Billboard Hot 100: 05/22/2021

[lurker2]

I would simply normalize audits so that NO ONE can cheat (which apparently some people tried this week). LTDO being number one is good (even though Levitating is better IMO), at least in the sense of us knowing we're getting accurate data. Hopefully this becomes a trend, so all fanbases that do this (Barbz, Army, Arianators, Swifties, Harries, and Ragers come to mind but I'm sure most fanbases do this if a small one like this has this problem). Personally I would also crack down on sales in general, but normalizing audits to get rid of things that are already cheating is a good start. Sucks for Dula's Peeps, though, but at least we can get that number one YE.

[Enigma.]

We need to start buy chart placements for Chromatica album tracks, Rose "Payola" Nylund are you in? It's for charity.

[nathanalbright]

I can think of a few artists whose success has fallen off in recent years who could use some 'charity' to boost their chart placements. This could be a trend....

[musicbuff26]

May 19, 2021 13:41:11 GMT -5 lurker2 said:

I would simply normalize audits so that NO ONE can cheat (which apparently some people tried this week). LTDO being number one is good (even though Levitating is better IMO), at least in the sense of us knowing we're getting accurate data. Hopefully this becomes a trend, so all fanbases that do this (Barbz, Army, Arianators, Swifties, Harries, and Ragers come to mind but I'm sure most fanbases do this if a small one like this has this problem). Personally I would also crack down on sales in general, but normalizing audits to get rid of things that are already cheating is a good start. Sucks for Dula's Peeps, though, but at least we can get that number one YE.

Yes, let’s please make Dula’s Peeps a thing!

[gikem]

Well, I'll say this about Levitating's misfortune: If that's how it gets blocked this week, I'm glad people at least put in the effort to try to get it to #1. In my mind, the most embarrassing #2 peak in recent memory remains when Hotline Bling got stuck there for a week in 2015 because Drake's team decided to make the music video exclusive to Apple Music at first. Drake would have had his first solo #1 in the bag if he had also posted it to YouTube that week. Instead, we got a sixth week at #1 for The Hills before the utter dominance of Hello and Sorry over the next couple of months.

[Groovy]

May 19, 2021 13:45:26 GMT -5 nathanalbright said:

I can think of a few artists whose success has fallen off in recent years who could use some 'charity' to boost their chart placements. This could be a trend....

I know one, they didn’t technically fall off but they definitely would not have gotten any number 1s without mass buying.

[Deleted]

May 19, 2021 13:29:48 GMT -5 nathanalbright said:

Things that make you go hmmm indeed. Starting a new charitable account for Loves who don't have enough money, why not?

Most fanbases do this and there's nothing wrong with it. The biggest problem in setting something like that up is trust, though. There is nothing stopping someone from setting something up and then just keeping the money. Those running such an account needs to be dedicated and smart, too, at least for it to be effective. The BTS Army has really worked hard for a number of years to become so organized and effective. It doesn't happen overnight.

[kiddo1994]

May 19, 2021 13:41:42 GMT -5 Enigma. said:

We need to start buy chart placements for Chromatica album tracks, Rose "Payola" Nylund are you in? It's for charity.

nnnnnnnnn..

[nathanalbright]

Yes, handling that kind of money would require a lot of trust, and finding trustworthy people is not an easy thing.

[wavey.]

May 19, 2021 13:17:54 GMT -5 kimberly said:

Period. And she got a new peak with "We're Good" at #31. She saw progression either way yall I-

[Rose "Payola" Nylund]

May 19, 2021 13:41:42 GMT -5 Enigma. said:

We need to start buy chart placements for Chromatica album tracks, Rose "Payola" Nylund are you in? It's for charity.

Yes! Let’s set up a fund so our poor American Little Monsters can buy those tracks!

I’m too cheap to contribute but I can retweet it. However, i will etransfer some money to someone in the US who can buy some digital tracks to send to me.

