Trending Up: Reunited Blink-182 Doubles in Streams, ‘Dancing on My Own’ Becomes a Philadelphia Phillies Hit & More
Written by djfrosty on October 19, 2022
Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up column, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip.
This week: Blink-182’s reunion announcement sparks a blockbuster streaming boom for the pop-punk trio, Calum Scott’s cover of a Robyn dance-pop classic catches Phillies Fever, and a weighty Billie Eilish track belatedly finds its audience on TikTok.
Stream Together for the Kids: Blink-182 Returns With an Uptick
Last week was a momentous one for Blink-182 fans, as the reunited pop-punk trio — Mark Hoppus, Travis Barker and Tom DeLonge, the latter returning after more than seven years away from the group — announced a 2023 world tour and a forthcoming album, led by the new single “Edging,” last Tuesday (Oct. 11). The band’s international tour doesn’t kick off until March 2023, but the announcement compelled fans to dive back into Blink’s discography and refresh themselves on the sugary hooks, sophomoric skits and the smash singles that will be ringing out across arenas next year.
Blink-182’s catalog earned huge spikes on streaming services last week, with a 124% jump between Monday, Oct. 10 (1.73 million total U.S. on-demand streams, according to Luminate) and the following day, when the reunion was announced (3.87 million streams). That total peaked on Friday, when “Edging” was released, with the new single contributing to the band’s 6.22 million streams that day. The daily streaming totals for Blink’s catalog dipped back down in the days following the announcement and single release, but last week’s increases demonstrate the very real enthusiasm around this reunion — which could end up with a nine-figure gross next year. – JASON LIPSHUTZ
Phillies Keep ‘Dancing,’ Calum Scott’s Cover Keeps Rising
It’s become the unlikely anthem of this MLB postseason, courtesy of the hottest team in baseball: The Philadelphia Phillies, who plowed through the St. Louis Cardinals and Atlanta Braves and last night took a 1-0 lead over the San Diego Padres in the National League Championship Series. With each champagne-soaked locker room celebration, the Phils have been singing one song over and over: Calum Scott’s “Dancing on My Own,” a 2016 cover of Robyn’s 2010 dance-pop classic, via a pulse-racing remix by legendary Dutch producer Tiësto.
It seems many around the country are joining in on the celebration with the Phillies, as Scott’s “Dancing on My Own” (Capitol) notched nearly 254,000 official on-demand U.S. streams on Saturday (Oct. 15) – the day the Phillies eliminated the Braves in the National League Division Series. That’s a gain of 45% from the previous Saturday, before “Dancing on My Own” was really entrenched as the Phils’ victory song. Meanwhile, the song has exploded in sales, from a negligible daily amount to nearly 1,100 combined copies across Saturday and Sunday – enough for the song to appear on iTunes’ real time sales Top 100.
The song isn’t threatening the Billboard Hot 100 yet – Scott’s version peaked at No. 93 in 2017, while Robyn’s original somehow never made the chart – but if the Phillies make it to the World Series, there’s no telling how many fans might end up dancing along with them. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Don’t Turn Off Billie Eilish’s “TV” Just Yet
When alt-pop superstar Billie Eilish’s “TV” had a modest Hot 100 debut (No. 52) in early August and fell off the chart the week after, it wasn’t terribly surprising. The song was not a proper new lead single, but part of a slow, acoustic “Guitar Songs” two-pack (released on Darkroom/Interscope), with lyrics touching on Roe v. Wade being overturned and Eilish’s own despair at her friends’ absence as she entered a new relationship, concluding, “Maybe I’m the problem.”
Even for an artist as challenging as Eilish, it didn’t particularly sound like the stuff of hit singles. But months later, the song has started to climb again on streaming – gaining in official on-demand U.S. streams each of the last four full tracking weeks, with a 20.8% jump in the most recent week (ending Oct. 13) to over 3.5 million streams.
The song is helped by a TikTok trend that uses the song’s heaviness, mourning recent tragedies or personal losses to a sped-up version of the song’s “I’ll be in denial for at least a little while” lyric – with Eilish herself sharing a more lighthearted video recently of her dropping her cell phone to the sped-up song. As the song climbs back into the top 20 (27-19) of Billboard’s Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart, it’s a good reminder that few artists are as prolific as Eilish at molding hits in their own image. – AU