The past month has been rather barren for exceptional new music that programmers are excited about. Sure, radio stations add something new every week, but we’re yet again seeing an uptick in banal formulaic songs, rather than hot items that listeners and programmers regard as obvious smash hits.
Most added on Top 40 this week: Benson Boone’s “Sorry I’m Here for Someone Else”, officially released last Friday but handed to radio a day earlier. Post Malone and Morgan Wallen did the same thing about a year ago with “I Had Some Help” which didn’t need any help at all. That song instantly showed signs of being a killer hit. It continues to test through the roof, still in the Spotify Top 50, and still ranked in our Liveline Top 20 requests. It was one of the top tracks of 2024. “Beautiful Things” is still #30 on streaming this week and #20 in requests on Liveline. But “Sorry…” didn’t even debut in the Top 50 on Spotify. Right now, it has dropped off the Top 200 and nobody seems to be talking about it. Could this song be a grower, not a shower? A few PD’s I’ve spoken with have written him off as a “one-hit wonder”.
The following songs are charting in the Top 20 spins on Top 40 airplay, yet lack ANY requests, streams or overall sales and audience passion to back it up:
- #11. Teddy Swims – “Bad Dreams”
- #16. Alex Warren – “Burning Down”
- #18. Selena Gomez, Gracie Abrams – “Call Me When You Breakup”
- #19. ROSE – “toxic till the end”
- #21. LISA, Doja Cat, RAYE – “Born Again”
Upon checking, not a single song between #20 and #40 in airplay has generated any requests, except for “squabble up” by Kendrick Lamar, “WILDFLOWER” by Billie Eilish and “DENIAL IS A RIVER” by Doechii which is #4 in Liveline requests this week and #6 in Spotify streaming.
Buried Treasures of the Week
Olivia Rodrigo – “traitor”: She was 17 when “drivers license” was released in January 2021, which propelled her career to massive success. It was followed by two other hits, “deja vu” and “good 4 u” from the album “SOUR” which many of her fans called “unskippable” because every song was great and unique. Some stations played cuts never released as singles like “favorite crime”, “jealousy jealousy” and “brutal”. This June marks the four year anniversary of the album’s release, and now Olivia is 22. In the past few months, there’s one song of hers that has gotten more requests than any of the others, and it was the fourth “SOUR” single, “traitor”. It’s a beautiful, relatable ballad that every girl under 30 seems to love and know all the words to. Perhaps hit radio should consider it as a major-artist recurrent because it was never heavily played after its disappearance from the current airplay chart, unlike the three singles before it and “vampire” which STILL receive a decent of airplay. “traitor” peaked at #7 on Top 40, #15 on Hot AC and #9 on Billboard. Olivia is rumored to be releasing a third album later this year.
The Pussycat Dolls, Snoop Dogg- “Buttons”: This 2006 classic has always generated a handful of requests here and there, but in the past two months we have seen more than a dozen requests for it. 10-20 calls for song might not seem like a lot, but this is a song from 19 years ago that radio rarely plays anymore. Out of thousands of other tracks people could ask for, few throwbacks get more than 3 requests a week. Good examples are “Lose Yourself” by Eminem, “Baby” by Justin Bieber and “Mr. Brightside” by The Killers which all get requested at LEAST once every night. “Stickwitu”, “Don’t Cha” and “I Hate This Part” were the PCD’s other biggest hits. The Pussycat Dolls got back together in 2019 and released a fabulous song “React” which never did anything, but they all still looked wonderful. Allegedly Nicole Scherzinger became greedy and refused to do a reunion tour unless she received 75% of the tour’s earnings and overall creative control. They broke up again in 2022. “Buttons” peaked at #1 on Top 40, #4 on Rhythmic and #3 on Billboard.
Thanks for this! I went on a listening spree last weekend and had the same impression. It’s really bad out there. Several stations had so many generic-sounding non-,hits, they were unlistenable! BTW my favorite was DC’s Hot 99.5, where every song was a banger. Does no one know what an instrumental/vocal hook is any more? Other mysteries: Why hasn’t the obvious home run “I Ain’t Sayin'” by Jordan Davis crossed over yet? And why would anyone spin the abominable “Fat Juicy and Wet” but ignore “Sailer Song” or “Abracadabra”?
Interesting thought about the Jordan Davis. It seems like there’s enough Country/Pop hybrid music out now, and that CHR PDs are still self-conscious about too many “Country slots” that they’re unlikely to go looking for a straightforward Country record, even a good-sounding uptempo one, unless there’s a “Fancy Like”-type streaming story that forces them to consider it.
As for “Abracadabra” and “Sailor Song,” they’ve both ended up as bigger records than “Fat Juicy and Wet” at Top 40. In the first few days, I thought Bruno’s hot streak and being uptempo and not that aggressive musically might make it bigger than it ended up being. But it’s not a “WAP”-level phenomenon, even though it’s a better radio record, at least sonically.