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.

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!

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.

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!

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.

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!

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.

DrogeMiester's Billboard Analysis - February 1, 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 (=) -- Another monster week on streaming for Roddy Ricch, although it is actually down from last week, but only 3 percent to 75 million U.S. streams. Does that mean the song has plateaued on streaming? Perhaps. But with streaming totals that high, it doesn't matter because nothing is close to it right now. Sales were also down and radio rose 38 percent, but said radio and sales are a very small percentage of the song's chart points as this is a streaming heavy song at the moment. Of note, there isn't yet an official music video for this song. Whenever Roddy's team decides to release that, the streaming could actually go up again.

2- "Life is Good" - Future featuring Drake (=) -- It makes me sad that this is still at No. 2. Yes, it's down from last week across the board, but it still has enough streaming to unfortunately keep it around, which is unfortunate. No one needs anymore Future or Drake. We've had way too much of both of them.

3- "Godzilla" - Eminem featuring Juice WRLD (new) -- Juice WRLD? Eminem has dipped this low, too? That's disappointing. I don't listen to songs that feature dead rappers, regardless of how big of a role they play on this song. So I'll never cover this.

4- "Circles" - Post Malone (-1) -- Despite the three rap songs ahead of this, all boosted heavily by streaming, Post Malone is managing to stick around due to strong radio. In fact, it's still No. 1 on radio right now. As long as that stays that way, this song might stubbornly stick around. And I'm still OK with that, all things considered.

5- "Memories" - Maroon 5 (-1) -- At one point I thought this had potential to go No. 1. And I was going to be fine with that. But that doesn't appear to be the case anymore. The song just never had quite enough momentum to get over the hill and now it's being held back by a trio of streaming monsters, which is insurmountable for a pop song.

6- "10,000 Hours" - Dan + Shay & Justin Bieber (+1) -- This song went up a spot? That actually really surprises me. I thought it had simply got a boost thanks to Justin's new song. But now that is gone and this is still rising. It's actually kinda impressive.

7- "Dance Monkey" - Tones and I (+1) -- I suppose hanging out in the bottom half of the top 10 isn't too bad. Having this song here in the top 10 in the first place is enough cause for celebration. But I would like this to get more momentum.

8- "Someone You Loved" - Lewis Capaldi (-2) -- I'm not sure how much longer this will be around, but it's certainly had an excellent run. No tears shed for me.

9- "Roxanne" - Arizona Zervas (=) -- Make this go away.

10- "Lose You to Love Me" - Selena Gomez (-5) -- This falling back down to Earth was expected. Selena got a boost last week from her new album, which didn't have much of an impact on the charts. But with that out of the way, Selena goes back to barely hanging onto a spot in the top 10.

Rising on the Hot 100:

20- "High Fashion" - Roddy Ricch featuring Mustard (+7) -- Not much in the rising songs section due to a double album bomb from Eminem and Mac Miller. But I'm a little annoyed that one of the songs that managed to do well in spite of the album bombs is another song from Roddy Ricch.

21- "Blinding Lights" - The Weeknd (+11) -- This, on the other hand, is great news. "Blinding Lights" is a song that deserves to be a monster hit. At first I wasn't sure if it was going to stick around, but I'm stoked that this is getting traction.

34- "Suicidal" - YNW Melly (+5) -- Make this go away.

55- "Tusa" - Karol G & Nicki Minaj (+14) -- Why?

New Arrivals:

3- "Godzilla" - Eminem featuring Juice WRLD -- A double album bomb this week. I'm mildly curious about Eminem, but the long list of songs to cover from him and Mac Miller is just too long right now and I have other things I feel like doing. 

16- "What a Man Gotta Do" - Jonas Brothers -- I'm getting the feeling that the Jonas Brothers don't put a whole lot of effort into writing their music. Or maybe that was already common knowledge. The positives here are that this song is upbeat and catchy enough to get a pass. It's obvious that the Jonas Brothers also know exactly who their target audience and they are good at writing music that panders directly to them. But I feel like that target audience is composed of mostly teenage girls who swoon after these brothers rather easily and don't care to pay attention to the lyrics at all. Because lyrically this is the most generic pop song you can come up with, especially coming from a boy band sort of thing. This reminds me of a One Direction song, if I'm being honest. Personally I'd like to see the Jonas Brothers put a little more effort into creating a song that that actually has some meaning to it rather than coming up with yet another empty pop song that will be huge for five seconds, then disappear into oblivion, never to be heard of again. But given that I'm obviously not the target audience here, what does my opinion really mean? Sure, I liked "Sucker." But I feel like ever since they released "Sucker," all they've done is try to re-write "Sucker" over and over and frankly I'm kinda bored. But if all the girls love it, they did their job, right?

