Trending Up
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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. This week: Drake and 21 Savage’s Her Loss album spurs gains for its sample sources, pop radio embraces TikTok hits with ever-accelerating velocity, and Christmas season is officially underway on streaming.
‘Her Loss’ is Daft Punk’s Gain
collaborative album Her Loss has already proven a streaming juggernaut, even by the standards of the two hip-hop superstars. The 16 songs on Her Loss — a return to form for Drake, following his dance detour Honestly, Nevermind earlier this year — still make up the entire top 16 of the current iTunes songs chart this Wednesday (Nov. 9), and every song is in the top 25 of the daily Spotify tally. The set (released via OVO/Republic/Slaughter Gang/Epic) is doing so well, in fact, that its success is even rolling over to its samples.
Tracks like The Isley Brothers’ “Ballad For the Fallen Soldier,” The Diplomats’ “Real N—as” and Ginuwine’s “Lonely Daze” are all sampled on Her Loss, but the standout lift is of Daft Punk’s eternal dance floor classic “One More Time,” which gets slowed down and paired with percolating percussion on “Circo Loco.” The sample has caused some listeners to seek out Daft Punk’s 2000 original – and as a result, daily U.S. on-demand streams of “One More Time” increased 55% (from 117,000 to 182,000, according to Luminate) upon the Her Loss release, and stayed relatively high throughout the following weekend. Daft Punk may have officially broken up early last year, but it’ll be cause for celebration to have Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo’s names appear as songwriters again on the Hot 100 soon enough. — JASON LIPSHUTZ
Is Pop Radio Adopting TikTok Hits More Quickly?
The Sam Smith–Kim Petras collaboration “Unholy” reaching the top five of Billboard’s Pop Airplay chart shouldn’t be a surprise: the Capitol/EMI team-up has been a smash since its September release and last month becoming both artists’ first career Hot 100 chart-topper. Smith has been a top 40 fixture for years, and “Unholy” is built around a tenaciously catchy hook that’s ripe for the format. Yet “Unholy” — which climbs four spots to No. 5 on the Pop Airplay chart in the week ending Nov. 6 after a 17% gain in plays at U.S. monitored top 40 stations, according to Luminate — started off squarely in the TikTok-hit range, with Smith and Petras teasing the track weeks ahead of its official release; the fact that it’s already a top five Pop Airplay hit, in only its sixth week on the chart, suggests that the format is starting to react to and adopt these sort of viral singles more rapidly than ever before.
Smith may have been a proven commodity at pop radio — albeit mostly with songs significantly more stately than the cacophonous and sexed-up “Unholy” — but Steve Lacy certainly wasn’t, and his “Bad Habit” has become a top 40 smash for RCA after growing on TikTok and streaming, up one spot to No. 2 on Pop Airplay. Meanwhile, The Weeknd’s “Die for You,” a song from his 2016 Republic release Starboy that has recently been revived online, reaches a new high of No. 10 on Pop Airplay this week, taking 11 weeks for programmers to switch attention away from more recent Weeknd fare and toward the resurrected fan favorite. Other songs with TikTok origins, from Stephen Sanchez’s “Until I Found You” to Jax’s “Victoria’s Secret” to Rosa Linn’s “Snap,” are also making waves on pop radio, sitting comfortably on the chart alongside new A-list radio singles from artists like Taylor Swift and Rihanna.
TikTok’s influence on popular music has been common knowledge for years, but the current Pop Airplay chart nods to the fact that viral hits no longer require multiple months to cross over to radio listeners. Expect that pipeline to keep speeding up, and more songs like “Unholy” to make that leap in a matter of weeks. – J.L.