[jenglisbe]

May 19, 2021 10:58:23 GMT -5 dremolus - solarpunk said:

May 19, 2021 10:56:48 GMT -5 Ling-Ling said:

Thanks for bringing this up. Is this the biggest song of all time yet? I keep waiting for that announcement and NADA.

Think it's gonna be a few years until Billboard updates the GOAT chart but according to predictions, it's been the Biggest song of all time for a few weeks now

This is also based on the assumption that the formula/multiplier doesn't change.

[thabb]

May 19, 2021 13:47:57 GMT -5 gikem said:

Well, I'll say this about Levitating's misfortune: If that's how it gets blocked this week, I'm glad people at least put in the effort to try to get it to #1. In my mind, the most embarrassing #2 peak in recent memory remains when Hotline Bling got stuck there for a week in 2015 because Drake's team decided to make the music video exclusive to Apple Music at first. Drake would have had his first solo #1 in the bag if he had also posted it to YouTube that week. Instead, we got a sixth week at #1 for The Hills before the utter dominance of Hello and Sorry over the next couple of months.

I think Drake had some kind of Apple Music contract when that happened. Views also got released as an Apple Music exclusive for a week iirc.
That whole era from 2015–16 where some A-list acts thought that they could make streaming exclusives a thing was frustrating but funny. Tidal especially. even Taylor's attempt at being an Apple Music exclusive had to come to an end.

[Choco]

It's still #12. At some point it's gonna be huge enough that no formula changes are gonna dethrone it.

[kiddo1994]

back to Levitating..

imagine believing that it's bigger than DSN if it went no.1..

DSN deservedt

chart peak is not everything tho.. she'll still get it

[Deleted]

May 19, 2021 13:51:03 GMT -5 nathanalbright said:

Yes, handling that kind of money would require a lot of trust, and finding trustworthy people is not an easy thing.

Ultimately, this is why most fandoms end up being ineffective with organized buying. 

[kimberly]

May 19, 2021 13:57:13 GMT -5 thabb said:

That whole era from 2015–16 where some A-list acts thought that they could make streaming exclusives a thing was frustrating but funny. Tidal especially. even Taylor's attempt at being an Apple Music exclusive had to come to an end.

I get upset every time I'm reminded her most-streamed song on Spotify is "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" from the Fifty Shades Soundtrack, with almost DOUBLE the streams as her #2 (which is "Shake It Off," I believe).

[Koochie]

not the asian twink stans scamming for some song nobody has even heard

[hughster1]

May 19, 2021 14:04:44 GMT -5 kimberly said:

May 19, 2021 13:57:13 GMT -5 thabb said:

That whole era from 2015–16 where some A-list acts thought that they could make streaming exclusives a thing was frustrating but funny. Tidal especially. even Taylor's attempt at being an Apple Music exclusive had to come to an end.

I get upset every time I'm reminded her most-streamed song on Spotify is "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" from the Fifty Shades Soundtrack, with almost DOUBLE the streams as her #2 (which is "Shake It Off," I believe).

Wasn't Taylor holding off on streaming her songs in the "1989" era, because of the belief that it would cannibalize sales? If so, then "Shake It Off" (and "Blank Space") wasn't available to stream when it was at peak popularity. Otherwise one of those two would surely be her top streamer.

[hughster1]

May 19, 2021 10:08:41 GMT -5 Amnesiac said:

Not the same situation, but this reminds me a little of the 1977 UK chart battle between Rod Stewart's "The First Cut is the Deepest"/"I Don't Want to Talk About It" and the Sex Pistols' "God Save the Queen". Stewart had been number one for a couple weeks, and the Pistols had released their song on the same week as Queen Elizabeth's Silver Jubilee celebrating 25 years of her reign. Here's what happened there (from Wikipedia):

The song peaked at No. 2 (below Rod Stewart's "I Don't Want to Talk About It" released as a double A-side budget single along with "The First Cut Is the Deepest") on the official UK Singles Chart used by the BBC, though there have been persistent rumours that it was actually the biggest-selling single in the UK at the time, and was kept off No. 1 because it was felt that it might cause offence.

Various sources state that it was indeed the highest-selling single of the week, despite a ban by the BBC and some major retailers. In order to prevent it from reaching the top of the "official" BMRB chart, for one week compilers "decreed that shops which sold their own records could not have those records represented in the chart", and thus sales from Virgin Megastores were not counted. Virgin had few doubts that theirs was the higher-selling single; the company's sales total out of stock exceeded the officially cited sales for the Rod Stewart single.

In addition to the BBC, the single was banned by the Independent Broadcasting Authority which regulated Independent Local Radio. On at least one singles chart for the period, TOP 20 POPS, the song's position at No. 2 was represented by a blank line. In March 2001, the BBC published an article that stated ‘"God Save the Queen" reached number one in the UK in 1977 despite being banned by the BBC, and marked a defining moment in the punk revolution.’ The NME magazine chart did in fact place the single at number-one during the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II.

This is also reminiscent of the "Shadow Dancing"/"Baker Street" situation from 1978, where "Baker Street" allegedly got robbed from a week at number one. From Stereogum:

As a six-minute song without a big vocal or a clear singalong hook, “Baker Street” made for an unlikely pop success. But “Baker Street” was a smash, and it allegedly took some serious chart chicanery to keep it out of the #1 spot. “Baker Street” stalled out at #2 right as Andy Gibb’s “Shadow Dancing” was in the midst of its seven-week run at #1. For six of those weeks, “Baker Street” was at #2. According to legend, the chart tabulators at Billboard had actually figured out that “Baker Street” had finally ascended to the #1 spot in one of those weeks, and they’d called the new chart into the producers at Casey Kasem’s radio show America’s Top 40. But because of a last-minute correction, Kasem had to re-record the end of that week’s show, putting “Shadow Dancing” back on top.

According to rumor, Bill Wardlow, Billboard chart director, made the call to keep “Shadow Dancing” at #1. Wardlow had supposedly gone to dinner with Andy Gibb’s managers, and he’d mentioned that “Baker Street” had knocked “Shadow Dancing” out of the #1 spot. Gibb had been scheduled to perform at a Billboard-sponsored show in New York, and his label threatened to pull him from the bill if Billboard didn’t keep “Shadow Dancing” on top, so that’s why “Baker Street” never got to #1. This is all pure speculation and hearsay, but it’s a good story. Record labels have been doing everything in their power to game the Billboard charts ever since those charts began, and it certainly seems possible that “Baker Street” could’ve been a casualty of all that. (“Baker Street” did get to #1 on the chart put together by Cash Box, Billboard‘s competitor.)

[†ealsünset]

May 19, 2021 14:04:44 GMT -5 kimberly said:

I get upset every time I'm reminded her most-streamed song on Spotify is "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" from the Fifty Shades Soundtrack, with almost DOUBLE the streams as her #2 (which is "Shake It Off," I believe).

apples and oranges

[kimberly]

May 19, 2021 14:10:15 GMT -5 hughster1 said:

May 19, 2021 14:04:44 GMT -5 kimberly said:

I get upset every time I'm reminded her most-streamed song on Spotify is "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" from the Fifty Shades Soundtrack, with almost DOUBLE the streams as her #2 (which is "Shake It Off," I believe).

Wasn't Taylor holding off on streaming her songs in the "1989" era, because of the belief that it would cannibalize sales? If so, then "Shake It Off" (and "Blank Space") wasn't available to stream when it was at peak popularity. Otherwise one of those two would surely be her top streamer.

yup, that was my point. Taylor only put 1989 on Spotify in 2017 (the week Katy Perry dropped Witness, iirc).

[kiddo1994]

May 19, 2021 14:10:15 GMT -5 hughster1 said:

May 19, 2021 14:04:44 GMT -5 kimberly said:

I get upset every time I'm reminded her most-streamed song on Spotify is "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" from the Fifty Shades Soundtrack, with almost DOUBLE the streams as her #2 (which is "Shake It Off," I believe).

