wherein they got the post points. And 2013-2019 is weighted differently than 2010-2012 since February 2013 is when YouTube views became part of Billboard's formula. If you want to a read a slightly more detailed version of that, go read my intro in the first post. But all those technicalities aren't the fun part. Re-experiencing all these songs are! So let's dive into part two of this list!
80- "Diamonds" - Rihanna
79- "Sugar" - Maroon 5
78- "Heathens" - twenty one pilots
77- "Work" - Rihanna featuring Drake
76- "Blank Space" - Taylor Swift
75- "Counting Stars" - OneRepublic
74- "Roar" - Katy Perry
73- "Airplanes" - B.o.B featuring Haley Williams
72- "Set Fire to the Rain" - Adele
71- "Take Me to Church" - Hozier
70- "Some Nights" - fun.
69- "7 rings" - Ariana Grande
68- "OMG" - Usher featuring will.i.am
67- "Give Me Everything" - Pitbull featuring Ne-Yo, Afrojack & Nayer
66- "Hotline Bling" - Drake
65- "Bodak Yellow (Money Moves)" - Cardi B
64- "thank u, next" - Ariana Grande
63- "What Do You Mean?" - Justin Bieber
62- "The Hills" - The Weeknd
61- "Nice for What" - Drake
80- "Diamonds" - Rihanna
79- "Sugar" - Maroon 5
78- "Heathens" - twenty one pilots
77- "Work" - Rihanna featuring Drake
76- "Blank Space" - Taylor Swift
75- "Counting Stars" - OneRepublic
74- "Roar" - Katy Perry
73- "Airplanes" - B.o.B featuring Haley Williams
72- "Set Fire to the Rain" - Adele
71- "Take Me to Church" - Hozier
70- "Some Nights" - fun.
69- "7 rings" - Ariana Grande
68- "OMG" - Usher featuring will.i.am
67- "Give Me Everything" - Pitbull featuring Ne-Yo, Afrojack & Nayer
66- "Hotline Bling" - Drake
65- "Bodak Yellow (Money Moves)" - Cardi B
64- "thank u, next" - Ariana Grande
63- "What Do You Mean?" - Justin Bieber
62- "The Hills" - The Weeknd
61- "Nice for What" - Drake
Monday, April 27, 2020
Top 100 MOST POPULAR Songs of the 2010s: 100 - 81
As we move forward into this new decade, there's a lot of uncertainty in regards to what I want to do with this music blog. That said, I didn't want to pass on the opportunity of posting my list of the top 100 most popular songs of the 2010s. This is a capstone, if you will, to what I've spent a good portion of the past decade doing. I started back at the beginning of the Hot 100 in 1958 and went through each year, giving points based on performance in the top 10. Then I posted the results on this blog for each year and each decade, which was followed by me revealing the ultimate goal of posting the most popular songs of all-time, based on my personal tracking. If you're new, you can dig through the archives on the right and find all of that. However, this all felt incomplete without the 2010s being finished. I had to wait a few months for a few songs to finish their runs in the top 10, but now I'm able to final post the results. This gives us all a chance to reflect on all that the world of music brought us this past decade.
A few quick notes in regards to my methodology. Yes, this is a tracking of just the top 10. I recently came up with an expanded tracking system that I think is ultimately more accurate, but I will use that moving forward through this new decade and have not retroactively applied that to previous years as of yet. No, I don't have access to official chart points that Billboard uses, so I created my own simple system where the No. 1 song gets 10 points, with a one-point sliding scale for the rest of the top 10. In regards to songs whose runs were split between two decades, I've included their entire run into the decade where they got the most points. So you'll see some songs from 2009 in this list because they had more points in 2010. There's also a few songs released in 2019, like "Circles" by Post Malone, that aren't here because they got more points in 2020. I waited a few months to post this to specifically determine those cases. Finally, I decided to weight this decade differently. In 2013, Billboard implement YouTube into their streaming tracking. That made a significant difference in the staying power of songs on the charts, so 2010-2012 are weighted slightly different than 2013-2019 in this post. With all of that out of the way, I have this split into five sections. Here's part one!
100- "The Monster" - Eminem featuring Rihanna
98- "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" - Kelly Clarkson
A few quick notes in regards to my methodology. Yes, this is a tracking of just the top 10. I recently came up with an expanded tracking system that I think is ultimately more accurate, but I will use that moving forward through this new decade and have not retroactively applied that to previous years as of yet. No, I don't have access to official chart points that Billboard uses, so I created my own simple system where the No. 1 song gets 10 points, with a one-point sliding scale for the rest of the top 10. In regards to songs whose runs were split between two decades, I've included their entire run into the decade where they got the most points. So you'll see some songs from 2009 in this list because they had more points in 2010. There's also a few songs released in 2019, like "Circles" by Post Malone, that aren't here because they got more points in 2020. I waited a few months to post this to specifically determine those cases. Finally, I decided to weight this decade differently. In 2013, Billboard implement YouTube into their streaming tracking. That made a significant difference in the staying power of songs on the charts, so 2010-2012 are weighted slightly different than 2013-2019 in this post. With all of that out of the way, I have this split into five sections. Here's part one!
100- "The Monster" - Eminem featuring Rihanna
99- "Need You Now" - Lady Antebellum
98- "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" - Kelly Clarkson
97- "Watch Me" - Silento
96- "Black Beatles" - Rae Sremmurd featuring Gucci Mane
95- "I'm the One" - DJ Khaled featuring Justin Bieber, Quavo, Chance the Rapper & Lil Wayne
94- "Wow." - Post Malone
93- "Rude" - MAGIC!
92- "Wrecking Ball" - Miley Cyrus
91- "Don't Let Me Down" - The Chainsmokers featuring Daya
90- "Problem" - Ariana Grande featuring Iggy Azalea
89- "Cheap Thrills" - Sia featuring Sean Paul
88- "Bad and Boujee" - Migos featuring Lil Uzi Vert
87- "Panda" - Desiigner
86- "Break Your Heart" - Taio Cruz featuring Ludacris
85- "Cheerleader" - OMI
84- "In My Feelings" - Drake
83- "Talk Dirty" - Jason Derulo featuring 2 Chainz
82- "Can't Hold Us" - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (feat Ray Dalton)
81- "Dynamite" - Taio Cruz
Saturday, February 29, 2020
DrogeMiester's Billboard Analysis - February 29, 2020
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!
1- "The Box" - Roddy Ricch (=) -- I'm going to be honest, I almost didn't do this post this week. The charts have been so frustrating and toxic that this has almost become a chore rather than something I enjoy doing. And I also feel that the way that track music these days is broken with how many songs just get stuck at the top and don't budge. And I think a big part of the problem is streaming wherein I'm convinced streaming platforms involuntarily shove a whole bunch of crap onto people's playlists and suggestions. Why else would a song as forgettable and boring as "The Box" be on the top for so long. Despite me being upset at the state of music and not seeing a fix or end in site to the mania, I did my due diligence and got this post out. But if you ever see this segment just disappear, you'll know that the charts broke me and I decided to do better things with my life. And if you actually care about reading this post, then speak up. This gets views, but I never get any commentary, so does anyone really care? I'm not going to ask this in my intro on Facebook or Twitter. Just right here for those who actually click the link and read through. If you want this to continue, let me know.
2- "Life is Good" - Future featuring Drake (=) -- See prior comment. Why in the living frack is Future still No. 2? It makes absolutely no sense and actually really angers me.
3- "Circles" - Post Malone (=) -- And I don't mind Post Malone being No. 3 because this song isn't bad, but he's been entrenched here at No. 3 for no real reason other than the radio has nothing better to play, apparently.
4- "Dance Monkey" - Tones and I (+1) -- Here's the first positive this week. "Dance Monkey" climbs up a notch. If this can someone climb ahead of the other three, maybe my faith in the charts might be restored by a slight degree.
5- "Don't Start Now" - Dua Lipa (+1) -- I'd also be down for Dua Lipa doing well. It's exciting that she's in the top five. Is this her highest ever peak on the charts? And does she have good enough numbers to continue to go higher? I hope so. But I actually don't know. We'll see, I guess.
6- "Roxanne" - Arizona Zervas (+1) -- And back to the negatives. Certainly people don't like this song enough to continually stream it every week, do they? That's why the majority of the Hot 100 feels extremely artificial.
7- "Memories" - Maroon 5 (-3) -- And for our first surprise of the week, Maroon 5 takes a tumble. And that's perfectly OK with me. I'm fine with the song, but we should be getting a faster rotation of songs at the top, not this boring molasses where things only change at a snail's pace.
8- "Someone You Loved" - Lewis Capaldi (=) -- Case in point with things never changing. I like this song. More than many people, apparently. But we're running into March and this is still stuck at the top.
9- "Intentions" - Justin Bieber featuring Quavo (+2) -- Thankfully this is only here because of Bieber's album bomb week. Another reason why the charts are broken. Every time someone big releases a new album, the chart explodes with their whole album on the Hot 100. We have two of them this week. There really needs to be a limit to the number of songs that a single artist can debut in a single week.
10- "Blinding Lights" - The Weeknd (+2) -- And we end our top 10 this week on a positive. I'm fine with this song being big, so let's make it happen. Although I'm annoyed that it replaced Billie Eilish. Let's get one of these other songs out of there instead and bring Billie back so we can have both Billie AND The Weeknd.
11- "Yummy" - Justin Bieber (+8) -- Only rising because of Bieber's album bomb.
14- "Heartless" - The Weeknd (+3) -- "Blinding Lights" hits the top 10, but "Heartless" is stubbornly not going away. And honestly... I kinda want it to. "Blinding Lights" is fantastic. This song is trash.
20- "Adore You" - Harry Styles (+2) -- I'm surprised that this song is managing to stick around. It's not really rising at a very quick pace, but it's also remaining fairly stable. And I think that's a good thing. Harry Styles is struggling to maintain consistency with the general public, yet he's one of the artists that deserves it.
65- "I Hope You're Happy Now" - Carly Pearce & Lee Brice (+12) -- And we jump right from No. 20 to No. 65 in this section. And you'll see why in our new arrivals section. Lots of unnecessary junk showed up. Thankfully most of it isn't going to stick around, meaning this section is going to be big next week... if I decide to do this post. But hey, I'm happy for Carly Pearce being a country girl that is gaining a bit of traction. Although maybe it's more because of Lee Brice being along for the ride.
71- "Chasin' You" - Morgan Wallen (+10) -- Another country song managed to do well in the midst of all the album bomb junk this week. And I'm not so happy about this one.
84- "WHATS POPPIN" - Jack Harlow (+12) -- Why is this gaining steam? Make it stop.
