Chart Beat
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As Stray Kids’ new album ATE opens at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart (dated Aug. 3), they become the first group ever to debut at No. 1 with their first five charting albums. Stray Kids previously debuted atop the chart with ODDINARY, MAXIDENT (both in 2022), ROCK-STAR and 5-STAR (both in 2023). The […]
Twisters: The Album enters the Billboard 200 (dated Aug. 3) at No. 7. It’s the first country-dominated soundtrack to a theatrically-released film to make the top 10 on the all-genre chart since Country Strong, which reached No. 6 in January 2011.
“Twisters” is only the second country soundtrack from a theatrically-released film to debut in the top 10, after Hannah Montana: The Movie, which opened at No. 2 in April 2009. The album, which reached No. 1 three weeks later, featured star Miley Cyrus’ pop/country crossover hit “The Climb.”
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Other country-dominated film soundtracks to reach the top 10 include Urban Cowboy (No. 3 in 1980), George Strait’s Pure Country (No. 6 in 1992), Hope Floats (No. 4 in 1998), Coyote Ugly (No. 10 in 2000), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (No. 1 in 2002) and Walk the Line, from the Oscar-winning Johnny Cash biopic (No. 9 in 2006).
Twisters has already climbed higher than the soundtrack to the original Twister, which peaked at No. 28 in 1996. That Warner release was mostly rock and featured such artists as Tori Amos, Van Halen, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Stevie Nicks & Lindsey Buckingham.
The new album, released on Atlantic, features such established country artists as Luke Combs, Miranda Lambert, Kane Brown, Lainey Wilson, Shania Twain and Jelly Roll, as well as such rising stars as Bailey Zimmerman, Breland and Tanner Adell. (Notably, both albums came from the Warner Music Group family of labels.)
Twain also had a track (“No One Needs to Know”) on the Twister soundtrack. She was one of the few non-rock artists on board for that album, along with k.d. lang and Alison Krauss & Union Station. On the new album, she teams with Breland to perform “Boots Don’t.” She is the only artist to appear on both albums.
The arrival of Twisters ends a notable drought in recent months for soundtracks. Three weeks ago, the highest-ranking soundtrack on the Billboard 200 (Barbie: The Album) was way down at No. 172. That marked the first time that the highest-ranking soundtrack on the Billboard 200 had ranked that low in the more than seven years that the Billboard 200 and the Top Soundtracks chart have adhered to the same chart formula.
Since Feb. 11, 2017, both charts have ranked the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA).
Twisters is the first soundtrack from any genre to appear in the top 10 since Barbie: The Album (which, like Twisters: The Album, was released on Atlantic) ended its top 10 run in September.
This marks the first time that no soundtracks appeared in the top 10 in the first six months of a calendar year since 1987. The first soundtrack to make the top 10 that year (Beverly Hills Cop II) did so in the issue dated Aug. 1.
There are only two other years since 1956 – when the Billboard 200 bowed as a regular, weekly feature – where no soundtracks appeared in the top 10 in the first six months of the year. In 1972, the first soundtrack to make the top 10 that year (Curtis Mayfield’s Superfly) did so in the issue dated Oct. 7. In 1976, the first soundtrack to make the top 10 that year (Led Zeppelin’s The Song Remains the Same) did so in the issue dated Nov. 6.
Soundtracks have been a big part of the album market since the introduction of the Billboard 200. On the first chart – March 24, 1956 – soundtracks to Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals held two of the top three spots. Oklahoma! and Carousel were No. 2 and No. 3, respectively. (A non-soundtrack, Harry Belafonte’s Belafonte, was No. 1.)
At least one soundtrack appeared in the top 10 every week from that first chart on March 24, 1956 through Dec. 22, 1958. In the mid-1960s, there was an even longer winning streak. At least one soundtrack appeared in the top 10 every week from July 25, 1964 through June 10, 1967.
