When this column debuted on Idolator, I briefly referred to the Hot 100, Billboard‘s premier singles chart, as “the Dow Jones of pop.”
As quippy as that might have sounded, I wasn’t kidding. Like the Dow Jones Industrial Average–which signifies the health of the U.S. economy for millions of people who understand little about what the Dow means or how it works–the Hot 100 has been around long enough to become both a fixture and a shorthand for the current state of U.S. popular music.
The Hot 100 is exactly 50 years old this week. The first No. 1 song on the chart Billboard launched the first week of August, 1958, was Ricky Nelson’s “Poor Little Fool,” an ode to a teasing girl and her bedeviling kiss. It’s a considerably politer–if more spiteful–song than the current chart-topper, which tackles a similar topic.
I’ve been following the Hot 100 avidly for about half of its 50 years, from the first time I heard Casey Kasem on the radio. So before I go on a two-week vacation and put “100 & Single” on a brief hiatus, I hope you’ll indulge me as I tackle why I think the Hot 100 matters–even as the industry it was invented to track comes crashing down around it.
For more than three years now, Interscope has tried a range of well-worn tactics to make singer/rapper/agitprop icon M.I.A. a best-seller in America: single releases with high-profile remixes; ads proclaiming her across-the-board rock-critic and blogger love; mixtape tracks; eye-catching and at times controversial music videos; and teaming her up with Timbaland for what turned out to be the weakest track on her latest album, Kala.
This week, seemingly out of nowhere and thanks to none of the above efforts, M.I.A. has her first hit on Billboard‘s Hot 100, “Paper Planes,” which makes its debut all the way up at No. 55.
M.I.A. can credit the House Of Apatow for her sudden chart fortunes, as trailers and ads for the forthcoming Seth Rogen/James Franco stoner comedy Pineapple Express prominently feature the track.
I think M.I.A. fans knew last summer that this song was destined to become her crossover hit, and if it goes no further than this, it will have already fulfilled its destiny. Except it’s going to do better because, somewhat improbably, M.I.A. is apparently connecting with one of the most loyal music-buying audiences in history: stoners.
The singles charts have settled into what we hope will be a momentary midsummer slumber. And that starts with the song in its fourth week at No. 1 on Billboard‘s Hot 100.
Idolator’s distaste for Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” is well-documented, but I nonetheless have to acknowledge that this blandly titillating dance-pop smash is emerging as the nation’s song of this summer, its chart run perfectly timed for the season of moist, exposed flesh.
Perry seems likely to hold the keys to the penthouse for a few more weeks, unless Rihanna’s “Take a Bow” regains its bullet at No. 2, or Chris Brown’s gradually rising, more enjoyably summery “Forever” (up two slots to No. 4 this week) experiences a left-field surge. Otherwise, it’s a wasteland out there.
For those of us seeking good news, however, the simultaneous Top 10 entry of three cool songs on three different flagship Billboard charts–Hot 100, R&B/Hip-Hop, and Country–provide a small dose of encouragement.
A front-line act with a months-old album decides to push his most obvious hit-bound song to radio–a song heavily reliant on a prominent sample of a deathless pop hit. But, bucking the day’s prevalent trend, he decides not to release the song on the most popular singles medium, forcing most customers to buy his album.
It’s a risky move, because the Billboard Hot 100 is dominated by songs that scale the chart by amassing sales as well as airplay. But the song is so mindlessly catchy, the act’s people figure it’ll be a big chart hit anyway with radio alone.
I could be talking about M.C. Hammer’s 1990 smash “U Can’t Touch This,” the “Superfreak”-sampling hit that made the Top 10, even as Capitol refused to issue it as a cassingle.
But I could also be talking about Kid Rock’s “All Summer Long,” a mashup of Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London” and Lynyrd Skynrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” that debuts on the Hot 100 this week at No. 80 despite his lack of interest in releasing it digitally.
Can the erstwhile Robert Richie pull off in 2008 what one Stanley Kirk Burrell pulled 18 years ago?
Ed. note: Chris “dennisobell” Molanphy, our resident chart guru, looks at the upward, downward, and lack of movement on this week’s Billboard charts:
If you’re trying to guess what might end up as Billboard‘s top song of 2008, you might take a gander at this week’s Hot 100, where a prime contender is still sitting in the top three after peaking months ago.
That would be Leona Lewis’ “Bleeding Love,” the neo-diva ballad that’s outlasted anything her role model Mariah Carey has released so far this year. According to Nielsen SoundScan, which released its (mostly dismal) midyear report this week, Lewis’ smash is the top-selling single for the six-month period beginning Dec. 31 and ending June 29.
That doesn’t necessarily make the Lewis track a lock for the year’s top prize, due to some technicalities which I’ll discuss momentarily. But there is one thing that makes “Bleeding Love” emblematic of 2008: it’s an undeniable smash single which has proven tough for the artist to follow up.