28- "Darkness" - Eminem -- I'm not covering Eminem's album bomb, but let me know if this song or any others are any good if you have listened to it.

31- "Those Kinda Nights" - Eminem featuring Ed Sheeran -- I'm not covering Eminem's album bomb, but let me know if this song or any others are any good if you have listened to it.

36- "Unaccomodating" - Eminem featuring Young M.A -- I'm not covering Eminem's album bomb, but let me know if this song or any others are any good if you have listened to it.

38- "Blue World" - Mac Miller -- Mac Miller is dead. I don't listen to songs from dead rappers because I hate what the industry is doing with them. Also, I wouldn't have listened to and covered a Mac Miller album when he was alive, anyways. Sorry.

48- "Circles" - Mac Miller -- Mac Miller is dead. I don't listen to songs from dead rappers because I hate what the industry is doing with them. Also, I wouldn't have listened to and covered a Mac Miller album when he was alive, anyways. Sorry.

52- "You Gon' Learn" - Eminem featuring Royce da 5'9" & White Gold -- I'm not covering Eminem's album bomb, but let me know if this song or any others are any good if you have listened to it.

57- "Black Swan" - BTS -- Lost in the mix of all the Eminem and Mac Miller is this little Korean group called BTS. Have you heard of them?

58- "P---- Fairy (OTW)" - Jhene Aiko -- I don't care who the artist is, I'm never going to listen to a song with a title like that.

61- "Leaving Heaven" - Eminem featuring Skylar Grey -- I'm not covering Eminem's album bomb, but let me know if this song or any others are any good if you have listened to it.

63- "Comlicated" - Mac Miller -- Mac Miller is dead. I don't listen to songs from dead rappers because I hate what the industry is doing with them. Also, I wouldn't have listened to and covered a Mac Miller album when he was alive, anyways. Sorry.

64- "Hand Me Downs" - Mac Miller -- Mac Miller is dead. I don't listen to songs from dead rappers because I hate what the industry is doing with them. Also, I wouldn't have listened to and covered a Mac Miller album when he was alive, anyways. Sorry.

67- "Premonition (Intro)" - Eminem -- I'm not covering Eminem's album bomb, but let me know if this song or any others are any good if you have listened to it.

68- "I Can See" - Mac Miller -- Mac Miller is dead. I don't listen to songs from dead rappers because I hate what the industry is doing with them. Also, I wouldn't have listened to and covered a Mac Miller album when he was alive, anyways. Sorry.

71- "In Too Deep" - Eminem -- I'm not covering Eminem's album bomb, but let me know if this song or any others are any good if you have listened to it.

75- "Woods" - Mac Miller -- Mac Miller is dead. I don't listen to songs from dead rappers because I hate what the industry is doing with them. Also, I wouldn't have listened to and covered a Mac Miller album when he was alive, anyways. Sorry.

80- "Everybody" - Mac Miller -- Mac Miller is dead. I don't listen to songs from dead rappers because I hate what the industry is doing with them. Also, I wouldn't have listened to and covered a Mac Miller album when he was alive, anyways. Sorry.

83- "Marsh" - Eminem -- I'm not covering Eminem's album bomb, but let me know if this song or any others are any good if you have listened to it.

84- "No Regrets" - Eminem featuring Don Tolliver -- I'm not covering Eminem's album bomb, but let me know if this song or any others are any good if you have listened to it.

89- "Lock It Up" - Eminem featuring Anderson .Paak -- I'm not covering Eminem's album bomb, but let me know if this song or any others are any good if you have listened to it.

91- "Surf" - Mac Miller -- Mac Miller is dead. I don't listen to songs from dead rappers because I hate what the industry is doing with them. Also, I wouldn't have listened to and covered a Mac Miller album when he was alive, anyways. Sorry.

93- "Stepdad" - Eminem -- I'm not covering Eminem's album bomb, but let me know if this song or any others are any good if you have listened to it.

100- "That's On Me" - Mac Miller -- Mac Miller is dead. I don't listen to songs from dead rappers because I hate what the industry is doing with them. Also, I wouldn't have listened to and covered a Mac Miller album when he was alive, anyways. Sorry.