Eminem’s “Mockingbird” Flies Again
Just when you thought TikTok’s predilection for sped-up versions of distinctly low-energy older songs couldn’t get any stranger, here comes Eminem’s “Mockingbird.” The dolorous 2005 single (from the rapper’s fourth Aftermath/Interscope LP Encore), written as an ode to daughter Hailie, has picked up steam on the service thanks to multiple faster versions of the track making the rounds – inspiring everything from sing-along challenges to clips of teens taking care of their younger siblings. Whatever the logic behind the trend, the song has subsequently soared on streaming, going from 1.5 million official on-demand U.S. streams the week ending Oct. 6 to over 3.1 million streams four weeks later – a gain of 104%, according to Luminate. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
20-Something Singer-Songwriter’s “QUARTER LIFE CRISIS” Strikes a Viral Chord
As All Time Low, Wheatus and countless other acts have discovered over the past couple years, there are few more proven recipes for TikTok success than a song that allows users to flash back to past photos – often providing contrasting juxtaposition with their more adult current look and life. Taylor Bickett is the latest artist to benefit from this. The unsigned Nashville singer-songwriter’s post-adolescent lament “QUARTER LIFE CRISIS” has inspired countless such clips with its “I swear sixteen was yesterday/ But now I’m closer to twenty-eight” lyrics. The 23-year-old’s clever track has already spiked 158% to nearly a million official on-demand U.S. streams for the week ending Nov. 6, according to Luminate — presumably making Bickett’s mid-20s look a lot brighter than they might have seemed when she wrote the song. – A.U.
Season’s Gainings: The Christmas Season Kicks Off Right on Time
If you had any doubt that the end of Halloween is now officially the start of pop music’s holiday season, the numbers this year make the trend pretty unmistakable. As we waved goodbye to Michael Jackson, Ray Parker Jr. and Bobby “Boris” Pickett this Nov. 1, holiday perennials from Brenda Lee, Bobby Helms and (of course) Mariah Carey all exploded with triple-digit percentage gains in official on-demand U.S. streams: “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” was up 176% to 615,000, “Jingle Bell Rock” up 185% to 602,000, and “All I Want for Christmas Is You” up a whopping 236% to nearly 1.3 million streams. In other words, if you’re getting dirty looks from your neighbor for already putting up your Christmas decorations this week, point them to the Spotify or Apple Music charts and let them know that you’re not starting early – they’re just already late. – A.U.
Rihanna’s Catalog Gets ‘Lift’ed With Comeback
Just one week after Taylor Swift’s Midnights was released to historic impact, we got an even longer-anticipated return from a global pop icon: Rihanna, who released her first new single in six years with the Def Jam-released Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ballad “Lift Me Up.” The song debuted with nearly eight million official on-demand U.S. streams and 16,000 in sales on Oct. 28, and racked up another 6.9 million streams and 11,000 sales over the next two days, all according to Luminate. Those numbers should portend a major Billboard Hot 100 debut for the single, though how deep it can strike into the Swift stronghold atop the chart currently remains to be seen. (A strong radio showing should also help: “Lift Me Up” registered 26.3 million in radio audience on pop, adult, rhythmic and R&B/hip-hop stations combined in its first three days (Oct. 28-30), 10 million better than even Swift’s Hot 100-topping “Anti-Hero” over the same period the prior week.)
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In the meantime, “Lift” has also raised the rest of Rihanna’s catalog, with her non-”Lift” streams bubbling up from 5.8 million last Monday (Oct. 24) to 6.8 million that Thursday as anticipation for the new song grew – then spiking another 24% to 8.4 million on Friday, after the song’s release. Gains for those songs – along with a Halloween-themed hike for her spooky smash “Disturbia” – should result in an increased presence for the Bad Gal on next week’s Billboard 200 albums chart, including a likely gain for 2016’s ANTI (No. 122 this week) and a possible re-entry from 2007’s Good Girl Gone Bad. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Meghan Trainor’s New ‘Look’ Is Beguiling Listeners
With all the big pop names making splashes the last couple weeks, you might have missed that Meghan Trainor has enjoyed solid returns as well. As her new album on Epic Takin’ It Back debuts at No. 16 on the Billboard 200, giving the pop singer-songwriter her best showing since 2016’s Thank You started at No. 3, recent single “Made You Look” also becomes her first solo Hot 100 entry in four years as it starts at No. 95. Trainor is no stranger to the Hot 100 — her debut single “All About That Bass” topped the chart in 2014 — but “Made You Look” could become her biggest hit in a half-decade, thanks in part to a body-positive trend that is gaining traction on TikTok.
