Heading into July, and Wiz has been at # 1 for ten weeks straight and there has only been three songs at # 1 all year… for the first time since 1996. All three songs have been nothing great, the Taylor “Bad Blood” was her weakest on 1989 and Bruno and mark have written a pastiche of funk. Wi is terrible but Charlie has a great voice. But the extreme conservatism of the charts is borderline babrbaric. PS not a single new song entered the charts this week.
Looks to me as though we have the song of the summer with “Cheerleader” -it has been in the UK charts for a coupla weeks now and it has just broken the top ten here, which means if it has legs, and it sure might have, this is gonna be on the charts all summer. While wiz is still at number, it is very vulnerable to a coup d’état and sooner rather than later
Giving fidelity a really really bad name, please meet Andy Grammer, one of the more annoying pop stars in the world who gives jauntiness whole new levels of irritation on a truly dreadful song. This past year has been a drag for the world of pop, as conservative and sedentary as music can get.
Wiz is back on top, Tay is right behind and if you include “Uptown Funk” that is nearly every # 1 we’ve had this year. The songs here, I like some, I like some less, but they are all of a piece and it all starts with the drums. The drum sound here is uniform across every single song, including “Shut Up And Dance with me”. Looking at this, I am amaed by the duiversity… in 1967. This is all very similar.
The 385,000 units shifted of “Bad Blood” is pretty impressive though I personally am not so crazy about the Kendrick verse as the rest of the world. Plus, not my fave track on the album at the best of times though Taylor certainly keeps changing the plot on us, doesn’t she
this doesn’t hit me like the chart of summer yet, OMI and Jess Glynne haven’t hit (they have both been # 1’s in the UK) and I think once they do, the two will battle it out… and I have a feeling OMI might win.
How can I hate such a sweet remembrance of Paul Walker? If they couldn’t get Sam Smith, surely Charlie Puth is the next best thing and it is a sweetly sad melody and Wiz brings a certain tenderness to his rap. But I don’t believe it, it’s like Sam Smith for morons, a by committee heart tugger about a man who died an extremely stupid death. It is too manipulatively, I can’t buy in.
T Wayne is a sticky mo fu from the Lone Star State, “Money Freestyle’ was a pretty good earlier song, but ‘Nasty Freestyle is even better: a Texan accent and a slur weed voca with a sing songy braggard deluxe. The first line, “First lemme hop out the motherfuckin’ Porsche, I dont want her if that ass don’t sit like a horse” was so good, Vine users had a competition as to who could lip synch to it best.
Singing with his pecs, the Flo Rida resident has recorded one great song, “Trumpets” and lotsa mediocre pop moves, while truly sucking bad on stage. “Want To Want Me” is ordinary but the proof is in the sales,w hich is kinda like bouncing a quarter off his stomach and seeing where he falls.
Walk The Moon are a Cincinatti indie pop band who signed to RCA, added synths to their sound, and hit the lottery with this bland sliece of electro pop rock. It isn’t bad, you know, and it is hard to object at Walk The Moon getting lucky. Somebody has to.
The top of the list is now in its 14th week, a reign that equals “I Gotta Feeling” , and has only been bested by the execrable Mariah Carey and Boys II Men “One Fine Day” -a song so bad they could make it replace waterboarding as a torture. The death song is horrible on just about every single level and it makes “Uptown Funk” sound like a paragon of funk smartness and inspired plagiarism. Which it isn’t. Speaking of death songs -will somebody put a fork in Wiz Khallifa already?
I am all for “I’d rather hear a good song twice than a bad song once” but this ridiculous, the 13 week chart buster at the top is the Rutles of funk and the song at the bottom is a remix of Whitney Houston. Still, La rose is easy on the eyes, and disco is, in fact disco. Call it the Jerimih touch.
Congrats abound: Mark and Bruno? 12th week at the top of the charts. Flo Rida? Back in the charts for the first time in two years and is it me or doesn’t this sound a lot like Lil Jon? Not that I have any complaints, the song works perfectly well for me.
Congrats to New Jersey rapper Fetty Wap, his “Trap Queen” more songs and money and, also, his gal, which is kinda new! Also, the man only has one eye… here is the story: “I tell everybody it’s nothing, because it’s really nothing to me. What happened is, when I was little I had gotten into a little accident and it gave me congenital glaucoma in both of my eyes. The doctor saved one, I was blessed to still have my vision. That’s it. That’s the story.”
Nothing new here, last year it was Tay keeping Meghan down, this year Mark keeping ed out of the # 1 position. That ten weeks at the top is pretty damn impressive I will say that.
Crazy about the new Pitbull. No, not at all, but it is a long long time since “Hotel Room Service’ and at the very least the thrill of Pitbull has gone… though, a fried of a friend is Pitbull’s manager and he swears the guy is the sweetest guy in the biz…
A bit of a snoozer though better the Weeknd than Ellie, and how sick am I of Bruno and Mark -every time i hear it I want to bitch slap em both… do we really have to hear these fakers for the rest of our lives? The jerks Plus what’s with this damn weather?
A pretty good top ten though it takes so log for things to shake up on the charts that “Style” feels like a seismatic chage. “Style” is also ot “Blank Space” -it seems tot ake seriously what “Blank Space” funned at: all heavy glances and playing patty fingers in the Holy Water?
Now I the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by Fall Out Boy, who have at least two more WHOMPING SMASH HIT SONGS awaiting for you are “Centuries.” It is amazing how big they are gonna get.
Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by Fall Out Boy, who have at least two more WHOMPING SMASH HIT SONGS awaiting for you after “Centuries.” It is amazing how big they are gonna get.
I swear, at first glance I thought they’d misposted last weeks charts by mistake but no, the Avicii, which I quite like, is a new track from an old album. Otherwise, everything is where it was only you are there for your sins
The only newbie is “Sugar” and the reason is simple, because the video is a masterpiece and it pushed it all the way into the charts by brute force. It is really a pity the same thing won’t happen for Sleater-Kinney as they find a city to live in.
Sure, I went with Billboard’s great picture but I think I wanna take five minutes to praise my God liike genius in claiming “Thinking Out Loud” was the one when I noticed it during a first listen of X. Yes, folks I am the King Of The Pop Universe. and Ed Sheeran owes me (and Taylor) big time.
The only excuse for Bruno Mars is huge sales, without huge sales he ceases to be anything at all, but with huge sales he comes a beacon of populist r&b, a Michael Jackson disciple, a true star. “Uptown Funl” is too derivitative up to the place where it hits the top of the charts. After that it is just right.
If it wasn’t for the desperate sexism of it all, the singles charts might be dubbed the year of the woman. But really, why should we single em out? Would that then make 2015 the year of the man? So on and so forth? But let’s be honest, that’s the way society judges it. Being female has its perks, and one is they get kudos for doing stuff men take for granted
I’ve always felt “Love Story” was the one, the song where Taylor became a superstar, back in 2008. I remember hearing it early and turning to my friend and saying “this is it”, it’s over. But even as I was saying that she was remaining a teen girl phenomenon -she was huge but huge within genre. With the release of “Blank Space” she belonged to the world. People who I’d argued about Swift with for years gave up. The song is simply undeniable. With “Blank Space” Taylor became as big as you can be.
Wow, the last singles chart of the year is a great one one A+, four as, 5 B=s, this is the best chart since I satarted keeping track in 2009, every song here is a doozy and the top and the bottom are magnificent star turns. Both of Meghans hit home and the Ed Sheeran is his greatest moment ever. What a Christmas.
How about this for a stat, courtesy of Billboard, for the past fourteen weeks Meghan Trainor and Taylor Swift have been trading #1 and #2 and have now broken a record set by the Beatles and Lesley Gore in 1964! And what makes it better, all three songs, “Blank Space”, “Shake It Off” and “All About That Bass” are excellent (A+, A, A).
There seems to be zero change here from before they were counting streams –this is exactly what you’d expect, and if every 10 sales equals 1500 streams it might be a long time before you do whatever the claim is. By the way, Bruno Mars? James Brown is so great even lame ass copies sound good.
Let’s be clear, “Blank Space” has made a superstar even bigger, simply the greatest pop star around today: it crosses over every boundary, it is the epitome of a master pop song. It isn’t a question of if you don’t like it to each there own, it is a matter of if you don’t like it you have something missing in your pop genes and hereby banned from commenting on modern music.
It is topped off by Taulor Swift’s masterpiece, quite possibly the song of the. Incidentally, for the first time ever a woman has replaced her # 1 with another # 1.
The one time I saw The Weeknd live, I was shocked at how lively he was, the poster boy for dark and moody new r&b once he hit the stage simply wasn’t any more. The one time I saw Ariana on stage, she was the pits. Put em together and you have a mediocre but popular song.