Twisters ranked No. 1 at the boxoffice last weekend, but falls to No. 2 this weekend behind the new Deadpool & Wolverine. The original Twister was No. 1 for two weekends in May 1996. Isaac Chung directed Twisters, which stars Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones. Jan de Bont directed the original Twister, which starred Helen Hunt and the late Bill Paxton.
K-pop superstars Stray Kids and Jimin make a splash atop the Billboard 200 (dated Aug. 3), as the acts’ latest albums, ATE and MUSE, debut at Nos. 1 and 2, respectively. In turn, it marks the first time the top two on the Billboard 200 are K-pop (Korean pop) albums.
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Further, ATE lands Stray Kids their fifth No. 1 in a row, making the act the first group ever to debut at No. 1 with their first five charting albums. They previously opened atop the chart with ODDINARY, MAXIDENT (both in 2022), ROCK-STAR and 5-STAR (both in 2023).
The only other artist to debut at No. 1 with its first five chart entries was rapper DMX in 1998-2003 with It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot (1998), Flesh of My Flesh Blood of My Blood (1999), …And Then There Was X (2000), The Great Depression (2001) and Grand Champ (2003).
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ATE arrives with 232,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending July 25, according to Luminate. That’s the largest week of 2024 for any K-pop album, and the sixth-biggest debut for any album this year. MUSE moves in with 96,000 units, and gives BTS member Jimin his second solo album to reach No. 2 (after last year’s FACE).
Also in the top 10 of the new Billboard 200, the Twisters soundtrack debuts at No. 7 with 57,000 equivalent album units earned. The country music-heavy album is the first soundtrack to reach the top 10 in 2024, and it does so with the year’s biggest week, by units earned, for any soundtrack. Further, it’s the first country soundtrack from a theatrical film to reach the top 10 in over a decade.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Aug. 3, 2024-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on July 30. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Of ATE’s 232,000 first-week units, album sales comprise 218,000, SEA units comprise 13,000 (equaling 19.05 million on-demand streams of the set’s songs) and TEA units comprise 1,000. With 218,000 copies sold, ATE is the top-selling album of the week, debuting at No. 1 on Top Album Sales. It also nets the largest sales week for any K-pop album this year and 2024’s second-largest sales week for any album of any genre (trailing only the 1.91-million sales debut of Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department). ATE’s sales were bolstered by its availability across 11 different CD variants, all containing collectible items like photocards, stickers and posters (some of which was randomized), including signed editions, as well as variants exclusive to Barnes & Noble, Target and Walmart.
As ATE is mostly in the Korean language, it is the 25th mostly non-English-language album to hit No. 1, and the second of 2024. On the March 9-dated chart, TWICE’s With YOU-th garnered the group its first leader when it opened at No. 1. Of the 25 mostly non-English-language albums to reach No. 1, 16 are mostly Korean, five mostly (or all) Spanish, one mostly Italian, one entirely French, and two mostly a blend of Spanish, Italian and French. Of the 25 almost all non-English-language albums to reach No. 1, 21 have topped the chart since 2018 (the year that K-pop superstars BTS scored their first of six No. 1s, with the chart’s first Korean-language No. 1s). Further, of the 16 K-pop albums that have reached No. 1, Stray Kids and BTS account for 11 (five and six, respectively).
Speaking of BTS, the group’s Jimin sees his latest solo project MUSE bow at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with 96,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, album sales comprise 74,000 (aided by its availability across nine CD variants, containing collectible posters, photocards and stickers; inclusive of exclusive editions sold at Barnes & Noble, Target and Walmart), SEA units comprise 15,000 and TEA units comprise 7,000. In 2023, Jimin’s first solo charting set, FACE, debuted and peaked at No. 2.
MUSE was preceded by the Billboard Hot 100-charting “Smeraldo Garden Marching Band” (with Loco), which debuted at No. 88 on the July 13-dated list.
