Billboard Hot 100: 01/02/2021

[dovahduck]

Let's gooooo Wham!

[dovahduck]

And Dean Martin!

[Lost In Musical Reverie]

Such an eerie coincidence that both Dean Martin and George Michael died on Christmas Day.

[dovahduck]

Congrats to Chuck Berry as well!

[dovahduck]

Dec 28, 2020 14:11:17 GMT -5 Lost In Musical Reverie said:

Such an eerie coincidence that both Dean Martin and George Michael died on Christmas Day.

Two legends, R.I.P. to both.

[Deleted]

Disappointed the article didn't list the streams for RATCT

[dovahduck]

I love how I'm looking at the top ten after having a dream that "I Hope" went number one out of nowhere. Thankfully that wasn't the actual case.

[Myth X]

Did Blinding Lights go recurrent?

[phieaglesfan712]

Dec 28, 2020 14:21:54 GMT -5 Myth X said:

Did Blinding Lights go recurrent?

Probably not. BL's increase of 2.03 and 2.78 the past few days, combined with AIWFCIY's streaming coming in slightly lower than predicted probably will keep BL in the Top 25.

[jenglisbe]

Dec 28, 2020 13:12:43 GMT -5 areyoureadytojump said:

The carol spends a ninth total week at No. 1 on the Streaming Songs chart and rises 6-2 on Digital Song Sales and 17-13 on Radio Songs.

I was hoping it might get a new Airplay peak. I'm still not sure how it missed the top 10 in 1994 since I think it was top 10 at both Top 40 and AC that year.

[Verisimilitude]

Dec 28, 2020 14:17:15 GMT -5 @dey said:

Disappointed the article didn't list the streams for RATCT

Rolling Stone + YouTube: 47.29M streams

[85la]

I'll admit it's nice to see Mariah on top again and Last Christmas reaching the top ten for the first time, but for me especially seeing Chuck Berry going top ten as well, an early figure of rock 'n roll who probably didn't receive as much recognition as he should have earlier on. A little something for everyone to be happy about!

It is starting to grow a little sour though and all these Christmas songs' chart dominance really needs to be reduced or ended at some point. All these new resurgences and "decades-long" records just seem so artificial and not comparable to more regular, non-seasonal hits. Makes you think the only reason they're allowing them is for marketing purposes and extra clicks, to be able to claim all these "multiple decades" and "multiple-years" charting records for certain songs and artists.

[Henry Suárez]

9 Christmas songs in the top 10! That's cool!

Mood already 9 weeks at #1 on Radio songs, while the only non-holiday in the top 10.

Did Willow break Trollz record fall from #1?

Predictors say AIWFCIY will stay next week so probably breaks Trollz/Willow record but I hope not.

[jenglisbe]

Dec 28, 2020 13:28:15 GMT -5 Gary said:

12 months of drops from #1


A record that stood for 45 years has now been eclipsed 6 times overall and 5 to another rank in 12 months

*All I Want For Christmas Is You, Mariah Carey OUT (2019 season)
Willow, Taylor Swift 38
Trollz, 6ix9ine & Nicki Minaj 34
Life Goes On, BTS 28
Franchise, Travis Scott 25
Heartless, The Weeknd 17

Prior record from 1974:

Nothing From Nothing, Billy Preston 15
Then Came You, Dionne Warwick,Spinners 15

I know some of these were due to holiday songs, but we also all know those songs had big drops in points regardless. To me that shows how this is different from the 90s when labels set a timely release of a commercial single to get a #1/high debut; those 90s songs still hung around the top of the chart after the high debut.

[nathanalbright]

Dec 27, 2020 22:12:00 GMT -5 @gabingston said:

Dec 27, 2020 15:36:54 GMT -5 imbondz said:

Easily my favorite year end top 10

1985 Year-End Top 10

1. Careless Whisper - Wham! (#1, February)
2. Like a Virgin - Madonna (#1, December 1984)
3. Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go - Wham! (#1, November 1984)
4. I Want To Know What Love Is - Foreigner (#1, February)
5. I Feel For You - Chaka Khan (#3, November 1984)
6. Out Of Touch - Daryl Hall & John Oates (#1, December 1984)
7. Everybody Wants To Rule The World - Tears For Fears (#1, June)
8. Money For Nothing - Dire Straits (#1, September)
9. Crazy For You - Madonna (#1, May)
10. Take On Me - a-ha (#1, October)

Man, the Mid 80s were great. I looked at 1983 for my blog, and 43 out of the 100 songs on the Year-End lists were 5/5's, and while I don't think that'll be matched by any other year, I expect years like '84 and '85 to top 30 5/5 songs.

