We鈥檙e trying out something a little new here: Each week, we鈥檒l be taking a quick look at the newest Billboard charts to see, in the immortal words of Shakespeare, 鈥渨ho loses and who wins; who鈥檚 in, who鈥檚 out.鈥� (Thankfully, the stakes are far lower here than in King Lear, despite the potential for high drama.) Even in this impossibly fickle era, when the days of a homogenized pop music culture are long gone, the weekly charts published by Billboard still give some indication of what listeners are turning to, what social media trends are running the game and who鈥檚 currently riding high. What we鈥檙e hoping to do is to provide some context that helps us ground and understand the current data 鈥� and maybe even help us divine larger narratives about what we鈥檙e listening to. So here we go.
TOP SONGS
As NPR Music鈥檚 critic Ann Powers observed over the holiday weekend on , the summer of 2024 seems to be leaning toward country 鈥� or at least country-flavored bops. The Billboard Hot 100, which ranks the top singles (via a combination of data from streaming, digital and physical sales and radio airplay) is dominated this week by the uptempo country breakup tune 鈥淚 Had Some Help鈥� by featuring .
Post Malone made his name as a hip-hop/pop guy, but in recent months, he鈥檚 collaborated with both and . In his current bid for song of the summer, he鈥檚 teamed up with Morgan Wallen 鈥� who remains perhaps the biggest star in Nashville, despite (or maybe in part because of) . This is the second week at the top spot for 鈥淚 Had Some Help.鈥�
At No. 2 is one of 鈥檚 recent diss tracks, 鈥淣ot Like Us,鈥� followed by Tommy Richman鈥檚 鈥淢illion Dollar Baby鈥� at No. 3. Richman, a largely unknown singer and rapper before last month, teased his vaguely funk-tinged song on TikTok, where it found huge viral success and racked up millions of views even before he released the full single.
Two of Ann鈥檚 other predictions for summer hits round out the Top 5 singles for the week of June 1: Shaboozey鈥檚 hybridic country/hip-hop/rock anthem 鈥淎 Bar Song (Tipsy)鈥� at No. 4 and, debuting at No. 5, 鈥檚 woozy, seductive 鈥淟unch.鈥� As Eilish recently said to about 鈥淟unch鈥�: 鈥淚t's so fun and it's silly and it's ... I don't know. Life is so unserious. It's important to remember to have a little fun with it.鈥� If ever there was a time for such a thing, wouldn鈥檛 it be summer?
TOP ALBUMS
Speaking of Eilish: She and her record labels, Darkroom and Interscope, pitched a fierce battle to knock chart queen Taylor Swift out of the top spot of the Billboard 200, the weekly albums chart. Swift鈥檚 album The Tortured Poets Department had already spent its first four weeks perched at No. 1. Eilish鈥檚 new album, Hit Me Hard and Soft, did not do quite well enough to push royalty off the throne, but according to Luminate, the company that puts together the data for the Billboard charts, Eilish earned 339,000 鈥渆quivalent album units鈥� 鈥� her biggest week ever. (Stay with us for a moment. An 鈥渆quivalent album unit鈥� is for an enigmatic formula: the combination of tracks streamed or downloaded, plus physical or digital album sales, expressed as an approximation of what decades ago would have been a simple transaction 鈥� one album sold.)
Nevertheless, Swift won a fifth week at No. 1, with a total of 378,000 album units. How did she prevail? In short, by knowing exactly how to fire up her fanbase on the marketing front. Team Swift launched a marketing counteroffensive that included six new digital versions of Tortured Poets and a new CD version 鈥� all of which were sold exclusively on Swift鈥檚 website. She also released a remix of her song 鈥淔ortnight鈥� 鈥� the biggest single from Tortured Poets, and the one that happens to feature a fellow named Post Malone.
This is a game that Eilish knows too: For the race up the chart, she released nine colored vinyl editions and her own digital version of Hit Me Hard and Soft that included isolated vocal tracks for each song, as well as a new remix of her song 鈥淟鈥橝mour De Ma Vie.鈥� The complete album was also promotionally priced as an iTunes download at $4.99. It鈥檚 a move that recalled industry marketing campaigns of the pre-streaming era 鈥� that is, back when Eilish was just a tween herself. (Given how easy and cheap it is for listeners to inhale whole albums these days, it鈥檚 not that surprising that all 10 tracks from Hit Me Hard and Soft have individually hit the Hot 100.)
All of these fevered machinations took place under the umbrella of a single corporate behemoth: Universal Music Group, which distributes both Swift鈥檚 and Eilish鈥檚 music. Cynics might note that no matter which individual artist made it to No. 1, Universal was guaranteed to clinch the top spot.
WORTH NOTING
The fourth studio album from Zayn Malik, Room Under the Stairs, finds the former star taking a turn toward Americana and country, aided by Nashville producer . (Clearly, this is the sound of 2024, even for a fellow born and raised in Bradford, England.)
The album 鈥� Malik鈥檚 first in three years 鈥� hasn鈥檛 quite resonated with a large public: It enters the Billboard 200 chart this week at No. 15. But it鈥檚 also given Malik an intriguing career first: an entry on the , positioned at No. 5.
Copyright 2024 NPR