16- "No Time to Die" - Billie Eilish -- I'm skipping most of the new arrivals this week. I don't even think an explanation is needed. But I'm definitely going to cover our new Bond song from the upcoming film that looks fun and exciting. I will admit that Billie Eilish doing Bond is a unique choice in terms of the context of the film. Bond is usually upbeat and exciting and it's good to have a Bond song kick the movie off with the right amount of energy, like Adele's "Skyfall." Yet Billie's style is more mellow, emo and dramatic. So I don't know how this will fit with the movie, but at this point I'm not too worried about that. I'm more curious than anything. But the song on its own is a solid song. As a slower ballad with Billie earnestly pleading that there's no time to do, this works rather well. Whether or not this fits in with Bond, this fits in with Billie's discography and I would love to see this do well over the course of the next month or so as we all prepare for a new Bond film. Also, the last two Bond songs both won best original song at the Oscars because the old geezers in the Academy don't know any better than just to always give the latest Bond song the win in that category. So that means a year after Billie swept the Grammys, she has a real chance of getting an Oscar. That's pretty awesome. I'm glad that we've made this girl a superstar. She deserves it.
23- "Numbers" - A Boogie wit da Hoodie featuring Roddy Ricch, Gunna & London On Da Track-- Nope.
24- "Forever" - Justin Bieber -- Nope.
46- "To Die For" - Sam Smith -- Speaking of Bond, Sam Smith's new song is NOT that, but it's funny that he also releases a song with a theme about dying. "No Time to Die" and "To Die For" brilliantly juxtapose each other, at least in terms of the title. And the last Bond song was Sam Smith, so there's that. But anyways, I've always been a sucker for Sam Smith's voice. He always puts a lot of depth and emotion into his delivery, even in cases like this where the lyrics he's singing aren't the most original things ever. But hey, the radio often takes to Sam Smith. If they want to pick up this one and play it ad nauseam, I might be fine with that.
48- "g n f (Give No F--) - Migos, Young Thug & Travis Scott -- Nope.
49 -"Dior" - Pop Smoke -- Had no idea who or what this was, so I checked it out. Don't worry, you don't need to know. It's just another thing that doesn't deserve to exist.
58 - "Me and My Guitar" - A Boogie wit da Hoodie -- Nope.
60- "Go Stupid" - Polo G featuring NLE Choppa & Stunna 4 Vegas -- Nope.
66- "Might Not Give Up" - A Boogie wit da Hoodie featuring Young Thug -- Nope.
73- "Thug Love" - A Boogie wit da Hoodie -- Nope.
77- "After Hours" - The Weeknd -- I'm not a fan of "Heartless," but I love "Blinding Lights." So what's going to happen here? Well, first off it's a six minute song, so there's that. The Weeknd definitely takes his time with this one and I'm not so sure that was the best decision ever. My mind started to wander as I was trying to pay attention to what he was singing. His vocals are also mostly in his upper register, which is one part impressive and soothing, yet another part unintelligible because it's not that easy to understand what he's saying. So yeah, this is a slightly mixed bag here, but I'm going to lean positive because I think The Weeknd is going for a more relaxing, smooth vibe and this can definitely be a pleasant song to listen to when you throw it in the background and listen to it while you do other things. Nowhere close to "Blinding Lights," though.
79- "Ignorantes" - Bad Bunny & Sech -- Nope.
80- "Stain" - A Boogie wit da Hoodie featuring DaBaby -- Nope.
86- "Com Around Me" - Justin Bieber -- Nope.
95- "Cinderella Story" - A Boogie wit da Hoodie -- Nope.
98- "Habitual" - Justin Bieber -- Nope.
100- "All Around Me" - Justin Bieber -- Nope.
Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:
1- "The Box" - Roddy Ricch (=) -- I'm going to be honest, I almost didn't do this post this week. The charts have been so frustrating and toxic that this has almost become a chore rather than something I enjoy doing. And I also feel that the way that track music these days is broken with how many songs just get stuck at the top and don't budge. And I think a big part of the problem is streaming wherein I'm convinced streaming platforms involuntarily shove a whole bunch of crap onto people's playlists and suggestions. Why else would a song as forgettable and boring as "The Box" be on the top for so long. Despite me being upset at the state of music and not seeing a fix or end in site to the mania, I did my due diligence and got this post out. But if you ever see this segment just disappear, you'll know that the charts broke me and I decided to do better things with my life. And if you actually care about reading this post, then speak up. This gets views, but I never get any commentary, so does anyone really care? I'm not going to ask this in my intro on Facebook or Twitter. Just right here for those who actually click the link and read through. If you want this to continue, let me know.
2- "Life is Good" - Future featuring Drake (=) -- See prior comment. Why in the living frack is Future still No. 2? It makes absolutely no sense and actually really angers me.
3- "Circles" - Post Malone (=) -- And I don't mind Post Malone being No. 3 because this song isn't bad, but he's been entrenched here at No. 3 for no real reason other than the radio has nothing better to play, apparently.
4- "Dance Monkey" - Tones and I (+1) -- Here's the first positive this week. "Dance Monkey" climbs up a notch. If this can someone climb ahead of the other three, maybe my faith in the charts might be restored by a slight degree.
5- "Don't Start Now" - Dua Lipa (+1) -- I'd also be down for Dua Lipa doing well. It's exciting that she's in the top five. Is this her highest ever peak on the charts? And does she have good enough numbers to continue to go higher? I hope so. But I actually don't know. We'll see, I guess.
6- "Roxanne" - Arizona Zervas (+1) -- And back to the negatives. Certainly people don't like this song enough to continually stream it every week, do they? That's why the majority of the Hot 100 feels extremely artificial.
7- "Memories" - Maroon 5 (-3) -- And for our first surprise of the week, Maroon 5 takes a tumble. And that's perfectly OK with me. I'm fine with the song, but we should be getting a faster rotation of songs at the top, not this boring molasses where things only change at a snail's pace.
8- "Someone You Loved" - Lewis Capaldi (=) -- Case in point with things never changing. I like this song. More than many people, apparently. But we're running into March and this is still stuck at the top.
9- "Intentions" - Justin Bieber featuring Quavo (+2) -- Thankfully this is only here because of Bieber's album bomb week. Another reason why the charts are broken. Every time someone big releases a new album, the chart explodes with their whole album on the Hot 100. We have two of them this week. There really needs to be a limit to the number of songs that a single artist can debut in a single week.
10- "Blinding Lights" - The Weeknd (+2) -- And we end our top 10 this week on a positive. I'm fine with this song being big, so let's make it happen. Although I'm annoyed that it replaced Billie Eilish. Let's get one of these other songs out of there instead and bring Billie back so we can have both Billie AND The Weeknd.
Rising on the Hot 100:
11- "Yummy" - Justin Bieber (+8) -- Only rising because of Bieber's album bomb.
14- "Heartless" - The Weeknd (+3) -- "Blinding Lights" hits the top 10, but "Heartless" is stubbornly not going away. And honestly... I kinda want it to. "Blinding Lights" is fantastic. This song is trash.
20- "Adore You" - Harry Styles (+2) -- I'm surprised that this song is managing to stick around. It's not really rising at a very quick pace, but it's also remaining fairly stable. And I think that's a good thing. Harry Styles is struggling to maintain consistency with the general public, yet he's one of the artists that deserves it.
65- "I Hope You're Happy Now" - Carly Pearce & Lee Brice (+12) -- And we jump right from No. 20 to No. 65 in this section. And you'll see why in our new arrivals section. Lots of unnecessary junk showed up. Thankfully most of it isn't going to stick around, meaning this section is going to be big next week... if I decide to do this post. But hey, I'm happy for Carly Pearce being a country girl that is gaining a bit of traction. Although maybe it's more because of Lee Brice being along for the ride.
71- "Chasin' You" - Morgan Wallen (+10) -- Another country song managed to do well in the midst of all the album bomb junk this week. And I'm not so happy about this one.
84- "WHATS POPPIN" - Jack Harlow (+12) -- Why is this gaining steam? Make it stop.
New Arrivals:
16- "No Time to Die" - Billie Eilish -- I'm skipping most of the new arrivals this week. I don't even think an explanation is needed. But I'm definitely going to cover our new Bond song from the upcoming film that looks fun and exciting. I will admit that Billie Eilish doing Bond is a unique choice in terms of the context of the film. Bond is usually upbeat and exciting and it's good to have a Bond song kick the movie off with the right amount of energy, like Adele's "Skyfall." Yet Billie's style is more mellow, emo and dramatic. So I don't know how this will fit with the movie, but at this point I'm not too worried about that. I'm more curious than anything. But the song on its own is a solid song. As a slower ballad with Billie earnestly pleading that there's no time to do, this works rather well. Whether or not this fits in with Bond, this fits in with Billie's discography and I would love to see this do well over the course of the next month or so as we all prepare for a new Bond film. Also, the last two Bond songs both won best original song at the Oscars because the old geezers in the Academy don't know any better than just to always give the latest Bond song the win in that category. So that means a year after Billie swept the Grammys, she has a real chance of getting an Oscar. That's pretty awesome. I'm glad that we've made this girl a superstar. She deserves it.
23- "Numbers" - A Boogie wit da Hoodie featuring Roddy Ricch, Gunna & London On Da Track-- Nope.
24- "Forever" - Justin Bieber -- Nope.
46- "To Die For" - Sam Smith -- Speaking of Bond, Sam Smith's new song is NOT that, but it's funny that he also releases a song with a theme about dying. "No Time to Die" and "To Die For" brilliantly juxtapose each other, at least in terms of the title. And the last Bond song was Sam Smith, so there's that. But anyways, I've always been a sucker for Sam Smith's voice. He always puts a lot of depth and emotion into his delivery, even in cases like this where the lyrics he's singing aren't the most original things ever. But hey, the radio often takes to Sam Smith. If they want to pick up this one and play it ad nauseam, I might be fine with that.
48- "g n f (Give No F--) - Migos, Young Thug & Travis Scott -- Nope.
49 -"Dior" - Pop Smoke -- Had no idea who or what this was, so I checked it out. Don't worry, you don't need to know. It's just another thing that doesn't deserve to exist.
58 - "Me and My Guitar" - A Boogie wit da Hoodie -- Nope.
60- "Go Stupid" - Polo G featuring NLE Choppa & Stunna 4 Vegas -- Nope.
66- "Might Not Give Up" - A Boogie wit da Hoodie featuring Young Thug -- Nope.
73- "Thug Love" - A Boogie wit da Hoodie -- Nope.
