Billboard Hot 100: 5/19/2018

[jebsib]

… I guess "Wild Wild West" by Escape Club and "Born This Way" have strong political messages but buried ...

[Golden Bluebird]

There's also "West End Girls" by the Pet Shop Boys

[garrettlen]

May 10, 2018 6:52:53 GMT -5 jebsib said:

So, in terms of content, this would be the most politically charged #1 ever.
If I recall, other overtly 'protest' songs that hit #1 include "Eve of Destruction", "War", "You Haven't Done Nothing", "Indian Reservation", "Sounds of Silence", "Ballad of the Green Berets", "The Way It Is"…
Any other obvious ones?

A few others from the 1960's; "All You Need Is Love" by the Beatles, "People Got To Be Free" by the Rascals, and "Everyday People" by Sly & The Family Stone.

[Verisimilitude]

May 10, 2018 6:52:53 GMT -5 jebsib said:

So, in terms of content, this would be the most politically charged #1 ever.
If I recall, other overtly 'protest' songs that hit #1 include "Eve of Destruction", "War", "You Haven't Done Nothing", "Indian Reservation", "Sounds of Silence", "Ballad of the Green Berets", "The Way It Is"…
Any other obvious ones?

"I Am Woman" by Helen Reddy for starters since it hit #1 during the Women's Liberation movement.

[Harx]

I feel like the most interesting part is that This is America is gonna be the first political RAP song to hit #1. It's gonna be really groundbreaking if it hasn't actually happened before

...unless for example "Gangsta Paradise" counts? It's more of a gangsta rap song with political themes than a straight up protest song though

[garrettlen]

"Mrs. Robinson" by Simon and Garfunkel

"Love Child" by Diana Ross & The Supremes

"Everything is Beautiful" by Ray Stevens

"American Woman" by The Guess Who

"Papa Was A Rolling Stone" by The Temptations


There are actually quite a few of them in that late 60's/early 70's era.

[rfucom]

May 10, 2018 8:14:20 GMT -5 ddlz said:

12. (=) POST MALONE - Psycho f/Ty Dolla $ign (91.010) (+2.247)

Where was this airplay last week when he needed it the most? :|

+1 he needed this last week.

[atg]

May 9, 2018 14:01:45 GMT -5 renfield75 said:

"This Is America" is shaping up to be for Childish Gambino what "HUMBLE." was for Kendrick Lamar. Successful (though not commercially massive) and respected artists with a lot of buzz galvanizing all their career momentum into an unstoppable, challenging hit song that elevates them to even higher levels. I love it.

And humble was mocking the American rap game while this is America is well... mocking America as a whole. We actually need more artists like them

[renaboss]

May 10, 2018 9:01:41 GMT -5 garrettlen said:

"Mrs. Robinson" by Simon and Garfunkel

"Love Child" by Diana Ross & The Supremes

"Everything is Beautiful" by Ray Stevens

"American Woman" by The Guess Who

"Papa Was A Rolling Stone" by The Temptations


There are actually quite a few of them in that late 60's/early 70's era.

Are those songs political? Or just dealing with controversial topics?

[jebsib]

The goal-posts move constantly based on generations as to what is controversial vs political.
Most of those songs - at the time - were politically provocative.

[thelegends]

May 9, 2018 18:58:38 GMT -5 Baby Yoda Hot100Fan said:

Regarding, This is America's streams according to Music Insights, it had a reported 18,125,369 U.S. views through Monday. So the "over 20 million U.S. streams" for it mentioned in the Billboard article, includes yesterday's numbers.

U.S. YouTube Music Insights 5/4-5/7/2018

This is a faulty source.

[kcdawg13]

Is there anyway Psycho could sneak at least 1 week in at #1?

[Gary]

That chance would have been this week but Drake blocked it

[kcdawg13]

May 10, 2018 14:12:45 GMT -5 Gary said:

That chance would have been this week but Drake blocked it

It sucks a lot, especially since Nice For What isn't a strong #1, I wanted Posty to get another #1  :'(

[jenglisbe]

May 10, 2018 12:23:26 GMT -5 thelegends said:

May 9, 2018 18:58:38 GMT -5 Baby Yoda Hot100Fan said:

Regarding, This is America's streams according to Music Insights, it had a reported 18,125,369 U.S. views through Monday. So the "over 20 million U.S. streams" for it mentioned in the Billboard article, includes yesterday's numbers.

U.S. YouTube Music Insights 5/4-5/7/2018

This is a faulty source.

“TIA” currently has 66 million views on YouTube, so likely 70 million for the chart week. I’d guess 66% of those will be from the U.S.? That’s over 45 million streams right there. It has 8.5 million streams from Spotify with another day to go. You then have to add in other streaming services, so it should easily clear 60 million streams total for the chart week.

“NFW” had 48.5 million streams last chart week, which was down 9% from the previous week. Let’s say it falls to 45 million streams this week. Would a 15 million stream lead for “TIA” be enough considering it should also be ahead in sales by 60k?

