Oddest case of a song crashing

[somelikeitwhen]

I was wondering what was up with a few cases of a song hitting a brickwall and plummeting off the charts with little explanation. One of the biggest PPW era examples I can list is Pop by N'Sync. The song was one of the highest debuts of 2001, but its chart run was:

26-11-8-6-5-5-7-11-15-19-24-off.

I don't exactly know what could lead to a crash that fast (the second single wasn't even out yet) so it doesn't really make much sense, especially since the next 2 singles had relatively normal chart runs. That chart run would look normal in the pre-PPW era, though.
Anyone else have any examples?

[atlantaboy]

^When that happens, it's b/c the song is getting poor callout - stations added it initially cause the artist's previous singles did so well, but it turned out that a lot of listeners disliked, or were ambivalent about the song

Some other examples I think would be Just Lose It (Eminem), Old Man & Me (Hootie & The Blowfish), Thank U (Alanis Morissette), Here Is Gone (Goo Goo Dolls), Gimme More (Britney Spears), and Die Another Day/Don't Cry For Me Argentina (Madonna)

[Libra]

"Pop" probably would've had a longer chart run if not for the different recurrent rule that was in place in the summer of 2001 - losing spins for three or more consecutive weeks and falling below #25.

[Cerebro]

Nov 14, 2010 14:00:17 GMT -5 Libra said:

"Pop" probably would've had a longer chart run if not for the different recurrent rule that was in place in the summer of 2001 - losing spins for three or more consecutive weeks and falling below #25.

^ What he said.

R&R's experimental 25/-3 recurrent rule was, certainly, a contributing factor here. I don't have my archives in front of me, but there were other songs during this era that were also shortchanged by this rule. Conversely, some songs got longer lives as they, slowly, slumped from #20 to #25.

[jebsib]

I recall in Q4 2000 a series of national radio programmer conventions had one major headline: "The Boyband / pop trend is over - end it now". This happened just after the release of BSB's Shape of your Heart and Britney's Lucky. You will notice that after that, everything pop related started to crash and never really recovered. So when Pop was released that spring, it exploded out of the box because N Sync was coming off of the huge Jive hype of No Strings Attached, but programmers (once they got the callouts back) couldn't wait to dump it. The only reason Gone & Girlfriend did anything at all was because they fit closer to the new embraced sound of the time: rhythmic.

[Slinky]

"Pop" also had some pretty aggressive production, thanks to BT. That whole distorted, stutter-y sound hadn't yet come into vogue. It got spins because it was N'Sync, but I don't think pop listeners were ready for that sound.

Actually, "Pop" is a strange mix of eras when you think about it. The production is ahead of its time for a pop song (it was about right for the dance songs of the era), but the lyrics, melody, and singing style sound really dated.

[johnm1120]

I remember Y100 threatened to blacklist Girlfriend unless they performed a free concert to make-up for their concert that got rained out.

[johnnywest]

After the #1 single "Born This Way," I thought for sure that "Judas" would do well, since it was so catchy, but it didn't last very long on the charts.