DrogeMiester's Billboard Analysis - November 4, 2017

The new Billboard charts have arrived and so it's time again for me to give you my thoughts! In this weekly post, I cover three sections. First, I give my thoughts on the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. Second, I give my thoughts on the songs that experienced significant gains below the top 10. Third, I give my initial thoughts on our new arrivals this week. I reserve the right to switch things up in the future, but for now this is what I'm sticking with. I've followed the Billboard charts for a long time now and this is a great way for me to express my thoughts to the world. I hope you enjoy!

Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:

1- "rockstar" - Post Malone featuring 21 Savage (=) -- These are dark times on the Billboard Hot 100 with Post Malone and 21 Savage leading the charts. I'm really hoping this will just go away because just about every song on this chart is more deserving of this spot than this one is. I honestly don't know how long this will last. There's eight weeks left of Billboard's weird calendar year before the 2018 charts start showing up and I highly doubt that this will ride us through to 2018 because sales and radio, although rising, really aren't that impressive. But by dangit streaming won't let this song go as it got 52 million U.S. streams this week. I just hope another streaming monster comes around soon so we can get rid of this.

2- "Bodak Yellow (Money Moves)" - Cardi B (=) -- Again, I would gladly let "Bodak Yellow" back to the top of the charts instead of "rockstar." But "Bodak Yellow" is falling in all categories and it's only a matter of time before something else jumps up to No. 2.

3- "1-800-273-8255" - Logic featuring Alessia Cara & Khalid (=) -- With Cardi B falling, can Logic sneak up to No. 2? I'd be down for that. This song has stuck around a lot longer than I thought it would, but I'm happy about that. Streaming is stagnant and sales have never been great, but this continues to rise on radio, so it might stick around for a while. Although I'm not confident that it will actually pass Cardi. Not in the next few weeks, anyways. Cardi is still way too high on streaming at the moment.

4- "Feel it Still" - Portugal. The Man (+1) -- Guess what? There are two separate rock bands in the top five this week. That hasn't happened in 10 years. That's exciting. And I'd be more happy about that if Imagine Dragons weren't the other band in the equation, but I'm certainly ecstatic that Portugal. The Man seems like they're here to stay. I don't know when the last time of rock song was No. 1 on the Hot 100. When they get this high, they usually get stuck right around this spot. Give or take a spot. So I'm expecting history to repeat itself here, especially since streaming and sales just aren't happening. But this is the top song on the radio for the second straight week, so I'm super happy that the radio is eating this up. At least one chart knows what's going on.

5- "Thunder" - Imagine Dragons (+3) -- Last week I was celebrating the fact that this song lost a spot and I was hoping that it would at least fail to make the top five. Well, turns out that Dan Reynolds and company get the last laugh. For what it's worth, though, this is still miles better than "rockstar" and "Bodak Yellow," so it would certainly be the lesser of the evils if it broke up those two. But again. Rock songs in the top 10 usually get stuck in the bottom half of the top five. So don't get too happy.

6- "Mi Gente" - J Balvin & Willy William featuring Beyonce (=) -- I was wondering what this song was going to do this week. Nothing is the answer. In other words, it stayed put. Which means it could gain traction and hang around, but don't cross your fingers on this being the next "Despacito."

7- "Sorry Not Sorry" - Demi Lovato (+2) -- After a drop last week, Demi is back up with yet another career high. The big question will be can she get her very first top five hit? Considering most of the stuff ahead of Demi, I'd be down.

8- "Too Good at Goodbyes" - Sam Smith (-1) -- Oh sad. This isn't supposed to drop a spot. It's supposed to carry all of its momentum into the top five. Let's hope it recovers next week.

9- "Unforgettable" - French Montana featuring Swae Lee (+1) -- Another week, another steady performance from "Unforgettable." If this can hang on in the top 10 for a few more weeks, it has the chance of sneaking into my list of the top 10 most popular songs of 2017. It's only a few points away from the No. 10 spot on that list.

10- "Look What You Made Me Do" - Taylor Swift (-6) -- Whoa! This was a huge shock this week. I wouldn't have been surprised to see this drop a spot or two, but to completely bottom out like this is something I did not see coming. You still can't call this a flop since it did spend three weeks at No. 1. But at the same time, this is probably not the traction Taylor was hoping for with her lead single. But she has a backup plan. "...Ready for It?" has officially been released as the second single and "Gorgeous" has also been released as the third promotional single. The latter is set to debut with 61,000 first week sales, which should be good enough to land it somewhere in the top 20. We'll see if either one of these songs can gain more traction than "Look What You Made Me Do."

Rising on the Hot 100:

11- "I  Get the Bag" - Gucci Mane featuring Migos (+13) -- Excuse me while I throw up. I hated seeing this song rise. It makes me miserable thinking of this as a top 10 hit. What is our world coming to when THIS piece of awful trash is threatening to enter the top 10 during the same week that "rockstar" repeats at the top?

13- "What About Us" - P!nk (+10) -- On a happier note, it's great seeing Gucci being counterbalanced by P!nk's song that I actually consider as music. I think this got a huge boost because of the album release, but I would love it if it stuck around.

18- "Perfect" - Ed Sheeran (+4) -- I also think it's essentially predetermined that "Perfect" is heading to the top 10 sooner rather than later. I would be shocked if this stalled out in the teens. And I would be saddened, too, because this is an excellent romance song from the king of love ballads.

20- "Havana" - Camila Cabello featuring Young Thug (+6) -- I'm less confident about what this is going to do heading forward, but I'd be fine if this gets Camila a top 10 hit. I'm just not too stoked about her taking Young Thug with her.

27- "Gucci Gang" - Lil Pump (+5) -- Well... at least this didn't jump as high this week as it did the last few weeks. I'm still extremely nervous about what the future holds for this. I want it to go away because this is one of the few songs on the charts that's actually WORSE than our top song.

32- "Bad at Love" - Halsey (+8) -- It's a good week for the ladies in this rising songs section. P!nk, Camila and now Halsey getting good rises. Although I'm not too excited about this song. Let's bring some of our other ladies on who actually know how to do this thing called pop music.

33- "When it Rains it Pours" - Luke Combs (+6) -- This is heading for the top country spot? Well, it could be worse. But let's bring some better country songs to the top.

38- "New Rules" - Dua Lipa (+6) -- Dua Lipa adding her name to the list of female pop singers having good weeks. This is actually Dua Lipa's first ever trip to the top 40. For her, this is a milestone I can be happy about. I hope her future holds many more milestones! The world could use more good female pop singers.

40- "do re mi" - blackbear (+5) -- I'm also fine with blackbear getting his first top 40 hit. If it's mandatory to always have rap songs killing it on the streaming services, I'd be ecstatic if this was a placeholder there. But someone really needs to go help him with his shift key on his keyboard because all lower case is really not that cool.

42- "No Limit" - G-Eazy featuring A$AP Rocky & Cardi B (+9) -- On the flip side, does anyone want these three enjoying continued success? If you answered yes, go slap yourself in the face real quick.

44- "Silence" - Marshmello featuring Khalid (+10) -- I had thought this song had gone stagnant. After a great 2016, EDM has been MIA for most of the year. Thus I didn't think this was going to have any staying power, but I'm happy it has now broken top 50.

50- "Every Little Thing" - Carly Pearce (+15) -- This is definitely a country song I can get behind. Move over Luke Combs. Be a gentleman and let Carly Pearce have her way!

59- "Love So Soft" - Kelly Clarkson (+11) -- I was pleasantly surprised to this song sputter out. Nothing against Kelly, but she's lost her mojo for me. I'd be down for her getting it back, but this is not the song that does it for me. Her new album just now got released and I haven't listened to it. But I do hope that it has something on it that I like because I want to root for Kelly.

61- "Plain Jane" - A$AP Ferg (+25) -- Meh. Get this song out of here. There's worse rap songs here, I suppose. But I don't like 25 spot jumps from bad rap songs. Let's hope it slows down after this.

66- "More Girls Like You" - Kip Moore (+11) -- A second straight home run for country risers this week! One of my coworkers was playing country radio in the truck for a few moments this week. This came on and it made me really happy. I hope for continued success for Kip and Carly.

70- "I'll Name the Dogs" - Blake Shelton (+12) -- And we now average things out. Can't win them all on country radio. They'll probably blast anything and everything Blake Shelton does, which is a shame because he doesn't deserve it this time around.

74- "Let Me Go" - Hailee Steinfeld & Alesso featuring Florida Georgia Line & Watt (+11) -- I used to be a Hailee fan when it came to her music. Now I just want her to leave and go back to acting where she belongs. And take this song with her because all of these acts are capable of so much more.

76- "Go Flex" - Post Malone (+12) -- Go jump off a cliff, Post Malone. A short cliff, mind you. I don't wish harm on people. I just want Post Malone out of my life right now. Perhaps he should get a job flipping burgers at McDonald's so the rest of us don't have to be punished by his awful music.

80- "Losing Sleep" - Chris Young (+12) --Sad day. I guess we're below average this week with our country songs as a third bland country song finds success. But hey, at least Kip and Carly did well.

New Arrivals:

82- "High End" - Chris Brown featuring Future & Young Thug -- Another song released from Chris Brown's upcoming 45 track, 158 minute long album that will be released on Halloween. In other words, he didn't even try this time around. Just quickly threw together a whole crap ton of songs and put it on an album, so I'm not going to put much effort talking about this. It sucks. Future is mumbling through some nonsense and Chris Brown comes in talking about nonsense. And both of them are doing the Migos thing. Lovely. And the fact that this is called "High End" tells you everything you need to know about these bland, awful lyrics. I really hope I don't have to cover much of this punk's new album. The fact that this only debuted at No. 82 gives me hope.

84- "Yours" - Russell Dickerson -- This week had a few surprises as to songs that actually debuted on the charts and this is one of them. I saw that Russell Dickerson debuted a song on the charts and I was like... who? Apparently Russell is a country pop singer who has released two EP's in 2011 and 2016 that had no impact on the mainstream Billboard charts. But this song, initially released in 2015, became a sleeper hit in country and wedding crowds, so he finally released it to country radio back in April of this year and included it on his debut studio album earlier this month. And it's given him his first hit on the Hot 100. And do you know what? I'm happy about it. I have a bit of a soft spot for heartfelt, sincere wedding ballads. This song is simple, but it works. Russell sings about being lost in a crowd before he met this girl and was upset that everyone seemed to be shining except for him. But then he met this girl and everything changed. Now he's his best self and is happy that this girl is his. It's a genuinely romantic song. The perfect song to play at a wedding.