When I looked at 1983 myself I found that 85/100 of the YE was 4/5 for me or above. Truly a legendary year.  I have to say that I liked 1985 and 1986 a good bit as well.  I might extend the look to all of the 80's YE charts, to see how they fared.

[85la]

Dec 28, 2020 14:37:06 GMT -5 jenglisbe said:

Dec 28, 2020 13:12:43 GMT -5 areyoureadytojump said:

The carol spends a ninth total week at No. 1 on the Streaming Songs chart and rises 6-2 on Digital Song Sales and 17-13 on Radio Songs.

I was hoping it might get a new Airplay peak. I'm still not sure how it missed the top 10 in 1994 since I think it was top 10 at both Top 40 and AC that year.

Hah it's interesting, I got curious about this so I looked into it and I think I have the exact answer. Was probably just due to a misalignment of the tracking periods.

AIWFCIY peaked on all three charts, Pop (#9), AC (#6), and the overall Hot 100 Airplay (#12) on the January 7, 1995 chart date. (It also peaked at #14 on Rhythmic that week, which would have given it additional play).

If the tracking periods were how they were for most of the Soundscan era, a January 7, 1995 chart date means the tracking period for the genre airplay charts would've been Monday, Dec 19, 1994 through Sunday, Dec. 25, 1994, thus encapsulating a whole seven days up through Christmas for the Pop and AC charts. BUT, the Hot 100 Airplay tracking period would've ran Wednesday, Dec. 21 through Tuesday, Dec. 27th, thus receiving only 5 days of significant Christmas play, which would explain the slightly lower #12 ranking!

It is too bad that it's gotten so close to the top ten but missed it, but this year is the highest it's been since its first, so maybe it'll get there sometime in the next few years!

[jenglisbe]

Dec 28, 2020 14:39:09 GMT -5 85la said:

It is starting to grow a little sour though and all these Christmas songs' chart dominance really needs to be reduced or ended at some point. All these new resurgences and "decades-long" records just seem so artificial and not comparable to more regular, non-seasonal hits. Makes you think the only reason they're allowing them is for marketing purposes and extra clicks, to be able to claim all these "multiple decades" and "multiple-years" charting records for certain songs and artists.

I'm wondering if they'll use the 52 week rule to prevent holiday songs from re-entering once they hit that mark. That would be a way to limit without excluding them altogether and without them all becoming ineligible at the same time.

[jebsib]

Also keep in mind how incredibly hard it was for airplay only songs to hit the overall airplay top 10 back in late 1994.
I don't know exactly WHY (promotion? Radio PDs not taking the tracks seriously?) but by that point only Janet Jackson and Counting Crows had ever done it.

[Verisimilitude]

Can't believe people want the Christmas songs excluded or reduced from the Hot 100. It feels like the only time of the year demographics between the ages of 1-120 tastes feel represented in a comprehensive sense, especially in December.

[jenglisbe]

Dec 28, 2020 15:14:02 GMT -5 jebsib said:

Also keep in mind how incredibly hard it was for airplay only songs to hit the overall airplay top 10 back in late 1994.
I don't know exactly WHY (promotion? Radio PDs not taking the tracks seriously?) but by that point only Janet Jackson and Counting Crows had ever done it.

That's interesting, I had no idea.

It's also really impressive "AIWFCIY" did what it did in 1994 considering new holiday songs did not get that kind of support back then (or even now; how many new holiday songs get a top 10 peak on Top 40?).

[Baby Yoda Hot100Fan]

^Rabid BTS Army ...