Upon the album’s release on Oct. 21, Trainor launched a dance challenge for the call-and-response doo-wop hook that highlights natural beauty regardless of style. Yet some TikTok users have gone viral for cleverly deploying “Made You Look” to soundtrack a rejection of the male gaze and society’s sexualization of female bodies. No matter which trend they’re encountering, listeners are responding to “Made You Look,” with its daily U.S. on-demand streams crossing the 1 million mark for three straight days beginning last Friday (Oct. 28), according to Luminate. Keep an eye on how top 40 radio, which was key in breaking Trainor with “Bass” eight years ago, adopts her latest offering: “Made You Look” is currently bubbling under Pop Airplay and Adult Pop Airplay, with 266,000 in audience in its first three days. – JASON LIPSHUTZ
Get Down “Ton1ght” With Exøtix, j4m and Ludves
With the way TikTok trends have evolved toward addressing more serious issues, it almost feels like a refreshing throwback when a fun song unexpectedly gets popular on the back of a simple dance challenge. That’s basically what happened with rappers Exøtix and j4m’s haunting jam “Ton1ght,” with the song’s remix (featuring additional vocals from singer Luvdes) taking off on TikTok thanks to a series of videos of users doing a tricky and fast-paced footwork dance to it. The song, originally self-released via DistroKid on ExøtixWørld in October, racked up 615,000 on-demand U.S. streams on the week ending Oct. 27, a 664% gain, according to Luminate, topping Spotify’s Viral 50 – USA chart and making it feel like 2020 all over again – the more enjoyable parts, anyway. – AU
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: Taylor Swift’s blockbuster Midnights bow comes with sparkling cross-platform numbers for its lead single and big gains for her back catalog, while Billie Holiday spawns an unlikely new TikTok trend and Halloween perennials begin to perk back up.
‘Anti-Hero’ Already Saving the Day at Radio
A new Taylor Swift album yielding a huge song debut on the Billboard Hot 100 in the week after its release shouldn’t be a surprise by now. After all, three of her previous four full-lengths — Folklore, Evermore, and the Taylor’s Version re-recording of Red — arrived with concurrent No. 1 bows on the Hot 100: “Cardigan,” “Willow” and “All Too Well (10-Minute Version)” each reached the top of the chart in their respective debut weeks. “Anti-Hero,” the lead single from latest Republic LP Midnights, has a great shot to both join those songs as another chart-topper for Swift – and surpass them all as her biggest chart hit in years.
That’s in large part because the slick, sardonic pop standout is off to an enormous start at radio, even compared to Swift’s last three No. 1 singles. “Anti-Hero” debuts on three radio charts — Pop Airplay (No. 23), Adult Pop Airplay (No. 19) and Adult Contemporary (No. 14) — after just three days of activity, from its Oct. 21 release through Sunday, Oct. 23. In those three days, “Anti-Hero” earned 16.1 million audience impressions from over 275 reporters to Billboard’s all-format Radio Songs chart, according to Luminate. Compare that to the 5.8 million impressions for “Willow” or the 4.7 million for “Cardigan” over their respective first three days — or the 286,000 of “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)” across its full first week — and it’s clear that radio is very on board with Swift’s return to a more traditional pop sound.
Of course, the quick radio start for “Anti-Hero” comes in addition to blockbuster streaming numbers — over 30 million U.S. on-demands in its first three days, according to Luminate. Add up all of the harbingers of its big commercial debut and “Anti-Hero” very comfortably can announce: It’s me, hi, it’s the smash single, it’s me. – JASON LIPSHUTZ
Taylor Swift’s Back Catalog Soars, Before and After ‘Midnights’
Speaking of Swift’s streaming gains, the Oct. 21 release of Midnights was both preceded and followed by the superstar’s catalog earning renewed interest from fans eager to prepare themselves for the new album, then compare her latest opus to her others. After earning 56.9 million U.S. on-demand streams in the three days from Friday, Oct. 14, through Sunday, Oct. 16, according to Luminate, Swift’s catalog earned 64.6 million streams over the following three days – a 14% gain as Swifties celebrated the Midnights release week.
On Thursday, Oct. 20, the catalog jumped to 27.2 million daily streams — a 21% gain for Midnights Eve. And while Swift’s new album was the streaming focus for fans on the following day, they still clocked in nearly 23 million streams for her non-Midnights music last Friday, a 10% jump from the previous Friday. Swift turned the release of Midnights into a global event for fans, and they responded in kind by returning to their favorite older tracks in the days surrounding its unveiling. – JL
Odd TikTok Trend Brings Billie Holiday’s “Solitude” to the Masses
“Solitude” has a long history of re-popularizing itself. First, it was a popular recording by Duke Ellington in the 1930s; next, it reached its zenith with Billie Holiday’s rendition of the tune in 1952. More recently the tune was sung by Andra Day for the film the United States vs. Billie Holiday, and now it’s… become a meme on TikTok? While some users are still going back to the original Holiday audio, using the song to soundtrack cozy nights at home and baking videos, more videos come from a joke that the song has somehow inspired: users will go up to their friend, zooming in on old fashion-looking shoes they are wearing, saying, “oh s–t, they got the god d–n ‘in my solituuuude” (the “in my solitude” part sung in a mocking rendition of Holiday).