[fhas]

May 10, 2018 14:20:53 GMT -5 kcdawg13 said:

May 10, 2018 14:12:45 GMT -5 Gary said:

That chance would have been this week but Drake blocked it

It sucks a lot, especially since Nice For What isn't a strong #1, I wanted Posty to get another #1 

Last week, Psycho was blocked by ~700 points, but it's interesting that Nice For What was slightly bigger in all metrics: 1k sales + 2.6M airplay + 700k streams. And since Psycho also was blocked in its first week with a pretty good amount of points, it is now the highest peaking song (points-wise) to not reach #1 since Hotline Bling.

[renaboss]

I just heard Post's "Better Now" for the first time and fricking loved it. Lowkey hoping it gets a proper promotional release and becomes a substantial hit. First Post song I actually liked.

[brady47]

Damn radio loves Camilla!

Is "Never Be the Same" going to be the next radio #1? It's gaining like crazy for a song that already has so much audience.

Streaming is definitely holding it back.

[jayhawk1117]

May 9, 2018 18:00:05 GMT -5 Sherane Lamar said:

May 9, 2018 10:46:11 GMT -5 jayhawk1117 said:

Off Topic (kinda) but this reinforces the idea even more than if formation was released conventionally (YouTube plus Spotify plus iTunes) it would've EASILY debuted at one.

How? Just because they're both about woke themes and had a lot of social media attention? 

It could have also been like "White Privilege", which never even debuted. 

You never know.  

The amount of exposure TIA isn't even comparable to what formation had and TIA is top 2 bound. A surprise release with that killer video and super bowl performance by one of the biggest artists of the generation is an easy number one debut imo but yeah it could've totally ended up like a macklemore song lol

[jayhawk1117]

May 10, 2018 16:26:42 GMT -5 brady47 said:

Damn radio loves Camilla!

Is "Never Be the Same" going to be the next radio #1? It's gaining like crazy for a song that already has so much audience.

Streaming is definitely holding it back.

streaming.... the pop girl killer

[MoD]

May 10, 2018 8:10:30 GMT -5 Golden Bluebird said:

5. (=) IMAGINE DRAGONS - Whatever It Takes (116.477) (-0.711) ***

shit

[ListenToItTwice]

May 9, 2018 18:00:05 GMT -5 Sherane Lamar said:

May 9, 2018 10:46:11 GMT -5 jayhawk1117 said:

Off Topic (kinda) but this reinforces the idea even more than if formation was released conventionally (YouTube plus Spotify plus iTunes) it would've EASILY debuted at one.

How? Just because they're both about woke themes and had a lot of social media attention? 

It could have also been like "White Privilege", which never even debuted. 

You never know.  

Honey NO

[Sherane Lamar]

May 10, 2018 16:26:46 GMT -5 jayhawk1117 said:

May 9, 2018 18:00:05 GMT -5 Sherane Lamar said:

How? Just because they're both about woke themes and had a lot of social media attention? 

It could have also been like "White Privilege", which never even debuted. 

You never know.  

The amount of exposure TIA isn't even comparable to what formation had and TIA is top 2 bound. A surprise release with that killer video and super bowl performance by one of the biggest artists of the generation is an easy number one debut imo but yeah it could've totally ended up like a macklemore song lol

Well you can't debut off of television views, unfortunately. And no song has ever debuted at #1 off of a super-bowl performance. 

Sure, you could argue that if the song was given a proper release, it could have debuted at #1. But you could argue that about virtually any song that didn't get an optimal release. You could argue that Jay-Z would have taken over the full Top 10 if he had released 4:44 outside of TIDAL.

My comparison to "White Privilege" is that social media presence doesn't guarantee people actually want to listen to the song. Same thing with "Lift Yourself", which hasn't charted yet and probably won't.

You're right that it's not comparable in any way to "This is America" because the Gambino song is being streamed millions and millions of times per day. While the Beyonce song was only being listened to by the select few who went out to find that YouTube link.

Comparing the two is comparing a #1 debut to a song that was #104 on bubbling under. Everything else is just hypothetical.

[garrettlen]

May 10, 2018 16:28:04 GMT -5 jayhawk1117 said:

May 10, 2018 16:26:42 GMT -5 brady47 said:

Damn radio loves Camilla!

Is "Never Be the Same" going to be the next radio #1? It's gaining like crazy for a song that already has so much audience.

Streaming is definitely holding it back.

streaming.... the pop girl killer

Pop girl fans need to stream more.

[renfield75]

May 10, 2018 18:22:09 GMT -5 Sherane Lamar said:

May 10, 2018 16:26:46 GMT -5 jayhawk1117 said:

The amount of exposure TIA isn't even comparable to what formation had and TIA is top 2 bound. A surprise release with that killer video and super bowl performance by one of the biggest artists of the generation is an easy number one debut imo but yeah it could've totally ended up like a macklemore song lol

Well you can't debut off of television views, unfortunately. And no song has ever debuted at #1 off of a super-bowl performance. 

