Billboard Hot 100: 01/22/2022

[After Minutes]

Jan 7, 2022 17:46:41 GMT -5 thegreatdivine said:

I definitely wouldn't rank dawn FM 9/10, yet alone call it a perfect pop album just because it seems more like a complete body of work from The Weeknd.

Forget hits, many songs on the album are extremely weak lyrically and go nowhere sonically. They blend into each other and at certain points, it feels like you're listening to one overly-extended song.

The album is bookended by an intro/outro which features Jim Carrey's voice and helps drive home it's FM radio station aesthetic but there are countless other albums that have used a similar aesthetic and have done so a lot better and more creatively than is done on this album.

The featured artists were a wrong choice because they did nothing to elevate the respective songs they appear on.

And probably most important for ANY album — standout moments — there simply aren't enough of those. I can't pick out 6 songs from dawn FM I can see myself revisiting a week from now, yet alone years from now, so yes, while it may be a pleasant listening experience for some people when playing the album front to back, overtime, you stop listening to an album like that and you only revisit the songs which represent memorable moments and on dawn FM, more than any other album The Weeknd has ever released, moments like that are sorely lacking.

It's natural that there'll be some disagreement. I got what I wanted, I'm convinced the songs are phenomenal, moments like the final chorus of Less Than Zero, the transition into Take My Breath or Out Of Time are mind-blowing and I'll naturally think that I'm right and you're wrong, so there's no need to argue (especially since you probably think the opposite). We're both entitled to think whatever and hey, we have our preferences too. In summary, 9/10, perfect pop album, bopped in front of my grandma and she said that old Abel looks cute

[Groovy]

I'm sure he's gonna have at least one big single off of this album, not as big as Save Your Tears and definitely not as Blinding Lights but should be big nonetheless.

[kcdawg13]

I know they're focusing on Sacrifice right now but I feel like Less Than Zero is gonna be the breakout single from the album

[JukeboxJacob]

Jan 7, 2022 18:14:15 GMT -5 ddlz said:

How many terrible takes can you fit on one page? Are you guys aiming for a record?

We took our time, listened thru the album, and collectively most of us concluded that the album's lackluster. All fair takes. All these Weeknd stans rushing to defend are silly

[iHype.]

Gunna has the whole top 12 on Apple Music now.

[lazer]

I am getting industry plant vibes from that Lauren Spencer singer.

[thegreatdivine]

Jan 7, 2022 14:52:32 GMT -5 thegreatdivine said:

Gunna's album is now #1 on AM with 5 songs in the top 10, 11 songs in the top 20 and 18/19 songs in the top 50.

The Weeknd's album is down to #2 with 2 songs in the top 10, 4 songs in the top 20 and 15/16 songs in the top 50.

Gunna's album remains at #1 on AM with 10 songs in the top 10, 14 songs in the top 20 and 19/19 songs in the top 32.

The Weeknd's album remains at #2 with 0 songs in the top 10, 6 songs in the top 20 and 16/16 songs in the top 42.

[waluigionascooter]

I'm surprised Gunna of all people would pose a serious challenge The Weeknd for the #1,

That's like if Taylor Swifts next release lost the #1 album to NBA Youngboy.

[kcdawg13]

Jan 8, 2022 1:13:31 GMT -5 waluigionascooter said:

I'm surprised Gunna of all people would pose a serious challenge The Weeknd for the #1,

That's like if Taylor Swifts next release lost the #1 album to NBA Youngboy.

Hip-hop audiences are crazy man, half of the Top Billboard 200 albums in the past 3 years have been hip-hop records. I remember people thinking we'd eventually transition away from rap being as huge as it is and back to pop dominating, but that just isn't happening. Rap is still the biggest genre in the country right now. No names like Lil Durk with no hits can come out with an album and it somehow has insane longevity on the charts.

[Enigma.]

Jan 8, 2022 0:06:36 GMT -5 lazer said:

I am getting industry plant vibes from that Lauren Spencer singer.

Currently, she doesn't even have a record deal, so depends how you look at it.

It's a similar case to LNX, Masked Wolf and some others who broke through with virality instead of label backing them.

[fridayteenage]

Jan 8, 2022 1:13:31 GMT -5 waluigionascooter said:

I'm surprised Gunna of all people would pose a serious challenge The Weeknd for the #1,

That's like if Taylor Swifts next release lost the #1 album to NBA Youngboy.

idk. 2 regular studio albums ago was starboy with 348k in 2016.
while the following year reputation had...more.

[mylo]

Is it too early to say it could be like Kissland?

Commercial flop compared to previous album ( Trilogy / After Hours )

Divides fans and turns the vast majority off and away.

Slightly abstract concept with songs that transition well into one another.

and POSSIBLY looked back upon with fondness.

[Enigma.]

The critics are raving about it which is interesting. I'm yet to listen to it in full, but Sacrifice and HDIMYLM are not anything special as songs, very Max Martin by numbers (those are on local NMF). He is selling the "vibe" and "aesthetics" though, and I guess what's one's take depends on how one values them.

Certainly not convinced if he has released his best album to date which is what critics are thinking right now.