DrogeMiester's Billboard Analysis - January 18, 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 (+2) -- I'm not too terribly surprised here. "The Box" has been surging on streaming ever since its release and has now accumulated 68.2 million U.S. streams this week, which is a 60 percent increase from last week. And it's done this without an official video, which means this could be a streaming monster for weeks and weeks. At some point, it's going to have to get some sales and radio to go along with that, but until then the streaming is strong enough to hold this one up. I'm not really sure why the hip-hop world has started salivating all over themselves after hearing this song, which really isn't that good nor unique, but I suppose this is better than having "Roxanne" at No. 1, which is what I initially was thinking would take over for "Circles" following the end of the holiday season.

2- "Yummy" - Justin Bieber (new) -- I'll give my thoughts on this song below, but for now I'll just mention that Bieber had an excellent debut on sales (No. 1) and streaming (No. 2) and not a bad week on radio (No. 10). But those numbers are going to come crashing down next week. At least with those sales. Then Bieber will need to show traction on the charts after that for this to become a true hit. Quite frankly, I hope it doesn't.

3- "Circles" - Post Malone (-2) -- "Circles" has had a decent run at the top of the charts, but suffered a bit from unlucky timing around the holiday season and now gets pushed down again after a brief return. With Bieber set to tumble, this could go back up.

4- "Memories" - Maroon 5 (-2) -- I'm a tad bit surprised that this song got bullied out of the way. I would easily rather have this at No. 1 than "The Box" and I thought it had enough consistency to at least get ahead of "Circles." But it did not.

5- "10,000 Hours" - Dan + Shay & Justin Bieber (+4) -- Whoa! I'm guessing that this song got a residual boost from Bieber's debut? Or maybe Bieber fans needed a palette cleanser after listening to Bieber's new song.

6- "Someone You Loved" - Lewis Capaldi (-2) -- After a brief return to the top five last week, Lewis gets bullied back out thanks to Bieber. Honestly I don't really expect this to go back even though both Bieber songs will tumble next week. It seems like it's ran its course and is now ready to slowly disappear.

7- "Dance Monkey" - Tones and I (=) -- Consistency is good. Now let's hope this song can take advantage of the slightly shaky songs ahead of it and become a monster hit!

8- "Good as Hell" - Lizzo (-2) -- This has also seemed to have already ran its course and probably won't be here for too much longer. But both Lizzo and Lewis Capaldi were welcome entries to the top 10 and I hope they get good replacements.  

9- "Roxanne" - Arizona Zervas (-4) -- It makes me really happy that, after last week's unimpressive performance, "Roxanne" is now looking like its ready to plummet. Which is fantastic. Hip-hop fans have appeared to have already moved onto the next useless hip-hop song, meaning the whole world will forget this ever existed soon.

10- "Lose You to Love Me" - Selena Gomez (=) -- Selena has a new album out that should be impacting the charts next week. I don't know how big it will be or if Selena will get many new tracks to chart, but at the least I'm expecting this song to get a boost next week and soar up charts a bit. I'm not sure how big it will get, but there's enough weak songs in the top 10 right now for this to do some real damage.

Rising on the Hot 100:

14- "Don't Start Now" - Dua Lipa (+7) -- Can we please get Dua Lipa in the top 10? I really enjoy this song. This month I was going through all my favorite charting songs of 2019 in order to create my top 10 list that I posted on Monday. While this one didn't make the cut, it was a strong contender during my ranking process. So if we're going to start replacing some of the 2019 songs, this would be a solid replacement.

16- "Trampoline" - SHAED (+3) -- Speaking of my top 10 music list, this song was the last song left out, coming in at No. 11 as the top honorable mention. And it broke my heart that it couldn't fit in. The journey for this song has been a rather long one, meaning I don't know how much this really has left in the tank, but if it could manage to sneak into the top 10 for at least a week or two, that would be cool. But I'm not crossing my fingers as this might be destined to peak here in the teens, which is not bad for a smaller song like this from an otherwise unknown group.

17- "Heartless" - The Weeknd (+3) -- No, let's not let this one back in the top. The Weeknd has another song that is miles better. And thankfully its actually doing rather well. So let's continue to build that one and simply forget this song ever existed.

19- "everything i wanted" - Billie Eilish (+4) -- 2019 was a great year for Billie as she had two songs in my top 10 list and six more in the honorable mentions section. This here was one of the stronger honorable mentions of the Billie songs and thus it would be excited if it could maintain some traction and get Billie another monster hit. Although admittedly it's not the most mainstream thing. But hey, Billie has so far made a living off of convincing the world to love her weird, unconventional music that I really love, so why can't this be another big hit?

