Today’s thread is brought to you by the numbers 12, 1050 and 200K.
After months of a stagnant Hot 100 chart, there was a big turn-over in the chart this week. Justin Bieber’s “Love Yourself” becomes the 1050th song to top the Hot 100 chart. He accomplishes the rare feat of replacing himself at the top of the chart becoming only the 12th act to do so. We discussed this four months ago when The Weeknd (another Canadian act) became the 11th to do so The Beatles accomplished it twice in a row (3 top Hot 100’s right – one right after the other in 1964. It would take another thirty years before Boyz II Men (recently teen angel on the Grease Live production) in 1994, Puff Daddy in 1997, Ja Rule and Nelly in 2002, OutKast and Usher in 2004, T.I. in 2008 and the Black-Eyed Peas in 2009. Taylor Swift is the only female artist to do this and she didn’t manage that until 2014 (“Shake It Off” followed by “Blank Space”). If you only include lead artists, Justin is just one of 10 (Puff Daddy and Ja Rule were each featured on one of the tracks involved in their trade-offs). If you look at solo lead acts, only Justin, Taylor, Usher, T.I. and The Weeknd have managed it.
“Love Yourself” is also the first song Ed Sheeran has gotten to the top of the chart. He’s gotten very close before. He co-wrote the song with Justin and Benny Blanco.
Justin is the first artist since Taylor Swift to score three Hot 100 chart toppers from an album since Taylor Swift in 2014-2015 and the first male artist to do so since Justin Timberlake with his FutureSex/Love Sounds from 2006-2007.
Justin holds down the top two spots on the chart with “Sorry” at number 2 (which also took over the top of the Radio chart – the first time in his career to top it). twenty one pilots fly to their highest chart position ever with “Stressed Out” at number 3. Adele’s “Hello” continues its goodbye lap by falling to 4th. Flo Rida (always a consistent seller) vaults into the top 12 with “My House” going to number 5 with the Chainsmoker’s “Roses” making the climb from 8th to 6th. Selena Gomez’s “Hands to Myself” hits 7th pushing her “Same Old Love” to 8th and giving her two songs on the top 10 of the Hot 100 for the first time in her career. Rihanna nabs the number 9 spot with just a few days worth of sales and a lot of radio support. “Work” debuts at the top of the digital sales chart (the 14th time she has done that). Alessia Cara’s “Here” finishes off the top 10.
After last week’s bloodbath, there are only 3 Canadian songs in the top 10 (at least they still own the top two spots – cold front on its way).
Billboard also announced a chart update to de-emphasize the importance of streams and increase the importance of sales. The reason is that streams have become more popular and sales have become less popular. While that may not seem intuitive, they are trying to keep the chart more balanced. Streaming numbers from artists like Justin are starting to nullify the importance of sales.
X-Factor’s Zayn looks to debut well next week in the Hot 100 with his debut single “Pillowtalk”. It moved 80K in its first day and 200K by the end of the weekend. It is also popular with the streaming crowd and radio programmers like it too. Drake’s “Summer Sixteen” has knocked it off the top of the sales chart for now (those Canadians and Brits are constantly fighting for chart dominance these days), but expect to see both of them in the top 10.