Regardless of whether or not it’s disrespectful to the jazz standard or just plain un-funny to you, the meme has given the Verve-reissued Holiday version of the song a major boost on streaming. “Solitude” posted nearly 649,000 official on-demand U.S. streams for the week ending Oct. 20 – a gain of over 85% from the previous week, according to Luminate. – KRISTIN ROBINSON
“Another” Bump for Tom Odell
British singer-songwriter Tom Odell’s heartbreak ballad “Another Love” was a major hit throughout Europe upon its release on Columbia a decade ago, making it to the top 10 of the U.K.’s Official Charts in early 2013, even as it mostly missed the charts stateside. But the song has been steadily growing once again over the past year thanks largely to its popularity on TikTok, and now it’s nearly as big a hit once more as it ever was: The song hits No. 10 on Billboard’s Global Excl. US chart this week in its 81st week, breezing past Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves” for the longest-ever climb to the listing’s top 10.
The song is making waves over here this time, too: After climbing steadily in consumption for most of the past month, this week the song gets a more pronounced spike, gaining 19% to nearly 4 million in official on-demand U.S. streams for the week ending Oct. 20. The streaming activity sends the song to a new No. 19 peak on Billboard’s Hot Rock & Alternative Songs tally this week (chart dated Oct. 29), and even to No. 15 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Q&A: Alex Tear, VP Pop Programming SiriusXM + Pandora, on What’s Trending Up in His World
With 2022 nearly in the books, what do you think we’ll consider as the biggest story in pop music this year by the time it ends?
One of the biggest stories for us this year is Harry’s House. From “As It Was” to “Late Night Talking” and “Music For A Sushi Restaurant,” our HITS 1 listeners continue to rank Harry at the top. Lizzo & Doja Cat’s pop presence also needs to be respected, from Lizzo’s No. 1 “About Damn Time” and “2 Be Loved” to Doja’s collab with Post Malone, “I Like You (A Happier Song),” and recent hit with “Vegas.”
Which songs could you foresee dominating the final few months of the year and pushing into the new year?
We’re so excited for Sam Smith and Kim Petras: “Unholy” has shook year-end according to our HITS 1 listeners. Rihanna’s “Lift Me Up” will close 2022 with a bang! Queen Bey’s “Cuff It” will also continue to do well and sounds great on SiriusXM.
Who’s one artist who made noise in 2022 that you think could have an even bigger 2023?
Sam Smith and Beyoncé, while giving honorable mention to Lil Nas X for 2023. Rihanna will also roll into the new year with a commanding presence!
Fill in the blank: in 2023, more programmers should be paying attention to __________.
Keeping the art and science present. The available resources to predict and measure music are abundant, it’s more important than ever to continue early human discovery to help shape, elevate, own and differentiate our brands with the next emerging artists. – J.L.
Season’s Gainings: Halloween Listening Starts Early
We hear a lot about how the Christmas season starts earlier every year – but before Mariah & Co. officially begin their takeover, we’re also seeing Spooky Season expanded well beyond the final week of October. Perennial Halloween favorites have been seeing huge gains since the end of September: Bobby “Boris” Pickett’s “Monster Mash” has gained from 654,000 official on-demand U.S. streams and 700 digital sales for the week ending Sept. 22 to over 2.4 million streams and 2,000 sales four weeks later (gains of 270% and 197%, respectively), according to Luminate, while Ray Parker Jr.’s “Ghostbusters” raised from just over one million streams and 300 sales to just over three million streams and 1,200 sales (up 188% and 247%, respectively).
And then of course, there’s the daddy of them all: Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” which has re-entered the Hot 100 in eight of the past nine Halloween seasons – making it all the way back to No. 19 last year. We’ll see if it has enough juice to beat that position this year (or even threaten its original No. 4 peak, set back in 1984), but it’s already up to 3.6 million in streams and 1,700 in sales, gains of 129% and 181% from four weeks earlier. – AU
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