77- "After Hours" - The Weeknd -- I'm not a fan of "Heartless," but I love "Blinding Lights." So what's going to happen here? Well, first off it's a six minute song, so there's that. The Weeknd definitely takes his time with this one and I'm not so sure that was the best decision ever. My mind started to wander as I was trying to pay attention to what he was singing. His vocals are also mostly in his upper register, which is one part impressive and soothing, yet another part unintelligible because it's not that easy to understand what he's saying. So yeah, this is a slightly mixed bag here, but I'm going to lean positive because I think The Weeknd is going for a more relaxing, smooth vibe and this can definitely be a pleasant song to listen to when you throw it in the background and listen to it while you do other things. Nowhere close to "Blinding Lights," though.
79- "Ignorantes" - Bad Bunny & Sech -- Nope.
80- "Stain" - A Boogie wit da Hoodie featuring DaBaby -- Nope.
86- "Com Around Me" - Justin Bieber -- Nope.
95- "Cinderella Story" - A Boogie wit da Hoodie -- Nope.
98- "Habitual" - Justin Bieber -- Nope.
100- "All Around Me" - Justin Bieber -- Nope.
Friday, February 21, 2020
DrogeMiester's Billboard Analysis - February 22, 2020
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!
1- "The Box" - Roddy Ricch (=) -- I'm bored with this being No. 1.
2- "Life is Good" - Future featuring Drake (=) -- I'm bored with this being No. 2.
3- "Circles" - Post Malone (=) -- I'm not necessarily bored with this being No. 3, but I'm really surprised that it's still hanging onto this spot. You've gotta think its time is going to be up soon.
4- "Memories" - Maroon 5 (=) -- I'm not as surprised that this is still around. I'm more surprised that it hasn't at least flip-flopped with "Circles." The radio loves Maroon 5, though, so this makes perfect sense. And for once, I am fine with it.
5- "Dance Monkey" - Tones and I (=) -- Definitely not bored of this being around. If the top five is stuck and "Dance Monkey" is a part of that group, I think that's a big win. Now I'd like to see it sneak ahead of the songs in front of it, but I'm not super confident.
6- "Don't Start Now" - Dua Lipa (+3) -- YES!!! It's great seeing Dua Lipa do well with this song. Now for this and "Dance Monkey" to both inch forward. Let the pop ladies rule.
7- "Roxanne" - Arizona Zervas (=) -- I honestly expected this to do a bit better because I think it a new music video release impact its totals. But hey, it not moving up is a good thing. In fact, it's time for this song to start falling down.
8- "Someone You Loved" - Lewis Capaldi (-2) -- Lewis has had a good run, but it appears that said run is finally on its final legs. Which I'm OK with.
9- "10,000 Hours" - Dan + Shay & Justin Bieber (-1) -- I have a feeling that it's going to be hard to pry this one away from the top 10. It's been quite the persistent run.
10- "everything i wanted" - Billie Eilish (=) -- Honestly I'm continually surprised at how well Billie has done in the public eye. Her songs are most definitely not your typical run-of-the-mill pop music, but she's managing to change the game, anyways. At least for her. I think I remember saying that I wasn't positive that this would be her next big hit, but I've been proven wrong. And I'm happy about it. Given that this hasn't increased at all in the last few weeks, I'm not exactly sure what's next for this, so I guess I'll have to stay tuned. I hope it hangs around.
12- "Blinding Lights" - The Weeknd (+3) -- It's about time for this song to enter the top 10 and start dominating. Let's just not kick out Billie Eilish, please? Preferably "Roxanne," but "Someone You Loved" and "10,000 Hours" have both been around for a long time, so one of them can trade.
16- "Hot Girl Bummer" - blackbear (+3) -- Why in the name of everything good and holy is this thing still around and gaining traction? I don't understand this industry.
26- "My Oh My" - Camila Cabello featuring DaBaby (+5) -- It's not the Camila song that I hope continues to do well, but it's whatever. Maybe it'll help boost some of her other songs that are much better. Get that DaBaby fool out of there, though.
36- "RITMO (Bad Boys for Life)" - The Black Eyed Peas & J Balvin (+8) -- I'm surprised that this continues to do well. But will it continue to rise after the movie it's in starts to fade?
45- "Homesick" - Kane Brown (+6) -- No.
48- "I Hope" - Gabby Barrett (+5) -- YES! Let's send Gabby up the charts!
53- "Make Me Want To" - Jimmie Allen (+12) -- Go away.
76- "Slow Dance in a Parking Lot" - Jordan Davis (+14) -- This should be a slow song. Not a generic piece of country. Huge missed opportunity.
85- "Dive Bar" - Garth Brooks & Blake Shelton (+10) -- I mean, sure? Congrats? I still don't have a way to listen to this, but Garth Brooks is cool.
11- "Intentions" - Justin Bieber featuring Quavo -- I almost laughed at Justin Bieber for not being able to pull off an album bomb. But then I remembered that his album impacts the charts next week, not this week. But he gets a one week head start with this song, which I really don't care to listen to. "Yummy" was a garbage and he's following that up with a Quavo feature? Y'all know how this song is going to go.
23- "Yikes" - Nicki Minaj -- Yikes is right.
57- "Know Your Worth" - Khalid & Disclosure -- Oh sure. Now Khalid decides to give credit to Disclosure. They were the only reason why "Talk" worked out. And the song became one of Khalid's biggest hits. But Disclosure was never credit. I guess this makes up for a tad bit? But not really. Either way, we have the second collaboration between these two acts. And just like in "Talk," Khalid tries his absolute best to drag his song down into the dirt with how emotionless and bored he sounds. I guess he thinks that people like that from him. And maybe they do. But I'm not a fan of Khalid when he sounds like he recorded his song at 3 a.m. when he's half asleep. But also like "Talk," Disclosure is what makes the song work. They have a niche for at least taking a song and putting some sort of life into it. It doesn't completely save Khalid's bored tone and uninspired lyrics, but in terms of the music itself, it's upbeat enough to barely give it a pass as tolerable background noise.
62- "Blueberry Faygo" - Lil Mosey -- Nope.
68- "Run" - Joji -- Are we finally going to let this guy have a hit? I've been awfully curious about that. Up to this point, he's just been a tease as the music gods are tempted to let him break out, but then shut the door. I wonder if "Run" can be what changes that. I think it has all of the ingredients to be a successful pop hit. The lyrics are nothing to write home about, but they feel like traditional pop stuff that can be accepted by the general public. What does work in the song really well is the smooth rhythm of the song. Joji's voice is calming and it's backed up by a solid groove that helps keep the song paced at an appropriate speed. Then some solid guitar work comes in in the last third of the song to drive this home. Now I'm not sure if this song will be one that I will be playing on repeat anytime soon, but it's a perfectly acceptable song.
83- "KEII" - Anuel AA -- Why did we let this guy on the charts by himself?
90- "Believe" - Meek Mill featuring Justin Timberlake -- I'm not in a Meek Mill mood. Let me know if Justin Timberlake makes this song any good.
96- "WHATS POPPIN" - Jack Harlow -- I wasn't sure if I knew who Jack Harlow was. So I looked him up, saw some song titles and featured credits, noticed that his pictures had him posing where he thinks his super cool, and yeah that was enough.
97- "No Judgment" - Niall Horan -- Niall pleasantly surprised me with "Nice to Meet Ya," which ended up being so good that it made my favorite songs of 2019 list. So of course I was naturally curious about this next song from Niall. What I will say to start things off is that I think this is a well-written song. The instrumentals are constructed and mixed in a pleasing way and Niall's vocals slide along rather well on the song. However, I suppose it was unfair to expect two straight home runs from Niall as this song doesn't have very much life in it. After going all in on "Nice to Meet Ya," it seemed like he chose to kick back and relax with this next release and thus it kinda falls flat. I'm still curious about his upcoming album, though. Not that I listen to many albums these days. But hey, that could change soon when I buy a new phone and have means to listen to music on my phone while I'm driving. So who knows. Maybe I'll get back into the groove again.
Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:
1- "The Box" - Roddy Ricch (=) -- I'm bored with this being No. 1.
2- "Life is Good" - Future featuring Drake (=) -- I'm bored with this being No. 2.
3- "Circles" - Post Malone (=) -- I'm not necessarily bored with this being No. 3, but I'm really surprised that it's still hanging onto this spot. You've gotta think its time is going to be up soon.
4- "Memories" - Maroon 5 (=) -- I'm not as surprised that this is still around. I'm more surprised that it hasn't at least flip-flopped with "Circles." The radio loves Maroon 5, though, so this makes perfect sense. And for once, I am fine with it.
5- "Dance Monkey" - Tones and I (=) -- Definitely not bored of this being around. If the top five is stuck and "Dance Monkey" is a part of that group, I think that's a big win. Now I'd like to see it sneak ahead of the songs in front of it, but I'm not super confident.
6- "Don't Start Now" - Dua Lipa (+3) -- YES!!! It's great seeing Dua Lipa do well with this song. Now for this and "Dance Monkey" to both inch forward. Let the pop ladies rule.
7- "Roxanne" - Arizona Zervas (=) -- I honestly expected this to do a bit better because I think it a new music video release impact its totals. But hey, it not moving up is a good thing. In fact, it's time for this song to start falling down.
8- "Someone You Loved" - Lewis Capaldi (-2) -- Lewis has had a good run, but it appears that said run is finally on its final legs. Which I'm OK with.
9- "10,000 Hours" - Dan + Shay & Justin Bieber (-1) -- I have a feeling that it's going to be hard to pry this one away from the top 10. It's been quite the persistent run.
10- "everything i wanted" - Billie Eilish (=) -- Honestly I'm continually surprised at how well Billie has done in the public eye. Her songs are most definitely not your typical run-of-the-mill pop music, but she's managing to change the game, anyways. At least for her. I think I remember saying that I wasn't positive that this would be her next big hit, but I've been proven wrong. And I'm happy about it. Given that this hasn't increased at all in the last few weeks, I'm not exactly sure what's next for this, so I guess I'll have to stay tuned. I hope it hangs around.
Rising on the Hot 100:
12- "Blinding Lights" - The Weeknd (+3) -- It's about time for this song to enter the top 10 and start dominating. Let's just not kick out Billie Eilish, please? Preferably "Roxanne," but "Someone You Loved" and "10,000 Hours" have both been around for a long time, so one of them can trade.
16- "Hot Girl Bummer" - blackbear (+3) -- Why in the name of everything good and holy is this thing still around and gaining traction? I don't understand this industry.
26- "My Oh My" - Camila Cabello featuring DaBaby (+5) -- It's not the Camila song that I hope continues to do well, but it's whatever. Maybe it'll help boost some of her other songs that are much better. Get that DaBaby fool out of there, though.
