Monday Morning Mediabase Update – Dec 12-18

Another bumper crop of milestones to mention this Monday before Christmas

Let’s start with the big mover – Zayn and his collaboration with Taylor Swift. The two got together to create a song for the “Fifty Shades of Darker” soundtrack and it has been dominating charts since its release. Zayn is popular on his own, but combine him with Taylor Swift (who hasn’t released a new single in a while) and the popular book series and that is going to generate some interest. “I Don’t Want to Live Forever” goes top 20 on Pop and top 30 on HAC this week.

Also making quick accelerations on Pop is Cmila Cabello. Like Zayn, she gained fame on X-Factor and by being part of a successful group spawned by the show. Also, like him, she was the first to leave the group (announcing her departure to the other members through her representative one week before Christmas – Merry Christmas!). The big difference is that she was able to test the waters for a solo career with collaborations while still being a part of the band (i.e. having a fall-back option and while still having the support of the group’s fans). One of those collaborations is “Bad Things” (also known as “Complicated” ;-) with Machine Gun Kelly (aka MGK). The song went top 10 on Pop this week and top 10 on Rhythmic. The song is also on the HAC chart.

Calum Scott’s smiling face greeted me in an ad when I arrived at the AllAccess page today. He first garnered attention with his audition cover of “Dancing on My Own” on BGT. He finished 6th on that show, but released his cover as a single. It first gained traction on the US charts on AC (on which it has faded recently because in December, AC stands for All Christmas) while making in-roads on HAC. The song just debuted on Pop. In other words, his trajectory is pretty much the opposite of all other mainstream acts (which generally go Pop->HAC-AC)

James Arthur is from the UK version of X-Factor and he just gave me a reason to check the AAA charts. Normally, that is a no-go zone for reality singing competitors (the most notable exception being Phillip Phillips and he only got on their due to fan demand – the programmers admitted they were originally not going to embrace his singles even though they were a perfect fit for the format). James Arthur goes top 50 on AAA with “Say You Won’t Go”.

Niall Horan was also a member of One Direction and is pursuing a solo career while the band is on hiatus (they still are going with the story that they are getting back together). His debut effort is “This Town” and the song went top 20 on HAC (it is top 15 on Pop).

Over on Idol, La’Porsha Renae was the runner-up in the final season and her debut song is “Good Woman”. It arrives in the top 15 on UAC. Lauren Daigle auditioned for Idol and she has become a CAC champ. Her latest Christmas song to hit top 20 in the format is “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”. Kelly Clarkson won the first season of Idol and she has a track from “Hamilton” on the radio. “It’s Quite Uptown” went top 40 on HAC this week because it was 41st on our chart last week (and somehow, it is now top 40 last week? re-run charts or stats collected too early in the morning?)

Finally, we have Christmas champs Pentatonix. “Hallelujah” is already top 4 on AC. Now it is top 50 on HAC. Pentatonix also has the number 2 and 5 albums this week on the BB200. J Cole debuts at number one with the 3rd best sales week of the year (behind Drake and Beyonce).

1 (NEW) J Cole “4 Your Eyes Only” 492K, 363K sales, 118K SEAs
2 (3) Pentatonix “A Pentatonix Christmas” 156K (+22%)
3 (2) The Weeknd “Starboy” 109K (-28%)
4 (6) Bruno Mars “24K Magic” 74K (+27%)
5 (8) Pentatonix “That’s Christmas to Me” 65K (+24%)
6 (NEW) Post Malone “Stoney” 58K, 19K sales, 34K SEAs
7 (11) “Hamilton” Broadway Cast 48K (+7%)
8 (7) “Moana” Soundtrack 48K (-10%)
9 (13) Michael Buble “Christmas” 43K (+1%)
10 (4) The Rolling Stones “Blue & Lonesome” 43K (-65%)

14 (1) Various “Hamilton Mixtape” 36K (-81%)

Calum Scott:
“Dancing On My Own”: ^31 HAC (36); 42 AC (38); ^48 POP (58)

Camila Cabello
x MGK “Bad Things”: ^9 Pop (13); ^8 RHY (11); ^43 HAC (49)

Carrie Underwood:
“Dirty Laundry”: ^4 Country (5)

Chase Rice:
“Everybody We Know Does”: 44 Country (44)

Danny Gokey:
“Rise”: 14 CAC (13)

Fifth Harmony:
“That’s My Girl”: 24 Pop (20)

James Arthur:
“Say You Won’t Go”: ^27 HAC (29); ^42 AAA (51)

Jordan Smith:
“You’re a Mean One, Mr Grinch”: ^16 AC (17)

Kelly Clarkson:
“It’s Quite Uptown”: ^36 HAC (40)

Kris Allen:
f. on “A Little Bit of Christmas” by John Brickman: 37 AC (32)

La’Porsha Renae:
“Good Woman”: ^15 UAC (16)

Lauren Alaina:
“Road Less Travelled”: 18 Country (18)

Lauren Daigle:
“Come Alive (Dry Bones)”: 30 CAC (26)
“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”: ^20 CAC (23)
“Jingle Belles”: 27 CAC (25)
“What Child is This”: 21 CAC (19)

Niall Horan:
“This Town”: ^14 Pop (15); ^19 HAC (21)

Nick Fradiani:
“All on You”: 36 Pop (38)

One Direction:
“Drag Me Down”: 49 AC (47)

Pentatonix:
“Hallelujah”: ^4 AC (4); ^50 HAC (57)

RaeLynn:
“Love Triangle”: ^33 Country (32)

Trent Harmon:
“There’s a Girl”: ^27 Country (27)

Zayn
/Taylor Swift “I Don’t Wanna Life Forever”: ^19 Pop (26), ^22 HAC (34)

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Note: Numbers indicate position on the chart while numbers in brackets indicate the position on the chart the previous week. The “^” (aka “a bullet”) indicates that a song gained spins since last week.

This is the daily numbers thread for Monday. Stats collected on Monday Morning.

About Kirsten 3060 Articles
Kirsten has had a long love affair with numbers. Marry that with her love of cheese and the Numbers Threads at MJs were born.