Eminem’s The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) falls to No. 3 in its second week with 79,000 equivalent album units earned (down 72%) after debuting at No. 1 a week ago. Swift’s former leader The Tortured Poets Department is a non-mover at No. 4 with 74,000 units (down 9%); Zach Bryan’s The Great American Bar Scene slips 3-5 with 71,000 (down 19%); and Morgan Wallen’s chart-topping One Thing at a Time dips 5-6 with 65,000 (down 2%).
Twisters: The Album debuts at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 with 57,000 equivalent album units earned — marking the first soundtrack the reach the top 10 in 2024 and the year’s biggest week, by units, for any soundtrack. Of that sum, SEA units comprise 40,000 (equaling 52.85 million on-demand official streams of the set’s 29 songs), album sales comprise 14,000 (it was available to purchase a digital download, CD and in three vinyl variants) and TEA units comprise 3,000.
The country music-heavy project is the companion album to the film Twisters, which blew into U.S. movie theaters on July 19. The film is a standalone sequel to 1996’s Twister, which boasted a rock-focused soundtrack (peaking at No. 28 on the Billboard 200).
The Twisters album features a wealth of new original material from country stars including Luke Combs, Jelly Roll, Miranda Lambert and Lainey Wilson, and was preceded by three charting hits on the Hot Country Songs chart (Combs’ “Ain’t No Love In Oklahoma,” Bailey Zimmerman’s “Hell or High Water” and Tyler Childers’ “Song While You’re Away”). Twenty of the album’s 29 songs appear in the movie, and over half of the album’s tracks were released over the course of the 10 weeks leading up to the set’s drop on July 19.
Twisters is the first country soundtrack to reach the top 10 since the Jan. 4, 2014-dated chart, when The Robertsons’ TV soundtrack Duck the Halls: A Robertson Family Christmas closed out its last week in the top 10, having peaked at No. 3 the previous November. As for country soundtracks to theatrical films, like Twisters, the last to reach the top 10 was Country Strong, which peaked at No. 6 on the Jan. 29, 2011, chart. The last country soundtrack from a theatrical film to debut in the top 10, like Twisters, was Hannah Montana: The Movie, which bowed at No. 2 on the April 11, 2009, chart, later reaching No. 1 on the May 2 list. (Soundtrack and country albums are defined as those that are eligible for, or have charted on, Billboard’s Soundtracks and Top Country Albums charts, respectively.)
Closing out the top 10 of the new Billboard 200 is Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess (falling 7-8 with 54,000 equivalent album units; up less than 1%), Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft (6-9 with nearly 54,000; down 5%), and Noah Kahan’s Stick Season (holding at No. 10 with 43,000; up 10%).
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
A month after The Outsiders: A New Musical took home four Tony Awards, including best musical, the original Broadway cast recording of the show hits No. 1 on Billboard’s Cast Albums chart. The set jumps 10-1 on the July 27-dated list, following the album’s CD release. The album had previously been available to purchase only […]
After becoming Post Malone’s first No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart, “I Had Some Help,” featuring Morgan Wallen, crosses over to the top of the Pop Airplay tally (dated July 26).
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The song, which ruled Country Airplay for four weeks beginning in June, is Post Malone’s sixth Pop Airplay No. 1 and Wallen’s first. (It became the 13th of Wallen’s 14 Country Airplay leaders.) Post Malone last led Pop Airplay with “I Like You (A Happier Song),” featuring Doja Cat, in 2022; he first reigned with “Psycho,” featuring Ty Dolla $ign, in 2018.
“I Had Some Help” is just the second song ever to top both Country Airplay and Pop Airplay (since the lists launched in 1990 and 1992, respectively). Taylor Swift’s “Love Story” commanded Country Airplay for two weeks in November 2008 and Pop Airplay for a week in February 2009. (Republic Records has promoted both singles to pop radio.)