Wasn't Taylor holding off on streaming her songs in the "1989" era, because of the belief that it would cannibalize sales? If so, then "Shake It Off" (and "Blank Space") wasn't available to stream when it was at peak popularity. Otherwise one of those two would surely be her top streamer.

nahh.. 2014 smashes are at 700M on Spotify VS the 1B+ for IDLWF

[degen]

So on another note, 2020 was the year of one week #1s. Is 2021 the year of 2 week #1s? When was the last year we’ve had so many songs hit #1 for 2 weeks?

[Deleted]

May 19, 2021 14:07:26 GMT -5 Koochie said:

not the asian twink stans scamming for some song nobody has even heard

So I thought stuff like this wasn't allowed on here...


Attachment Deleted

[Koochie]

May 19, 2021 14:22:32 GMT -5 @sosalty said:

May 19, 2021 14:07:26 GMT -5 Koochie said:

not the asian twink stans scamming for some song nobody has even heard

So I thought stuff like this wasn't allowed on here...


View Attachment

stuff like what

[Amnesiac]

May 19, 2021 14:13:53 GMT -5 hughster1 said:

This is also reminiscent of the "Shadow Dancing"/"Baker Street" situation from 1978, where "Baker Street" allegedly got robbed from a week at number one. From Stereogum:

As a six-minute song without a big vocal or a clear singalong hook, “Baker Street” made for an unlikely pop success. But “Baker Street” was a smash, and it allegedly took some serious chart chicanery to keep it out of the #1 spot. “Baker Street” stalled out at #2 right as Andy Gibb’s “Shadow Dancing” was in the midst of its seven-week run at #1. For six of those weeks, “Baker Street” was at #2. According to legend, the chart tabulators at Billboard had actually figured out that “Baker Street” had finally ascended to the #1 spot in one of those weeks, and they’d called the new chart into the producers at Casey Kasem’s radio show America’s Top 40. But because of a last-minute correction, Kasem had to re-record the end of that week’s show, putting “Shadow Dancing” back on top.

According to rumor, Bill Wardlow, Billboard chart director, made the call to keep “Shadow Dancing” at #1. Wardlow had supposedly gone to dinner with Andy Gibb’s managers, and he’d mentioned that “Baker Street” had knocked “Shadow Dancing” out of the #1 spot. Gibb had been scheduled to perform at a Billboard-sponsored show in New York, and his label threatened to pull him from the bill if Billboard didn’t keep “Shadow Dancing” on top, so that’s why “Baker Street” never got to #1. This is all pure speculation and hearsay, but it’s a good story. Record labels have been doing everything in their power to game the Billboard charts ever since those charts began, and it certainly seems possible that “Baker Street” could’ve been a casualty of all that. (“Baker Street” did get to #1 on the chart put together by Cash Box, Billboard‘s competitor.)

I love that Stereogum column. Wonder if he's going to mention all this whenever he gets to 2021 if "Levitating" never gets to #1.

[Koochie]

May 19, 2021 14:26:48 GMT -5 Codex said:

May 19, 2021 14:25:21 GMT -5 Koochie said:

stuff like what

You lying about BTS fans being attractive and fashionable. This is 2021. Do better.

ohhhhh, yeah I can see why people got confused

no I was talking about BTS not the people trying to doxx me

[fridayteenage]

top 5 all collabs?

Good thing Olivia is here to shake things up.

[Fears in the Fire]

May 19, 2021 14:04:44 GMT -5 kimberly said:

May 19, 2021 13:57:13 GMT -5 thabb said:

That whole era from 2015–16 where some A-list acts thought that they could make streaming exclusives a thing was frustrating but funny. Tidal especially. even Taylor's attempt at being an Apple Music exclusive had to come to an end.

I get upset every time I'm reminded her most-streamed song on Spotify is "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" from the Fifty Shades Soundtrack, with almost DOUBLE the streams as her #2 (which is "Shake It Off," I believe).

It’s LWYMMD (628M). iirc it was available on Spotify upon release so that makes sense