87- "Let You Down" - NF -- Again, NF debuted on the charts and I had no idea who this guy was. So I looked him up. NF is his initials. Stands for Nate Feuerstein. And he's a... Christian rapper? WHOA!!! Slam on the brakes! A Christian rapper has crossed over to the Billboard Hot 100? Am I living in 2017? We actually let a rap song on the charts that's NOT about sex, drugs, fame or money? Wow! I'm shocked. Extremely pleasantly shocked, that is. I don't know how Christian this specific song is, even though it did hit No. 1 on the U.S. Christian Songs chart. But I am so pleased that this is here. NF is rapping about his relationship with his biological father, which, based on this song, hasn't been a super happy relationship. Thus we have a lot of depth and emotion to this song. It actually feels like it means something to NF. As much as I hate on rap, it's mostly because of how awful the lyrical content is or how untalented and unlistenable many rappers are. But rap done right is phenomenal. You can add a lot of power to the music, which is exactly what this guy does. His talent-level is through the roof, too. I can understand everything he's saying, but he's also rapping super fast in a way that makes me appreciate his abilities. We could really use more rap like this.

95- "Stunting Ain't Nuthin" - Gucci Mane featuring Slim Jxmmi & Young Dolph -- OK, now we've come back down to earth with the type of rap music I expect in 2017. You know, the awful crap from untalented rappers singing about garbage in a way that makes me want to punch them in the face. Even though this is Gucci's song, most of it is Slim Jxmmi with a quick verse from both Gucci and Young Dolph. Because we totally needed more of Slim Jxmmi, the horrendous half of the brother rapping duo Rae Sremmurd, who for some reason thinks it's cool to put an "x" in place of an "i." No, Slim Jxmmi. It's not cool. It just makes you look like a complete fool who should go back to first grade and re-learn the alphabet. And this song is crap, too. I mean, what did you expect from these three? Do I really need to elaborate beyond this?

96- "You Broke Up With Me" - Walker Hayes -- We're on a roll here with the unknown artists. As a recap, Russell Dickerson, NF and now Walker Hayes get their very first charted songs of the Billboard Hot 100. The internet won't tell me much about Walker Hayes outside the fact that he is a 37-year-old country singer who lives in Nashville with his wife and six children. No relation to Hunter Hayes, apparently. Though after listening to whatever this is, I would prefer Hunter. And remember how I said this guy has a wife and six kids? Yeah. So what is he doing writing a song about a breakup with a former girlfriend who wants him back now that she sees him having success? Does the song mean anything to him? Oh but apparently the girl in the song is representative of the fair weather friends of his who wanted nothing to do with him when his record deal was dropped, but suddenly want back on board when he finds success. The latter I can respect, but I totally wouldn't have picked up on it if I hadn't read his commentary on the song. He could've done a much better job of making that connection clear. Even with that context, I'm still not impressed. Perhaps Walker Hayes is a dude that should go back into obscurity.

97- "Mayores" - Becky G featuring Bad Bunny -- Another surprise entry. This time I know who Becky G is. She's the girl who gained popularity with her song "Shower" back in 2014. She hasn't done much since, though, and I almost forgot she existed. Although she was in the new "Power Rangers" movie as the yellow ranger Trini, so there's that. Music-wise, though, she's been absent and I wasn't expecting a new song from her. But she's back! And she's gone back to her Mexican heritage with this song. Even though she was born in the United States, all of her grandparents are from Mexico, so "Mayores" is a song completely in Spanish, which I'm totally fine with. As a Latino dance song, this works quite well. Her and Bad Bunny play off each other fairly effectively. I believe she is talking about how she likes dating older guys, which isn't saying much since she's only 20 years old. Bad Bunny, who is a Puerto Rican rapper, comes in and plays the voice of the older male. By older male, I imagine mid- to late-20's is what she is going for. Nothing creepy. Just someone who knows how to treat her well due to him being a little more experienced with romance. This song went No. 1 in several Spanish and Latino countries. I'm not sure what it's crossover potential is like since Becky G isn't the biggest household name here, but we shall see.

98- "Ask Me How I Know" - Garth Brooks -- And finally on the charts this week... we have the return of Garth Brooks? Now don't hurt me, but I don't know much about Garth's music. The man is a country legend who dominated the country charts throughout the 90's and early 2000's, even though he didn't have much mainstream crossover. Thus I feel unworthy of covering a Garth song because I've never dove into his music. I do know that I want to because early this year Lauren Duski covered "The Dance" by Garth Brooks on The Voice. So when I covered that song, I listened to the original and was floored by how perfect and emotional it was. That certainly made me want to listen to more of his music. The problem is that it's a chore to figure out HOW to listen to his music. I was almost forced to skip this song because I couldn't find it. By a stroke of pure luck, I discovered he's on Amazon Prime Music. Good thing I have an account there. If you do too, head over there and listen to this song because it's fantastic. Garth is sitting there as a wise man giving me some powerful dating advice. He's telling me that one day I'll find the girl that I never thought I'd find. Then he tells me to make sure I don't push her away because that's all I know how to do. And he's saying this due to his experience of having been there and done that. Powerful. If all country were like this, I would be a proud country boy. But unfortunately it's not.

DrogeMiester's Billboard Analysis - October 28, 2017

The new Billboard charts have arrived and so it's time again for me to give you my thoughts! In this weekly post, I cover three sections. First, I give my thoughts on the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. Second, I give my thoughts on the songs that experienced significant gains below the top 10. Third, I give my initial thoughts on our new arrivals this week. I reserve the right to switch things up in the future, but for now this is what I'm sticking with. I've followed the Billboard charts for a long time now and this is a great way for me to express my thoughts to the world. I hope you enjoy!

Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:

1- "rockstar" - Post Malone featuring 21 Savage (+1) -- This ruined my day. I'm not kidding. I was bitter and grumpy from the moment I saw this. Why in the living frack is such a stupid, lifeless, boring song at the top of the Billboard charts? I don't understand. This horrible rap culture needs to burn out and die so we can stop poisoning our charts with such monstrosity. I don't know what else to say. Just another reason to hate 2017. The year that we let Post Malone and 21 Savage go No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

2- "Bodak Yellow (Money Moves)" - Cardi B (-1) -- I never thought I'd say this, but I want "Bodak Yellow" to go back to No. 1. At least I can understand the appeal to this song whereas "rockstar" has be completely baffled at how we let such a stupid song go No. 1.

3- "1-800-273-8255" - Logic featuring Alessa Cara & Khalid (+1) -- Actually I have a better idea. Let's kick out "rockstar" AND "Bodak Yellow" and let Logic's suicide prevention song go No. 1. But what am I kidding? This is 2017. Something cool like that isn't going to happen.

4- "Look What You Made Me Do" - Taylor Swift (+1) -- "Mi Gente" collapsed, as you'll see in a second. That's why Logic, T-Swift and Portugal. The Man each jumped up a spot. Certainly a good sign for T-Swift that she managed to hold steady this week after it looked like she was about to collapse.

5- "Feel it Still" - Portugal. The Man (+1) -- OK, I may be a miserable person right now because of our top song, but at least we get to celebrate Portugal. The Man getting a top five hit. This makes me ecstatic! Also, I finally listened to their full album "Woodstock" from earlier this year and I'd give it a solid recommendation. "Feel it Still" is easily the best song from the album, but the album as a whole is still very easy on the ears. And did I mention that this is the top song on radio? At least something is going right in the world of music.

6- "Mi Gente" - J Balvin & Willy William featuring Beyonce (-3) -- A surprising collapse for "Mi Gente." I guess I suppose that I expected it to follow in the footsteps of "Despacito" after that song's remix was released. But Beyonce's feature just gave it a huge one week boost. Now I'm really curious to see if it will reverse course and start gaining traction or if it's heading out of the top 10 altogether after a brief stay. Next week will be telling.

7- "Too Good at Goodbyes" - Sam Smith (+6) -- Oh look. There is more good in the world! I'm so happy to see that this song is getting some good traction after it's initial huge debut. Wouldn't it be fantastic if this song gave Sam Smith a No. 1 hit? I would be stoked, especially since this is still one of my favorite songs of the year. I relate to Sam quite a bit on this.

8- "Thunder" - Imagine Dragons (-1) -- More good news. "Thunder" dropped a spot. I'm not convinced it's on its way out. I think it will do a great job of annoying me by sticking around, but if we can stop this dull beat from getting top five, I'll consider it a win.

9- "Sorry Not Sorry" - Demi Lovato (-1) -- I'm surprised to see Demi take a hit after hitting a career high on the charts last week. I was assuming that this would jump up another spot or two. But given that Sam Smith is the reason for this song getting knocked down, I'm not upset.

10- "Unforgettable" - French Montana featuring Swae Lee (=) -- By bringing back Sam Smith into the top 10, we managed to dump "Desapacito" from the region instead of this song. That makes me happy. We don't need "Despacito" anymore, while this song is deserving of at least one more week. I hope it can hang onto a few more as well.

Rising on the Hot 100:

12- "Attention" - Charlie Puth (+3) -- No! We got rid of this song from the top 10 and it made me super happy. This better not make a return. It would be nice if the radio would stop spamming people nationwide with this average piece of nothing, because that is literally the only reason why this is here.

14- "Bank Account" - 21 Savage (+2) -- Talk about another song that's been torturing me. I'm happy that it got stopped from the top 10 and started to fall down in the ranks. Seeing it rise again makes me nervous. I mean, we already gave this talentless punk a No. 1 hit this week. Can we all agree to reject the rest of his "music" and send him off the charts?

17- "What Lovers Do" - Maroon 5 featuring SZA (+2) -- I'm honestly surprised that this is moving up so slowly. But I'm definitely not complaining. It would be a dream come true if this stalled out and missed the top 10.

18- "Shape of You" - Ed Sheeran (+2) -- A one week rebound. Move out of the way "Shape of You" and let "Perfect" in.

22- "Perfect" - Ed Sheeran (+12) -- Oh hey! Speak of the devil. Here "Perfect" is! I'm happy this gorgeous love ballad is doing so well and I hope it is top 10 bound! It's not as good as "Castle on the Hill," but it's better than "Shape of You" and still a solid song from Ed's album.

31- "I Fall Apart" - Post Malone (+8) -- Gaining because of the popularity of Post Malone's other song. I don't understand.

32- "Gucci Gang" - Lil Pump (+14) -- CAN WE FREAKING KILL THIS SONG YET??? WHY IS IT STILL RISING?!?!?!?!?!?

40- "Bad at Love" - Halsey (+9) -- And Halsey hits top 40. One can only hope that this song gets stuck in the mud before it becomes a top 20 hit. That would be annoying.

59- "Pills and Automobiles" - Chris Brown featuring Yo Gotti, A Boogie wit da Hoodie & Kodak Black (+10) -- This trio needs to go away and take this song with it. This is getting way too close to the top 50 and that makes me really nervous. We don't need to encourage Chris Brown.

66- "Relationship" - Young Thug featuring Future (+12) -- What's going on here?!?! This was a summer song that I was happy wasn't doing anything. Let's not start pushing it up now.

86- "Plain Jane" - A$AP Ferg (+11) -- Snooze. But it's only at No. 86, so that's not anything worth complaining about. Not yet, anyways.

New Arrivals:

20- "Almost Like Praying" - Lin-Manuel Miranda featuring Artists for Puerto Rico -- I like songs like this. Get a whole bunch of artists together to raise money for a good cause. Lin-Manuel Miranda is of mostly Puerto Rican descent and spent much of his life there, so when Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, Miranda stepped in and organized this song. 100 percent of the proceeds go to helping Puerto Rico. So if you want to contribute a little to helping Puerto Rico, go buy spend $1.29 to buy this song. Every little bit helps. I mean, the song itself is essentially a bunch of artists getting together and repeating the 78 cities in Puerto Rico, so I don't know if it's anything I'm going to turn to for my casual listening. But if you hate on the song because of that, I think you're missing the point.

55- "Pray" - Sam Smith -- I'm loving where this album is going for Sam Smith. While other people like Charlie Puth and Shawn Mendes only know how to write generic, boring pop songs, Sam Smith is putting his heart and soul into his music. And that's why I'm so harsh on those other guys. If it sounds like your song means absolutely nothing to you, I'm going to call you out on it. With Sam Smith, it seems like he's giving us a peek into what his life is like currently. With "Too Good at Goodbyes," he told us about his love life. Which currently sucks. With "Pray," he's giving us his honest opinions of religion. He's admitting that he's not really been a religious person and sees himself as more of a sinner than a saint, but since trying to get through this thing called life on his own hasn't really worked out, maybe he'll pray. I love the honesty and I love the passion he puts into the music. Sam Smith has one of the best male vocals in the pop industry right now and he shows it again here. And I like the fact that he includes a Gospel Choir as his backing vocals, because in context that fits perfectly. 

In an interview with Billboard, Sam Smith said the following, "I spent five days in Mosul and came back embarrassed that I had known so little about the world and other people's lives ... I wanted to write about what is going on in the rest of the world, and that it's not always pretty."

Seeing how awful the state of the world can also inspire a non-religious person to try to pray. Because the world needs help. Also a very respectable meaning for this song.

60- "How Long" - Charlie Puth -- Speaking of Puth, I honestly challenge you to listen to either of Sam Smith's songs and then listen to this and "Attention" and you'll see what I've been talking about. Charlie Puth is mad at a girl and the girl is mad at him. There's no context of this fight, what's happened before or where the relationship is going. This tells no story and gives no emotion. Quite frankly, when I listen to Charlie Puth's part of the argument, I side with the girl. It seems like Puth is giving BS excuses of what's going on, demanding the girl to forgive him and just blame it on him being drunk. Then he seems to turn it around and blame the girl for not being faithful. He's just acting like a spoiled brat who needs to get slapped in the face. If he's trying to make us feel for him, he's failing. If he's trying to paint himself as a jerk, well, I don't know why he would do that. Puth claims this is personal for him, but he definitely didn't make this sound personal. This is just a mess. I don't understand it or why the radio is so drunk on this untalented wannabe pop star.

72- "Heaven" - Kane Brown -- We've got a lot of praying this week and now Kane Brown adding to that by singing about heaven? Well, kinda. Kane is telling us that he hears all these people saying how great heaven is going to be, but he's not convinced because he can't see how heaven is going to be better than being with this girl. Say, what? I think you missed the point of heaven. You can actually be WITH the girl in heaven if things work out. But oh well. Whatever. I think Kane is trying to be super romantic with that, but it ends up coming off as more weird and facepalm-worthy. Add in some boring country chords and cliches, and this is just another dull country song.

91- "Dear Hate" - Maren Morris featuring Vince Gill -- I love seeing my girl Maren on the charts. She's fantastic at giving me the smooth, country pop feel that makes me feel like the old Taylor Swift is still here. This song was apparently written three years ago and has been played constantly by Maren, but she wanted to wait for the right time to release it as a single and in wake of the Vegas shooting, she felt like now was the right time. And man, I'd certainly have to agree. This song is more than your typical smooth country pop song, this has some power to it as Maren mourns about how she turns on the TV and sees so much hate in the world, but turns around and confidently, yet calmly sings to hate that love will conquer all and hate will eventually lose. It's not an in your face sort of song, but the peace and the calm to it make me feel that Maren is right. There's a lot of hate in the world and it's sad to see. But hate will lose. Love will win. And I think Vince Gill comes in and seamlessly adds his voice into this, making this a nice duet. All proceeds for the song will go to help Vegas victims. A song I can get behind and a cause I support. Thank you Maren and Vince.

95- "Lights Down Low" - MAX featuring gnash -- I spent some time trying to figure out if I knew who MAX is. Apparently he's an actor, singer, dancer. Been on Nickelodeon. Got some sort of nomination from Radio Disney Music Awards. But no. Nothing clicking for me personally. Don't know this guy. His name is Max Schneider, he's 25 years old and this is his first appearance on the Billboard Hot 100. He started writing this song when he started dating a girl named Emily. He put his heart and soul into making this romantic and perfect, and he sang the song to her when he proposed, with a harp playing in the background. This version doesn't have the harp. Just your typical pop, love ballad. But it's a really nice song that works perfectly as a wedding song. I can imagine this girl breaking up in tears of joy as her boyfriend starts singing this song to her while proposing. The problem is this applies to the ORIGINAL version WITHOUT gnash. I guess gnash was added for the remix in order to make the song relevant. It probably wouldn't charted without him. And while gnash's verse isn't bad, per se, it feels out of place. As if Max was in the middle of proposing and suddenly in the middle of the proposal, this other random dude stepped in and started singing the song to her. Yeah, it doesn't fit. Thus I'm not a huge fan of the remix that charted. But check out the original without gnash if you're in the mood for a love ballad.

97- "Too Hotty" - Quality Control featuring Quavo, Takeoff & Offset -- Featuring Quavo, Takeoff and Offset. Really? Did Quality Control think billing it that way would bring more attention to the song by making it seem like it was featuring three different popular rappers? Well, guess what? For those in the know, Quavo, Takeoff and Offset equal the annoying and putrid rap trio of Migos. Wait... what? Quality Control isn't an artist? It's Migos' label? I'm so confused. This billing makes no sense. So why not just call this "Too Hotty" by Migos? Whatever. Onto the song. You know I can't do Migos. Their constant sound effects throughout the song scattered in with their echoes and short phrases literally are a trigger for my Misophonia. Don't know what that is? Look it up. So I give their songs a minute. If I can't handle it, I turn it off. And I couldn't handle this song. So I definitely wasn't going to give it five full minutes. I turned it off after 48 seconds.

DrogeMiester's Billboard Analysis - October 21, 2017

The new Billboard charts have arrived and so it's time again for me to give you my thoughts! In this weekly post, I cover three sections. First, I give my thoughts on the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. Second, I give my thoughts on the songs that experienced significant gains below the top 10. Third, I give my initial thoughts on our new arrivals this week. I reserve the right to switch things up in the future, but for now this is what I'm sticking with. I've followed the Billboard charts for a long time now and this is a great way for me to express my thoughts to the world. I hope you enjoy!

Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:

1- "Bodak Yellow (Money Moves) - Cardi B (=) -- Cardi B is now the owner of the longest running No. 1 single in the history of the Hot 100 for a female rapper unaccompanied by any other artist. But once she overcame the obstacle to actually get there on her own, that wasn't a hard mark to set. The only other such song was Lauryn Hill's "Doo Wop (That Thing)," which reigned for only two weeks. I'd be more ecstatic about this milestone, but I don't care for the song. Although given a choice between this and the foul stench that's stuck at No. 2, I'd go for this without question. Also, Cardi isn't leading in any of the three categories, so that's a sign her reign is coming to a close.

2- "rockstar" - Post Malone featuring 21 Savage (=) -- The fact that this has now been stuck for three weeks here at No. 2 is making me furious. Not only is this a horrendous song by two untalented rappers, but the idea that rappers are the new rock stars just pisses me off. That's such an unintelligent point of view that infuriates me. If this sneaks up to No. 1, I'm going to throw a fit.

3- "Mi Gente" - J Balvin & Willy William featuring Beyonce (+18) -- You KNEW this was coming, right? Once this song was finished rising on its own, J Balvin was bound to release a remix with an English-speaking artists to boost its sales. Given that this song is about trying to create a song that all can connect with anyone, regardless of race, skin color, language spoken or country lived in, I'm surprised that they didn't do this from the start. So the idea of that doesn't upset me. And Beyonce said she's donating all proceeds that this remix sales to victims of recent natural disasters is really cool. So I was ready to enjoy this. But I'm not going to lie, from a pure musical standpoint, Beyonce's addition is awful. She doesn't fit in at all with J Balvin and her English verse is putrid and totally disrupts the flow of the song. But oh well. Go buy this song. Send it to No. 1. I'll be happy because that means we'll be helping people around the world and I totally support good causes. And two Latino songs at No. 1 in 2017? That'd be cool. But I still prefer the original mix of the song.

4- "1-800-273-8255" - Logic featuring Alessia Cara & Khalid (=) -- Well, if you take into account the huge surge of "Mi Gente" into the top three, this song essentially rose a spot, leap-frogging Taylor Swift. That's cool. This song may be destined to be stuck at No. 4, but I like having this song around because we're helping prevent suicide.

5- "Look What You Made Me Do" - Taylor Swift (-2) -- If Taylor's lead-off single is going to have trouble staying around and drops out of the top 10 before her album arrives, that's not really a good sign for Taylor going forward. But perhaps there will be a song on the album that manages to gain more traction with audiences, so all is not lost for Taylor. In her battle against Katy Perry, she's already totally owned because Katy's music has completely tanked this year, which makes me happy.

6- "Feel it Still" - Portugal. The Man (+1) -- Rock songs like this have a tendency of peaking around No. 3 or No. 4 at best, so I'm trying to be objectively honest in saying I don't know how much higher this is going to get, but I'm still super stoked that it's sticking around because I love this song and I love that it has gained mainstream success. Now I just hope it can manage to fend off the Imagine Dragons song that is suddenly creeping up behind it.

7- "Thunder" - Imagine Dragons (+10) -- I'm stoked that we got rid of "Believer" from the top 10, but it's an "out of the frying pan, into the fire" sort of situation as "Thunder" roars into the top 10 thanks to its inclusion in a Microsoft Surface Laptop commercial. What's worse is that if streaming and radio catch up to its huge sales right now, it might end up sticking around for a while. But for the love of all that is good and right in the world, I hope this is just a quick surge for a few weeks because I really want Imagine Dragons to disappear off the face of the Billboard Hot 100. Their mediocre nonsense isn't worthy of representing the great genre of rock, which is mostly ignored by general audiences today when it comes to Billboard Hot 100 performance.

8- "Sorry Not Sorry" - Demi Lovato (+2) -- Can you believe that "Sorry Not Sorry" is now Demi's highest charting single of her career? Her previous high was her "This is Me" duet with Joe Jonas in 2009, which peaked at No. 9. Her other two entries, "Sky Scraper" and "Heart Attack" both peaked at No. 10. So this is exciting for Demi and her fans. For me I'm happy, but I would prefer a slightly better single next time. Because this is serviceable, but it's not great. I don't know if I mentioned this, but her new album as a whole is a pretty big mess. But there are some individual songs that I really enjoy, so let's hope Demi and her team can be good with her future single selections after this song has finished running its course.

9- "Despacito" - Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber (-4) -- It looks like "Despacito" is on its way out as the surge of "Mi Gente" has pushed "Despacito" down. This quick of an exit after finally falling off the top of the charts means that, despite tying the record for most weeks at No. 1, this won't be the top song of the year. Not in my system, anyways. That'll belong to Ed Sheeran with "Shape of You." I'm not sure what Billboard's official list will look like, but their end of year list system really kinda annoys me, so I don't really care that much for it.

10- "Unforgettable" - French Montana featuring Swae Lee (-4) -- I was hoping that this song would stay steady and even perhaps make a sneaky return into the top five. But sadly it collapsed this week and could be done with the top 10 as soon as next week. Oh well. It's had a really good run for a rap song, so I won't be mourning its loss too badly.

Rising on the Hot 100:

22- "Humble." - Kendrick Lamar (+6) -- I'm assuming that this had a bit of resurgence this week thanks to the remix with Skrillex. Not a remix I saw coming, but Kendrick fits surprisingly well with Skrillex, so long as you don't mind Skrillex's unique, robotic noises that he brings to his songs. If you hate Skrillex and like Kendrick, you'll certainly be wondering what in the heck happened to your song. I'm not sure this was a necessary remix, but it works just fine for me.

29- "Havana" - Camila Cabello featuring Young Thug (+15) -- After a 20 spot jump last week, Camila jumps another 15 spots this week. Is top 20 in store next week or is the 20's where this song will settle? I'll guess this at least gets close to that top 10 for Camila and I'd be happy for her. She was the best part of that Fifth Harmony mess and I much prefer her solo stuff, even though it's not a masterwork. I'm fine with this.

34- "Perfect" - Ed Sheeran (+24) -- I'm also totally fine with this being a hit, too. After "Castle on the Hill" sadly managed to get stuck below the top 10 following its initial debut and couldn't quite break through, this definitely looks like it has the potential to be another huge hit for Ed. As long as we don't get too carried away with it by overplaying it like crazy, I'm totally happy with this. Ed does his romantic, wedding reception songs very well and I'm a huge fan of this.

39- "I Fall Apart" - Post Malone (+26) -- Which Post Malone piece of smelly dog crap was this? Oh yeah. The one where he whines and moans like a spoiled rich kid after a breakup because he's shocked that he couldn't buy his way into her heart. He had to do this thing called actual love and devotion, which he apparently wasn't capable of doing.

41- "do re mi" - blackbear (+5) -- Let's kick out Post Malone and bring on blackbear. This is not the most amazing work of art ever, but after reminding myself of it last week, I found it stuck in my head on multiple occasions, so I'd much rather this be our rap placeholder instead of some of the other crap.

42- "New Rules" - Dua Lipa (+6) -- Dua Lipa is slowly rising up the charts with her hit. I'd really like this to rise a little faster, but I'm glad it's at least rising as the general public begins to accept Dua Lipa into their culture. This is a good thing.

46- "Gucci Gang" - Lil Pump (+6) -- Someone please KILL this song. Why are we making Lil Pump a thing since the only people that like this song are the punk teenagers that think they are super cool by listening to this rap music thing. Worst part of it all is that this thug dropped an album and now I'm worried that I'll be forced to cover more of his garbage. I'm not looking forward to that.

49- "Bad at Love" - Halsey (+8) -- Eh. Not as bad as Lil Pump hitting the top 50, but I don't really want Halsey in here, either. Bring on some more actual talented female pop stars instead of Halsey's bland boring music.

59- "No Limit" - G-Eazy featuring A$AP Rocky & Cardi B (+19) -- Now I'm really mad at Cardi B. She's helping this song rise on the charts. Top 50 is certainly up next and I'm dreading that, especially because she's dragging G-Eazy and A$AP Rocky with her.

New Arrivals:

68- "Hi B---" - Bhad Bhabie -- The curse word in the title that I censored is misspelled by Danielle. She left out the "t" in the word, making her seem extremely unintelligent. She could be doing it because she thinks misspelling words is cool. But in this case I honestly wouldn't be surprised if she thought that she was spelling it right. Onto the song, though. Danielle, our teenage Dr. Phil girl who now goes by that awful rap name, represents everything wrong with the music industry. I suppose if she wants to be a punk teenager thinking she's all cool, then whatever. That's her choices. But why do we as a country consuming music have to encourage her and make her a thing in the music industry? There are millions of talented people in this country who would absolutely kill to have a career in the music industry. But this punk girl who has no ounce of talent or intelligence in her body is the one we give a record deal to and promote on hip-hop radio? That's so wrong in so many ways and it makes me furious. This song is barely even a song as it's less than two minutes long. Danielle brings nothing to it with her non-existent musical talent. And the lyrics don't even make any sense. Yet this debuts all the way up at No. 68 and might even stick around. I don't understand.

74- "No Promises" - A Boogie wit da Hoodie -- Hey, look! An actual rapper on the charts! After subjecting myself to that awful wannabe song by Danielle that we somehow allowed onto the charts, listening to this was almost like a breath of fresh air. And then my mind came back down to earth as I remembered that I don't like this guy either. He's just boring. Granted he gets a few extra kudos for not doing the Migos rap or the mumble rap. He's actually rapping and he's actually a rapper. But this specific song is just one long verse with an intro and and outro where Boogie rambles on for like three minutes about stuff that I don't care about. Something about him being upset about a breakup and disappointed with being caught up in this lifestyle and not being able to make any promises. I don't know. If this had flow or groove, I might give it a pass because the lyrics aren't offensive. This is just dull ramblings from Boogie and since we have four of his songs to cover, I'm moving on.

75- "Say A'" - A Boogie wit da Hoodie -- OK, this one is a little better. We have two verses separated by choruses instead of one long verse with Boogie rambling on about something. That gives the song a better flow to it. There's also a piano integrated along with Boogie's rap, which gives it an interesting, fun bounce to it. And when Boogie was singing the chorus, I actually believed for a bit that he had something interesting and personal to say. But then we got to the verses and it's the same boring, cliche rap stuff. Bragging about how rich he is and stealing your girl. That type of stuff. Like, come on man. Have a bit of creativity. Write something different. And I don't really know what the "Say A'" stuff means, outside the fact that "A'" rhymes with "say."

84- "Undefeated" - A Boogie wit da Hoodie featuring 21 Savage -- Boogie's audition to be included on the next Madden or NBA 2K game. Because this is totally the type of song they include on their games. Dumb rap songs that have some vague sports references. With Boogie bragging about how he's undefeated, that fits quite nicely. Except Boogie is really talking about how awesome of a human being he is, not how good his football team is. Nothing like a man full of himself to get me excited about a song. And of course you know how much I love it when I get the pleasure of hearing 21 Savage mumbling incoherently through his verse. Sarcasm is strong with this one.

86- "Beast Mode" - A Boogie wit da Hoodie featuring PnB Rock & YoungBoy Never Broke Again -- OK, before we even get to this song, can I complain at how annoyingly ridiculous it is to look at the artists on this track? Did Boogie feel the need to feature the dumbest names in rap just to make his awful name not look as bad? Imagine if instead I could type Julius Dubose featuring Rakim Allen and Kentrell Gaulden, because those are their real names. What's so bad about using that? Do you know what? Screw it. I'm using their real names for the rest of this post. Most of this song is Julius and Rakim going back and forth with Julius' second attempted sports song that has nothing to do with sports. Beast Mode being a reference to running back Marshawn Lynch and his power running style, which the two of these guys use to rap about how awesome they are. The annoying part being Rakim sounding like he recorded this song with a golf ball in his mouth. Then Kentrell comes in at the end sounding like he's trying to be cool and hip as possible, while adding absolutely nothing to this song that's really about nothing anyways. The only good thing about talking about this song is that no more songs from Julius' album showed up, so I am officially done with him for now!

98- "Smooth" - Florida Georgia Line -- After having to deal with Danielle and Julius for this whole list thus far, I've never been happier to see Florida Georgia Line show up on the list of new arrivals. Like, I mean that literally. I'm not a fan of these guys, but they're much more tolerable the other stuff I subjected myself to. So this is the only time I've been happy to see them. But I don't want to give them too much credit because this is nothing special. They're just singing about how smooth this girl is. In the type of way that makes me think of a girl being cat-called at by a couple of redneck bystanders seeing her for the first time. Meanwhile she just rolls her eyes, ignores them and moves on with her life. Certainly a huge step above Sam Hunt's "Body Like a Back Road," but not as charming and romantic as Florida Georgia Line were going for. But still. This song has a bounce to it and a groove. It's an actual song. Unlike our other five songs that showed up this week. Let's hope next week is better.

