It’s the most wonderful time of the year, but if you’ve invested in our chart-watching from week to week, you might be more Scrooge than St. Nick. Indeed, as soon as we close the book on Thanskgiving, streaming platforms and traditional rankings alike begin to tangible change shape, reflective of Christmas music listening country- and worldwide and therefore boxing out our typical mission statement within this segment. However, there’s still enough motion to churn out one final report, and the Stranger Things final season, Tyla, and Drayton Farley are some of your big winners for this edition.
As veteran readers of this column will know, K-Pop Demon Hunters has a real claim to being Netflix’s biggest modern IP, but Stranger Things has made its presence felt throughout the industry, infiltrating movie theaters, branded collaborations, and yes, the music world. While the story continues on at the time of publication, the narrative importance of Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” within it has vaulted the ’80s ballad back up into prime position, riding severe social numbers up to #60 in our rankings. Even more surprisingly, Djo, the side project of main cast member Joe Keery, lands at #31, earning that slot with a multi-pronged approach across both streaming and social. Even in this end-of-year landscape, the show’s last episodes being tied to New Years and Christmas likely means we’ll see that success march on until January at last.
Tyla And Drayton Farley Benefit From More Orthodox Routes
In more conventional news, Tyla’s “Chanel” crests in its lifespan to date, settling just above the top 50 as we careen towards the end of the year. The afrobeats artist has always enjoyed warm waters on the global scene, but it appears that stateside channels are beginning to catch up, buoyed on social media and posied to potentially make a Billboard US debut in the coming weeks. As a holdover from her recent EP released in the clean-up following, genuinely its performance has to feel like found money, marking her biggest hit since “Water” helped her break out.
Finally, in another small-screen-to-the-airwaves moment, Drayton Farley, Sunny Sweeney, and Dani Rose, each country music veterans in their own right, ride inclusion in Taylor Sheridan’s Landman to a #72 mark. We will note that only one platform includes them this week, but it’s nearly at the top of the pack, indicating that the song made the most of its soundtrack moment and the wider net that comes along with it.
Be on the lookout for a round-up of what songs have made the biggest impact all year as we close the book on 2025. In the meantime, you can catch the music mentioned throughout this piece wherever you stream your music.