22- "Woah" - Lil Baby (+5) -- Yeah, whoa is right. Let's not get this one any higher. Although typing this up is making me realize that Lil Baby doesn't know how to spell whoa right. Because, yes. It is spelled with the "h" before the "o." Not that I expect rappers to know how to spell since most of them probably flunked elementary school. But I still feel obligated to point out their continued incompetence with this thing called English when they don't know how to do it right.

24- "Adore You" - Harry Styles (+11) -- Can Harry Styles actually gain traction with a song from his album? He's been unable to do that so far, but we'll see if that changes. This song isn't the best song from the album, but I'll accept it.

26- "The Bones" - Maren Morris (+10) -- Good for Maren! I like me female country singers, so seeing one of them doing really well is encouraging. Nashville needs to accept more of them into their regular radio rotation instead of over-promoting so many lazy and untalented male country singers.

30- "Futsal Shuffle 2020" - Lil Uzi Vert (+14) -- Gross. This debuted in the top 10 and quickly plummeted, making me happy. So let's not let this get real traction.

35- "High Fashion" - Roddy Ricch featuring Mustard (+35) -- Why are we so obsessed with Roddy Ricch right now?

39- "Blinding Lights" - The Weeknd (+20) -- YES!!!! Are we actually going to make this song a thing instead of The Weeknd's other lame song that his team tried to promote instead? While "Heartless" is a piece of junk, "Blinding Lights" is so good that it could not be denied a spot in my top 10, despite it being a fairly new song comparatively. So let's push this song to be the smash hit of 2020 because it absolutely deserves it.

40- "What if I Never Got Over You" - Lady Antebellum (+9) -- We're starting off on the right foot with country this week. Maren Morris is the big country riser this week and Lady Antebellum is right behind them. This is a solid song, so go country! Although I just now discovered the piano version of this song. And that version I like a whole lot more.

44- "My Oh My" - Camila Cabello featuring DaBaby (+6) -- Please no, Camila. Your next big hit shouldn't be one that pushes DaBaby any higher. Let's leave him back in 2019 and forget that his mistake of a career ever happened.

49- "Playing Games" - Summer Walker (+5) -- I'm not sure why this is rising this week. I don't expect it to be here many more weeks.

56- "Start Wit Me" - Roddy Ricch & Gunna (+12) -- Why are we so obsessed with Roddy Ricch right now? 

61- "South of the Border" - Ed Sheeran featuring Camila Cabello & Cardi B (+11) -- I suppose we're at the point where we might have to start taking this song seriously. It's not my favorite song from Ed Sheeran's collaborations, but he also has plenty worse. Ed Sheeran and Camila do have strong interplay in the song. They mesh rather well. We just have to ignore that third-verse rap feature from Cardi at the end.

69- "BEST ON EARTH" - Russ & BIA (+12) -- Please, no.

75- "What She Wants Tonight" - Luke Bryan (+11) -- Well, I suppose it couldn't be all rainbows and butterflies with country this week, right? At least this is only at No. 75.

79- "Tip toe" - Roddy Ricch featuring A Boogie wit da Hoodie (+10) -- Why are we so obsessed with Roddy Ricch right now?

New Arrivals:

2- "Yummy" - Justin Bieber -- I've often defending Justin Bieber as someone who has matured quite a bit after a rough start to his career. I mean, he certainly had his huge fan base, but as far as mainstream likability, he didn't quite hit that until much later. Now it comes to the point where I often can anxiously await a new Justin Bieber song. He proved most recently with his collaboration with Dan + Shay that he can still make likable music. But yikes. "Yummy" sees him digressing by about 10 years. "You've got that yummy?" I mean, really Bieber? Is yummy an adjective that any girls likes being described by. It feels more degrading to me. That aside, it also makes for a really cheesy, stupid song as he repeats yummy way too much and doesn't have anything intelligent or interesting to say on any of the verses. It just becomes extremely annoying. If Bieber has a new album coming soon, let's hope that he has some songs on there that are much better than this because this is an awful start. If this is simply a randomly released single that has nothing to do with an upcoming album, then let's just forget that this one existed and all move on with our lives.

60- "U Played" - MoneyBagg Yo featuring Lil Baby -- So many things wrong with this. And that's just when I look at the song title and artists. I'm sure it would get much worse if I actually listened to the song. Which I have no desire wasting my time doing.