DrogeMiester's Billboard Analysis - October 14, 2017

The new Billboard charts have arrived and so it's time again for me to give you my thoughts! In this weekly post, I cover three sections. First, I give my thoughts on the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. Second, I give my thoughts on the songs that experienced significant gains below the top 10. Third, I give my initial thoughts on our new arrivals this week. I reserve the right to switch things up in the future, but for now this is what I'm sticking with. I've followed the Billboard charts for a long time now and this is a great way for me to express my thoughts to the world. I hope you enjoy!

Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:

1- "Bodak Yellow (Money Moves)" - Cardi B (=) -- Last week Cardi B became just the second female rapper in the history of the Billboard charts to be No. 1 on the Hot 100, the first being Lauryn Hill in 1998. In fact, the Nicki Minaj wannabe does something that Nicki hasn't yet accomplished in any form. The highest Nicki got was "Anaconda" at No. 2. Does that mean I should remove the "Nicki Minaj wannabe" title from Cardi? No. I'm keeping it. And, you know, I would be happier for Cardi and her accomplishments, except I don't like the song. In fact, I'm already sick of it being at the top and I'm sad that it's gained traction in all three categories, solidifying its position more this week as opposed to last week where it look like it just barely snagged the top spot.

2- "rockstar" - Post Malone featuring 21 Savage (=) -- Most songs that debut at the top actually dip in their second week. While the sales for "rockstar" plummeted, streaming was really stubborn and didn't budge, meaning that the song stayed put and quite frankly makes me really mad. This is a piece of trash song that doesn't belong anywhere close to the hot 100, let alone No. 2. And I'm really mad that rappers these days are so unintelligent that they have the audacity of calling themselves the new rock stars. They aren't. They're rappers. But you know, intelligence isn't required for song writing these days. And it really frustrates me that the standard for quality music is so low.

3- "Look What You Made Me Do"  Taylor Swift (=) -- With Cardi B looking unstable and Post Malone's sales tanking in week two, Taylor thought she would be clever and add a 69 cent iTunes discount to her song to try to steal that top spot back. It failed.

4- "1-800-273-8255" - Logic featuring Alessia Cara & Khalid (=) -- Has this song peaked on the Hot 100? If so, I'm glad it got so high. But I totally wouldn't mind it hanging out here in the top five for a while.

5- "Despacito" - Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber (=) -- It's time for "Despacito" to go. But if we're keeping track, it's now spent 24 weeks in the top 10, nine weeks away from Ed Sheeran's 33-week record. A record I hope it doesn't match. Not because I care about that Ed Sheeran record, I'm still kinda mad that it got it in the first place, but I'm just done with "Despacito."

6- "Unforgettable" - French Montana featuring Swae Lee (=) -- French Montana and Swae Lee stay put at No. 6. I wouldn't mind if they switch spots with "Despacito."

7- "Feel it Still" - Portugal. The Man (+3) -- The best news in the top 10 by far is that this song wasn't a one-week wonder in the top 10. I was afraid that it was going to jump in at No. 10 and fall right back out. But thanks to radio falling in love with this song, it jumps up three spots to No. 7. Now I hope the upward trend continues because I would be absolutely ecstatic if this jumped into the top five!

8- "Believer" - Imagine Dragons (-1) -- Imagine Dragons is now falling back down after getting a bit of a second wind. I would be happy about this, except "Thunder" is soaring up the charts, looking like it is set to replace "Believer" in the top 10. Sigh.

9- "Rake it Up" - Yo Gotti featuring Nicki Minaj (-1) -- I've got to count the small wins. "Rake it Up" should've never got to the top 10. But at least it fell a spot. I would hate it if it hit the top five, but it looks like it's going to fail to do so. Now I just need to find some wood to knock on so this doesn't jump right back up.

10- "Sorry Not Sorry" - Demi Lovato (+5) -- Our new entry to the top 10 is another female!! Wahoo!!! That bumps our number of female entries in the top 10 this year up to 20, that compared to the 72 that have been male. That's 21.7 percent female and 78.3 percent male. Yes, I've been keeping track of that because there came a point that I noticed this year was extremely male heavy, which kind of upset me because I like female singers and I want more of them to have success. As far as Demi songs go, this one is decent and perfectly likable, even though it's not as good as some others on the album, like "Tell Me You Love Me" and "You Don't Do it For Me Anymore." I was also kinda surprised to notice that this is her first top 10 entry in four years. Her other recent songs barely missed. In fact, it's been since "Heart Attack" in 2013. In fact, her highest charting song was "This is Me" with Joe Jonas in 2008, which peaked at No. 9. So "Sorry Not Sorry" has the chance of becoming her highest charting song.

Rising on the Hot 100:

14- "Too Good at Goodbyes" - Sam Smith (+2) -- Can we please get this one back into the top 10? Falling from No. 4 to No. 16 wasn't a surprise. That's normal for a second week drop. But now I would love to see this get traction and soar to the top of the charts. Or at least back into the top 10. This two spot jump this week is good progress.

15- "Bank Account" - 21 Savage (+2) -- I really love how this song failed to get to the top 10 after getting so close. It rebounded a bit this week, but I hope we can keep 21 Savage and his horrible music away from the top 10. Off the charts would be really nice, too.

17- "Thunder" - Imagine Dragons (+13) -- Oh dear. This soared this week I think because of being featured in a commercial. Or something like that. With only 65,000 in sales, it's the top selling song of the week. That's pretty pathetic. Or just a sign that we are reverting more and more to streaming songs than to buying them. It is nice having a rock song topping the sales charts, but I really wish it were a good rock song rather than this empty piece of nothing.

20- "What Lovers Do" - Maroon 5 featuring SZA (+3) -- Well, this slowed down a bit when compared to last week's jump. I just hope this can somehow be stopped before hitting the top 10. Until Maroon 5 relearn how to write actual rock music, I think they should have a permanent ban from the top 10. No one cares. Or rather, no one should care.

44- "Havana" - Camila Cabello featuring Young Thug (+20) -- There must've been a music video drop or a sales discount on this song because this was a surprising jump. I'm not super upset, though. This is decent and I want to see Camila succeed.

46- "do re mi" - blackbear (+5) -- I forgot this song existed. Then I looked at my Excel file and was surprised that I gave it a good grade, so I had to go re-listen to it. And yeah, if we have to have a rap song do well, I can definitely tolerate this. Much better and more catchy than most rap songs these days. But obviously I won't miss it if it falls again.

48- "New Rules" - Dua Lipa (+5) -- I'm happy to see Dua Lipa break top 50. Keep going!

49- "Glorious" - Macklemore featuring Skylar Grey (+13) -- I've been waiting for this song to become a hit and was worried that it would flop. I hope this week is more than just a boost because of the album because Macklemore is one of the few rappers who seems like he cares. More from him later in the new arrivals.

52- "Gucci Gang" - Lil Pump (+19) -- This song rose again? Now I'm seriously concerned. I haven't read one comment from the internet that gives this song praise, even from the rap crowd. But now Lil Pump is going to become a thing and I hate it.

58- "Perfect" - Ed Sheeran (+31) -- Ed Sheeran's third single from his album after "Shape of You" and "Castle on the Hill." And I think this is a fantastic choice. It re-entered the charts last week and had a huge boost this week. Ed Sheeran is really good with his wedding ballads. If you are tired of them, I understand. But they still get me. Especially since Ed puts so much heart and passion into them. This is so romantic and lovely.

67- "DNA" - BTS (+18) -- I'm genuinely curious to see how well this song does. After its debut last week, I thought it was going to fall off and die. Instead it jumps 18 spots. Can it keep going? I don't think so. But it proved me wrong this week, so we'll see.

78- "No Limit" - G-Eazy featuring A$AP Rocky & Cardi B (+19) -- Huge boost because Cardi B is now at No. 1, right? No other reason for this to be doing well, I don't think.

81- "Fix a Drink" - Chris Janson (+13) -- Country song about getting a drink at a bar. Snooze. Come back with something more interesting, country radio.

New Arrivals:

65- "I Fall Apart" - Post Malone -- Another Post Malone song for a second straight week made me nervous that I was going to have to deal with a Post Malone album soon. While I suppose that could still theoretically happen, this is from his 2016 album "Stoney." You know, the *epic* album that brought us "White Iverson," "Deja Vu" and "Congratulations." Lyrically speaking, there's certainly a lot worse out there. But Post Malone starts the song by groaning and I was hoping that was just the intro, but he's kinda doing the groany yell thing throughout the whole song, which doesn't really go anywhere. He's just whining and complaining about this girl breaking up with him. He thought she would be a keeper because he bought her all this jewelry. Because that's all girls care about, right? Money and riches? Yeah, no. Thus I felt no empathy for Post Malone here. It's like having to deal with an immature teenage boy complaining about being dumped. I just don't care at all and I want him to move on with life.

70- "Good Old Days" - Macklemore featuring Kesha -- I haven't yet listened to Macklemore's new album "GEMINI," yet. But I have it on my queue. A few collaborations worry me, like the Offset and Lil Yachty songs, but I saw Kesha attached to a song and I got excited. That sounded like a winner. And I was certainly right to be excited because this is a solid song. And it starts out as a piano ballad from Kesha as she puts a lot of passion into her chorus. Then it picks up in Macklemore's verses, but goes back to ballad when Kesha takes over the chorus again. It's a solid flow for a Macklemore song that's a lot more toned back and mellow than his usual upbeat self. I also really enjoy the story he tells in this song about how all his thoughts were focused on the future when he was younger. Now that the future has arrived, he laments about the past, wishing he would've taken advantage of those times more while not dwelling on them too much. He sort of realizes that the he needs to do a better job at taking advantage of the present instead of always looking forward to the future. "Maybe I've been missin' what. Been scared of the future, thinkin' about the past, while missin' out on now," he sings in the third verse. I like it. I think Macklemore has a way for words.

94- "Losing Sleep" - Chris Young -- Now in the 90 range we have three country songs before finishing off with A$AP Ferg. Our first one falls into mediocre country range. Chris is just telling us how he wants to make love with this girl all night. That's pretty much it. It's not explicit or raunchy like a lot of rap songs. But I don't think it's quite as romantic as Chris was hoping for. He talks about being wrapped up in the sheets, wanting to breathe the air she breathes, telling her that every touch is special because they're winning when their losing sleep. I'm just sitting here like, get a room Chris. I feel like I'm just an awkward onlooker into something I shouldn't be knowing about.