[nathanalbright]

Dec 28, 2020 14:56:21 GMT -5 jenglisbe said:

Dec 28, 2020 13:28:15 GMT -5 Gary said:

12 months of drops from #1


A record that stood for 45 years has now been eclipsed 6 times overall and 5 to another rank in 12 months

*All I Want For Christmas Is You, Mariah Carey OUT (2019 season)
Willow, Taylor Swift 38
Trollz, 6ix9ine & Nicki Minaj 34
Life Goes On, BTS 28
Franchise, Travis Scott 25
Heartless, The Weeknd 17

Prior record from 1974:

Nothing From Nothing, Billy Preston 15
Then Came You, Dionne Warwick,Spinners 15

I know some of these were due to holiday songs, but we also all know those songs had big drops in points regardless. To me that shows how this is different from the 90s when labels set a timely release of a commercial single to get a #1/high debut; those 90s songs still hung around the top of the chart after the high debut.

The main difference is that in the 90's the single releases came when the song was at or near its airplay peak, and so the continued radio play along with the single sales tended to keep songs from falling too much after their peaks.  The issue now is that songs are astroturfed to the top of the chart with sales pushes and the sales evaporate after the first week without having developed the radio to sustain a high chart position.  In those cases where a remix pushes a song to number one that is already popular, there is a base level of support that the original version of the song already had ("I Hope," "Savage," "Say So," etc.), so those songs didn't crash after their peak to the level that #1 debuts with no solid airplay managed, a phenomenon of 2020's approach to pushing singles for high debuts and hoping the airplay would catch up later, which in many cases it never did, leading to a slew of songs that will fail to make a YE chart despite the #1 peak at an unprecedented level even going back to the days of American Idol coronation singles and the high chart turnover of the 70's.

[Rose "Payola" Nylund]

Dec 28, 2020 14:39:09 GMT -5 85la said:

I'll admit it's nice to see Mariah on top again and Last Christmas reaching the top ten for the first time, but for me especially seeing Chuck Berry going top ten as well, an early figure of rock 'n roll who probably didn't receive as much recognition as he should have earlier on. A little something for everyone to be happy about!

It is starting to grow a little sour though and all these Christmas songs' chart dominance really needs to be reduced or ended at some point. All these new resurgences and "decades-long" records just seem so artificial and not comparable to more regular, non-seasonal hits. Makes you think the only reason they're allowing them is for marketing purposes and extra clicks, to be able to claim all these "multiple decades" and "multiple-years" charting records for certain songs and artists.

That’s why context is important. These are placements recognized by Billboard both in how much they can capture and what they choose to allow. We all know these songs have been popular to varying degrees every December, so these records - while impressive, really only exist because of Billboard, not people who consume music.

[jenglisbe]

Dec 28, 2020 15:25:30 GMT -5 nathanalbright said:

Dec 28, 2020 14:56:21 GMT -5 jenglisbe said:

I know some of these were due to holiday songs, but we also all know those songs had big drops in points regardless. To me that shows how this is different from the 90s when labels set a timely release of a commercial single to get a #1/high debut; those 90s songs still hung around the top of the chart after the high debut.

The main difference is that in the 90's the single releases came when the song was at or near its airplay peak, and so the continued radio play along with the single sales tended to keep songs from falling too much after their peaks.  The issue now is that songs are astroturfed to the top of the chart with sales pushes and the sales evaporate after the first week without having developed the radio to sustain a high chart position.  In those cases where a remix pushes a song to number one that is already popular, there is a base level of support that the original version of the song already had ("I Hope," "Savage," "Say So," etc.), so those songs didn't crash after their peak to the level that #1 debuts with no solid airplay managed, a phenomenon of 2020's approach to pushing singles for high debuts and hoping the airplay would catch up later, which in many cases it never did, leading to a slew of songs that will fail to make a YE chart despite the #1 peak at an unprecedented level even going back to the days of American Idol coronation singles and the high chart turnover of the 70's.

For sure, but then none of these 2020 #1 debuts did as well on airplay/overall as the #1 debuts from the 90s. I mean, the Ariana duets and "Heartless" and "Cardigan" have nothing on "Fantasy," "Exhale," "My Heart Will Go On," "I'll Be Missing You," etc.

[Deleted]

Dec 28, 2020 15:15:38 GMT -5 Verisimilitude said:

Can't believe people want the Christmas songs excluded or reduced from the Hot 100. It feels like the only time of the year demographics between the ages of 1-120 tastes feel represented in a comprehensive sense, especially in December.

