Surprises of 2015

[Daryl the Beryl]

List some song's chart runs that surprised you.

-Trap Queen hitting #2 on the Hot 100
-Cold War Kids' First going top 10 on alternative
-Kelsea Ballerini topping the country charts
-Omarion getting his second biggest hit
-Dustin Lynch's "Hell of a Night" going to go top 10 on country

[Wave.]

Vine sending songs to the higher tier of the charts. I need to be more visable to the internet.

[Deleted]

Fetty Wap changing my life.

[fearlessarrow]

- Little Big Town's "Girl Crush" blowing up the way it did. I originally thought it was going to sell fairly well (recent LBT songs sell well, don't they?) but stall on country radio, kind of similar to what their single "Your Side of the Bed" did. I was also surprised that it outpeaked "Pontoon" on the Hot 100.

- Like people are mentioning, Fetty Wap's "Trap Queen". #2 on the Hot 100 seemed unreachable for that song but look what it did.

- Rihanna underperforming compared to her other eras. "FourFiveSeconds" peaked really quickly and "American Oxygen" just did nothing. BBHMM did well considering it was only promoted on rhythmic and urban.

[Daryl the Beryl]

Jul 23, 2015 21:56:35 GMT -5 fearlessarrow said:

- Little Big Town's "Girl Crush" blowing up the way it did. I originally thought it was going to sell fairly well (recent LBT songs sell well, don't they?) but stall on country radio, kind of similar to what their single "Your Side of the Bed" did. I was also surprised that it outpeaked "Pontoon" on the Hot 100.

How could I forget about LBT?

[Green Baron]

Jul 23, 2015 20:13:20 GMT -5 Daryl the Beryl said:

-Cold War Kids' First going top 10 on alternative

Would you say it was their... first hit?

[Daryl the Beryl]

Jul 23, 2015 22:04:21 GMT -5 Green Baron said:

Jul 23, 2015 20:13:20 GMT -5 Daryl the Beryl said:

-Cold War Kids' First going top 10 on alternative

Would you say it was their... first hit?

Yeah, probably

[Green Baron]

Theory of a Deadman reaching #1 on Active with essentially a Hot AC ballad has to count, especially when it was a third single and the previous two underpeformed

[Ezekiel 23:20–21]

-the success of "Trap Queen", "Classic Man", "Cheerleader", and "Watch Me"
-the return of Janet Jackson (it seemed like it would never happen)
-Natalia Kills destroying the remaining shambles that were her career
-"American Oxygen" underperforming
-the success of "Four Five Seconds"

[House Lannister]

Fetty Wap coming out of nowhere to have 3 songs in the top 40
Rachel Platten finally having success with Fight Song
Rhianna underperforming (just one top 10 and two top 20s so far)
Tech N9ne finally charting as lead artist
MO having a bigger hit with Lean On than she did with Beg for It
The struggles of old school country stars to chart (Reba, Garth, Alan Jackson)
Eminem underperforming (although I think this was starting to happen in 2014)
I'll second Ballerini coming out of nowhere to top the country charts
And Charlie Puth comes from Youtube to become a star

[Deleted]

The Weeknd's "The Hills" becoming a top 10 hit!

[johnm1120]

Sam Hunt & NeedToBreathe doing so well outside their core formats.

[roadrunner]

"Trap Queen" hitting No. 2 and "Shut Up And Dance" only hitting No. 4 on the Hot 100.

WTH

I still have a hard time convincing myself that the Hot 100 is not a reflection of pop radio anymore. "Shut Up" should have hit No. 1 and "Trap" should have hit maybe 59 as far as how "good" they are and if they were to reflect radio airplay. However, I recognize most of the top 40 but I don't get how "Trap Queen" outdid many other songs. It must be a sales thing with that song. I don't think anything surprised me as much as that song peaking so high. You can't sing along to it very easily, it has no memorable hooks, gets virtually no airplay on pop radio stations. and I cannot understand how or why it got so popular.