70- "Sugar" - BROCKHAMPTON -- I initially thought that BrockHampton was an individual singer who had just taken his full name and removed the space to create a rap name, which is stupid. Turns out this is a group of 14 people, none of whom is named Brock Hampton. Turns out that's the name of a street that one of the members grew up on. OK. The song is not really my thing. This is a hip-hop group. And who knows, maybe if I were to dig deep I would find something good. But I'm really not that motivated at the present time because I found this song more annoying than anything, with plenty of hip-hop tropes that drive me crazy combined with an overabundance of creativity and random nonsense, like 14 people trying to create one song without any sort of unity as to what they're doing. I don't know. Maybe that's too harsh.

90- "All I Want" - Olivia Rodrigo -- We got a "High School Musical" song to chart this week. Or, rather, a song from "High School Musical: The Musical: The Series," which I certainly haven't kept up with. Even if I did get my Disney+ working properly on my devices, this is probably not the series that I would be catching up on. But I'm still rather amused at the title, which gets even worse when I look at the album cover for this song: "High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Soundtrack." Someone had a little too much fun with that. But the song? Well, OK. But I won't dive too deep into it because I would feel obligated to know more of the context. Although after listening to the song, it probably isn't rocket science as far as what's going on here. This is a very high school themed song. Specifically it's a high school themed love song for the teenage girls watching this series. I'm not sure it's really going to connect to anyone outside that audience, but it probably wasn't trying, nor was it probably attempting to be a big Billboard hit. But I will give Olivia Rodrigo credit for having a good voice. Vocally, she nails the song. That doesn't quite make up for the juvenile love song lyrics that are overly cheesy and hard to connect with or take seriously.

93- "I Hope You're Happy Now" - Carly Pearce & Lee Brice -- And now we graduate from teenage love to adult love with this big boy and big girl country song. And you should know that I like my country girls, which I why I don't mind this one. Carly has a great voice and her and Lee Brice fit well together. For a while there I was thinking that she was going to give him and the other country boys a piece of their medicine by only using him for backing vocals, but he did get his own verse. And I liked the attempt at a duet. Although it still kinda does this thing where it's not much of a duet. Just two different voices taking turns singing with the same voice, if that makes sense. Carly is singing about a breakup, which she may have actually instigated, but is irritated at his poor reaction. With that, I was hoping for a bit more of a contrasting tone when Lee Brice came in, but there really wasn't one. Still not bad, though. It does get a bit too heavy, which is a common annoyance of mine with mainstream country. They always go loud and boisterous despite lyrics that would work better with music that is more stripped down. But Carly and Lee are still good enough together to cause me to be accepting of this country song. On a completely unrelated note, after listening to this song, I went and listened to "Defying Gravity" from "Wicked" because that's one of the songs that showed up in the search results of my Apple Music after searching this title.

94- "20/20" - Lil Tjay -- Nope.

95- "Say So" - Doja Cat -- Nope.

98- "ORANGE SODA" - Baby Keem -- Part of me was hoping that this was another "Baby Shark" style of kids song. I mean, who calls your song "ORANGE SODA" and hopes to be taken seriously unless the song is directed at five-year-olds? But nope. This is another trap artists thinking he's super cool with Baby in his name while releasing a song that is barely over two minutes. Yeah, I'll pass.

DrogeMiester's Billboard Analysis - January 11, 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- "Circles" - Post Malone (+4) -- While some music critics and other Grinches on the internet are overjoyed with the departure of all of the Christmas music on the charts, I for one am really depressed that things have to go back to the status quo. I always love the Christmas-powered Hot 100 during the holiday season. It brings a welcome breath of fresh of air. But unfortunately the holiday season is over and the Hot 100 is all sorts of wonky this week, which is why I'm going to go through this real fast. Much to my surprise, "Circles" returns to No. 1 after a four-week interruption. Through this process it wasn't really that strong, but was consistent enough across the board to maintain its position. This week it holds steady on the radio while soaring in both sales and streaming, although the latter two are a bit of an anomaly as most songs surged in sales and streaming due to a combination of Christmas songs disappearing as well as holiday music gift cards and end-of-year playlists all contributing to the chaos. Things will settle down here in the next week or so and then we can examine closer. 

2- "Memories" - Maroon 5 (+7) -- I had a feeling that "Memories" was going to survive the holiday chaos, but I didn't quite expect it to shoot all the way up to No. 2 given that it was at No. 9 last week. I expected it to be at No. 4 or No. 5. But hey, I'm actually not complaining here. There's two other rap songs in the top five right now and if "Memories" can block both of them from going No. 1, that's a huge win in my book.