36- "RITMO (Bad Boys for Life)" - The Black Eyed Peas & J Balvin (+8) -- I'm surprised that this continues to do well. But will it continue to rise after the movie it's in starts to fade?
45- "Homesick" - Kane Brown (+6) -- No.
48- "I Hope" - Gabby Barrett (+5) -- YES! Let's send Gabby up the charts!
53- "Make Me Want To" - Jimmie Allen (+12) -- Go away.
76- "Slow Dance in a Parking Lot" - Jordan Davis (+14) -- This should be a slow song. Not a generic piece of country. Huge missed opportunity.
85- "Dive Bar" - Garth Brooks & Blake Shelton (+10) -- I mean, sure? Congrats? I still don't have a way to listen to this, but Garth Brooks is cool.
New Arrivals:
11- "Intentions" - Justin Bieber featuring Quavo -- I almost laughed at Justin Bieber for not being able to pull off an album bomb. But then I remembered that his album impacts the charts next week, not this week. But he gets a one week head start with this song, which I really don't care to listen to. "Yummy" was a garbage and he's following that up with a Quavo feature? Y'all know how this song is going to go.
23- "Yikes" - Nicki Minaj -- Yikes is right.
57- "Know Your Worth" - Khalid & Disclosure -- Oh sure. Now Khalid decides to give credit to Disclosure. They were the only reason why "Talk" worked out. And the song became one of Khalid's biggest hits. But Disclosure was never credit. I guess this makes up for a tad bit? But not really. Either way, we have the second collaboration between these two acts. And just like in "Talk," Khalid tries his absolute best to drag his song down into the dirt with how emotionless and bored he sounds. I guess he thinks that people like that from him. And maybe they do. But I'm not a fan of Khalid when he sounds like he recorded his song at 3 a.m. when he's half asleep. But also like "Talk," Disclosure is what makes the song work. They have a niche for at least taking a song and putting some sort of life into it. It doesn't completely save Khalid's bored tone and uninspired lyrics, but in terms of the music itself, it's upbeat enough to barely give it a pass as tolerable background noise.
62- "Blueberry Faygo" - Lil Mosey -- Nope.
68- "Run" - Joji -- Are we finally going to let this guy have a hit? I've been awfully curious about that. Up to this point, he's just been a tease as the music gods are tempted to let him break out, but then shut the door. I wonder if "Run" can be what changes that. I think it has all of the ingredients to be a successful pop hit. The lyrics are nothing to write home about, but they feel like traditional pop stuff that can be accepted by the general public. What does work in the song really well is the smooth rhythm of the song. Joji's voice is calming and it's backed up by a solid groove that helps keep the song paced at an appropriate speed. Then some solid guitar work comes in in the last third of the song to drive this home. Now I'm not sure if this song will be one that I will be playing on repeat anytime soon, but it's a perfectly acceptable song.
83- "KEII" - Anuel AA -- Why did we let this guy on the charts by himself?
90- "Believe" - Meek Mill featuring Justin Timberlake -- I'm not in a Meek Mill mood. Let me know if Justin Timberlake makes this song any good.
96- "WHATS POPPIN" - Jack Harlow -- I wasn't sure if I knew who Jack Harlow was. So I looked him up, saw some song titles and featured credits, noticed that his pictures had him posing where he thinks his super cool, and yeah that was enough.
97- "No Judgment" - Niall Horan -- Niall pleasantly surprised me with "Nice to Meet Ya," which ended up being so good that it made my favorite songs of 2019 list. So of course I was naturally curious about this next song from Niall. What I will say to start things off is that I think this is a well-written song. The instrumentals are constructed and mixed in a pleasing way and Niall's vocals slide along rather well on the song. However, I suppose it was unfair to expect two straight home runs from Niall as this song doesn't have very much life in it. After going all in on "Nice to Meet Ya," it seemed like he chose to kick back and relax with this next release and thus it kinda falls flat. I'm still curious about his upcoming album, though. Not that I listen to many albums these days. But hey, that could change soon when I buy a new phone and have means to listen to music on my phone while I'm driving. So who knows. Maybe I'll get back into the groove again.
Tuesday, February 18, 2020
DrogeMiester's Top 30 FAVORITE Songs of the 2010s
How does one summarize an entire decade's worth of music into one single post? This is the task that I set out to do this week and it was a rather daunting one. Creating lists of things is something I find fun, if you couldn't tell. And I've made lots of different lists this past decade, especially since starting this particular blog about mid-decade. But this felt like something completely different. This is more than just me taking a group of songs from a certain year or era and putting them all together. This was an opportunity for me to reflect upon life and try to tell my story from the last decade through a series of songs that really represent who I am and the journey that I have gone through. Thus I took this super seriously. And in doing so, I took all of my end-of-year lists from the past decade and completely scrambled them, mashed them together, then moved things around more in order to come up with the appropriate group of songs that made the most impact on me this past decade. I don't know if anyone remembers specific orders of songs from past years' lists, but if you do then you might find yourself quite surprised at how things have shaken up here because it is quite a bit different. And that's perfectly OK in my mind because it shows evolution in taste.
In terms of the parameters of this list, these are new songs that debuted on the Hot 100 during the past decade, from 2010 to 2019. Why do they have to have had to debut on the Hot 100? Because otherwise this would be nearly impossible. There's probably thousands of songs that get written every year and I've only scratched the surface of what I've discovered. So I like having a tangible pool to work with. It makes the task manageable. And if you're curious, at some point this year I will reveal the final results of the most popular songs of the decade. I'm just waiting for a few more songs to finish out their runs in the top 10 so that I can determine what decade they belong in. If you're too impatient to wait for that, Billboard revealed their "official" list weeks ago. Go search it out on their site. My list will have plenty of similarities, but also some significant differences, so look forward to that. And finally, why 30 songs this time around when I usually do a top 10 with 10 honorable mentions? Well... that's just how it panned out this time. I was actually going for 25, but there ended up being a few songs that I just couldn't leave out, so I went 30. If you feel like letting me know what your favorite songs of the decade are, with whatever stipulations, I would love to hear!
30- "Shut Up and Dance" - WALK THE MOON
29- "lovely" - Billie Eilish & Khalid
28- "Glory" - Common & John Legend
27- "Wake Me Up" - Avicii
26- "Summertime Sadness" - Lana Del Rey & Cedric Gervais
25- "Don't You Worry Child" - Swedish House Mafia featuring John Martin
24- "Clarity" - Zedd featuring Foxes
23- "Alive" - Krewella
22- "Levitate" - Hadouken!
21- "Found / Tonight" - Ben Platt & Lin Manuel Miranda
20- "Rainbow" - Kacey Musgraves
19- "Praying" - Kesha
18- "Liability" - Lorde
17- "Somebody That I Used to Know" - Gotye featuring Kimbra
16- "Sail" - AWOLNATION
15- "Lights" - Ellie Goulding
14- "Prayer in C" - Robin Schulz & Lilly Wood & The Prick
13- "Rather Be" - Clean Bandit featuring Jess Glynne
12- "Head Above Water" - Avril Lavigne
11- "BURN IT DOWN" - Linkin Park
10- "Anything Could Happen" - Ellie Goulding
9- "Sweet Nothing" - Calvin Harris featuring Florence Welch
8- "Animals" - Martin Garrix
7- "The Sound of Silence" - Disturbed
6- "See You Again" - Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth
5- "Set Fire to the Rain" - Adele
4- "Stereo Love" - Edward Maya & Vika Jigulina
3- "Lazarus" - David Bowie
2- "Titanium" - David Guetta featuring Sia
1- "Chandelier" - Sia
In terms of the parameters of this list, these are new songs that debuted on the Hot 100 during the past decade, from 2010 to 2019. Why do they have to have had to debut on the Hot 100? Because otherwise this would be nearly impossible. There's probably thousands of songs that get written every year and I've only scratched the surface of what I've discovered. So I like having a tangible pool to work with. It makes the task manageable. And if you're curious, at some point this year I will reveal the final results of the most popular songs of the decade. I'm just waiting for a few more songs to finish out their runs in the top 10 so that I can determine what decade they belong in. If you're too impatient to wait for that, Billboard revealed their "official" list weeks ago. Go search it out on their site. My list will have plenty of similarities, but also some significant differences, so look forward to that. And finally, why 30 songs this time around when I usually do a top 10 with 10 honorable mentions? Well... that's just how it panned out this time. I was actually going for 25, but there ended up being a few songs that I just couldn't leave out, so I went 30. If you feel like letting me know what your favorite songs of the decade are, with whatever stipulations, I would love to hear!
30- "Shut Up and Dance" - WALK THE MOON
29- "lovely" - Billie Eilish & Khalid
28- "Glory" - Common & John Legend
27- "Wake Me Up" - Avicii
26- "Summertime Sadness" - Lana Del Rey & Cedric Gervais
25- "Don't You Worry Child" - Swedish House Mafia featuring John Martin
24- "Clarity" - Zedd featuring Foxes
23- "Alive" - Krewella
22- "Levitate" - Hadouken!
21- "Found / Tonight" - Ben Platt & Lin Manuel Miranda
20- "Rainbow" - Kacey Musgraves
19- "Praying" - Kesha
18- "Liability" - Lorde
17- "Somebody That I Used to Know" - Gotye featuring Kimbra
16- "Sail" - AWOLNATION
15- "Lights" - Ellie Goulding
14- "Prayer in C" - Robin Schulz & Lilly Wood & The Prick
13- "Rather Be" - Clean Bandit featuring Jess Glynne
12- "Head Above Water" - Avril Lavigne
11- "BURN IT DOWN" - Linkin Park
10- "Anything Could Happen" - Ellie Goulding
9- "Sweet Nothing" - Calvin Harris featuring Florence Welch
8- "Animals" - Martin Garrix
7- "The Sound of Silence" - Disturbed
6- "See You Again" - Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth
5- "Set Fire to the Rain" - Adele
4- "Stereo Love" - Edward Maya & Vika Jigulina
3- "Lazarus" - David Bowie
2- "Titanium" - David Guetta featuring Sia
1- "Chandelier" - Sia
Tuesday, February 11, 2020
DrogeMiester's Billboard Analysis - February 15, 2020
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!
1- "The Box" - Roddy Ricch (=) -- You know, I'm really kinda bored of this song being No. 1. I'm ready for something else. Honestly, I'm still not sure why we have now knighted Roddy Ricch as a superstar. Granted, he's better than some of the other rappers around, but that's not a very high bar to jump over. But alas, he's No. 1 due to extremely streaming numbers. Even though said streaming numbers have fallen 6 percent compared to last week, it's still at 63.2 million U.S. streams. That's a lot of streams for a slightly better than average rap song in its fifth week at No. 1.
