You may have seen elsewhere the alarms blaring — is rap no longer pop music? We’ll defer a whole crisis breakdown, but it’s hard to ignore the facts. For the first time in years, Billboard’s top 40 doesn’t include a whisper of hip-hop. On our charts, however, there’s still plenty to note, as Megan Thee Stallion joins Charli XCX and Ella Langley as storylines for this week’s Music Daily Tracks.
We’ll note up top that there’s a vital qualifier left out of some of the discourse we’ve seen. This top 40 drought only dawns on the back of a new rule in Billboard’s charting, aiming to ease the stasis at the top of their chart that we’ve discussed before by dropping songs that’ve been long-time inclusions yet aren’t high enough to warrant it further. Doing so dropped “Luther” by Kendrick Lamar and SZA, and results in the “unprecedented” territory we currently occupy.
On our side of the equation, we feel comfortable in projecting that Megan Thee Stallion may upset the apple cart. “LOVER GIRL,” another characteristically singeing single, sits at #52 in our rankings with a combination of top-20 streaming and social play. Given the usual latency between those metrics and more traditional routes, don’t be shocked if the Houston MC makes this “catastrophe” a one-week affair.
The Ella Langley Ascension And Another Charli XCX Breakout
Switching genres, let us be the last to inform you that country music is once again a thread in the mainstream tapestry. The everlasting presence of names like Morgan Wallen and BigXThaPlug’s crossover efforts in this segment should have been more than confirmation, but there may be a new rising presence in that midst. After debuting on our list at #127, the Ella Langley record “Choosin’ Texas” now jumps all the way up into the thirties. Our aforementioned note of BigXThaPlug isn’t accidental in this case — astute watchers will note that his collaboration with Ella Langley “Hell At Night” has been in our midst since its release, while the singer’s link-up with Riley Green on “Don’t Mind If I Do” is a further indication that country may have a new starlet.
Finally, we’ll close with an unexpected one. Outside of those tracks that have persisted since their debut, most of the time when we see a song with a “second wind,” it’s social media to credit. “Everything Is Romantic” by Charli XCX and Caroline Polachek absolutely fits the bill, riding a TikTok trend and overall dominant social media usage to a #80 placement for us. That number may not bowl you over, but those tracking non-streaming, non-traditional metrics have had this song within their top 10 for genuine weeks. What makes the whole endeavor all the more curious is where this run stands in contrast to its release. We’re accustomed to genuine oldies resurfacing, but this song catching on just over a year after its release is a bit puzzling overall, begging the question of why audiences abandoned the song in the months between.
As always, you can catch all the music mentioned and featured in this piece wherever you stream your music.
