I debated if I should just bring this up in the music discussion thread or not, but decided to make it singular and separate. It's a good thread, I swear!
I think we’re all no stranger to pop charts as they are the defining element of our “mainstream” music culture which includes which are the highest selling records and singles. This of course is rarely a staple of the entire landscape of music or our generation, but it is very significant none the same. The idea of this thread is to headline a sort of discussion on what exactly is going on with the American pop radio landscape and the recurring trends throughout the months. The idea actually hit me to do this after watching a few reviews by a pop critic named Todd Nathanson who works out of youtube that I’ve followed for a few years now. Basically I thought “you know what would be neat? If BEA took a look at pop charts, discussed them at depth, speculated their growth.
Of course the pop charts include the Billboard 200 (records), Hot 100 (singles), and East Asia's equivalent.
I understand not all of us particularly care for music that circulates here, but I think we should try to keep comments constructive? I think. Anyway, let’s start talking with some things to note:
Ghost Stories by Coldplay is doing really, really well which shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody as its Coldplay who do pretty well among contemporary audiences. While from what I’ve heard from the record doesn’t impress me too much. I’ll have to listen to it in depth and come back to it in this thread or the album review one.
Guess I’ll move on to the Top 6 on the Billboard. Why 6? Because 6 is 1 more than 5.
Iggy Azalea is currently on top in spot #1 with “Fancy” and in spot #2 as a featured guest on Ariana Grande’s “Problem” – both of them knocking John Legend’s “All of Me” down out of its spot. For me after reading about Iggy Azalea and hearing a snippet of a single song I thought I was going to hate her body of work but somehow I find a certain charm and likability in these singles (and on her record, The New Classic). By the way I don’t know why but that horn bit on “Problem” sounds awesome to me and the high octane R&B going on there is really cool and I dig it a lot.
I like John Legend and I sort of always have, but there’s something about this one at #3 that doesn’t a whole lot for me. Maybe I’m not just in the mood for this atypical confessional that feels more out of like… something out of an Idol contestant’s debut solo album rather than a John Legend one. But maybe I was spoiled by some of his previous work. Other people really dig it though as it was #1 for some time.
Pharrell Williams at #4 with a song he needs to make an album full of. “Happy” is pretty much what I want to see a lot more of in our contemporary pop scene but I know this kind of cheery energetic soul revival-meets-feel good pop is awesome. Makes me think how much I love people like Cee Lo Green. This is not to say I was disappointed with his record this year as it follows a bit of this vibe. But nothing is quite as good as this song for me.
At #5 there is this thing called “Turn Down for What” by DJ Snake (featuring Lil’ Jon of all people, is this ten years ago?) and I don’t know why but I kind of dig it. Maybe this whole EDM (re)emergence is making me feel nostalgic for the likes of Fatboy Slim and similar acts or maybe it just appeals to something inane and goofy in my brain since this song is pretty much…. Well the song just is and I dig it.
Oh and Katy Perry is somehow in #6 with one of the most boring songs without any personality she’s written in her entire career. Which brings me to all of the songs on Prisim… why are most of them so bland and uncharacteristic of what I thought a Katy record was? Maybe it’s her divorce making her boring as hell, but I think someone I read said it best when he likened her to a ‘chameleon’ who does style way better than substance and she’s been trying to do the latter and it hasn’t been working at all.
Your thoughts on the above or on other singles/records that have charted?
Last edited by mickilennial on 08/28/2015 19:05; edited 1 time in total
Ghost Stories is great! An improvement on Mylo Xyloto.
The Iggy song is good, but it's not great, her voice is a bit irksome, but it's a good single.
The Ariana Grande song is WONDERFUL <3 Puff made one of the biggest bangers of 2014 thus far, although, like you said Gowi, the horns are reminiscent of "Thrift Shop".
The John Legend song is good, but it's so derivative, ack ack ack, "curves and edges", please leave with those words Mr. Legend.
"Happy" is happy! I like the vibe of it, but it's too repetitive.
I love "Turn Down For What", one of my favorite singles of 2014!
The Katy Perry song has a good beat, but the vocal track doesn't flow well, especially with "are you ready for a, ready for a, a perfect storm, a perfect storm", no thank you.
Charts have had plenty of great music lately. Pop music consistently remains exciting and with social media going from strength to strength in recent years the artists are more in touch with their fans. Then again, this all started with myspace almost a decade ago.
While I was keeping up to date with the year just gone, this year I have stoped listening to pop music. This means a lot of the chart songs are not reaching me so I can't comment on those.
I've honestly been more disconnected from pop music than I believe I have ever been. In the past I felt like the hits were always inescapable. No matter what, you'll hear them somewhere like a bar, grocery store, or whatever. With the changes in how we consume music, it's been easier and easier to settle into your comfort zone and block out everything else. In some ways these changes are amazing. I never wanted to hear "Nookie" a million times, but it happened. But when you settle strictly into your comfort zone, you'll often miss out on things as well.
Happy is the only song I can comment on. It's nothing new, but you can't deny that Pharrell has created another feel good single that pretty much can light up any room. it's no surprise coming from Pharrell. He's had his hands all over tons of big time singles for years. it's been a while but N.E.R.D.'s "In Search Of" was a pretty great record _________________ http://jonnyleather.com
Hmm I like Charli's chorus on Fancy, Problem is obviously great, All of Me and Happy are pretty bleh, Turn Down is really terrible, and Dark Horse... undecided. The beat is definitely cool.
Talk Dirty is cool too
I definitely keep track of the charts, actually, it's always kind of baffling to me how slowly they move... _________________ My top songs of the 2010s
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Spotify link
I think "Turn Down For What" is the best club song to come out in a long time, probably the best since "Low", I dig it.
I enjoyed "Ghost Stories" and I'm not surprised it's high on the charts, won't be surprised to see "A Sky Full Of Stars" shoot up the charts eventually.
"Happy" is everywhere right now, I like the song and all but goddamn it's getting played a lot. Unfortunately the rest of Pharrell's album wasn't too spectacular
"All Of Me" is a nice song, I certainly don't hate it.
"Talk Dirty To Me", while I really dislike Jason Derulo generally, I actually kind of dig this song. That sax riff is pretty damn fun. _________________ 2023 Chart
Pretty on the money for what I think of “Pompeii” which is currently at #19. I really do think I ended up liking this song as the “indie of the month” sort of thing we’ve seen on pop charts for like ten years now. I don’t know if I’m going to be obsessed as I was with the pop singles Of Monsters and Men ended up cutting awhile back.
I think, bands like Coldplay on top of the chart is good. Ghost Stories, although is just an average pop album, it has some really good songs, and as people mentioned before, is a hell of an improvement on their previous effort, Mylo Xloto, which honestly, it was shitty and still a No.1 is the Billboard chart.
The first three songs on the Hot 100, I've no idea they existed, so I cant elaborate on them.
Yeah Happy, when it came out, I said this is a perfect pop song,then I realised it's that type of song they'll play over and over again until finally you come to hate it. You want to destroy the fucking song. That's basically what's happening to me. It's too damn repetitive.
Dark Horse by Katy Perry, it's a good song for a party. My only problem with this song, is that it's a Katy Perry song, and back in the day, she made some fun, sing alongs. I mean, Hot N' Cold is a masterpiece compared to this thing
Talk Dirty is just great, nothing more to say about that.
Turn Down For What and the whole EDM stuff going on in the chart. This video explains it all. SNL got it right.
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