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Plus, thanks to “I Had Some Help” and Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” up to No. 1 on Country Airplay as it holds at its No. 5 high on Pop Airplay, the charts share two top five hits simultaneously for the first time. To date, only 10 songs have reached the top five of both rankings at all; Wallen and Swift boast two each.
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Songs to Hit the Top Five on Both Country Airplay & Pop Airplay:
“I Had Some Help,” Post Malone feat. Morgan Wallen, 2024 / No. 1 Country Airplay, No. 1 Pop Airplay
“A Bar Song (Tipsy),” Shaboozey, 2024 / No. 1 Country Airplay, No. 5 peak Pop Airplay, to date
“Last Night,” Morgan Wallen, 2023 / No. 1 Country Airplay, No. 5 Pop Airplay
“I Hope,” Gabby Barrett (feat. Charlie Puth on its pop remix), 2020 / No. 1 Country Airplay, No. 3 Pop Airplay
“Meant To Be,” Bebe Rexha & Florida Georgia Line, 2018 / No. 1 Country Airplay, No. 2 Pop Airplay
“Need You Now,” Lady Antebellum, 2009-10 / No. 1 Country Airplay, No. 2 Pop Airplay
“You Belong With Me,” Taylor Swift, 2009 / No. 1 Country Airplay, No. 2 Pop Airplay
“Love Story,” Taylor Swift, 2008-09 / No. 1 Country Airplay, No. 1 Pop Airplay
“All Summer Long,” Kid Rock, 2008 / No. 4 Country Airplay, No. 4 Pop Airplay
“You’re Still the One,” Shania Twain, 1998 / No. 1 Country Airplay, No. 3 Pop Airplay
Related to country and pop crossover hits, seven titles have hit the top five of both surveys but via two versions each: “Back at One” (by Brian McKnight and Mark Wills, in 1999-2000); “(God Must Have Spent) A Little More Time on You” (*NSYNC, and Alabama feat. *NSYNC, 1999); “I Don’t Want To Miss a Thing” (Aerosmith and Mark Chesnutt, 1998-99); “How Do I Live” (Trisha Yearwood and LeAnn Rimes, 1997); “Nobody Knows” (The Tony Rich Project and Kevin Sharp, 1996-97); “I Can Love You Like That” (John Michael Montgomery and All-4-One, 1995); and “I Swear” (Montgomery and All-4-One, 1994).
Additionally, Whitney Houston crowned Pop Airplay for nine weeks in 1992-93 with “I Will Always Love You.” Dolly Parton, who penned the classic, led the Hot Country Songs chart with her versions in 1974 and 1982.
Shaboozey scores his first No. 1 in his first appearance on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart as “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” ascends to the top of the tally dated Aug. 3. It increased by 14% to 31.4 million audience impressions July 19-25, according to Luminate. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts […]
The Billboard Hot 100 chart ranks the top songs in the United States each week, blending streaming, radio airplay and sales figures (per data tracker Luminate). Unsurprisingly, the biggest hits tend to be relatively new at any given time, as they have been since the survey began in 1958. On the latest list, five acts are even enjoying their first top 10s: Shaboozey, Tommy Richman, Sabrina Carpenter – simultaneously logging her first two top 10s – Teddy Swims and Benson Boone.
But what about the current biggest hits that were released in past decades?
Nostalgia sells, and streams and attracts strong radio play, per a Billboard analysis of the best-performing songs in the July 12-18 tracking week that were originally released in the 2000s, 1990s, ‘80s, ‘70s and ‘60s.
Similarly, as Luminate revealed in its midyear report, catalog music (released 18 months or earlier) accounted for 73% of all album consumption in the first half of 2024, matching its share in 2023, and up slightly from its totals earlier this decade. (Even the Hot 100’s current No. 1 draws from the past, as Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song [Tipsy],” on top for a second week, interpolates J-Kwon’s 2004 hit “Tipsy.”)