Sure, you could argue that if the song was given a proper release, it could have debuted at #1. But you could argue that about virtually any song that didn't get an optimal release. You could argue that Jay-Z would have taken over the full Top 10 if he had released 4:44 outside of TIDAL.

My comparison to "White Privilege" is that social media presence doesn't guarantee people actually want to listen to the song. Same thing with "Lift Yourself", which hasn't charted yet and probably won't.

You're right that it's not comparable in any way to "This is America" because the Gambino song is being streamed millions and millions of times per day. While the Beyonce song was only being listened to by the select few who went out to find that YouTube link.

Comparing the two is comparing a #1 debut to a song that was #104 on bubbling under. Everything else is just hypothetical.

The "White Privilege" comparison is off though because "Formation" did ultimately debut at #10 (and would have been #8 if Prince hadn't passed) a few months AFTER that initial hype had died down. So if it was still strong enough to be a top ten hit in May then yes, it likely would have been top three or maybe #1 if it had been properly released at the peak of its buzz.

[renaboss]

So, that "Girls" collab between Rita Ora, Cardi B, Bebe Rexha and Charli XCX, t that's sure to make the top 10 right?

[Sherane Lamar]

May 10, 2018 18:42:36 GMT -5 renfield75 said:

May 10, 2018 18:22:09 GMT -5 Sherane Lamar said:

Well you can't debut off of television views, unfortunately. And no song has ever debuted at #1 off of a super-bowl performance. 

Sure, you could argue that if the song was given a proper release, it could have debuted at #1. But you could argue that about virtually any song that didn't get an optimal release. You could argue that Jay-Z would have taken over the full Top 10 if he had released 4:44 outside of TIDAL.

My comparison to "White Privilege" is that social media presence doesn't guarantee people actually want to listen to the song. Same thing with "Lift Yourself", which hasn't charted yet and probably won't.

You're right that it's not comparable in any way to "This is America" because the Gambino song is being streamed millions and millions of times per day. While the Beyonce song was only being listened to by the select few who went out to find that YouTube link.

Comparing the two is comparing a #1 debut to a song that was #104 on bubbling under. Everything else is just hypothetical.

The "White Privilege" comparison is off though because "Formation" did ultimately debut at #10 (and would have been #8 if Prince hadn't passed) a few months AFTER that initial hype had died down. So if it was still strong enough to be a top ten hit in May then yes, it likely would have been top three or maybe #1 if it had been properly released at the peak of its buzz.

The "hype" on social media can't be directly translated into streams. 

What math are you doing to make it seem that it would be "likely" to debut at #3 if its social media presence overlapped with the release of Lemonade? 

Is there something objective about it, or is it pure conjecture? 

[renfield75]

May 10, 2018 18:52:43 GMT -5 Sherane Lamar said:

May 10, 2018 18:42:36 GMT -5 renfield75 said:

The "White Privilege" comparison is off though because "Formation" did ultimately debut at #10 (and would have been #8 if Prince hadn't passed) a few months AFTER that initial hype had died down. So if it was still strong enough to be a top ten hit in May then yes, it likely would have been top three or maybe #1 if it had been properly released at the peak of its buzz.

The "hype" on social media can't be directly translated into streams. 

What math are you doing to make it seem that it would be "likely" to debut at #3 if its social media presence overlapped with the release of Lemonade? 

Is there something objective about it, or is it pure conjecture? 

Obviously it's conjecture, there are no (public) numbers from when the video premiered. But given that it was still able to debut at #10 months after the release of the video and initial hype it makes ample sense that it would have done better than #10 that first week. Beyoncé is much more than just "social media presence", and the song resonated enough to still have an impact months later. "Lift Yourself" had curiosity plays but no discernible lasting impact after last week. I can't understand why you think there's any real likelihood "Formation" wouldn't have done better the week it was released than 2 months later, when it STILL debuted in the top ten?

[Sherane Lamar]

May 10, 2018 19:23:20 GMT -5 renfield75 said:

May 10, 2018 18:52:43 GMT -5 Sherane Lamar said:

The "hype" on social media can't be directly translated into streams. 

What math are you doing to make it seem that it would be "likely" to debut at #3 if its social media presence overlapped with the release of Lemonade? 

Is there something objective about it, or is it pure conjecture? 

Obviously it's conjecture, there are no (public) numbers from when the video premiered. But given that it was still able to debut at #10 months after the release of the video and initial hype it makes ample sense that it would have done better than #10 that first week. Beyoncé is much more than just "social media presence", and the song resonated enough to still have an impact months later. "Lift Yourself" had curiosity plays but no discernible lasting impact after last week. I can't understand why you think there's any real likelihood "Formation" wouldn't have done better the week it was released than 2 months later, when it STILL debuted in the top ten?

"Sorry" debuted just one position below, off the hype of Lemonade, with no added help from social media trending.

So I think it could be argued that the social media hype for "Formation" did not have much of an effect at all. 

[renfield75]

"Sorry" also wasn't two months old when it debuted. But okay, "Formation" wouldn't have performed any better the week it was released than it did in late April. I'm sure "This Is America" would debut just as big in July as it will this week.