2- "Life is Good" - Future featuring Drake (=) -- As much as I'm bored of "The Box" being No. 1, I'll take it for several more weeks as long as it can keep this duo far away from the top spot. Lucky for me, "Life is Good" tumbled 13 percent in streaming this week, down to 37.6 million U.S. streams. So I shouldn't have to fear it going No. 1. I did for a bit last week because it was rising while "The Box" was falling. But now "Life is Good" has fallen harder than "The Box" this week.
3- "Circles" - Post Malone (=) -- I still remain shocked that this is sitting here at No. 3. After conceding the top spot on radio to "Memories" last week, "Circles" takes that top spot right back, although the margins for the two songs are rather small, so they could continue battling for that top spot on the radio for a little while.
4- "Memories" - Maroon 5 (=) -- Like I was surprised that "Circles" is still at No. 3, I'm also surprised that "Memories" has yet to pass it up on the charts. I though that would happen several weeks ago. But I don't mind either song, so they can stick around.
5- "Dance Monkey" - Tones and I (+2) -- OK, here we go! Finally things are getting interesting in the top five! I am waiting for "Dance Monkey" to finally become the 2020 smash hit that it deserves to be and it's one step closer to doing just that. Although it's a long ways away from surpassing "Circles" and "Memories" in the top five. The latter two have radio totals just over 100 million in total audience, neither which is budging to much. "Dance Monkey" has a radio total of just 54.6 million and isn't rising too fast. So we might have a log jam here at the top for some time, but if "Dance Monkey" can at least remain consistent inside the top five, I'll consider that a win.
6- "Someone You Loved" - Lewis Capaldi (-1) -- It's been a long, successful ride for Lewis in the top 10, but it might be time to finally say goodbye. Although with the current status of the top 10 not being too mobile, this could conceivably stay around in the bottom half of the top 10 for another month or so.
7- "Roxanne" - Arizona Zervas (+1) -- I keep waiting for this song to fall out, but now it has rose a spot? We need to kick this worthless piece of trash out of here.
8- "10,000 Hours" - Dan + Shay & Justin Bieber (-2) -- This has stayed around a lot longer than I ever expected it. And for some reason I don't think it's ready to say goodbye just yet as it has a habit of just sticking around.
9- "Don't Start Now" - Dua Lipa (=) -- OK. At least Dua didn't drop out of the top 10. But this needs to be rising higher, not getting stuck at No. 9. At the very least, this should be able to climb higher than the three songs ahead of it.
10- "everything i wanted" - Billie Eilish (=) -- I'm glad to see this still around. Last week it got a boost due to Billie killing it at the GRAMMYs, which means there was a strong possibility that it could've easily dropped right out of the top 10. But I would really love for this to gain enough momentum to stick around.
12- "Ballin'" - Mustard & Roddy Ricch (+4) -- No. We need to stop this at all costs. I'm fine with having new blood in the top 10, but this is not what I mean.
15- "Blinding Lights" - The Weeknd (+3) -- Here's an idea. Instead of letting "Ballin'" sneak into the top 10, let's push "Blinding Lights" ahead of it. This is a song that deserves to be a monster hit in 2020.
17- "Heartless" - The Weeknd (+2) -- While "Blinding Lights" has officially passed "Heartless" on the Hot 100, the latter song is managing to stick around. And I suppose I'm not too terribly angry at that, but "Blinding Lights" is easily 1,000 times better.
18- "The Bones" - Maren Morris (+3) -- Congrats to Maren Morris for having the top country song of the week! Now I'd be curious to see how much further up the charts this can sneak. Usually country songs peak in the teens at the highest, but Maren has already experienced a top 10 before, so this could happen.
19- "Hot Girl Bummer" - blackbear (+4) -- Why in the tarnation is this still around?
23- "Adore You" - Harry Styles (+6) -- Yes! Let's give Harry Styles a hit!
27- "Falling" - Trevor Daniel (+6) -- Go away.
34- "Kinfolks" - Sam Hunt (+12) -- GO AWAY!!!!
41- "Juicy" - Doja Cat (+7) -- I don't think this has enough momentum to do any damage, so I'm not too worried about it being up at No. 41.
44- "RITMO (Bad Boys for Life)" - The Black Eyed Peas & J Balvin (+9) -- Are we really going to make this a hit? That really surprises me. But I guess it kinda makes sense since "Bad Boys for Life" just became a huge box office success with the second highest ever weekend total in January on its opening weekend. But not only that, it's held pretty decently in the weeks following. So I guess the movie's success is bleeding over into the song, which in this case is unfortunate.
52- "BEST ON EARTH" - Russ & BIA (+10) -- Go away.
33- "I Do It" - Lil Wayne featuring Big Sean & Lil Baby -- Nope to Lil Wayne.
50- "Only the Young" - Taylor Swift -- This one makes a lot of sense. I saw that Taylor Swift had a new song and I said to myself that this must be from the new Taylor Swift documentary on Netflix. Which, by the way, a friend of mine watched at Sundance and really enjoyed. I've been meaning to get around to it, but have had too many other things on my plate. But it'll happen. As far as the song goes, I'm wondering if the documentary will help provide a little more context to what she's actually singing about because she doesn't do a good job at describing it in her song. She seems to take a more serious tone as she's describing a certain situation, but I didn't quite get what that situation was based on the lyrics. Then most of the song was her repeating the lyrics "Only the young can run." And I also don't know what that means. The vocals by Taylor and the music of the song are both really good. This is a solid song. There's just not a lot of clarity as to what she's singing about, which means the song isn't quite as impactful as some of her songs on her most recent album, which album I really enjoyed. The singles were quite weak, but many other songs on the album were excellent. Maybe I just need to watch the documentary and get back to you all on this one.
60- "Physical" - Dua Lipa -- Dua is setting herself up for an excellent 2020. With "Don't Start Now" currently in the top 10 and "Physical" debuting this week, she's building perfectly to her new album set to debut in April, which will in turn help "Don't Start Now" do even better on the charts. So I'm happy for Dua. She's one of the more talented pop singers and deserves this success. In regards to "Physical," I can't help but think of Olivia Newton-John's "Physical," which was one of the biggest hits of the 80s. Both songs are about the same exact subject matter of "Let's get physical." But while Olivia Newton-John's song doesn't really stand the test of time as it's overly cheesy and dumb, Dua's version is a lot more refined and powerful. I still roll my eyes at said subject matter, but Dua's not overly explicit like many singers are these days, so I give it a pass. I envision this is a song that's going to accomplish exactly what it sets out to do and is otherwise a powerful pop song as long as you don't think too hard about it.
61- "Mahogany" - Lil Wayne -- Nope to Lil Wayne.
69- "King of My City" - A Boogie wit da Hoodie -- Why are we continuing to make this guy a thing?
87- "Mama Mia" - Lil Wayne -- Nope to Lil Wayne.
88- "Funeral" - Lil Wayne -- Nope to Lil Wayne.
89- "Nice to Meet Ya" - Meghan Trainor featuring Nicki Minaj -- Nope. I'll take Niall Horan's song of the same name, stylized the exact same way. Meghan has always been a strange artist that I've never connected with. She had her two seconds in the spotlight and I'm happy that she's been pushed out of it. And yes, I did listen to this song as more of a curiosity as to how bad it was. It's not good. The song is overly choppy and weird, to the point where I'm not sure Meghan fans will even gravitate towards this, but I've been confused as to why they all gravitated towards her in the first place, so maybe I'm not qualified to speak for them.
93- "Get Me" - Justin Bieber featuring Kehlani -- Justin's new album gets released to the world on Valentine's Day. And while I still say that Justin's music has matured a lot over the last five or so years as compared to his early days, I'm not looking forward to this album based on the results of "Yummy," which was an atrocious disaster, as well as seeing the featured vocalists on some of the other songs. But zeroing in on this song specifically, I do think it's a bit strange that Justin chose to include Kehlani on the track. I totally forgot that she was a thing as her spotlight faded quite some time ago. And, well, while this isn't as cringey as "Yummy," it's a song that just doesn't go anywhere. I think it suffers from a bad case of being dull and forgettable. At best, it feels like random album filler that belongs nowhere near the Hot 100. Not a good sign for Justin's album, which I'll probably choose to avoid if he gets an album bomb in a couple weeks. But given how hard "Yummy" has fallen in the last few weeks, I'm not sure if he will.
Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:
1- "The Box" - Roddy Ricch (=) -- You know, I'm really kinda bored of this song being No. 1. I'm ready for something else. Honestly, I'm still not sure why we have now knighted Roddy Ricch as a superstar. Granted, he's better than some of the other rappers around, but that's not a very high bar to jump over. But alas, he's No. 1 due to extremely streaming numbers. Even though said streaming numbers have fallen 6 percent compared to last week, it's still at 63.2 million U.S. streams. That's a lot of streams for a slightly better than average rap song in its fifth week at No. 1.
2- "Life is Good" - Future featuring Drake (=) -- As much as I'm bored of "The Box" being No. 1, I'll take it for several more weeks as long as it can keep this duo far away from the top spot. Lucky for me, "Life is Good" tumbled 13 percent in streaming this week, down to 37.6 million U.S. streams. So I shouldn't have to fear it going No. 1. I did for a bit last week because it was rising while "The Box" was falling. But now "Life is Good" has fallen harder than "The Box" this week.
3- "Circles" - Post Malone (=) -- I still remain shocked that this is sitting here at No. 3. After conceding the top spot on radio to "Memories" last week, "Circles" takes that top spot right back, although the margins for the two songs are rather small, so they could continue battling for that top spot on the radio for a little while.
4- "Memories" - Maroon 5 (=) -- Like I was surprised that "Circles" is still at No. 3, I'm also surprised that "Memories" has yet to pass it up on the charts. I though that would happen several weeks ago. But I don't mind either song, so they can stick around.
5- "Dance Monkey" - Tones and I (+2) -- OK, here we go! Finally things are getting interesting in the top five! I am waiting for "Dance Monkey" to finally become the 2020 smash hit that it deserves to be and it's one step closer to doing just that. Although it's a long ways away from surpassing "Circles" and "Memories" in the top five. The latter two have radio totals just over 100 million in total audience, neither which is budging to much. "Dance Monkey" has a radio total of just 54.6 million and isn't rising too fast. So we might have a log jam here at the top for some time, but if "Dance Monkey" can at least remain consistent inside the top five, I'll consider that a win.
6- "Someone You Loved" - Lewis Capaldi (-1) -- It's been a long, successful ride for Lewis in the top 10, but it might be time to finally say goodbye. Although with the current status of the top 10 not being too mobile, this could conceivably stay around in the bottom half of the top 10 for another month or so.