95- "Like I Loved You" - Brett Young -- From the boring Young to the good Young. Brett Young, if you remember, is the guy who sang "In Case You Didn't Know," a country song from earlier this year that I rather enjoyed and was rather pleased when I saw it do so well on the charts. And now the follow-up single to that huge breakout hit is "Like I Loved You," which has the opposite message to the former song. "In Case You Didn't Know" is a very sweet, romantic love song that is perfect for a wedding playlist. "Like I Loved You" is a sad and somber breakup song. She gives him the "lets be friends" spiel and he doesn't buy it and he doesn't want it. He's realized she never loved him like he loved her and thus he's come to terms with the fact that they're just going to fade into oblivion after going their separate ways. Just like "In Case You Didn't Know," this isn't breaking any ground when it comes to country, but there's an honesty and a passion that Brett brings to this song. He's not trying too hard with the lyrics or the music, rather he's giving us a simple and honest look into some emotions that he's going through in his life. I wish more country was like this.

97- "Round Here Buzz" - Eric Church -- The last of the three country songs of the week comes from Eric Church, who delivers his first single of the year. And no, this is not the start of a new album, this is still from his 2015 album, which gave us "Record Year," "Mr. Misunderstood" and "Kill a Word." Seems like he could've timed this better by releasing these songs a little closer together instead of stretching them out so far. But whatever. How's the song itself? Eh. Whatever is a good way to describe it. Eric is stubbornly sticking to his small town while his girl has left to the big city. He claims that he can have just as much fun down here as she can over there. So ever since she "caught that out there bug," Eric catches himself "a 'round here buzz." I don't know. There's not a lot of life to this song. Feels like a bit of a lazy song to go along with his lazy release pattern of waiting over a year to release another mediocre song from the same album.

98- "Plain Jane" - A$AP Ferg -- For some reason I thought I knew A$AP Ferg. The name sounds awfully familiar, but maybe that's because A$AP Rocky has such a similar name because A$AP Ferg has only had two previous songs chart, with the highest of the two getting to No. 90. So he's apparently not really a mainstream rapper. And perhaps he should go back into obscurity because this isn't worth anything. Sure, unlike rappers such as Lil Pump, it actually sounds like A$AP Ferg actually knows how to rap. He has groove and flow. And he's not trying to copy Migos, like everyone else is. But I have no clue what he's talking about in this song. The lyrics don't make much sense at all, even when I read through them. I suppose if lyrics don't mean a thing for you and all you need is a beat, then I suppose it's possible for you to like this song, but I personally do care about lyrics. It's actually possible to put a lot of depth and emotion into a rap song, but this just sounds like A$AP Ferg through a bunch of random lines together and called it a song. Not my style. Sorry. I prefer my songs to mean something.

DrogeMiester's Billboard Analysis - October 7, 2017

The new Billboard charts have arrived and so it's time again for me to give you my thoughts! In this weekly post, I cover three sections. First, I give my thoughts on the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. Second, I give my thoughts on the songs that experienced significant gains below the top 10. Third, I give my initial thoughts on our new arrivals this week. I reserve the right to switch things up in the future, but for now this is what I'm sticking with. I've followed the Billboard charts for a long time now and this is a great way for me to express my thoughts to the world. I hope you enjoy!

Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:

1- Bodak Yellow (Money Moves) - Cardi B (+1) -- And the Taylor haters rejoice. Ms. Swift could only manage three weeks on top. Meanwhile, Cardi B sneaks onto the top thanks to continually increasing streaming, a 69 cent iTunes discount that sent sales and minor increase to so-so radio play. That aforementioned iTunes discount means this is subject to falling right back off the top spot once sales come back down to earth. But as is, Cardi B is now celebrating becoming just the fifth female rapper to ever top the charts, following Lauryn Hill, Lil' Kim, Shawnna and Iggy Azalea. Among that group, Cardi B is only the second to reign without the help of any other artist, joining Lauryn Hill, who did so back in 1998 with "Doo Wop (That Thing)." So that's kinda cool. Lady rappers don't come around very often and an even fewer number of them achieve mainstream success. I'd be happier for Cardi if this song was worth anything. I was about to call this the worst No. 1 hit of 2017, but then I reminded myself that Migos' "Bad and Boujee" was actually a thing earlier in the year. So Cardi lucked out there.

2- "rockstar" - Post Malone featuring 21 Savage (new) -- Can someone please explain to me why we let these two thugs debut this high? At least we avoided the bullet of them debuting at No. 1. That would've been embarrassing for this country. I really hope this goes away quickly following this debut, but the 46 million US streams in their first week has me nervous. Because for some reason rap dominates on streaming, so that number typically sticks around. My opinion of the song down below.

3- "Look What You Made Me Do" - Taylor Swift (-2) -- I keep hearing the word "flop" around the internet after Taylor could only manage three weeks at No. 1. And it makes me want to quote Inigo Montoya: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." A song that got 353,000 first week sales and reigned for three weeks at No. 1 is ineligible for being referred to as a flop. Not performing as some expected, given how well "Shape of You" and "Despacito" performed? Perhaps. I, too, am surprised how fast the song is losing traction. Maybe not the best sign for Taylor's album. But don't be dumb and call the song a flop. If I'm being honest, though, I'm not too upset. Three weeks at No. 1 is plenty for me and I'm fine with songs taking quicker turns at the top instead of camping out there for too long.

4- "1-800-273-8255" - Logic featuring Alessia Cara & Khalid (-1) -- Logic is still gaining streaming and radio with this song, which is a great thing. Post Malone's debut shoved it down a spot is all. But I anticipate and hope for a rebound next week.

5- "Despacito" - Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber (-1) -- "Despacito" I am fine with not getting a rebound. The song lived a long life at the top and now it's time to go. I just wonder what the reputation of this song will end up being.

6- "Unforgettable" - French Montana featuring Swae Lee (+1) -- Oh hey. Another pleasant surprise. I was expecting this song to disappear from the top 10 after it started to fall, but now that's two straight weeks of gaining in the top 10. I'm cool with this.

7- "Believer" - Imagine Dragons (+2) -- You know, The Killers released their fifth studio album this past weekend and it's phenomenal. Give it a listen! I really wish they could actually chart a song somewhere on the charts. If Imagine Dragons can send bland, boring rock songs, then awesome rock songs with depth and meaning to them should be able to at least chart, right? But probably not. So I talk about it here because I'm really done with Imagine Dragons right now.

8- "Rake it Up" - Yo Gotti featuring Nicki Minaj (+8) -- I'm not shocked to see this back. I'm also not very happy and I really hope it loses traction again and goes away ASAP.

9- "Attention" - Charlie Puth (-1) -- We FINALLY got rid of Shawn Mendes this week! Now we just need the radio to give way on Charlie Puth so we can get rid of him, too.

10- "Feel it Still" - Portugal. The Man (+4) -- HOLY COW!!!!!! This hitting the top 10 almost makes me forgive the fact that half of this top 10 is complete garbage and call this the best top 10 of the year. But I'll come back down to Earth and say this top 10 for the most part still sucks. But I'm so happy to see this here and I really hope this continues to gain traction and rises even higher. It's about dang time we get some real quality music in the top 10 that will actually stay around for longer than a week. There is some justice in the world of music.

Rising on the Hot 100:

23- "What Lovers Do" - Maroon 5 featuring SZA (+6) -- I'm bracing myself for my weekly complaint as to why the heck the radio fell in love with another bland Maroon 5 song. I just hope that this makes like "Cold" and freezes over so that it will disappear. But I feel it's catchy enough for people to somehow give it a pass, which makes me angry. Why can't we just give up on Maroon 5?

30- "Thunder" - Imagine Dragons (+10) -- NO!!! I was really enjoying the fact that this song had a hard time gaining traction, but seeing it have a good jump two weeks in a row really has me scared. No more Imagine Dragons, please? Let's toss them to the wayside and forget they existed.

37- "Say You Won't Let Go" - James Arthur (+6) -- James Arthur wishes he would've made the top 10. And I wouldn't have minded it. Seeing him get a slight rebound actually reminds me that this song existed and is fairly enjoyable. But I haven't missed it.

44- "When it Rains it Pours" - Luke Combs (+5) -- Why is this the country song gaining the most traction this week?

46- "Crew" - GoldLink featuring Brent Faiyz & Shy Glizzy (+5) -- I totally forgot this song existed. I gave it a C- in my little Excel chart back in July. That must mean that I wasn't too impressed, but didn't hate life while listening to it. But I honestly can't remember what it sounds like and I don't care enough to go give it another listen. If it continues to gain traction, maybe I'll give it another listen to refresh my memory. But not this week.

47- "Heartache on the Dance Floor" - Jon Pardi (+5) -- No love for country this week as Luke Combs and Jon Pardi are the only two songs to gain significant rises. Shame. There's actually some good country songs around, but of course country radio chooses to accept the bad ones.

61- "Bad at Love" - Halsey (+10) -- Halsey is bad at love and also bad at disappearing from the charts. I can't panic yet because this hasn't yet broke top 50 and her previous singles didn't do incredibly well. But I still hope this loses traction soon.

71- "Gucci Gang" - Lil Pump (+10) -- Why in the name of everything good and right did this song INCREASE this week? I was hoping it would be a one and done on the charts given how untalented this thug is even when compared to the other untalented thugs that do so well. Let's not make Lil Pump a thing because that means other people are going to want to start collaborating with him because that's what they do when rappers gain traction. And that would be awful.

79- "Pill and Automobiles" - Chris Brown featuring Yo Gotti, A Boogie wit da Hoodie & Kodak Black (+19) -- At least it makes sense why this song gained traction this week. It actually has real rappers. And that's the nicest thing I'll ever say about these four, so if you're a fan of either one, then take notes. But don't get too excited because this is still an awful song that doesn't deserve to be rising. It's just not as bad as the horrendous Lil Pump song ahead of it.

New Arrivals: 

2- "rockstar" - Post Malone featuring 21 Savage -- Before I listened to this song, I turned out and jammed to Nickelback's "Rockstar" from 2005. Don't judge me. That's a fun, self-aware song where Nickelback makes fun of the life of rock stars. A life that Post Malone and 21 Savage will NEVER experience because they are NOT rock stars. So when they write a song called "rockstar" and sing about how they feel like rock stars, it is incredibly stupid. Because apparently the only requirement, according to Post Malone, to be a rock star is to sleep with women and do drugs. That's what this is. Then 21 Savage comes in and forgets that they are singing about rock stars and says that he feels like a pop star. Also wrong. The only positive thing that I can come up with is that I've heard much worse from these two, but that's not saying much.