Sorry, but it is indeed Taylor’s world and we indeed only live in it at her leisure. Meanwhile, this is still a pretty good chart listing. Nothing here I don’t like and I love the top three which is why I am putting up Tove Lo’s picture
“With its eighth week atop the Hot 100, “Bass” breaks the mark for the longest-leading No. 1 single in Epic Records history. How does she earn the honor? By passing the King of Pop”
Women rule, OK? Ok. But why must Ed lose his Top 10 virginity with such a lousy song? The UK has the awesome “Thinking Out Loud” and what we get??? meanwhile, Meghan’s third album out in Janury plus we get to see her at Jingle Ball!
On the other hand, this is a pretty good singles list, the worst you can say about it is Jerimih is a little, I mean A LITTLE, sucky, and everything eelse is real good. The thing, is the albums charts are as good as anything that is selling right this minute but the singles charts have legs, they have to be pretty good for the most part to make on board.
Billboard are thrilled that this is the first time the top five singles have been held by five women for five consecutive weeks. But surely the statistic means nothing unless compared to the last time five men have held the top five singles places for five consecutive weeks? So why isn’t it being done? Any guesses? This is a form of sexism you know!
I’ve had Clean Bandits in my sites just about since the beginning on the year, when it started showing up on the UK charts and remained their for months. That shows how long it can take, nearly a year, between a song being released and a song breaking pop big time. That violin hook is money in the back, it just takes awhile
After you get past the first two songs, the rest of this is OK but relatively ordinary. But the first two? Absolutely first rate, completely original modern pop songs. Swift we already know but Meghan has been a real revelation and I am still waiting for “Title” and “Future Husband” to storm the charts: all three leave the rest of the world in its dust.
Meet the new week, same as the old week. I guess the shocker here, if it can be called a shocker any more, is how completely dominated this chart is by women. Six of the top seven positions, seven of the top ten, everywhere you turn, women! Also: pop women, not soul, not rock, but the modern form of pure pop for nw women is completely dominated by women.
Another terrific list and while I love “Bass” my jam is “Title” which they should pull off the EP right now, I’m waiting. As for Tay, she has hit the milie mark and she could be back at # 1 if she’d let the streaming service have access to it. Otherwise, there is nothing I dislike here and lots I love.
I’ve been kinda impressed by the Top Ten Singles in the US, nothing here is an insult to my ears, and significantly,most of it is top drawed modern pop music; there is so much to admire here. Plus, Ariana, Charli XCX and Iggy all are stars shining bright right now, and they all have hits and they all overlap!
OK, it is all true. I am being heartlessly manipulated by the powers that be into embracing something as pure product as the Jessie J’s All Stars but the reason for something like this is simple enough: to sell, and if it does sell, it is a successful product and while I didn’t much care for “Bang Bang” I love it now it is a hit.
Every week the US Albums charts is like this explosion of new albums, shooting stars, often gone he next week or the week after, while the singles charts is like water on stone, slowly slow slowly something cracks open the door. This week it is Sia, a song I don’t have much time for, but one thay has done the difficult, it has made its presence felt on the singles charts.
This is a good summer on the charts, I ca see three songs here which will end up high on my best 2014 and any year when you get Adele done right, which is one of Sam Smith’s many achievements this year, the most prominent one is, of course, making an album which compares favorably to In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning. Makes you happy to be writing about music in the 21st Century.
Four boy R&B band Rixton are, well, more Boys II Men than 1D and therefore much better than you probably think, also, they come from my home town Manchester, England, plus, well let the Manchester Evening News tell you: “They will each get an inking of a broken heart tonight, after learning their pop song Me And My Broken Heart reached number one.”
Please allow me to be the last to congratulate magic! on their hit single, I hope they make lots of money and invest it wisely. This is their moment, the magic! for magic! is in the air and why not? But if you’ve heard the album, the chance of a follow up hit seems a little on the doubtful side and so they will descend like Foster The People into sophomore album hell. Till then, make the most of it boys.
Sometimes a song hits big and you can’t for the life of you figure out why, I feel that way about “All Of Me” and also, to a lesser degree “Rude”. The modified reggae beat gets its staying power from a double hook, the bridge followed by the chorus.
Yeah, yeah the stroppy Aussie kid is full of herself and I don’t doubt she has the song of the summer here, and I don’t doubt it won’t be Sam Smith because Smith is too downbeat, but I am real happy he has hit the top 10 because when you’ve spent as many posts trumpeting Smith as the next big UK soul sensation I’d feel like a total twit if he wasn’t.
annnnnnndddddd…. they’re off. Looks like another summer of chicks: Iggy, Ariana and Charlie XCX leading the charge for the song of the summer. I thought Calvin had a chance but on second thought “Summer” isn’t quite sleek enough.
