Who Had The Hits In 2021?

In 2021, current-based formats visibly struggled, even compared to radio overall, and as a result, new music became harder for radio to break. Top 40 joined Alternative and Hip-Hop/R&B in the 3-4 share region, or lower, meaning that a radio hit as obvious as “Levitating” could take months to register in their own research. Country felt and still fought the effects of its streaming rivals, at least until “Fancy Like” became too big to deny. 

Last year, only two formats had significantly more songs crack the top 20 than they did in 2020, according to BDSradio. Triple-A was no surprise, posting notable gains for the second year in a row. Triple-A was the only format with more than 100 top 20 songs last year, meaning the only format to manage even two breakthrough hits per week. But Mainstream Top 40 also rebounded from a particularly slow year.

We’ve been tracking the number of top 20 hits per format since 2013 and on an annual basis since 2018 with the help of BDSradio’s Adam Foster. Playing more new music doesn’t always equate with higher ratings, as shown by the continued strength of Mainstream AC. There is certainly no sign of a consistent Top 40 resurgence yet, and we are already seeing signs of the holiday downturn that decimated CHR last winter. But when programmers feel that there was a consistent supply of reasonably varied new music, it’s usually a good moment for a format.

It is worth noting that Triple-A, usually considered the most specialized of radio formats, did have some flagship successes last year, particularly KEXP Seattle and KUTX Austin, Texas, showing the sort of 6-plus numbers that rarely go with eclectic programming. Triple-A music in 2021 wasn’t visibly driven by any one or two artists, but by a wide variety of projects, including many of the acts who drove the “true.alt” movement more than a decade ago (Modest Mouse, Weezer, Strokes, Cage the Elephant, etc.).  

Top 40 had more superstar product—Adele, Ed Sheeran, and Dua Lipa’s levitation to core artist. And while both Olivia Rodrigo and Lil Nas X came to radio’s door with streaming stories created elsewhere, Top 40 was the primary radio home of those two biggest-acts-of-the-year. In the summer, CHR benefited from almost weekly product from major artists. By year’s end, however, that supply seemed evaporate, not unlike the national optimism that accompanied it. As 2022 begins, the six-month-old “Stay” by the Kid Laroi & Justin Bieber is still lodged at No. 2 and in power rotation, not unlike “Blinding Lights” a year ago. 

Country was effectively flat in terms of new product compared to a year ago, although it did push ahead of the Mainstream AC format again. The failure of artists to thank Country radio at last fall’s CMA Awards reverberated throughout the format, highlighting the greater ability of streaming and national radio platforms to set the agenda. In 2022, it will be interesting to see if the ability of “Fancy Like” to jump the line in the format’s nearly-year-long record-breaking process is a sea change or an anomaly.

Here’s this year’s ranking of top 20 hits by format and what we wrote last year.