66- "Too Much to Ask" - Niall Horan -- For better or for worse, Niall is the only former 1D member that is writing songs that actually sound like 1D songs. Zayn went completely crazy, Harry went 70's rock, Liam went desperate and Louis decided to write good music. Niall has decided to stick to the simple, hollow love songs that 1D was famous for. Except he doesn't have the vocals or talent to make me care. He has an album coming up here on October 20 and I have a feeling it's going to be the type of album that will put me to sleep, despite my Apple Music claiming it will only be 10 songs and 35 minutes long. "Too Much to Ask" is very similar to "This Town" and "Slow Hands." It's slow, simple and sounds like Niall himself recorded it while he was sleep deprived. He gives a very basic breakup ballad where he is sad about losing this girl and wants her back because he's not over her yet and hopes that she isn't over him, either. We've never heard that before, have we Niall? The song isn't offensive or horrible. It's just forgettable. Like most of 1D's stuff when they were together.

67- "Curve" - Gucci Mane featuring The Weeknd -- Word on the street is that Gucci is working on a collaboration with Jake Paul. Someone please just send the apocalypse already so we don't have to be subjected to that. In the meantime, we get subjected to this collaboration with The Weeknd, who once upon a time actually recorded an album that I enjoyed. Strange. That seems so long ago. Because every time The Weeknd is featured on a song I keep telling myself that maybe he'll at least be decent, but he's not. In this song, The Weeknd has two short bars that he repeats over and over with different words each time. And that's supposed to be music. I don't know how people are entertained by such boring, dull repetitions, especially when the lyrics are pure trash. Meanwhile, Gucci plays Migos for most of the song until he finally gives himself a verse towards the end where he gives his normal, disgusting Gucci stuff with lyrics I don't care to repeat. Can we please get rid of this guy?

85- "DNA" - BTS -- I was wondering if I was going to have to cover these guys this week. I saw their album was released and almost gave it a listen out of curiosity. But I decided to wait. BTS is the band that I refer to as the Korean One Direction and they have a HUGE online, social media presence. The Billboard's formula here in the U.S. only takes into account U.S. streaming numbers or else these guys would certainly be a lot bigger. I call them the Korean 1D because there's seven of them and they really only sing generic love songs that require only one singer, but the seven of them switch off taking the melody. Which is not the style of boy band I like. I prefer harmonization among the members with each member having a specific purpose in the band. That's not what I get here. Not only do I have a hard time telling the difference between them when they switch off, but I listen to this and feel like we could get rid of four or five members and BTS would still sound the exact same. The thing that sets them apart from 1D is that Koreans love their EDM. So BTS is really like a EDM Korean 1D, which makes it kinda fun to dance to, especially since I can't understand what they are saying. The English translation of this song on Genius assures me that the lyrics are essentially a pointless afterthought, anyways. So I'll take this. I don't expect it to stick around, though.

92- "Homemade Dynamite" - Lorde featuring Khalid, Post Malone & SZA -- It's always great to see Lorde on the charts, especially after "Green Light" and "Liability" both failed to gain any traction, which I'm still mad about. "Melodrama" is my favorite album of the year, one that I give a solid A grade to. "Homemade Dynamite" slides in right at track No. 3 and it's the song that I call the lesser of the songs on "Melodrama," but I still think it's a solid song and I'm happy to see it here. Even though I call it the lesser song, it still adds to the narrative of the emotions she is going through on the album. All of "Melodrama" is her first experience with adulthood, which comes with quite the crazy train ride, if you know what I mean. So there's a lot of ups and downs on the albums. When she hits the downs on the album, it's deep, depressing and emotional. When she hits the ups, it's fun and upbeat. This song is one of those ups. And it's an early up before her life collapses. She's just out having fun with this guy and she is hoping that this relationship will go somewhere.

That's the original, anyways. This remix is the same tone, but it adds a whole lot of voices. I suppose that's what we get when the first two songs fail as singles. Lorde goes into the wood works and re-records a song with some of the bigger names in music at the moment in hopes that she will gain relevance. It's unfortunate that she had to do that, but I blame America for rejecting her and forcing her hand. So how does this turn out? Well, not bad actually. Each singer gets a verse, adding their experience to this crazy, wild night, and they come together on the choruses. And surprisingly, all singers do well with their verse. Even Post Malone. My problem is that the original narrative speaks specifically of two individuals hoping to spark a relationship. If it were just Lorde and Khalid, I would have zero problem with this. But SZA and Post Malone's parts don't make any sense to the overall story of the song. It's like Lorde and Khalid transformed into SZA and Post Malone. I don't really like that. It's confusing and unnecessary and only done for Lorde to gain relevance. I still hope this succeeds, but this remix takes things down a notch in terms of quality with too many voices.

DrogeMiester's Billboard Analysis - September 30, 2017

The new Billboard charts have arrived and so it's time again for me to give you my thoughts! In this weekly post, I cover three sections. First, I give my thoughts on the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. Second, I give my thoughts on the songs that experienced significant gains below the top 10. Third, I give my initial thoughts on our new arrivals this week. I reserve the right to switch things up in the future, but for now this is what I'm sticking with. I've followed the Billboard charts for a long time now and this is a great way for me to express my thoughts to the world. I hope you enjoy!

Billboard Hot 100 Top 10:

1- "Look What You Made Me Do" - Taylor Swift (=) -- A third week for Taylor at the top, but her sales and streaming continue to tank. She has 69,000 sales, down 39 percent and 39.9 million U.S. streams, down 35 percent. Radio rises to an audience of 75 million, which is up 11 percent and is probably going to be the metric that keeps her around. But I'm suddenly starting to doubt if this is a song that's going to stick around for as long as I thought it would, given what decently average songs like "Despacito" and "Shape of You" accomplished. In fact, Taylor doesn't lead in any of the three aforementioned categories, which sometimes happens when one song is balanced enough to get enough points while the other songs are super lopsided towards one specific category. With this week, Sam Smith got a buttload of first week sales, Cardi B ruled on streaming, while radio is madly in love with Charlie Puth for some annoying reason. But none of those songs are doing well at all in the other categories, so Taylor gets a third week at No. 1. But I wonder how long it's going to last.

2- "Bodak Yellow (Money Moves)" - Cardi B (=) -- One would think that Cardi B would be in line to jump to the top if Taylor continues to tank. The problem is the song doesn't seem to want the crown. It also tanked on sales and streaming, albeit slightly less than Taylor in the latter category, thus gaining the top spot on streaming. And radio has never really done anything for the song. Rightfully so. No one needs to hear this poisonous monstrosity in their ears. I still don't know why it's here or why it ever got this high in the first place. I'm just waiting for it to collapse and die.

3- "1-800-273-8255" - Logic featuring Alessia Cara & Khalid (+2) -- Meanwhile, continuing to be an extremely pleasant surprise, Logic takes his suicide prevention song up even further on the charts to No. 3 thanks to continued solid gains in streaming and radio, even if sales are going the wrong direction. Wouldn't it be so awesome if this wound up being our No. 1 song? I would love that. As is, it's now the highest charting song for all three of these artists. Good for them!

4- "Despacito" - Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber (-1) -- I don't know if I have that much more to say about "Despacito." It had it's time in the spotlight. A really long time in the spotlight. Now I'm just wondering if this is just going to be a weird fad that we experienced in 2017 or if this song will actually be remembered 10 years from now. Actual Latino countries might continue to remember the original version while here in America I think we'll quickly forget that this Bieber remix ever existed.

5- "Too Good at Goodbyes" - Sam Smith (new) -- Man, I love this song. And I'm super happy it debuted in the top five. Well deserved for Sam Smith. Now it's going to experience a second week drop and disappear from the top 10, but I really hope that it ends up gaining traction and becomes the fall hit. More on this song down below in the new arrivals section. But if you're curious, the song arrives with 90,000 first week sales with streaming and radio numbers that I really hope catches up.

6- "Wild Thoughts" - DJ Khaled featuring Rihanna & Bryson Tiller (=) -- DJ Khaled and is gang stay at No. 6 this week. Shame. It deserves to fall faster. Make it happen America!

7- "Unforgettable" - French Montana featuring Swae Lee (+2) -- Oh hey! Here's a pleasant surprise! I was hoping that "Unforgettable" would hang on a bit longer and rise above the other songs that are falling out of the top 10. And it actually happened. America is finally starting to reject Charlie Puth and Imagine, who never belonged in the top 10 with their current songs.

8- "Attention" - Charlie Puth (-1) -- But for some reason, as I previously mentioned, Charlie Puth is king of radio right now. Radio stations need to give up their love affair with Charlie Puth and start playing songs that actually deserve to be played on the radio. It's one of those times where I'm glad the speakers on my car don't  work.

9- "Believer" - Imagine Dragons (-1) -- That's right. Get the fetch out of here Dan Reynolds. And take your boring rock song and bland rock band with you. Go back to the drawing board and come up with something good. Because none of this nonsense you've brought us with your third album is deserving of this amount of praise. And it pains me to say that because I was once a huge fan.

10- "There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back" - Shawn Mendes (=) -- Why? I thought we were done with Shawn Mendes last week. I'm angry that he's hung in for one more week. Heck, I was angry that he showed up in the top 10 in the first place, but I'm really angry that he hasn't yet left.

Rising on the Hot 100:

11- "Slow Hands" - Niall Horan (+4) -- I don't really find this song that entertaining. It's kind of a boring song that you would expect from one of the lesser 1D members who has been left all alone. But man, if it means kicking out Charlie Puth, Imagine Dragons and/or Shawn Mendes, I will accept this with open arms. For a few weeks. Then it needs to go because it mainly puts me to sleep and makes me upset that the talented 1D members aren't finding success.

12- "Strip that Down" - Liam Payne featuring Quavo (+2) -- But hey, at least this song left the top 10. I can only hope that it stays out, because we don't need to encourage Liam to write songs like this. And we certainly don't need anymore Quavo in our lives.

14- "Feel it Still" - Portugal. The Man (+4) -- This, on the other hand, gets me super excited and giddy. In a year that's been mostly boring and dull in the top 10, wouldn't it be absolutely fantastic if we actually got a super good song that's much different from our usual affair to cross over into the top 10? I'm pulling for this! And I beg of you to buy it and/or stream it so that it can make the cut!