[After Minutes]

Jan 8, 2022 1:13:31 GMT -5 waluigionascooter said:

I'm surprised Gunna of all people would pose a serious challenge The Weeknd for the #1,

That's like if Taylor Swifts next release lost the #1 album to NBA Youngboy.

Youngboy would unironically absolutely slaughter Taylor on AM in the US. I'd worry if the numbers are similar on Spotify, since that is the platform where Abel should perform better in the US

[After Minutes]

Jan 8, 2022 3:51:49 GMT -5 mylo said:

Is it too early to say it could be like Kissland?

Commercial flop compared to previous album ( Trilogy / After Hours )

Divides fans and turns the vast majority off and away.

Slightly abstract concept with songs that transition well into one another.

and POSSIBLY looked back upon with fondness.

The album performed better than AH (or even Adele's 30) on Apple Music and it's in overall third place, behind only Donda and CLB, in terms of how many countries it got to #1 to. If you're comparing literally any era in the last 10 years to After Hours, discluding perhaps divide and 1989, they'd be flops, since that album has produced literally the biggest hit of all time and last year's second biggest hit. If anything I think that commercially, this era will be more similar to Starboy, with After Hours being the BBTM. Starboy was more successful globally as an era overall, becoming more engrained in the popular culture, but BBTM produced the bigger hits and did more damage stateside.

[Enigma.]

The Weeknd has top 9 on Spotify.

[Darkest Hour]

As expected The Weeknd dominates Spotify. Sacrifice at 1.95M. Top 18 of chart over 1M streams.
Also Circles Around This Town is #111 with 297,548 streams.

[JukeboxJacob]

Jan 8, 2022 1:33:22 GMT -5 kcdawg13 said:

Jan 8, 2022 1:13:31 GMT -5 waluigionascooter said:

What they said

I remember people thinking we'd eventually transition away from rap being as huge as it is and back to pop dominating, but that just isn't happening. Rap is still the biggest genre in the country right now

IDK about that. the past year or so we've seen a resurgence of rock, and I'd argue a clear decline of trap rap. Music's getting more melodic again

[Limited Edition]

Mediocre US numbers. Not a single song above 2M streams. After Hours had 5 songs above 2M when there were 100M fewer users on Spotify. Gunna might actually outsell lol.
Global numbers are decent.

[JukeboxJacob]

Dawn FM - I feel like people aren't separating art from artist here. All these Weeknd stans praising an album in which you can barely distinguish one song from the next. Abel's proven himself to be a musical genius, but this album ain't it

[After Minutes]

Though I thought that Sacrifice would cross 2mln and get closer to 2,5mln the rest is about what I expected

[thegreatdivine]

Those Dawn FM Spotify numbers aren't anything to write home about. After Hours had a better Spotify debut with fewer tracks and performed better on AM.

Except some songs take off and remain stable/increase during the rest of the tracking week, pulling an extra 60-70M streams from Spotify might not be enough to offset the dominance of Gunna's album on AM.

Gunna should easily pull over 200M US streams by the end of the tracking week (most of which should be paid streams), so he'll probably land somewhere around 150-185k. I had The Weeknd doing somewhere around 250k but now I'm thinking more like 190-225k.

[thegreatdivine]

For a quick reference in regards to Spotify debut numbers:
After Hours (Global/US): 59M/24.8M
Dawn FM (Global/US): 59.5M/22M

[Enigma.]

The Spotify debut is very good - it's lacking the "Blinding Lights" but not much else. We'll see how it holds.

[mylo]

Is it worth noting that Jan streaming numbers are often worse than most other months with the exception of the monster that was DL?

[After Minutes]

We've been talking about a short rollout, but I wonder what the opposite, that is expectations built for years and hype lasting half a decade will bring. I'm talking about Kendrick and Frank - will they perform like Adele on streaming or better? They're the most acclaimed and esteemed contemporary artists and a lot is pointing to them releasing this year (especially in Kendrick's case, there's already that countdown and Black Panther 2). One would have to believe that, especially with the right features, they should nuke the charts, right?

[Groovy]

All but two songs on this album has 1M streams on Spotify but its performance is mediocre. Pulse is hilarious half the times.

[Envoirment]

Really great numbers on spotify for The Weeknd. I'm interested to see what tracks do the best in a few days or so once the track order bias dies down a bit.

I'm also interested to see how big of a drop the songs will have on day 2. I don't think "Sacrifice" will be able to challenge for #1 on the Hot 100 unless it holds up really well on spotify/gains a decent amount of airplay. I think a couple songs will debut in the top 10, with most of the album debuting in the top 50 on the hot 100.

[Mayman]

Jan 8, 2022 5:24:02 GMT -5 JukeboxJacob said:

Dawn FM - I feel like people aren't separating art from artist here. All these Weeknd stans praising an album in which you can barely distinguish one song from the next. Abel's proven himself to be a musical genius, but this album ain't it

We got it the first time you posted it, thanks! When I listened to the album for a second time, I could easily distinguish between the songs. It's different for everyone and that's okay.

[After Minutes]

Jan 8, 2022 7:02:49 GMT -5 mylo said:

Is it worth noting that Jan streaming numbers are often worse than most other months with the exception of the monster that was DL?

On the note of DL - Fingers Crossed is yet to... cross 6 milion daily US streams on Spotify