Hottest new release of the week award goes to Olivia Rodrigo, whose new single “Drop Dead” arrived Friday as lead from her upcoming third album, “you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love”, due June 12. The song has a Petra Collins-directed video filmed at the Palace of Versailles, giving the whole project a very classy and big appearance. She even performed it live as a surprise during Addison Rae’s Coachella set.
So far, we’ve only had a couple of requests for “drop dead,” which is typical considering it has only been out since Friday. Still, the reaction has been interesting. A lot of listeners seemed surprised that it wasn’t a slower, more stripped-down heartbreak song in the mold of “Drivers License” or “Traitor,” which is still the version of Olivia Rodrigo that many casual fans most strongly associate her with. Instead, “drop dead” feels closer in attitude and energy to “Good 4 U” and “Bad Idea Right?” The former was the song of summer 2021, the latter seemed likely to follow, but never sustained as a major hit.
The other conversation this week must be Justin Bieber and the relevance opportunity radio is leaving on the table after his Coachella performances. He received $10 million for the two shows and immediately transported everyone back in time, reinstating his status as the modern king of pop.
With the underperformance of his “SWAG” albums, many complained that he dedicated the first hour of his 90-minute set playing all those unfamiliar new songs that even hard-core Beliebers simply don’t care about. Still, I’ve always believed “Speed Demon” was the best song on that album and could still be worked as a new single. It has an amazing beat, it is undeniably catchy and it could really do something with the right promotion behind it. Just by watching his performance, you can tell that “Speed Demon” was a standout crowd favorite among his new songs other than “Daisies” and “Yukon”.
People over 35 might not understand the significance of Bieber’s performance and why it means so much to both him and anyone who grew up with him. All his older songs have now immediately jumped up the streaming charts, and he just became the first artist in history to have six albums enter the Billboard 200 in one week. The current #1 on Spotify globally is 2012’s “Beauty and a Beat” which was our #18 request last week. That song has always been a huge request for us on Liveline, far exceeding requests for the songs that radio plays to death like “Sorry”, “Ghost” and “Love Yourself” which today nobody requests. “Baby” is still our #1 throwback request of all time and was #14 overall last week. “Baby’ was a hit in 2010, which means that his 16-year-old fan is today’s 32-year-old listener.
This should be a flashing neon sign for radio. When an artist has that kind of cross-generational moment, it is the perfect excuse to lean into the catalog. Bieber is one of those rare artists whose throwbacks are not just familiar, but genuinely event-level records for a lot of listeners. Stations should absolutely be using this moment to play songs like “Baby”, “Beauty and a Beat” “Eenie Meenie” “As Long as You Love Me”, etc.
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