7- "Roxanne" - Arizona Zervas (+1) -- I keep waiting for this song to fall out, but now it has rose a spot? We need to kick this worthless piece of trash out of here.
8- "10,000 Hours" - Dan + Shay & Justin Bieber (-2) -- This has stayed around a lot longer than I ever expected it. And for some reason I don't think it's ready to say goodbye just yet as it has a habit of just sticking around.
9- "Don't Start Now" - Dua Lipa (=) -- OK. At least Dua didn't drop out of the top 10. But this needs to be rising higher, not getting stuck at No. 9. At the very least, this should be able to climb higher than the three songs ahead of it.
10- "everything i wanted" - Billie Eilish (=) -- I'm glad to see this still around. Last week it got a boost due to Billie killing it at the GRAMMYs, which means there was a strong possibility that it could've easily dropped right out of the top 10. But I would really love for this to gain enough momentum to stick around.
Rising on the Hot 100:
12- "Ballin'" - Mustard & Roddy Ricch (+4) -- No. We need to stop this at all costs. I'm fine with having new blood in the top 10, but this is not what I mean.
15- "Blinding Lights" - The Weeknd (+3) -- Here's an idea. Instead of letting "Ballin'" sneak into the top 10, let's push "Blinding Lights" ahead of it. This is a song that deserves to be a monster hit in 2020.
17- "Heartless" - The Weeknd (+2) -- While "Blinding Lights" has officially passed "Heartless" on the Hot 100, the latter song is managing to stick around. And I suppose I'm not too terribly angry at that, but "Blinding Lights" is easily 1,000 times better.
18- "The Bones" - Maren Morris (+3) -- Congrats to Maren Morris for having the top country song of the week! Now I'd be curious to see how much further up the charts this can sneak. Usually country songs peak in the teens at the highest, but Maren has already experienced a top 10 before, so this could happen.
19- "Hot Girl Bummer" - blackbear (+4) -- Why in the tarnation is this still around?
23- "Adore You" - Harry Styles (+6) -- Yes! Let's give Harry Styles a hit!
27- "Falling" - Trevor Daniel (+6) -- Go away.
34- "Kinfolks" - Sam Hunt (+12) -- GO AWAY!!!!
41- "Juicy" - Doja Cat (+7) -- I don't think this has enough momentum to do any damage, so I'm not too worried about it being up at No. 41.
44- "RITMO (Bad Boys for Life)" - The Black Eyed Peas & J Balvin (+9) -- Are we really going to make this a hit? That really surprises me. But I guess it kinda makes sense since "Bad Boys for Life" just became a huge box office success with the second highest ever weekend total in January on its opening weekend. But not only that, it's held pretty decently in the weeks following. So I guess the movie's success is bleeding over into the song, which in this case is unfortunate.
52- "BEST ON EARTH" - Russ & BIA (+10) -- Go away.
New Arrivals:
33- "I Do It" - Lil Wayne featuring Big Sean & Lil Baby -- Nope to Lil Wayne.
50- "Only the Young" - Taylor Swift -- This one makes a lot of sense. I saw that Taylor Swift had a new song and I said to myself that this must be from the new Taylor Swift documentary on Netflix. Which, by the way, a friend of mine watched at Sundance and really enjoyed. I've been meaning to get around to it, but have had too many other things on my plate. But it'll happen. As far as the song goes, I'm wondering if the documentary will help provide a little more context to what she's actually singing about because she doesn't do a good job at describing it in her song. She seems to take a more serious tone as she's describing a certain situation, but I didn't quite get what that situation was based on the lyrics. Then most of the song was her repeating the lyrics "Only the young can run." And I also don't know what that means. The vocals by Taylor and the music of the song are both really good. This is a solid song. There's just not a lot of clarity as to what she's singing about, which means the song isn't quite as impactful as some of her songs on her most recent album, which album I really enjoyed. The singles were quite weak, but many other songs on the album were excellent. Maybe I just need to watch the documentary and get back to you all on this one.
60- "Physical" - Dua Lipa -- Dua is setting herself up for an excellent 2020. With "Don't Start Now" currently in the top 10 and "Physical" debuting this week, she's building perfectly to her new album set to debut in April, which will in turn help "Don't Start Now" do even better on the charts. So I'm happy for Dua. She's one of the more talented pop singers and deserves this success. In regards to "Physical," I can't help but think of Olivia Newton-John's "Physical," which was one of the biggest hits of the 80s. Both songs are about the same exact subject matter of "Let's get physical." But while Olivia Newton-John's song doesn't really stand the test of time as it's overly cheesy and dumb, Dua's version is a lot more refined and powerful. I still roll my eyes at said subject matter, but Dua's not overly explicit like many singers are these days, so I give it a pass. I envision this is a song that's going to accomplish exactly what it sets out to do and is otherwise a powerful pop song as long as you don't think too hard about it.
61- "Mahogany" - Lil Wayne -- Nope to Lil Wayne.
69- "King of My City" - A Boogie wit da Hoodie -- Why are we continuing to make this guy a thing?
87- "Mama Mia" - Lil Wayne -- Nope to Lil Wayne.
88- "Funeral" - Lil Wayne -- Nope to Lil Wayne.
89- "Nice to Meet Ya" - Meghan Trainor featuring Nicki Minaj -- Nope. I'll take Niall Horan's song of the same name, stylized the exact same way. Meghan has always been a strange artist that I've never connected with. She had her two seconds in the spotlight and I'm happy that she's been pushed out of it. And yes, I did listen to this song as more of a curiosity as to how bad it was. It's not good. The song is overly choppy and weird, to the point where I'm not sure Meghan fans will even gravitate towards this, but I've been confused as to why they all gravitated towards her in the first place, so maybe I'm not qualified to speak for them.
93- "Get Me" - Justin Bieber featuring Kehlani -- Justin's new album gets released to the world on Valentine's Day. And while I still say that Justin's music has matured a lot over the last five or so years as compared to his early days, I'm not looking forward to this album based on the results of "Yummy," which was an atrocious disaster, as well as seeing the featured vocalists on some of the other songs. But zeroing in on this song specifically, I do think it's a bit strange that Justin chose to include Kehlani on the track. I totally forgot that she was a thing as her spotlight faded quite some time ago. And, well, while this isn't as cringey as "Yummy," it's a song that just doesn't go anywhere. I think it suffers from a bad case of being dull and forgettable. At best, it feels like random album filler that belongs nowhere near the Hot 100. Not a good sign for Justin's album, which I'll probably choose to avoid if he gets an album bomb in a couple weeks. But given how hard "Yummy" has fallen in the last few weeks, I'm not sure if he will.
Wednesday, February 5, 2020
DrogeMiester's Billboard Analysis - February 8, 2020
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!
1- "The Box" - Roddy Ricch (=) -- Yep, this song is No. 1 again. Although it's not the most stable thing at the moment as it fell 11 percent in streaming and 14 percent in sales. Despite seeing that drop in streaming, the total still stands at 67 million U.S. streams, head and shoulders above whatever the competition is. Of note, the song did gain a 38 percent boost on the radio, although said boost is only good enough for 35.2 million audience impressions or No. 25 on the radio charts, so it still has a ways to go there. However, the streaming totals are going to keep this alive for some time.
2- "Life is Good" - Future featuring Drake (=) -- Unfortunately for me, Roddy Ricch's biggest competition is still Future and Drake. I thought this was going to fall off after the debut, but it's stubbornly sticking around. I have no idea what its radio and sales totals are, but Billboard reports that it's up 5 percent on streaming to 43 million U.S. streams. If those numbers keep climbing and Roddy Ricch's numbers keep falling, the two songs could switch spots. But let's hope something else comes in to save us all.
3- "Circles" - Post Malone (+1) -- I'm a bit surprised that this song has stuck around for so long. It got pushed down briefly due to Eminem, but Eminem's collapse this week means "Circles" went back up to No. 3. I don't imagine the legs here will be too much longer, but who knows. It's survived a lot longer than I thought it would.
4- "Memories" - Maroon 5 (+1) -- Taking over on the radio charts is "Memories," which makes complete sense. The radio already was madly in love with Maroon 5 and them making a good, solid pop song means this was bound to happen. The song is obviously not high enough in streaming or sales to compete for the top spot, but as long as the song is king of the radio, I imagine it will at least hang out in the top five for a while.
5- "Someone You Loved" - Lewis Capaldi (+3) -- Speaking of surprises, I have no idea how this jumped up three spots. I thought it was on its way out. Did this somehow get a boost from the GRAMMYs? If not, I have no idea what caused this to get another surge.
6- "10,000 Hours" - Dan + Shay & Justin Bieber (=) -- Hanging steady, and for a lot longer than I originally expected, is this trio. I'm also surprised that it's still here.
7- "Dance Monkey" - Tones and I (=) -- This really needs to get a boost on the charts. I love that it made the top 10 in the first place, but I hope it hasn't plateaued. I feel it should at least have enough momentum to sneak ahead of the two songs in front of it, given that those songs have been around for a lot longer than this one has.
8- "Roxanne" - Arizona Zervas (+1) -- Make this go away.
9- "Don't Start Now" - Dua Lipa (+6) -- Heck yes! This song was one of the highlights from last year and it's only getting started. This is Dua's second top 10, following "New Rules" in 2018, and it absolutely belongs here. This is a powerhouse of a pop song and deserves to be blasted on every radio. "New Rules" peaked at No. 6 for Dua and I would love for this to set a new high for her, breaking the top five. And I feel the top 10 is fragile enough at the moment to open the doors open wide enough to make it happen.
10- "everything i wanted" - Billie Eilish (+13) -- It was an excellent night for Billie at the GRAMMYs as she became only the second artist in history to sweep the four major awards (best new artist, album of the year, record of the year, song of the year). The first artist to pull off that feat was Christopher Cross back in 1981, meaning that Billie was also the first female artist to do that. And I couldn't be happier. I've been on the Billie train ever since hearing "Lovely" in 2018 and I'm glad that the world quickly jumped on board and knighted her as pop queen. Combine that GRAMMYs success with her actual performance of this song at the GRAMMYs and the recent arrival of its new video and that is why this song has shot into the top 10. I'm not sure what the staying power for the song will be moving forward, but I hope it can stick around. Of note, Billie is also performing at the Oscars this Sunday. I'm not sure why since she has nothing to do with anything that was nominated, but I'm down with that. Maybe she'll be premiering her new Bond song there for the upcoming "No Time to Die"?