[Devil Marlena Nylund]

Because pop radio is a miniscule part of what makes a song a hit.

[Deleted]

Jul 26, 2015 17:32:41 GMT -5 roadrunner said:

"Trap Queen" hitting No. 2 and "Shut Up And Dance" only hitting No. 4 on the Hot 100.

WTH

I still have a hard time convincing myself that the Hot 100 is not a reflection of pop radio anymore. "Shut Up" should have hit No. 1 and "Trap" should have hit maybe 59 as far as how "good" they are and if they were to reflect radio airplay. However, I recognize most of the top 40 but I don't get how "Trap Queen" outdid many other songs. It must be a sales thing with that song. I don't think anything surprised me as much as that song peaking so high. You can't sing along to it very easily, it has no memorable hooks, gets virtually no airplay on pop radio stations. and I cannot understand how or why it got so popular.

pop radio is not the only factor that goes into a song's chart success: sales, streaming and YouTube views are also huge parts of determining its overall chart performance. It doesn't matter if the song did or didn't get played on pop radio, it was still popular to hit #2. It sold very well, was downloaded a whole lot, was a viral smash and was hugely embraced by the urban crowd. Also, the Hot 100 nowadays does indeed reflect what is accurately popular because in this day and age people listen to songs more on the internet than on the radio, people aren't listening to the radio as much as before, so it makes sense. However, I still won't deny that it was a HUGE surprise that it peaked as high as it did.

[Linnethia Monique]

Jul 26, 2015 17:32:41 GMT -5 roadrunner said:

"Trap Queen" hitting No. 2 and "Shut Up And Dance" only hitting No. 4 on the Hot 100.

WTH

I still have a hard time convincing myself that the Hot 100 is not a reflection of pop radio anymore. "Shut Up" should have hit No. 1 and "Trap" should have hit maybe 59 as far as how "good" they are and if they were to reflect radio airplay. However, I recognize most of the top 40 but I don't get how "Trap Queen" outdid many other songs. It must be a sales thing with that song. I don't think anything surprised me as much as that song peaking so high. You can't sing along to it very easily, it has no memorable hooks, gets virtually no airplay on pop radio stations. and I cannot understand how or why it got so popular.

The devil is a lie and so are you. Both of the pop stations here play it as if it was just released yesterday still.

[bat1990]

The Return of My Queen!!!! #NoSleeep

[Envoirment]

Leona being signed to Def Jam and being pushed in the US once again. :'(

[Linnethia Monique]

Jul 27, 2015 14:59:42 GMT -5 bat1990 said:

The Return of My Queen!!!! #NoSleeep

This all the way.
Tyrese getting a #1 album independently.

[**βécky**™]

Future debuting with better numbers than Ci. *tear

[Joe1240]

The song of the summer being a slow song this year with "See You Again" by Wiz Khalifa with Charlie Puth. Usually uptempo songs become the song of the summer in recent years but who would of a thought a ballad would in 2015.

[YourFaveIsAFlop]

Jul 26, 2015 17:32:41 GMT -5 roadrunner said:

"Trap Queen" hitting No. 2 and "Shut Up And Dance" only hitting No. 4 on the Hot 100.

WTH

I still have a hard time convincing myself that the Hot 100 is not a reflection of pop radio anymore. "Shut Up" should have hit No. 1 and "Trap" should have hit maybe 59 as far as how "good" they are and if they were to reflect radio airplay. However, I recognize most of the top 40 but I don't get how "Trap Queen" outdid many other songs. It must be a sales thing with that song. I don't think anything surprised me as much as that song peaking so high. You can't sing along to it very easily, it has no memorable hooks, gets virtually no airplay on pop radio stations. and I cannot understand how or why it got so popular.

Uh, the Hot 100 has never been a reflection of just pop radio? How do you think Bone Thugs' Tha Crossroads ended up with 8 weeks at #1? It wasn't because pop radio was all about it...