19- "Mi Gente" - J Balvin & Willy William (+3) -- J Balvin has finally cracked the top 20 with "Mi Gente" after being stuck in the 20's for several weeks. I'm honestly curious if this is heading to replace "Despacito" in the top 10 because it's slowly rising while "Despacito" slowly falls. If "Mi Gente" does crack top 10, I will be super impressed because that will mean it's a Latino song that managed to crack the top 10 WITHOUT an English remix. If it doesn't crack the top 10 and simply peaks here in the teens, well, I won't be super upset. It's had a good run that I'm satisfied with.

24- "I Get the Bag" - Gucci Mane featuring Migos (+7) -- NO! So much no!! Get these thugs out of here and send their awful song with them. Please don't let this be our next rap entry into the top 10.

26- "Young Dumb & Broke" - Khalid (+7) -- Khalid now has a top three hit thanks to Logic. Now can he get another entry into the top 10 completely on his own? I wouldn't be surprised. This seems like the song that the radio would fall in love with. And I won't be upset if it does. This kid certainly has a lot more talent and song writing abilities than that of Charlie Puth and Shawn Mendes. Combined. But I also won't be upset if this gets stuck around this region. It's alright and inoffensive, but not the best.

32- "What Ifs" - Kane Brown featuring Lauren Alaina (+8) -- We've almost arrived to the point in our lives where "Body Like a Back Road" is no longer the top country song. "What Ifs" is SO close to finally dethroning it. This isn't necessarily the country song that I would pick to take the title, but there could also be a whole lot worse.

40- "Thunder" - Imagine Dragons (+5) -- I keep expecting "Thunder" to start rising on the charts while crossing my fingers that it continues to stall out. It's suffered from a lot of indecisiveness. As if people can't decide if they want to accept it because of its awesome beat or reject it due to its completely lifeless and empty lyrics. I'm kinda hoping for the latter. Especially since I'm currently hoping all of Imagine Dragons' music just burns and dies. "Night Visions" just seems like such a long time ago.

47- "Unforgettable" - Thomas Rhett (+16) -- I still start singing French Montana's version of this song when I see this rising. Thomas Rhett has never been able to connect this song to my mind. This song being so forgettable is pretty bad.

71- "Bad at Love" - Halsey (+10) -- No time to panic yet. Halsey's new song hasn't broke top 70. But if this continues to rise, I will start complaining. Yes, I want more female representation. But I'd rather have GOOD female representation, not whatever this is.

New Arrivals:

5- "Too Good at Goodbyes" - Sam Smith -- I don't want to get too personal with this song, because I'm not intending on getting sympathy from readers and friends after they read this, but if you want to know how I'm feeling right now when it comes to my love life and relationships, this is the song to listen to. I was intrigued when I saw Sam Smith releasing a new song because the man genuinely has an excellent voice and fantastic writing abilities, but I kid you not, the second I started playing this, especially after knowing what the title was, it instantaneously connected with me. And the more I've listened to it, the more I've found that it connects with me on every level. Because it's my story about how I feel. About this song, Sam Smith said that he wanted to update everyone on his love life, which he admits still sucks and that sadly states that he is very single. At least when he wrote the song. Which, yeah, guess what? Same here.

Check out these lyrics, "I'm never going to let you close to me, even though you mean the most to me, 'cause every time I open up, it hurts. So I'm never going to get too close to you, even when I mean the most to you, in case you go and leave me in the dirt."

Or how about this, "I know you think I'm heartless. I know you think I'm cold. I'm just protectin' my innocence. I'm just protecting my soul."

Yep. I can just leave it at that. Not to mention the man's voice in the song is beyond beautiful and the music behind this sad love ballad is perfect. And I certainly have to give kudos to Sam Smith for being openly gay, yet perfect at writing love songs that connect with people regardless of their sexual orientation. Not that I would be upset at a love song specifically for people who are homosexual. Halsey did it with "Strangers" and I had zero problem with that aspect of the song. I just find it impressive that Sam can write a song that connects with all people. And do you know what Sam, for the sake of me and you both, I hope we each find the lover that we are looking for. Because, yeah, dating sucks. But it'll get better. Hopefully. In the meantime, using music to express what's honestly on your mind is something that I have a lot of respect for.

44- "Dusk Till Dawn" - Zayn featuring Sia -- Horse manure with a side of ice cream served for dinner? The idea of this song is so strange. We combine the efforts of the least talented member of 1D with perhaps my favorite female vocalist. It just doesn't seem right. Like me trying to country dance. But what would win out when I played the actual song? Zayn or Sia? Well, neither. Which makes me more conflicted. This isn't just Sia thrown in as an after thought with a third verse feature or something. For much of the song they are singing together. And Zayn sounds so lazy and bored while Sia sounds like she's doing her best to make the most out of these Zayn-y lyrics. Think of any song Zayn has ever written while off on his own and this is no better. He just wants to get together with this girl, not for the sake of love and relationships, but for her body and for the opportunity to sleep with her. But Sia puts a lot of emotion into anyways and almost sells it, but is held back by Zayn just trudging along with her, singing the song as lazily as he wrote it. Everyone once in a while he breaks out and channels his inner Sia, showing the world that he actually has a good voice. But then he goes back to his normal lazy self. So yeah, I don't know what to do with this.

62- "Love So Soft" - Kelly Clarkson -- Speaking of being conflicted, this new song from Kelly also sends me in so many different directions. Except this time around, it's just Kelly as opposed to Zayn and Sia combining to stretch me in different directions. Simply put, Kelly has a lot of fire and soul that she puts into the verses of this song that I really love. Then we slam on the brakes during the chorus, giving me whiplash as I'm suddenly subjected to a chorus that is perhaps the most boring and lazy chorus that Kelly has ever written, both in terms of the boring lyrics and the one-note music, which she ends with an annoying squeak. If the whole song were like the verses, then I think I would love this. But it's not. So I don't. I'm still intrigued by her upcoming album, though. The song "Move You," the other song she's released, is genuinely good. And if she's going soul, I hold out hope there are some good soul songs hidden in there. But it's a swing and a miss for me on the lead-off single. And you shouldn't be too shocked. Outside "Never Again" and "Catching My Breath," I haven't been impressed with a Kelly song since she released her album "Breakaway."

73- "I'll Name the Dogs" - Blake Shelton -- So Sam Smith is opening up to us that his love life sucks. Zayn, Sia and Kelly are doing... something. And Blake Shelton is busy naming dogs. OK, whatever Blake. I just hoped he was being literal with this and not referring to something else. Which thankfully he is being literal. He's saying that he's ready to marry this girl and he says that she can name the babies and he'll name the dogs. This after he lists off a whole bunch of stereotypical man/woman roles that they can do. I don't want to say this is being misogynistic or sexist, because it's not. But stereotypical is a good word. He can go do all his stereotypical guy things and she can do all the stereotypical girl things and they can live happily ever after in their boring, cliche country life. I will give Blake some credit for having more of a groove than he usually does, but I just had my eyebrow cocked the whole time while listening in a state of bored confusion. I don't connect with this at all and I don't know how people can. But whatever.

80- "Found You" - Kane Brown -- While Kane is currently shooting up the charts with "What Ifs," which is poised to take the top spot on the country charts, he also sneaks in this. I will say that this is less baffling and weird than Blake's song, we have our typical, guy meets girl country song from Kane. This time guy is in a bar, missing his girl, when guy's friend drags him out to a party guy doesn't want to go to where guy meets girl and is now happy. And I'm sure if we told the next part of this story it would be a lather, rinse, repeat sort of situation. Kudos for being original, Kane. NOT. Throw in your typical non-country country rock stuff and we got ourselves a 2017 country song.

81- "Gucci Gang" - Lil Pump -- Lil Pump? Are we for real? Lil Wayne made sense as a rapper name. Lil Uzi Vert didn't and neither did Lil Yachty. Now we have another Lil joining the group with the dumbest name of them all. Lil Pump. Like seriously, who comes up with these? And why? It just sounds like a rapper name that a 12-year-old punk kid would give himself when he's trying to be cool... shortly after learning that he can swear. Oh, you want me to talk about this song? OK. It sucks. This whatever the heck he is does everything I hate about modern club rappers. Trying to feed off Migos while repeating his horrible title over and over in between talking about sleeping with women, including his teacher, while doing drugs, selling drugs, not caring about relationships. Just fame, fortune, drugs and sex. And we're encouraging this punk to keep going. Ouch. I hate 2017 sometimes. I hope this dies.

85- "No Limit" - G-Eazy featuring A$AP Rocky & Cardi B -- Who gave these three permission to get together and write a song? Granted, I'll take this over whatever that Lil Pump song was, but that's not saying too much. Also, to be fair to G-Eazy, I haven't hated the stuff that he's done. He just kinda bores me. When he teams up with someone talented, it's tolerable. But when he teams up like this, it's not. I don't like anyone who puts a dollar sign in their name these days and I hate how we have two Nicki Minajes corrupting the music industry. Again, slight credit goes to this song having more of a flow and bounce than some rap songs. But the content is the same boring, awful rap stuff. Listening to these words doesn't please my ears.

98- "Pills and Automobiles" - Chris Brown featuring Yo Gotti, A Boogie wit da Hoodie & Kodak Black -- Speaking of people that shouldn't get together, what in the heck is happening here? An awful rapper combined with a boring rapper combined with the rapper that has the world's worst name combined with another awful rapper. No way this works out. Haven't we all learned by now that Chris Brown can't rap and can't write good songs? And auto-tuning his voice while bringing in all his friends isn't going to help anything. He starts this song by repeating the word wet 14 times. And that sets the tone for the rest of the song because you know exactly what's going to happen.

99- "Let Me Go" - Hailee Steinfeld & Alesso featuring Florida Georgia Line & watt -- Well that's a mouthful to type up and try to digest. Hailee the pop singer, Alesso the EDM artist, Florida Georgia Line the country duo and watt the guitarist. So let me break this down for you. This is Hailee being desperate. Because that's what she's turned into in regards to her music career. A desperate pop singer. In this song, she's singing a boring breakup song that we've heard a thousand times, but somehow she convinced Florida Georgia Line to come in a do a quick verse while letting Alesso and watt take care of all the music and instrumentation behind her. Hailee isn't bad in this. Her voice is good. But she has so much potential that I feel she is just wasting right now. And if you're going to bring in a country duo, then commit to it. They're barely in the song. Their only purpose is to add a name to the song to get sales because they certainly add nothing to the song. Alesso and watt do fine with the production, but Alesso being one of my favorite EDM artists has done much better. If this was a head-banging Alesso song that uses Hailee's voice, then I'd be totally down with this. But that's not what it is. This is boring and desperate where no one involved seemed like they really cared.