3- "The Box" - Roddy Ricch (+10) -- The hip-hop world is absolutely obsessed with this song, so in the aftermath of all the holiday stuff, I'm not at all surprised to see this soar right into the top five. I suppose it's not the most offensive thing on Earth, so I won't complain too much at its existence. But it still has all the hip-hop tropes included that drive me crazy, so don't expect me to celebrate if it continues to surge high. At the best, this is a factory-produced hip-hop song that the world will forget existed in a year or two, like most of the rest of them that charts these days. Lucky for me, this is currently powered purely by streaming as its radio and sales numbers are currently quite miserable. Songs boosted up by streaming alone only last so long and won't hold up in the long term against songs like "Circles" and "Memories."

4- "Someone You Loved" - Lewis Capaldi (+4) -- I don't know how much longer this song is going to be around, but for now it swings back up into the top five after getting bullied a bit by holiday music. If there's no serious competition, this might still hang around for a while.

5- "Roxanne" - Arizona Zervas (+1) -- The great news this week is that I thought "Roxanne" was going to be the song to jump to No. 1 following the disappearance of the Christmas music. But while every other song in the top 10 this week jumped at least four spaces, this only jumps up one spot. That means it had a really bad week. As I mentioned with "The Box," songs boosted solely on streaming are built on a very weak foundation and only last so long. Hopefully this is a sign that "Roxanne" won't last a whole lot longer in the top 10.

6- "Good as Hell" - Lizzo (+4) -- Another song that I don't think will be around for too much longer. But last week it was on the verge of getting kicked out, so it has a few more weeks to breathe.

7- "Dance Monkey" - Tones and I (+7) -- This NEEDS to become a hit in 2020. The one silver lining with the holiday songs disappearing is that the door has been left wide open for "Dance Monkey" to finally dominate. I just hope it actually continues its momentum. At the very least I think it has the potential to quickly slip ahead of the three songs immediately in front of it.

8- "HIGHEST IN THE ROOM" - Travis Scott (+30) -- Travis Scott has a new album out this week. That's why this song jumped up 30 spots. It'll be gone next week, though.

9- "10,000 Hours" - Dan + Shay & Justin Bieber (+8) -- The last time this song was in the top 10, and I'm not sure which week that was, I mentioned that it's most likely going to continue to yo-yo up and down depending on the strength of the top 10. The song has already hit its ceiling, but it's pretty consistent still, meaning that it'll continue to show up every once in a while for the next month or so. At the very least, this will probably hang out in the teens for the next month or so.

10- "Lose You to Love Me" - Selena Gomez (+8) -- I don't know why I was surprised to see Selena back in the top 10 this week, but it was a pleasant surprise. I just don't know what the overall strength of this song is. I hope it is able to maintain traction and become a staple in the top 10, but I genuinely have no idea if it will or not.

Rising on the Hot 100:

11- "Señorita" - Shawn Mendes & Camila Cabello (+15) -- With 25 Christmas song evaporating, combined with end-of-year playlists and holiday music purchasing, nearly the entire Hot 100 showed up in this section. That means I'm going to fly through this really quickly since it took long enough to type this whole thing up. I let you look at the number of spots each song jumped up. If it rose 20 spots or more, it's actually rising. If it's an old song (like this one), the rise is only for this week and maybe for whenever the Grammys happen. Anything outside that is most likely the Hot 100 just resetting itself. We'll find out together next week what songs are actually rising.

12- "Ballin'" - Mustard featuring Roddy Ricch (+7) -- Don't care.

13- "BOP" - DaBaby (+7) -- Go away.

14- "bad guy" - Billie Eilish (+9) -- Temporary rise.

15- "Old Town Road" - Lil Nas X featuring Bill Ray Cyrus (+19) -- Temporary rise.

16- "No Guidance" - Chris Brown featuring Drake (+9) -- Go away.

17- "Panini" - Lil Nas X (+13) -- Go away.

18- "Truth Hurts" - Lizzo (+17) -- This has lived out its life. We have "Good as Hell" in its place.

19- "Trampoline" - SHAED (+27) -- I want this to make a reappearance.

20- "Heartless" - The Weeknd (+19) -- Don't care. His other song is better.

21- "Don't Start Now" - Dua Lipa (+31) -- This is one of our real risers. And that's great news.

22- "Bandit" - Juice WRLD & YoungBoy Never Broke Again (+5) -- Go away.

23- "everything i wanted" - Billie Eilish (+18) -- I hope this somehow sticks around.