17- "bad guy" - Billie Eilish (+24) -- Speaking of Billie, I won't repeat everything that I just said, but "bad guy" specifically won GRAMMYs for song of the year and record of the year. It made my top 10 songs of the year list, so I'm of course ecstatic about that. On that note, I don't know how many other songs on this list got a boost from the GRAMMYs as the only part I watched is the last 30 minutes when Billie won everything, but that combined with the disappearance of Eminem and Mac Miller from the charts following their album bombs is the reason why this section is a bit crowded this week.
18- "Blinding Lights" - The Weeknd (+3) -- Not as high of a jump as I would like it to have, but a consistent rise nonetheless. This song is so good that it deserves to cruise into the top 10 and become one of the biggest songs of 2020. So let's make it happen!
32- "Truth Hurts" - Lizzo (+11) -- Did this get a GRAMMYs boost or did it just randomly shoot up on the charts? I honestly don't know.
35- "My Oh My" - Camila Cabello featuring DaBaby (+5) -- Camila is quietly having a good year at the moment. She now has two songs in the top 50 and a third one that debuted this week. Her choice of single releases has been quite random, and I'm not a fan of this one specifically, but it's currently working for me.
39- "Sucker" - Jonas Brothers (+10) -- I'm sure this song got a GRAMMYs boost because this has been here for a long time.
43- "Nobody But You" - Blake Shelton & Gwen Stefani (+33) -- Not a fan of this.
46- "Kinfolks" - Sam Hunt (+7) -- Make this go away.
50- "South of the Border" - Ed Sheeran featuring Camila Cabello (+6) -- Camila's second song in the top 50. Although this is technically Ed Sheeran's song that Camila jumped onto, but whatever. Same thing, right?
52- "Homesick" - Kane Brown (+14) -- Lots of country this week. And Kane Brown is one I've never cared about, so this can go away.
56- "I Hope" - Gabby Barrett (+17) -- I'm happy for Gabby. Let's make this a thing! This is kind of a B-version of Carrie's "Before He Cheats," but I'm not too upset about that.
57- "Slide" - H.E.R. featuring YG (+13) -- Nope.
59- "Heart on Ice" - Rod Wave (+13) -- Nope.
62- "BEST ON EARTH" - Russ & BIA (+17) -- Very much a nope.
63- "OUT WEST" - JACKBOYS featuring Young Thug (+22) -- Why are we letting a JACKBOYS song rise? Let's extinguish this.
65- "What She Wants Tonight" - Luke Bryan (+25) -- Nope.
66- "No Idea" - Jon Toliver (+11) -- Nope.
68- "More Hearts Than Mine" - Ingrid Andress (+18) -- Yes! After a lot of nope just barely, we finally found another song that's worth rising. Country radio really needs to accept more country girls onto their rotation because if there were more songs like this, I would be a lot happier about the genre.
72- "Make Me Want To" - Jimmie Allen (+16) -- Back to more nope.
73- "Say So" - Doja Cat (+19) -- Definitely nope.
74- "We Back" - Jason Aldean (+21) -- I've never liked Jason Aldean.
75- "I Hope You're Happy Now" - Carly Pearce & Lee Brice (+22) -- OK, I'm fine with this. Again, it has more to do with my country girls. I like Gabby and Ingrid's songs better, but this is still fine, even though Lee Brice doesn't add much to the song.
76- "homecoming queen?" - Kelsea Ballerini (+20) -- In case any of you missed my end of year favorite songs list, this one was in the top three, so obviously I'm happy that it had a good week. The song has had an interesting journey on the charts as radios haven't really decided if they want to play it or not following its debut back in September, but I would definitely be in favor of this getting more attention.
79- "Make No Sense" - YoungBoy Never Broke Again (+19) -- Nope.
89- "Easy" - DaniLeigh featuring Chris Brown (+10) -- Can we end Chris Brown's career already? I'm not sure why he even had one in the first place, let alone why we keep enabling him, but he's trash. He's always been trash. And he always will be trash.
31- "B.-.-.-.-." - Megan Thee Stallion -- When a song's title is a curse word, you can guarantee I will never listen to it. Especially if it's from a trashy rapper.
34- "Anyone" - Demi Lovato -- There's been a lot of talk about Shakira and J-Lo after their Super Bowl performance. But not enough people are talking about how Demi completely killed it with the National Anthem. So good! And that coming a week after absolutely owning at the GRAMMYs with this performance. If you actually care enough to read these posts, chances are that I don't need to recount Demi's journey of late, but I will say I was torn to pieces with the news that the world almost lost Demi to a drug overdose in 2018. Following that, she's been open and honest with her fans in saying that she's trying to fix herself and get better and now this is her return to music. And it's an absolutely powerful anthem where she cries to the world that nobody is listening to her and that she needs someone there for her. Well Demi, I think I speak for all your fans in saying that we are all listening. We're there for you and we love you. And perhaps she knows this, but I really love this song because sometimes we forget that famous people are humans, too. Demi has been through a lot and it's great to see that she's doing better. If you weren't a fan of Demi, you should be now because not only is this one of the most emotional songs I've heard, it's also one of the most vocally powerful songs I've heard. Demi has one of the best voices in the business and she gives it everything here. And she gave everything on the stage when she performed this at the GRAMMYs, to the point where she was so teared up that she almost couldn't finish. And she had to restart after choking up. I'm not going to predict a song of the year when we're only in the second month, but this one is going to be hard to beat. I was tearing up myself watching Demi perform this.
80- "Letter to Nipsey" - Meek Mill featuring Roddy Ricch -- It's nice that these two have decided to write a letter to Nipsey. But I have no interest.
82- "Chasin' You" - Morgan Wallen -- Generic country.
85- "Before You Go" - Lewis Capaldi -- For some reason, Lewis Capaldi has been a popular person to hate on. Quite frankly, I don't care. I still think think "Someone You Loved" is a good song. Lewis reminds me of a good combination of Ed Sheeran and Adele. And now he gets his second charting song here in the U.S. And if you are one who is annoyed by his style, I don't imagine he's going to convert you with this song. He puts an equal amount of energy into the chorus of this song and personally I love the passion. Many pop artists limp their way through their new songs, delivering passionless performances of generic songs. But Lewis seems to care about what he's doing. And even though the lyrics themselves aren't anything special, thus putting the song a notch below "Someone You Loved" in my book, his vocal prowess makes this song work. Now let's see if he can repeat his most recent success.
88- "Homemade" - Jake Owen -- Generic country.
93- "Underdog" - Alicia Keys -- After going nearly eight years without an appearance on the Hot 100, we're prepping up for more Alicia Keys as her self-titled album "ALICIA" is set for release on March 20, 2020. Now she did have an album in 2016, but it didn't make much of a dent in the musical world and made no hits. But a comeback for Alicia is certainly welcome. Following "Show Me Love" in November, we now have "Underdog" as a second single. Hopefully this one actually gets her more attention because I think this has the ingredients to be a successful pop hit. In terms of the message, this is certainly more than your average pop song as Alicia tries to avoid the generic route by writing something that actually has a bit of meaning. It's a song written to the underdog as Alicia encourages said people to keep going as soon they're going to rise up. I suppose an empowerment anthem like this isn't anything particularly unique, but Alicia's delivery indicates that she actually cares. The song also has a really nice bounce to it with a great vocal performance for Alicia. It's a solid pop song that deserves to guide Alicia right back to the spotlight.
94- "First Man" - Camila Cabello -- I'm having a hard time figuring out exactly what Camila's plan is in regards to her musical direction and choice of singles. Recently she seems to enjoy throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks. And I suppose it's working out as she now has three songs on the charts right now, with the other two in the top 50. And now, despite those songs gaining gradual momentum, she's also releasing "First Man" as a single. On her most recent album, released in December 2019, "First Man" is the song that closes the album and it's a solid closer. If you think that Camila is only capable of flashy pop songs, then this song is worth a look as she slows things down in order to give us a sweet ballad where she takes her time to describe a story about what's happening. She also does a great job of being restrained in this song, which I think makes it really work. Granted, I've always had a soft spot for Camila. Ever since she's broke off into her own solo career I think she's mostly done a great job. I like her voice and I think she has a lot of talent. Some might disagree, but that's OK. Music was meant to be subject. There's no right or wrong answer. But for me this is a solid ballad that I would prefer to perform better than the other two songs she has out at the moment.
95- "What If I Told You I Love You" - Ali Gatie -- I don't really remember what this guy has done previously, but this is a love song without a soul. It's boring and not romantic. It also feels like Ali is completely going through the motions here instead of writing something from his heart.
96- "Catch" - Brett Young -- Generic country.
100- "Dive Bar" - Garth Brooks & Blake Shelton -- I like Garth Brooks. But the man is allergic to releasing his music in places that I have access to music. Find me a way to listen to this song and I will more than oblige. I'm sure it's good.
Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:
1- "The Box" - Roddy Ricch (=) -- Yep, this song is No. 1 again. Although it's not the most stable thing at the moment as it fell 11 percent in streaming and 14 percent in sales. Despite seeing that drop in streaming, the total still stands at 67 million U.S. streams, head and shoulders above whatever the competition is. Of note, the song did gain a 38 percent boost on the radio, although said boost is only good enough for 35.2 million audience impressions or No. 25 on the radio charts, so it still has a ways to go there. However, the streaming totals are going to keep this alive for some time.
2- "Life is Good" - Future featuring Drake (=) -- Unfortunately for me, Roddy Ricch's biggest competition is still Future and Drake. I thought this was going to fall off after the debut, but it's stubbornly sticking around. I have no idea what its radio and sales totals are, but Billboard reports that it's up 5 percent on streaming to 43 million U.S. streams. If those numbers keep climbing and Roddy Ricch's numbers keep falling, the two songs could switch spots. But let's hope something else comes in to save us all.
3- "Circles" - Post Malone (+1) -- I'm a bit surprised that this song has stuck around for so long. It got pushed down briefly due to Eminem, but Eminem's collapse this week means "Circles" went back up to No. 3. I don't imagine the legs here will be too much longer, but who knows. It's survived a lot longer than I thought it would.
4- "Memories" - Maroon 5 (+1) -- Taking over on the radio charts is "Memories," which makes complete sense. The radio already was madly in love with Maroon 5 and them making a good, solid pop song means this was bound to happen. The song is obviously not high enough in streaming or sales to compete for the top spot, but as long as the song is king of the radio, I imagine it will at least hang out in the top five for a while.
5- "Someone You Loved" - Lewis Capaldi (+3) -- Speaking of surprises, I have no idea how this jumped up three spots. I thought it was on its way out. Did this somehow get a boost from the GRAMMYs? If not, I have no idea what caused this to get another surge.
6- "10,000 Hours" - Dan + Shay & Justin Bieber (=) -- Hanging steady, and for a lot longer than I originally expected, is this trio. I'm also surprised that it's still here.