Below is a look at the top 10 songs this week from each decade from the ‘00s back to the ‘60s. Notably, the top track from the ‘00s experienced an unexpected surge: Following the July 13 shooting of former president Donald Trump during a campaign rally, memes emerged comparing him to 50 Cent, who was shot nine times in 2000. (Mused a shrugging 50 Cent, “Trump gets shot and now I’m trending.”)
The rapper’s “Many Men (Wish Death)” subsequently reigns as the biggest song from the 2000s July 12-18, led by 6.4 million official U.S. streams – up 224% week-over-week.
The song’s performance outpaces its original showing, as it bubbled under the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart in 2003 and has yet to reach the ranking, or the Hot 100. Still, most of the titles below (and, happily, reflecting content of a more peaceable nature) were substantial hits upon their releases, with over 80% top 10 hits on the Hot 100 over the five decades analyzed.
Browse below the most prominent representation of songs from the 2000s (2000-09), 1990s, ‘80s, ‘70s and ‘60s over the past week, encompassing a wide variety of genres, from pop and hip-hop to new wave, classic rock and Motown.
Biggest Hits This Week From the 2000s
Image Credit: Theo Wargo/WireImage
Slim Shady’s not dead on Australia’s charts.
Eminem’s The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) (via Interscope/Universal) enters a second week at No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart, published Friday, July 26.
As previously reported, The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) is the Rap God’s 11th No. 1 in Australia, a streak that reaches back to The Marshall Mathers LP in 2000. It’s his 10th to debut at the summit.
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The top new release on the latest ARIA Chart belongs to K-pop group Stray Kids with their mini album Ate (VMG/Universal), new at No. 5. It’s Stray Kids’ fifth ARIA Top 50 appearance after Noeasy (No. 14 in 2021), Maxident (No. 4 in 2022), 5-Star and Rock-Star (both peaked at No. 2 in 2023).
Stray Kids have an Australian connection through bandmates Felix and Bang Chan. Earlier this week, the pop group announced the Australia leg of their dominATE world tour, with shows at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium (Oct. 19) and Sydney’s Allianz Stadium (Oct. 26), produced by Live Nation.
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British indie band Glass Animals roars to No. 5 with I Love You So F***ing (via Polydor/Universal), their fourth studio album. Glass Animals made an early breakthrough with Australian audiences when, in 2021, their song “Heat Waves” won triple j’s Hottest 100 countdown. “Heat Waves” went on to finish 2021 as the year’s best-selling single in Australia.
As TV Girl completes a four-date, three-city tour of Australia, the U.S. alternative pop act lands chart debuts with the independently-released 2016 LP Who Really Cares (at No. 13) and 2014 debut French Exit (No. 19). TV Girl wrapped its national tour July 20 with a performance at Brisbane’s Riverstage with The Last Dinner Party.
Further down the albums tally, BTS member Jimin’s new album Muse (BigHit Entertainment/Universal) arrives at No. 27, for his first solo appearance on the national albums survey.
Over on the ARIA Singles Chart, Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” (via Empire) starts a fourth consecutive week at No. 1. Meanwhile, Billie Eilish’s “Birds Of A Feather” flies 3-2, for a new chart position. According to ARIA, it’s the U.S. pop phenomenon’s fourth single to reach the top 2 following “Bad Guy,” “Everything I Wanted” and “What Was I Made For?” “Birds of a Feather” is lifted from former No. 1 Hit Me Hard And Soft, which dips 2-3 on the albums leaderboard.
Finally, Sabrina Carpenter doubles up with top 5 appearances for platinum-certified “Espresso” (down 2-3 via Island/Universal) and “Please Please Please” (down 4-5). Both singles have logged time at No. 1.
Many streams for “Many Men (Wish Death)” power 50 Cent’s Get Rich or Die Tryin’ album flying back to No. 22 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart dated July 27. The set enjoys its highest chart rank since its original 2003 release run, spurred by a “Many Men” streaming boost after many social media users used the song to comment on the July 13 shooting at former president Donald Trump’s rally.