24- "Hot" - Young Thug featuring Gunna (+9) - Go away.

26- "One Man Road" - Old Dominion (+28) -- Don't care.

27- "Woah" - Lil Baby (+20) -- Go away.

30- "Even Though I'm Falling" - Luke Combs (+29) -- I'll get back to you on this one.

31- "Falling" - Trevor Daniel (+20) -- Go away.

32- "Hot Girl Bummer" - blackbear (+23) -- Why is this still a thing?

33- "Ran$om" - Lil Tecca (+17) -- Temporary rise.

34- "Lover" - Taylor Swift (+23) -- Temporary rise. Most likely.

35- "Adore You" - Harry Styles (+18) -- We'll see what this does in future weeks.

36- "The Bones" - Maren Morris (+28) -- Go Maren Morris!

37- "Graveyard" - Halsey (+24) -- I don't know what this song is going to do.

39- "On Chill" - Wale featuring Jeremih (+19) -- Go away.

41- "Suicidal" - YNW Melly (+15) -- Go away fast!

45- "Juicy" - Doja Cat & Tyga (+18) -- Gross.

46- "No Idea" - Don Toliver (+14) -- No idea why people care.

49- "What If I Never Get Over You" - Lady Antebellum (+22) -- Make this a country hit.

50- "My Oh My" - Camila Cabello featuring DaBaby (+12) -- A no from me.

51- "Ridin' Roads" - Dustin Lynch (+22) -- I'll get back to you on this.

53- "Heat" - Chris Brown featuring Gunna (+13) -- Chris Brown needs to disappear.

54- "Playing Games" - Summer Walker (+11) -- Temporary rise.

55- "Into the Unknown" - Idina Menzel & AURORA (+12) -- I don't mind this hanging around.

57- "VIBEZ" - DaBaby (+11) -- Go away. Make DaBaby a thing of the past.

58- "Heartache Medication" - Jon Pardi (+17) -- I'll get back to you on this.

59- "Blinding Lights" - The Weeknd (+13) -- Why is this not the big song from The Weeknd?

60- "Kinfolks" - Sam Hunt (+20) -- Boo!

61- "Remember You Young" - Thomas Rhett (+21) -- I'll get back to you on this.

63- "Take What You Want" - Post Malone featuring Ozzy Osbourne & Travis Scott (+14) -- This has a surprising amount of staying power.

64- "Homesick" - Kane Brown (+24) -- Go away.

66- "RITMO (Bad Boys for Life)" - The Black Eyed Peas & J Balvin (+20) -- The movie comes out this month, so this could do well for a few weeks.

67- "Leave Em Alone" - Layton Greene, Lil Baby, City Girls & PnB Rock (+11) -- Gross.

72- "South of the Border" - Ed Sheeran featuring Camila Cabello & Cardi B (+28) -- Is this going to be a thing?

73- "Slide" - H.E.R. featuring YG (+12) -- Nope.

75- "Nice to Meet Ya" - Niall Horan (+18) -- Please make this go higher!

76- "Tusa" - Karol G & Nicki Minaj (+22) -- Go away.

79- "Easy" - DaniLeigh featuring Chris Brown (+11) -- Chris Brown's career needs to end.

81- "BEST ON EARTH" - Russ & BIA (+16) -- WHY THE CAPS LOCK?

85- "Enemies" - Post Malone featuring DaBaby (+14) -- I forget what I think of this one.

New Arrivals:

38- "OUT WEST" - JACKBOYS featuring Young Thug -- JACKBOYS is Travis Scott, in case you were curious. The album, also titled "JACKBOYS," is a compilation album by Travis Scott and his record label, Cactus Jack Records. Why he's calling himself JACKBOYS instead of Travis Scott is beyond me. This occasionally happens in the hip-hop world and it's one of the many things that I don't understand. Four songs from this seven-track album charted this week and I'm not going to touch a single one, especially because the world is going to forget this existed come February.

48- "GANG GANG" - JACKBOYS & Sheck Wes -- I'm not covering the JACKBOYS album.

52- "HAD ENOUGH" - Don Toliver featuring Quavo & Offset -- Why was Takeoff not invited to this party? And why have we decided to make Don Toliver a thing?

56- "WHAT TO DO" - JACKBOYS featuring Don Toliver -- I'm not covering the JACKBOYS album.

69- "GATTI" - JACKBOYS, Pop Smoke & Travis Scott -- I'm not covering the JACKBOYS album.

70- "High Fashion" - Roddy Ricch featuring Mustard -- I don't care about Roddy Ricch. Sorry.