7- "Dance Monkey" - Tones and I (=) -- This really needs to get a boost on the charts. I love that it made the top 10 in the first place, but I hope it hasn't plateaued. I feel it should at least have enough momentum to sneak ahead of the two songs in front of it, given that those songs have been around for a lot longer than this one has.
8- "Roxanne" - Arizona Zervas (+1) -- Make this go away.
9- "Don't Start Now" - Dua Lipa (+6) -- Heck yes! This song was one of the highlights from last year and it's only getting started. This is Dua's second top 10, following "New Rules" in 2018, and it absolutely belongs here. This is a powerhouse of a pop song and deserves to be blasted on every radio. "New Rules" peaked at No. 6 for Dua and I would love for this to set a new high for her, breaking the top five. And I feel the top 10 is fragile enough at the moment to open the doors open wide enough to make it happen.
10- "everything i wanted" - Billie Eilish (+13) -- It was an excellent night for Billie at the GRAMMYs as she became only the second artist in history to sweep the four major awards (best new artist, album of the year, record of the year, song of the year). The first artist to pull off that feat was Christopher Cross back in 1981, meaning that Billie was also the first female artist to do that. And I couldn't be happier. I've been on the Billie train ever since hearing "Lovely" in 2018 and I'm glad that the world quickly jumped on board and knighted her as pop queen. Combine that GRAMMYs success with her actual performance of this song at the GRAMMYs and the recent arrival of its new video and that is why this song has shot into the top 10. I'm not sure what the staying power for the song will be moving forward, but I hope it can stick around. Of note, Billie is also performing at the Oscars this Sunday. I'm not sure why since she has nothing to do with anything that was nominated, but I'm down with that. Maybe she'll be premiering her new Bond song there for the upcoming "No Time to Die"?
Rising on the Hot 100:
17- "bad guy" - Billie Eilish (+24) -- Speaking of Billie, I won't repeat everything that I just said, but "bad guy" specifically won GRAMMYs for song of the year and record of the year. It made my top 10 songs of the year list, so I'm of course ecstatic about that. On that note, I don't know how many other songs on this list got a boost from the GRAMMYs as the only part I watched is the last 30 minutes when Billie won everything, but that combined with the disappearance of Eminem and Mac Miller from the charts following their album bombs is the reason why this section is a bit crowded this week.
18- "Blinding Lights" - The Weeknd (+3) -- Not as high of a jump as I would like it to have, but a consistent rise nonetheless. This song is so good that it deserves to cruise into the top 10 and become one of the biggest songs of 2020. So let's make it happen!
32- "Truth Hurts" - Lizzo (+11) -- Did this get a GRAMMYs boost or did it just randomly shoot up on the charts? I honestly don't know.
35- "My Oh My" - Camila Cabello featuring DaBaby (+5) -- Camila is quietly having a good year at the moment. She now has two songs in the top 50 and a third one that debuted this week. Her choice of single releases has been quite random, and I'm not a fan of this one specifically, but it's currently working for me.
39- "Sucker" - Jonas Brothers (+10) -- I'm sure this song got a GRAMMYs boost because this has been here for a long time.
43- "Nobody But You" - Blake Shelton & Gwen Stefani (+33) -- Not a fan of this.
46- "Kinfolks" - Sam Hunt (+7) -- Make this go away.
50- "South of the Border" - Ed Sheeran featuring Camila Cabello (+6) -- Camila's second song in the top 50. Although this is technically Ed Sheeran's song that Camila jumped onto, but whatever. Same thing, right?
52- "Homesick" - Kane Brown (+14) -- Lots of country this week. And Kane Brown is one I've never cared about, so this can go away.
56- "I Hope" - Gabby Barrett (+17) -- I'm happy for Gabby. Let's make this a thing! This is kind of a B-version of Carrie's "Before He Cheats," but I'm not too upset about that.
57- "Slide" - H.E.R. featuring YG (+13) -- Nope.
59- "Heart on Ice" - Rod Wave (+13) -- Nope.
62- "BEST ON EARTH" - Russ & BIA (+17) -- Very much a nope.
63- "OUT WEST" - JACKBOYS featuring Young Thug (+22) -- Why are we letting a JACKBOYS song rise? Let's extinguish this.
65- "What She Wants Tonight" - Luke Bryan (+25) -- Nope.
66- "No Idea" - Jon Toliver (+11) -- Nope.
68- "More Hearts Than Mine" - Ingrid Andress (+18) -- Yes! After a lot of nope just barely, we finally found another song that's worth rising. Country radio really needs to accept more country girls onto their rotation because if there were more songs like this, I would be a lot happier about the genre.
72- "Make Me Want To" - Jimmie Allen (+16) -- Back to more nope.
73- "Say So" - Doja Cat (+19) -- Definitely nope.
74- "We Back" - Jason Aldean (+21) -- I've never liked Jason Aldean.
75- "I Hope You're Happy Now" - Carly Pearce & Lee Brice (+22) -- OK, I'm fine with this. Again, it has more to do with my country girls. I like Gabby and Ingrid's songs better, but this is still fine, even though Lee Brice doesn't add much to the song.
76- "homecoming queen?" - Kelsea Ballerini (+20) -- In case any of you missed my end of year favorite songs list, this one was in the top three, so obviously I'm happy that it had a good week. The song has had an interesting journey on the charts as radios haven't really decided if they want to play it or not following its debut back in September, but I would definitely be in favor of this getting more attention.
79- "Make No Sense" - YoungBoy Never Broke Again (+19) -- Nope.
89- "Easy" - DaniLeigh featuring Chris Brown (+10) -- Can we end Chris Brown's career already? I'm not sure why he even had one in the first place, let alone why we keep enabling him, but he's trash. He's always been trash. And he always will be trash.
New Arrivals:
31- "B.-.-.-.-." - Megan Thee Stallion -- When a song's title is a curse word, you can guarantee I will never listen to it. Especially if it's from a trashy rapper.
34- "Anyone" - Demi Lovato -- There's been a lot of talk about Shakira and J-Lo after their Super Bowl performance. But not enough people are talking about how Demi completely killed it with the National Anthem. So good! And that coming a week after absolutely owning at the GRAMMYs with this performance. If you actually care enough to read these posts, chances are that I don't need to recount Demi's journey of late, but I will say I was torn to pieces with the news that the world almost lost Demi to a drug overdose in 2018. Following that, she's been open and honest with her fans in saying that she's trying to fix herself and get better and now this is her return to music. And it's an absolutely powerful anthem where she cries to the world that nobody is listening to her and that she needs someone there for her. Well Demi, I think I speak for all your fans in saying that we are all listening. We're there for you and we love you. And perhaps she knows this, but I really love this song because sometimes we forget that famous people are humans, too. Demi has been through a lot and it's great to see that she's doing better. If you weren't a fan of Demi, you should be now because not only is this one of the most emotional songs I've heard, it's also one of the most vocally powerful songs I've heard. Demi has one of the best voices in the business and she gives it everything here. And she gave everything on the stage when she performed this at the GRAMMYs, to the point where she was so teared up that she almost couldn't finish. And she had to restart after choking up. I'm not going to predict a song of the year when we're only in the second month, but this one is going to be hard to beat. I was tearing up myself watching Demi perform this.
80- "Letter to Nipsey" - Meek Mill featuring Roddy Ricch -- It's nice that these two have decided to write a letter to Nipsey. But I have no interest.
82- "Chasin' You" - Morgan Wallen -- Generic country.
85- "Before You Go" - Lewis Capaldi -- For some reason, Lewis Capaldi has been a popular person to hate on. Quite frankly, I don't care. I still think think "Someone You Loved" is a good song. Lewis reminds me of a good combination of Ed Sheeran and Adele. And now he gets his second charting song here in the U.S. And if you are one who is annoyed by his style, I don't imagine he's going to convert you with this song. He puts an equal amount of energy into the chorus of this song and personally I love the passion. Many pop artists limp their way through their new songs, delivering passionless performances of generic songs. But Lewis seems to care about what he's doing. And even though the lyrics themselves aren't anything special, thus putting the song a notch below "Someone You Loved" in my book, his vocal prowess makes this song work. Now let's see if he can repeat his most recent success.
88- "Homemade" - Jake Owen -- Generic country.
93- "Underdog" - Alicia Keys -- After going nearly eight years without an appearance on the Hot 100, we're prepping up for more Alicia Keys as her self-titled album "ALICIA" is set for release on March 20, 2020. Now she did have an album in 2016, but it didn't make much of a dent in the musical world and made no hits. But a comeback for Alicia is certainly welcome. Following "Show Me Love" in November, we now have "Underdog" as a second single. Hopefully this one actually gets her more attention because I think this has the ingredients to be a successful pop hit. In terms of the message, this is certainly more than your average pop song as Alicia tries to avoid the generic route by writing something that actually has a bit of meaning. It's a song written to the underdog as Alicia encourages said people to keep going as soon they're going to rise up. I suppose an empowerment anthem like this isn't anything particularly unique, but Alicia's delivery indicates that she actually cares. The song also has a really nice bounce to it with a great vocal performance for Alicia. It's a solid pop song that deserves to guide Alicia right back to the spotlight.
94- "First Man" - Camila Cabello -- I'm having a hard time figuring out exactly what Camila's plan is in regards to her musical direction and choice of singles. Recently she seems to enjoy throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks. And I suppose it's working out as she now has three songs on the charts right now, with the other two in the top 50. And now, despite those songs gaining gradual momentum, she's also releasing "First Man" as a single. On her most recent album, released in December 2019, "First Man" is the song that closes the album and it's a solid closer. If you think that Camila is only capable of flashy pop songs, then this song is worth a look as she slows things down in order to give us a sweet ballad where she takes her time to describe a story about what's happening. She also does a great job of being restrained in this song, which I think makes it really work. Granted, I've always had a soft spot for Camila. Ever since she's broke off into her own solo career I think she's mostly done a great job. I like her voice and I think she has a lot of talent. Some might disagree, but that's OK. Music was meant to be subject. There's no right or wrong answer. But for me this is a solid ballad that I would prefer to perform better than the other two songs she has out at the moment.
95- "What If I Told You I Love You" - Ali Gatie -- I don't really remember what this guy has done previously, but this is a love song without a soul. It's boring and not romantic. It also feels like Ali is completely going through the motions here instead of writing something from his heart.
96- "Catch" - Brett Young -- Generic country.
100- "Dive Bar" - Garth Brooks & Blake Shelton -- I like Garth Brooks. But the man is allergic to releasing his music in places that I have access to music. Find me a way to listen to this song and I will more than oblige. I'm sure it's good.
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