Ed. note: Chris “dennisobell” Molanphy, our resident chart guru, looks at the upward, downward, and lack of movement on this week’s Billboard charts:
In the last two years, we’ve seen several impressive feats on Billboard‘s Hot 100 by Disney Channel-groomed pop acts, and this week, we see another.
Four songs from the Jonas Brothers vehicle Camp Rock, which premiered on the channel last week, debut within the Top 40. And separately, Miley Cyrus previews her first album unattached from the Hannah Montana brand–and quickly scores her second-ever Top 10 hit.
Dig below these impressive numbers, and it becomes apparent that this is not necessarily another short-lived High School Musical-style chart blip. One week into summer, teenpop may be launching one of its once-a-decade all-out assaults on the pop charts–the kind of siege that will make even you, person over 18, forcibly aware of these songs faster than you can say “Quit Playing Games (With My Heart).”
Ed. note: Chris “dennisobell” Molanphy, our resident chart guru, looks at the upward, downward, and lack of movement on this week’s Billboard charts:
EMI is the Bear Stearns of the music industry–once mighty, now declining rapidly and ripe for takeover and obliteration. But you’d never know it looking at the new Billboard Hot 100: two singles on EMI’s U.S. flagship label, the 66-year-old Capitol Records, sit in the top two positions.
The chart is crowned by Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida,” the band’s first-ever chart-topper and arguably the first No. 1 hit fueled entirely by Apple Inc. One lip-smack below them is Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl,” which reaches No. 2–the latest leap in an inexorable march that will probably put her atop the chart before you fire up your July 4 barbecue.
Whether Perry ousts Chris Martin & co. from the penthouse next week or the week after will depend on the public’s buying behavior this week, following the release of Coldplay’s new blockbuster album. The interplay of song sales and album sales in the iTunes era is hard to predict–as shown by Lil Wayne’s drop from No. 1, which we called wrong in a major way just last week.
Ed. note: Chris “dennisobell” Molanphy, our resident chart guru, looks at the upward, downward, and lack of movement on this week’s Billboard charts:
Lil Wayne is expected to triumph on next week’s album chart, but this week, he has locked up a remarkable percentage of the Hot 100 singles chart: seven songs, starting with his five-week No. 1 champ “Lollipop.”
This is the second time in three weeks that a single artist has laid claim to nearly a tenth of the chart; the other recent chart dominator was American Idol winner David Cook, who scored a mind-blowing 11 Hot 100 hits at the end of May. But Cook’s feat was short-lived–he was down to three songs last week and is down to only one this week.
What makes Lil Wayne’s feat impressive is not only that he could keep most of these seven songs on the chart for several weeks yet. It’s that, a little bit like all-time record-holder the Beatles, he earned it.
Ed. note: Chris “dennisobell” Molanphy, our resident chart guru, looks at the upward, downward, and lack of movement on this week’s Billboard charts:
If only Chris Martin were holding an iPhone 3G: then his band would be atop the charts.
As it stands, Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida,” fueled by Apple’s latest saturation-play TV commercial for iTunes, makes a bid for the top of Billboard‘s Hot 100 and lands at No. 3. They storm Lil Wayne’s “Lollipop” fortress armed with blockbuster digital sales and sparse radio airplay. If Steve Jobs’ minions keep that sleek ad on the air a couple more weeks, Coldplay could yet see the summit.
And even if I were among the Coldplay-haters out there, I’d be rooting hard for Martin & co., because the next U.S. No. 1 single is either going to be theirs or Idolator’s early pick for worst single of 2008.
Ed. note: Chris “dennisobell” Molanphy, our resident chart guru, looks at the upward, downward, and lack of movement on this week’s Billboard charts:
As I look at this week’s charts, I recall a 1994 interview in which Paul McCartney assured the world that the highly anticipated, ultimately anticlimactic 1995 Beatles single “Free as a Bird” would have a “grungy” guitar sound.
As with so many things, Sir Paul was just ahead of his time–14 years later, one of the Fab Four’s most cherished chart records would be nearly equaled by a dude who can make anything, even “Eleanor Rigby,” sound like grunge.
That record is for most songs on the Billboard Hot 100 by a single act. It was set on April 11, 1964, by the Beatles, who were credited on 14 of that week’s 100 songs. The Fabs still hold this record, for now.
But thanks to a confluence of chart-tabulation quirks, this week a former bartender from Missouri–who until now had never appeared on any Billboard chart–comes close to tying it, placing 11 songs on the Hot 100 all at once. In so doing, David Cook sets a new, blowout record for most debuts, comes within spitting distance of the Fabs’ record, and generally makes the chart grungier than it’s been since Paul gave that interview.