74- "I Hope" - Gabby Barrett -- Did you know "American Idol" is still going on? Yeah, Gabby Barrett placed third during season 16. Next month they will begin season 18. But not that any of that matters. The winner of the last three seasons hasn't even been able to chart a single song on the Hot 11 and it's been since Phillip Phillips in season 11 where the winner has become a star. That's why I was a bit surprised when I looked up Gabby Barrett and learned that she was from "American Idol." I used to be a huge loyalist to "American Idol," but season 10 made me so upset that I haven't watched since. In regards to Gabby Barrett, she does sound like a bit of a Carrie Underwood wannabe. But maybe that's because this song, wherein the lyrics go, "I hope he cheats" reminds me a lot of "Before He Cheats" by Carrie. The person Gabby reminded me of was Miley Cyrus with her country album. No, Gabby isn't as good as either of them. And "Before He Cheats" is miles better than "I Hope." But there's certainly a lot worse around than a B-version of Carrie Underwood. The song is in the right lane of country pop to make me satisfied. I could be like Simon Cowell and be super critical of this or I could kick back and relax and realize that this is still way better than most of the stuff on the country charts these days. I'd be happy making Gabby a thing.

84- "Make Me Want To" - Jimmie Allen -- Speaking of inferior country songs, here's one quick example. Granted, Jimmie Allen has more personality than a lot of country artists and I may even enjoyed one of his previous songs. But this is an example of an over-powered country song where the heavy beat doesn't match the tone of the lyrics, which are pretty generic in the first place.

88- "More Hearts Than Mine" - Ingrid Andress -- It's a country week on the charts with our new arrivals. And unlike the previous two, I have no idea where Ingrid Andress comes from. This is her first charting song and the internet doesn't tell me a whole lot about her. But I certainly like what I hear. This is a song that I think technically qualifies as country, but it's a lot more restrained as Ingrid focuses more on her vocal performance and delivering the message she wants to get across rather than some over-produced piece of nonsense coming straight from country pipeline. Granted, the lyrics here aren't necessarily anything super unique, but it's the approach here to the song that I really like. Whereas a lot of country songs feel like no effort was put into it, Ingrid sounds like she actually cares and has a voice that I really like. Granted, I'm a lot more forgiving towards me female country girls, but still. This stands out from the crowd and makes me want to hear more.

90- "I Wish Grandpas Never Died" - Riley Green -- In looking through all the new songs this week, I thought this song was going to be the highlight. By the title alone, it sounded like a country song that was going to cut deep and talk about something that meant something to the artists. The positive thing here is that the music isn't overpowered and Riley sounds like he cares as he gives a decent delivery. But the lyrics are just so disappointing as the song is him listing off a bunch of things that he wishes, few of which actually connect and most of which are silly. And he doesn't say the lyrics, "I wish grandpas never died" until halfway through the song. And at no point before or after does he give an emotional tribute to a grandpa. He just tacks the line on along with him wishing other random things. An unfortunate missed opportunity.

99- "Slow Dance in a Parking Lot" - Jordan Davis -- Somewhere on the charts is the song "Slow Dancing in the Dark" by Joji. In fact, I think it's one of the songs that didn't rise high enough to be included. But now we have this to team up with that as we have a multiple choice as to where we're going to dance. And with this particular song in mind, a parking lot is not going to be my personal choice since this song isn't even appropriate for a slow dance at all. Jordan Davis has a decent voice and a softer tone, but in come the heavy drums and guitars, making this song another generically-produced country song where the music doesn't care to fit the tone of what the song should be. And he's specifically talking about a Walmart parking lot in this song. I don't know if Jordan has ever been to a Walmart parking lot, but that's a parking lot that's never quiet enough to go slow dancing in. So this is yet another song that misses out on an opportunity to do something good as I think this should've been more restrained and romantic rather than being what it is.

100- "July" - Noah Cyrus featuring Leon Bridges -- In a very busy week where nearly every song on this chart made it onto my post, Miley's less talented little sister somehow snuck onto the very end. I will give Noah credit for having a decent voice. And the song is decently restrained with a simple guitar strum and some whistling. But if we're going to keep trying to make her a thing, I would love it if she would take some lessons from her older sister on how to be an interesting singer and songwriter. Because, in an attempt to be slow and restrained, this song accidentally leaves all personality by the wayside and ends up being boring and lifeless. The lyrics are uninspired and the song itself is not constructed very well. If Noah wasn't a Cyrus, I don't think she would've ever had a music career.