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!

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.