For the tracking week of July 12-18, Get Rich or Die Tryin’ earned 13,000 equivalent album units, according to Luminate, a 62% surge from 8,000 units in the previous week. “Many Men” drove much of the improvement, with the song registering 6.4 million official U.S. streams in the tracking week, a 224% rally from its 2 million total in the prior frame. It was the best-streamed Get Rich or Die Tryin’ cut for the week, eclipsing usual frontrunner “In Da Club,” which pulled 3.9 million clicks.
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Accompanying the streaming boost, “Many Men” also experienced a sales lift to 3,000 downloads sold, up from a negligible amount in the previous tracking week. Thanks to the purchases, the track launches at No. 4 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Digital Song Sales chart and No. 14 on the all-genre Digital Song Sales list.
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“Many Men” — with the chorus starting with the line “Many men wish death upon me” — surged in online popularity in the wake of July 13’s apparent attempted assassination of Trump near Butler, Pennsylvania. Social media users soundtracked memes with the song and shared altered Get Rich or Die Tryin’ album covers with the former president’s head superimposed on 50 Cent, who famously survived being shot nine times. The rapper himself joined in on the trend, even promoting his own “Many Men” T-shirts.
With its No. 22 return on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, Get Rich or Die Tryin’ attains its best showing since its No. 21 rank on the chart dated Oct. 4, 2003. At the time, the album was enjoying its third consecutive top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, “P.I.M.P.,” after prior singles “In Da Club” and “21 Questions,” featuring Nate Dogg, both topped the chart. Notably, although “Many Men” wasn’t pushed as an official single and never charted on the Hot 100, its fan-favorite status gave it 12 weeks on the Bubbling Under Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart in 2003.
Elsewhere, Get Rich or Die Tryin’ returns at No. 17 on the Top Rap Albums chart and rockets 185-75 on the all-genre Billboard 200.
Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up newsletter, 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.
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This week: The nation-shaking news of President Joe Biden stepping down from the upcoming presidential race, presumably to be replaced on the Democratic ticket with Vice President Kamala Harris, has already led to a number of sizeable bumps for Harris-connected pop songs, while Tenacious D gets a bump from recent interest that they’d likely be happier without.
Kamala IS Brat — But Harris’ Ascent is Boosting More Artists Than Just Charli XCX
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When President Joe Biden announced on Sunday (July 21) that he was ending his 2024 re-election campaign and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee, the biggest news of the week in U.S. politics was seismic enough to naturally spread into the world of popular culture. Plenty of music stars quickly reacted to the announcement, and a handful have already endorsed Harris as their 2024 candidate — but a few music tie-ins are already reverberating on streaming platforms in the opening days of her candidacy.
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There is, of course, the role that Harris’ coronation plays in our ongoing Brat Summer. On Sunday night, Charli XCX posted on Twitter, “Kamala IS Brat,” and the Harris campaign responded in kind, swapping in the Brat lime green color and font on its official account; meanwhile, CNN aired a segment dissecting what exactly being “brat” signifies, in relationship to the British pop star’s hit new album. Thanks in part to the campaign’s co-sign, Brat is up 14% in official on-demand U.S. streams from last Monday and Tuesday (10.3 million streams over July 15-16, according to Luminate) to the same period this week (11.8 million streams over July 22-23).