It really depends on what people want out of the Hot 100.  Everybody has a different vision of it.

personally I'd prefer the use of the word HOT to mean current/new and actively promoted music on at least two metrics.  

while a strictly number crunching chart might be interesting, it's not my cup of tea.  I'm much interested in what's new and doing good as a chart of HOT music.

there really is no such thing as a perfect chart.  Every chart contains some manipulation and inclusion or exclusion of data to fit the chart creators needs.  While we as fans love charts, we sometimes lose fact of the matter it's a business, and that's the focus of the chart. Not do much the actual rankings but driving sales or clicks of the chart and it's company.

[85la]

Dec 28, 2020 15:11:31 GMT -5 jenglisbe said:

Dec 28, 2020 14:39:09 GMT -5 85la said:

It is starting to grow a little sour though and all these Christmas songs' chart dominance really needs to be reduced or ended at some point. All these new resurgences and "decades-long" records just seem so artificial and not comparable to more regular, non-seasonal hits. Makes you think the only reason they're allowing them is for marketing purposes and extra clicks, to be able to claim all these "multiple decades" and "multiple-years" charting records for certain songs and artists.

I'm wondering if they'll use the 52 week rule to prevent holiday songs from re-entering once they hit that mark. That would be a way to limit without excluding them altogether and without them all becoming ineligible at the same time.

Yes, I was thinking this exactly as well. They should implement the 52/20 week rule. In fact I don't know why they don't do this already, it's giving holiday songs an even bigger advantage over regular-charting, non-holiday songs.

Dec 28, 2020 15:16:16 GMT -5 jenglisbe said:

Dec 28, 2020 15:14:02 GMT -5 jebsib said:

Also keep in mind how incredibly hard it was for airplay only songs to hit the overall airplay top 10 back in late 1994.
I don't know exactly WHY (promotion? Radio PDs not taking the tracks seriously?) but by that point only Janet Jackson and Counting Crows had ever done it.

That's interesting, I had no idea.

It's also really impressive "AIWFCIY" did what it did in 1994 considering new holiday songs did not get that kind of support back then (or even now; how many new holiday songs get a top 10 peak on Top 40?).

I guess she was just a rare exception. Her being the biggest solo recording artist (male or female) at that time probably had a lot to do with it, but the song just also seemed very much of the moment, poppy, and was just a very good song.

[85la]

Dec 28, 2020 15:44:26 GMT -5 @dey said:

Dec 28, 2020 15:15:38 GMT -5 Verisimilitude said:

Can't believe people want the Christmas songs excluded or reduced from the Hot 100. It feels like the only time of the year demographics between the ages of 1-120 tastes feel represented in a comprehensive sense, especially in December.

It really depends on what people want out of the Hot 100.  Everybody has a different vision of it.

personally I'd prefer the use of the word HOT to mean current/new and actively promoted music on at least two metrics.  

while a strictly number crunching chart might be interesting, it's not my cup of tea.  I'm much interested in what's new and doing good as a chart of HOT music.

there really is no such thing as a perfect chart.  Every chart contains some manipulation and inclusion or exclusion of data to fit the chart creators needs.  While we as fans love charts, we sometimes lose fact of the matter it's a business, and that's the focus of the chart. Not do much the actual rankings but driving sales or clicks of the chart and it's company.

This exactly, very well put! And I generally agree with the bolded parts, I think the chart should definitely skew towards what is newest, freshest, and of the moment, while also having some sense of stability and songs that have been established as doing well on multiple metrics (hence why I have never been the biggest fan of album bombs). And it seems this has always been Billboard's, as well as record labels', general intention, hence the title of the chart itself, "Hot 100," and how record labels promote most singles.

The chart is not, nor was it ever meant to be, a strict by-the-numbers list of the most consumed songs (hence why Billboard already has many recurrent rules in place). It is partly that, but also a "hot" chart, what is the freshest, showing the newest trends, and what is a priority for the record labels and public.

[Ｓｏｕｎｄｃｌ🕤ｃｋ]

[jenglisbe]

Look at Bing and Donny getting top 40 hits!

[#LisaRinna]

Dec 28, 2020 13:07:12 GMT -5 Ｓｏｕｎｄｃｌ🕤ｃｋ said: