The Week's Billboard Hot 100 #1

Billboard Hot-100

Thought this might be interesting.

This thread discusses the charting of the week with a focus on the #1 single if it's a new chart-topper.

This week's #1 single is "Harlem Shake" by Baauer.

What do you think? Taking away the meme, I genuinely like the song. I like the minimalism, the beat, and the the entire aesthetic. It's also very danceable. It's also remarkable because of the fact that it is topping the charts while being an (almost) purely instrumental song, something that hasn't occurred since the late-80s. I'd give it an 6.5 or a 7/10.

It's inseparable from the meme, though, and that's what it's probably going to be remembered for.

Next week I'll post the next #1 single or discuss the other top-5 singles if it remains unchanged.

"The week's most popular current songs across all genres, ranked by radio airplay audience impressions as measured by Nielsen BDS, sales data as compiled by Nielsen Sound Scan and streaming activity data from online music sources tracked by Nielsen BDS. Songs are defined as current if they are newly-released titles, or songs receiving widespread airplay and/or sales activity for the first time." - Billboard

edited 26th Apr '13 7:22:09 PM by Completion

So this made #1, but Gangnam Style got blocked by a crappy Maroon 5 song? The hell?

They've lessened the weight of airplay and increased the weight of streams and Youtube views because of that. They've pretty much done everything but outright say that Maroon 5's song shouldn't have been number 1.

edited 25th Feb '13 3:10:51 PM by Completion

I like it, but it shouldn't have been on Billboards.

I don't think they should count memes. Rarely do songs from memes become popular, I mean I never heard "Numa Numa" or "Chocolate Rain" on the radio and that wasn't a huge loss for the station.

By counting Youtube views, they'll end up having to count memes even if it's by pure accident. They added Youtube to the algorithm when Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" stalled at #2 and increased its weight when "Gangnam Style" stalled at #2 as well. Those songs should have been number one but because the chart wasn't scaled properly, they didn't actually show how successful the songs actually were. I think they'll manage to weed out the memes when they fine-tune the weighting some more.

But people are buying the song and it's getting club play, too, so the digital download and the vinyl purchases are still high enough for it to be in the chart. It's number one on iTunes last time I checked, so it's not just a meme.

edited 25th Feb '13 7:51:27 PM by Completion

Just gonna copypasta what I've said about the song from a different thread:

tl;dr: "It's minimalism at its worst."

edited 25th Feb '13 11:24:43 PM by 0dd1

It actually says "con los terroristas".

edited 26th Feb '13 7:25:28 AM by Completion

A friend of mine who knows numbers better than I ever will said that the Billboard charts now weigh every 250 views as equivalent to one or two downloads.

Also notable - when Harlem Shake hit #1, there was no official video for it at all. They weighed the meme videos entirely. Which pisses me off.

I think the song is going to drop quickly next week. It's already at #4 on the iTunes sales chart with a Demi Lovato song at #1, Thrift Shop at #2, and a Bruno Mars song at #3.

edit: Fixed.

edited 26th Feb '13 8:53:48 PM by Completion

Nitpick: Bruno Mars's song isn't new. It's from his album that was released a while ago.

Fixed that for you.

I don't know how Demi Lovato will chart on Billboard, though, considering that the song is related to a singing show. Those usually break the top-15, but rarely venture into the top-5.

edited 27th Feb '13 10:21:57 AM by Completion

It's certainly very dancable, and very bumpable as well. Not the best trap song around but it's fine.

Relevent:

edited 2nd Mar '13 1:36:37 PM by Erock

New tracking week, "Harlem Shake" is still #1. "Thrift Shop" remains a #2. "When I Was Your Man" rises to #3, knocking Rihanna's "Stay" to #7.

There's the top 3 for this week. Nothing debuted on the top-10 this week.

Twenty years ago, "A Whole New World" was the current #1 single.

So this is gonna be pretty much the "This week in the Top Ten" thread now, ain't it? I'm okay with that. Linky.

I'm surprised "Started from the Bottom" and 'Love Me' are on there at all, mostly because I haven't heard them on the radio at all.

Dance dance dance dance dance. Is that all people want to sing about anymore? SOME of us don't dance.

Or I can have the song that just consists of the hook repeated 450,000 times in the chorus.

edited 2nd Mar '13 9:25:45 PM by Twentington

Five years ago it was money and hos. At least electronica is finally getting its heyday.

And I don't see the problem with repetitive hooks, really. Repetition is a huge part of electropop.

Neither have I. Radio seems to avoid Lil Wayne like the plague ever since he was everywhere 08/09. Drake doesn't appear much on the radio much either. I'm sure they appear a lot more on hip-hop and R&B themed stations, though, which might be why we aren't hearing them. I typically listen to a rhythmic top-40 station, which only pulls from hot-100 and the electronic charts, so I know why I haven't heard them on the radio yet.

edited 2nd Mar '13 9:53:09 PM by Completion

Oddly enough (though admittedly it's been about a week or so since I listened to my local top 40 for more than a few minutes) I still seem to hear 'I Will Wait' more than anything on the radio lately. Well, okay, that's not true, I hear TSwift's "I Knew You Were Trouble" so much that I want to murder someone (though, oddly, I can't bring myself to hate that song for some reason, despite it having more or less all the elements of a perfect song for me to hate...).

And, of course, "Thrift Shop", which I can't get enough of.

"Thrift Shop" is fantastic. I bought the album after I heard "Same Love". That man deserved my money.

Seriously, every song on that album is as good as its lead single.

I seriously need to get that album soon. I hear so much hype for it, especially for "Same Love", and this is hype that I'm actually willing to buy into.

It's one of the most cohesive hip-hop albums released in a while. It has only one producer so it has a consistent sound throughout the album, but he's talented enough to where it never becomes stale.

edited 2nd Mar '13 10:11:34 PM by Completion

I do like me some cohesion at times.

Would you believe that country radio is playing "I Will Wait"? I wonder if this will turn into another "Who Says You Can't Go Home". (I haven't heard it yet, myself.)

Heh, you'd probably hate me for this, but I can't get enough of "Who Says You Can't Go Home?"...or, really, Bon Jovi in general. I can even forgive the misstep that was Lost Highway.

edited 3rd Mar '13 2:53:44 PM by 0dd1

After listening to "I Will Wait", I can definitely see why since it has an old-school country sound to it.