Hot 100 Reviews

Billboard Roundup: March 2024

March was a relatively quiet month, with only eight new songs cracking the top 40. However it did produce a couple of big hits, and with Metro Boomin, Beyoncé and Taylor Swift around the corner in April, 2024 feels as if it’s off to a relatively fresh start. Certainly that’s true compared to the charts…

Billboard Roundup: February 2024

February continued the steady start of the chart year, with a batch of new songs gradually working their way in whilst 2023’s leftovers stubbornly hold firm. Most of these songs are either big debuts that fell off, or songs that seem like they might pan out as minor hits, but we did get a big…

Billboard Roundup: January 2024

January always provides a bumper crop of songs as those that were prevented from entering the top 40 last month by all the Christmas music cascade in. Not everything here is ancient though, there are a few fresh hits and fresh faces to work through, for better and also for worse. A whopping fifteen songs…

Billboard Roundup: December 2023

December is always extremely dead for new top 40 arrivals due to the lack of new releases, and all the Christmas music making it much harder to chart high. In fact the current #40 on the Hot 100 would be #12 without the Xmas stuff. So two songs it is, but they both give me…

The Top Ten Best Hit Songs of 2023

How was 2023 as a year in popular music? Well the first word that comes to mind is probably uneventful. The year was really dominated by the album bombs and associated single runs of Taylor Swift, Sza and Morgan Wallen, two of which came out last year, with Morgan’s album dropping in early March. These…

Billboard Roundup: 2023 Extras

You know what time it is! Songs that made the year-end list that I didn’t cover in Billboard Roundup, remixes, and then some shout-outs to songs that should’ve been proper hits. Part One: Missing Hits “Bloody Mary” by Lady Gaga Peak #41, Year-end #99 TikTok! Somebody on that app decided that a sped-up version of…

Billboard Roundup: November 2023

Following Billboard’s recent epiphany that the calendar year actually ends in mid-October, their year-end charts for 2023 are now already out. My usual bonus roundup and best hits list will therefore be out before December’s Roundup, all being well. I guess that makes this batch the start of 2024, and November did serve up a…

Billboard Roundup: October 2023

I was expecting to say that we now have just a couple of weeks of the chart year to go, but Billboard had other ideas. According to a memo in their own press release concerning the upcoming Billboard Music Awards, that nobody cares about, the chart year already ended in mid-October. I’m in agreement with…

Billboard Roundup: September 2023

September normally gives us the last big musical events of the chart year, as everything released past this point will have much more impact in 2024. To that effect we did get two big album bombs that look like they’ll each produce a hit single, one being significantly better than the other. Elsewhere, pop had…

Billboard Roundup: August 2023

August didn’t quite have the explosion of musical storylines that July did, but it kept things ticking over nicely enough. Travis Scott dominated the album charts all month whilst making a modest impact on the Hot 100, and country music continued it’s mega year with another unexpected chart topper. Most of what ended up breaking…

Billboard Roundup: July 2023

Finally, the year has begun. Close number one races, controversy, lead singles from returning pop stars, huge album bombs, a soundtrack takeover; July had it all. Furthermore, we also got some actual quality which was a nice upset. It wasn’t all good but it was at least interesting and eventful which aren’t words I would…

Billboard Roundup: June 2023

Another month comes and goes without a whole lot of action, so much so that people have turned back to 2019 to find the biggest rising hit of the month. With a new Olivia Rodrigo single and incoming album bombs from Lil Uzi Vert and Taylor Swift, July is already guaranteed to be more interesting…

Billboard Roundup: May 2023

My prediction of the charts exploding into life in April and May didn’t exactly go to plan. Instead we’ve got a few country songs, some more foreign stuff, and three singles from established big acts, none of which are exactly setting the world on fire. Oh well, hopefully the law of averages means we’ll get…

Billboard Roundup: April 2023

I said last month that April is the time of year where the charts tend to really get going, and whilst that did happen in terms of the quantity of songs reaching the top 40 this month, it didn’t exactly deliver the glut of big hits I was anticipating. We’ve got a smattering of country…

Billboard Roundup: March 2023

March has come and gone, and it’s fair to say that the charts got absolutely Wallen’d. Eighteen of the tracks from his new album are still charting on the Hot 100 in their third week and he even managed one week at number one with Last Night, which is a pretty remarkable feat for a…

Billboard Roundup: February 2023

2023 is beginning to take shape a little with new songs occupying the top five of the Hot 100, but so far there hasn’t been a great deal of action lower down. Proving this we have just seven new top 40 arrivals for February, with Luke Combs and Morgan Wallen poised to rip up the…

Billboard Roundup: January 2023

A new year and quite a varied month to start things off. We’ve got a group of country songs that were previously blocked from reaching the top 40 by all the Christmas music, a couple of foreign oddities, three big new singles that have got people talking, and the obligatory old hit revived by TikTok.…

Billboard Roundup: December 2022

December is always the shortest roundup of the year thanks to all the Christmas music and that remains the case this year despite two huge album bombs. Quickly flying through… “One Thing at a Time” by Morgan Wallen Peak #37, Current #97 Morgan Wallen dropped three new songs under the umbrella title “One Thing at…

The Top Ten Best Hit Songs of 2022

2022 is at an end, so how did the year stack up as a whole? Honestly my main feeling coming out of this year is simply that not much happened and that is especially true when looking down the year-end Hot 100. Most of the biggest hits were released in 2021, Christmas music takes up…

Billboard Roundup: 2022 Extras

End of year add-ons, let’s just rattle through this ’cause I’m ill. Same format as previous years, songs I didn’t review previously. Part One: Missing Hits “Circles Around This Town” by Maren Morris Peak #52, Year-end #100 The lead single to Maren Morris’ latest album managed to sneak its way onto the year-end list despite…

Billboard Roundup: November 2022

2022’s chart year has come to a close but not before giving us two of its biggest albums right at the end. With Drake and Taylor ripping up the charts and the regular avalanche of Christmas music flooding the Hot 100 it’s time to flush out the year’s old hits and prepare for the new.…

Billboard Roundup: October 2022

2022’s slowdown continued with a particularly uneventful October. We do have a big new number one to talk about, but little else to go with it and Taylor Swift will flip the charts upside down next week anyway leaving most of this as old news. A new Drake & 21 Savage project is on the…

Billboard Roundup: September 2022

I’m trying to have as positive an outlook as possible in these roundups because nobody wants to read non-stop misery or apathy, but I can’t lie September was rough. I mean really rough. This is the 36th one of these that I’ve written, and this is possibly the worst ever selection. Two of these songs…

Billboard Roundup: August 2022

August continued in much the same vein as the rest of 2022. Some underwhelming high debuts that won’t stick around that long being propped up by a smattering of decent, if not great, country songs. Meanwhile Harry Styles and Bad Bunny remain cemented at the top of the singles and albums chart respectively as they…

Billboard Roundup: July 2022

July came and went with very little action to speak of. Other than willing Running Up That Hill to get higher, there isn’t really anything interesting me much on the charts at the moment. Whole year is petering out a bit. Anyways. “She Had Me at Heads Carolina” by Cole Swindell Peak #25, Current #26…

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