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What were some of the most notable trends on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart in the first half of 2023?

Hit Songs Deconstructed, which provides compositional analytics for top 10 Hot 100 hits, has released its State of the Hot 100 Top 10: Mid-Year 2023 report.

Here are three takeaways from Hit Songs Deconstructed’s latest in-depth research.

Country Remains Tied With Pop

In the first six months of 2023, country and pop remained tied as the most common primary genres in the Hot 100’s top 10, each contributing to 23% of all top 10 hits. Country and pop shared the lead in Q1 2023, at 26% each.

“Country was the big gainer, tying pop for top honors largely thanks to the success of Morgan Wallen,” Hit Songs Deconstructed’s report notes. “The genre skyrocketed from just 4% of songs in 2022 to nearly one-quarter in the first half of 2023, the highest level it’s been in over a decade.”

Wallen’s haul has been led by “Last Night,” which first topped the Hot 100 dated March 18 and has reigned for 15 weeks, matching for the fourth-longest command in the chart’s history.

As for pop, despite its domination, its 23% share of all Hot 100 top 10s in the first half of 2023 continues a decline for the genre, from 35% in all of 2022; a leading 39% in 2021; 40% in 2020; and a winning 47% in 2019.

At the same time, as Hit Songs Deconstructed noted earlier this year, while country has ascended in the Hot 100’s top 10, driven by Wallen’s hits, the genre boasts notable similarities to pop songs.

Hip-hop’s presence likewise continued to fall among Hot 100 top 10s, with its 14% take in the first half of 2023 good for a third-place tie among primary genres, down noticeably from a first-place 38% finish in 2022; 34% in 2021; a leading 41% in 2020; and 34% in 2019.

“With pop and hip-hop both dropping in the first six months of 2023, the former [sank] to its lowest level in over a decade and the latter plummet[ed] to its lowest level since 2016,” the report points out.

Meanwhile, Latin tied hip-hop in the first half of 2023 with its 14% share of all Hot 100 top 10s. The genre rose to its “highest level in over a decade,” notes Hit Songs Deconstructed, “thanks in part to Bad Bunny and Shakira (two hits each) and Peso Pluma and Eslabon Armado’s breakout regional Mexican hit, ‘Ella Baila Sola.’ ”

Country Helps Bring Back Guitars

Hit Songs Deconstructed riffs on the rise of guitars in the Hot 100’s top over the first half of 2023.

“Guitars, both electric and acoustic, rose to their highest levels since 2014 and over a decade, respectively,” in the chart’s top 10 in that span, according to the mid-year recap. “While this is largely due to the influx of country hits in the top 10, guitar was notably used in hits from other genres, as well, including pop (Jimin’s ‘Like Crazy’), R&B/soul (SZA’s ‘Kill Bill’), hip-hop (Ice Spice and Nicki Minaj’s ‘Princess Diana’), dance/club (Beyoncé’s ‘Cuff It’), rock (Steve Lacy’s ‘Bad Habit’) and Latin (‘Ella Baila Sola’).”

Plus, “acoustic drums tripled in prominence over 2022 to just under one-fifth of songs, its highest level since 2015,” Hit Songs Deconstructed notes of the instrument’s presence in the Hot 100’s top 10 from January through June. “Their use also spanned an array of genres, including country, Latin, pop and R&B/soul.”

Key Change: A Major Development

As country and pop outperformed hip-hop in the Hot 100’s top bracket, “top 10s with a major tonality increased to just over half of songs in the first half of 2023, surpassing minor-keyed songs for the first time since 2014,” Hit Songs Deconstructed further analyzes.

Major-keyed Hot 100 top 10s in the first six months of 2023 squeaked past those primarily in a minor key, 51% to 49%. Minor-key top 10s had won handily in recent years, including in 2022 (58% to 39%), 2021 (59% to 39%), 2020 (60% to 40%) and 2019 (55% to 43%). (In each year noted, between 0 and 2% of all top 10s have been characterized by Hit Songs Deconstructed in both major and minor keys.)

“Outside the hip-hop genre, major was slightly more common (57% vs. 43%), while within hip-hop, minor has been in the majority for over a decade and accounted for 80% of songs in the first half of the year,” Hit Songs Deconstructed adds.

Among notable major-key Hot 100 top 10s in the first half of 2023 were Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero,” Rema and Selena Gomez’s “Calm Down” and Luke Combs’ “Fast Car.”