Meanwhile, the Harris campaign used Chappell Roan’s opening track on The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, “Femininonenon,” in a TikTok video that criticized President Trump on Monday, boosting streams of the song by 19% from last Monday and Tuesday (1.22 million streams over July 15-16) to this Monday and Tuesday (1.46 million over July 22-23). And while both the Charli XCX and Chappell Roan albums are relatively recent projects still earning robust streams, the Harris campaign also revived “Freedom,” Beyoncé’s collaboration with Kendrick Lamar from her 2016 album Lemonade, which she has adopted as her official campaign theme (which Queen Bey’s approval), with it soundtracking her first campaign HQ entrance on Monday and her first campaign ad on Tuesday. Consequently, streams of “Freedom” leapt from 37,000 over July 15-16 to 232,000 over July 22-23 — a whopping 519% spike. – JASON LIPSHUTZ
Tenacious D Up in Streams After Member’s Trump Assassination Comments Leads to Band Going on Hiatus
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This hasn’t been the best month for the Jack Black-fronted comedy-rockers Tenacious D, who found themselves in the eye of a controversy storm following an onstage comment made by co-founder Kyle Gass at the band’s July 14 gig in Sydney, Australia. During a birthday celebration in which he was presented with a birthday cake, Black asked Gass to make a birthday wish, to which he responded, “Don’t miss Trump next time.” The remark was, of course, in reference to the assassination attempt the night before on former president Donald Trump — and ultimately made for global news, as word of the comment spread over social media and ultimately drew heavy criticism.
In response to the backlash, Gass issued an apology (which has since been deleted) for his “severe lack of judgment” in his remarks about what he now deemed a “tragedy.” Shortly after, Black released his own statement, saying that he was “blindsided” by his bandmate’s remarks, and that he’d decided to cancel the rest of his and Gass’ 2024 tour and put the band on indefinite hiatus.
Perhaps the lone bit of good news for Tenacious D in all of this is that all the controversy has lead to a modest spike of streaming interest in the band’s music. Over the period of July 16-17 — the two days after news of Gass’ comment, the subsequent backlash and the band’s response to it really started to go viral — the band attracted 609,000 official on-demand U.S. streams, according to Luminate, a gain of 14% over the 533,000 streams the band racked up the previous Tuesday-Wednesday. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Sevdaliza’s Culture-Bridging Global Smash Makes Some Stateside Headway
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What do you get when you combine a Dutch-Iranian artist (Sevadaliza), a Brazilian singer (Pabllo Vittar) and a French singer-songwriter (Yseult)? A global hit, of course.
“Alibi,” an infectious multilingual bop, has taken over the world thanks to its hypnotic melody and sample of colombian singer Totó la Momposina’s “Rosa” — which boasts a history that dates back to 1918.
According to Luminate, “Alibi” earned just under 1.6 million official on-demand U.S. streams during the period of June 28-July 4. The following seven-day period (July 5-11), those figures increased by 35% to 2.15 million streams. By the period of July 12-18, once the waist-isolating TikTok dance trend truly started to take off, streams for “Alibi” exploded by a further 121% to 4.7 million streams. In just two weeks, “Albi” was able to increase its streaming activity by a whopping 200%.
Officially released on June 28, “Alibi” arrived as an immediate viral sensation thanks to its months-long TikTok notoriety. Sevdaliza’s May 6 TikTok teasing the track currently boasts a stunning 18.5 million views, with the official “Alibi” sound playing in over 2.4 million unique posts on the app. A simple belly dance-inspired trend focusing on hip-rolling and waist-wining (depending on your skill level) is by far the most dominant “Alibi” trend on the app, while clips of people gawking at the muscle control or lamenting that they could never dance in that way making up a significant portion of posts as well. “Alibi” received another wind of virality after users started to share their opinions of a viral quinceañera video – which contained dance moves some thought were inappropriate for a 15-year-old to perform in front of family – as the song played in the background. On YouTube, the song’s official music video has amassed over 35 million views in just three weeks. The baile funk and Latin pop banger also soundtracks over 660,000 Reels on Instagram.
Already a Billboard hit – the song has reached No. 3 on World Digital Song Sales, No. 19 on the Global 200 and No. 8 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 — “Alibi” could be gearing up for a Hot 100 appearance, should its streams continue to rise. – KYLE DENIS