For the second week, “Babydoll” by Dominic Fike remains the most-played song on Top 40 radio. Released in 2018, it wasn’t initially popular; this year, it was made viral by social media and just slowly built to what it is today. Yet, we often wonder, what happened to all the hits of the late 2010s?
The years 2016 through 2020 produced some absolutely enormous records, both on radio and streaming. Yet today, so many of those songs seem to have virtually disappeared. Every night on Liveline, we take requests from listeners across the country, and one thing that consistently surprises me is how rarely anyone asks for songs from that period, regardless of genre.
Think about songs like Ariana Grande’s “no tears left to cry” Panic! At The Disco’s “High Hopes”, Khalid & Normani’s “Love Lies,” Zedd’s “The Middle”, Ava Max’s “Sweet but Psycho” or Halsey’s “Without Me.” Some were #1 at the time and most are now in gold libraries at Hot AC radio, but we’ve gotten no requests for any of those songs on Liveline this year! Of course, there are exceptions. Post Malone’s “Sunflower” and “Better Now” still get a lot of requests, as does Drake’s “God’s Plan.” But considering the sheer number of hits from those years, it’s remarkable how few seem to have maintained their popularity.
To understand what was happening, it’s worth looking at how dramatically the music industry was changing during those years. Streaming was rapidly becoming the dominant way people consumed music, but radio was still figuring out how much attention it should pay to those numbers and the songs dominating streaming were rarely dominant on Top 40 radio.
Look at “Bad and Boujee” by Migos or “SICKO MODE” by Travis Scott. Both reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and were enormous on Spotify. Even today, they’re staples at every party for people under 35, yet neither received anywhere near the kind of Mainstream Top 40 radio exposure you might expect from songs that popular.
Hip-hop then wasn’t the kind of melodic, pop-friendly material that Top 40 radio had traditionally embraced. These were heavier, more rhythmic records, often with production styles and lyrical content that programmers felt didn’t fit comfortably between Taylor Swift “Me!” and Maroon 5 “Girls Like You.”
For decades, radio helped determine what became popular. Now streaming was revealing that millions of people were listening to music that radio wasn’t necessarily playing; (radio still hasn’t caught up, unless there’s a label push for a song). If radio had given those songs more exposure, would they have become more familiar to a broader audience? Would more people be requesting them today and would the 16-24 year olds of the time have a better overall impression of radio which at the time wasn’t serving them with their favorite songs.
What would happen if “Bad and Boujee” or “SICKO MODE” came out today and generated the same kind of streaming numbers they did back then? It’s remarkable how much the musical landscape has changed since the late 2010s. Today, there’s almost no rap on Top 40 radio, and even streaming in the past year hasn’t been driven by Hip-Hop to nearly the same extent. The sustained, months-long dominance of rap records that characterized the late 2010s seems much less common today.
Even the traditional pop hits from that era don’t seem to have much staying power. Dominic Fike actually had another song from that era, “3 Nights,” which became a huge internet success, eventually accumulating more than a billion streams. Yet despite that popularity, it never received the kind of widespread Top 40 radio airplay that you might expect. We don’t play it on Liveline but we do receive requests for it occasionally.
I don’t think the current popularity of “Babydoll” has anything to do with people suddenly becoming nostalgic for the late 2010s. Most listeners don’t even realize the song is eight years old. Like we say about all the throwbacks (some of which are 20-30 years old), they’re popular now for no other reason than that people are connecting with them today. The original release date is largely irrelevant.
Two of the most promising current hits going into the end of 2026 are “Ain’t In LA” and “Nicole Kidman” by ADÉLA. Those songs feel like something that would’ve been popular a decade ago, with that trap-pop production that was common then. “Ain’t In LA” was our #2 request last week, #9 on Spotify in the U.S., and #20 on Top 40 airplay. “Nicole Kidman” is #1 on that same Spotify chart, #5 on Shazam, and our #8 request last week, though only #37 on Top 40. That will change soon but it’s strange that radio takes weeks or months to jump on songs, especially like these two which are right down the middle of what Top 40 is about. They’re pop, she’s hot, she’s trending, it’s a little edgy and we are so desperate for great, undeniable hit songs.
It’s not clear that the late 2010s produced bad music. There were plenty of great songs and enormously successful artists during those years. But there’s clearly a huge space between a song being popular as a current and becoming something people want to hear years later. That goes for every genre and every era. It’s why we don’t play Matchbox 20 and Real McCoy on Top 40 today even though they delivered number one songs in their time.
If you’re going to program for the cultural moment, follow the trend instead of trying to create them. Sports talk stations have great personalities who are able to create community, express thoughts and connect people on certain topics and stories happening around them. How ridiculous would it sound if they said on the air, “Everyone online is talking about this story and there’s clearly a huge audience demand for us to address it, but we just aren’t going to”?
In addition to companionship, entertainment, immediacy and connection, current-based music radio shouldn’t worry so much about “picking the right hits” as opposed to “playing the obvious hits.” That’s something we see firsthand on Liveline. Listeners regularly request songs from the 2000s and early 2010s, and even older songs that have remained popular for decades. Maybe we need to reconsider how much of a song’s long-term success comes from radio exposure, how much comes from streaming, and how much simply comes down to whether people develop a lasting emotional connection with it. The success of “Babydoll” doesn’t prove that people miss the music of 2018. If anything, it highlights just how unpredictable a song’s popularity can be and that relevance has no age.
Good stuff!! I Agree, pop radio is light years behind where they should be. I have to be at least somewhat skeptical on the requests part. It wasn’t uncommon back in the 90’s for the labels to hype songs thru requests, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s not still at least somewhat true….esp on a show that so request reliant. BTW: And i also would not be shocked if they(the labels) also miniplate streaming #’s as well.
Rest assured there is NO manipulation by anyone who isn’t a real listener. We track every call and text that comes in to make sure it’s from a market that we’re actually on in. This is critical because we gain NOTHING by playing songs that real listeners don’t like. There are a hundful of songs that are big on streaming which we don’t get requests for and that’s a result of fan clubs and other things that boost streaming numbers. I do not suspect that labels are directly manipulating the streaming charts but I do know that they (or any artist) can pay to be featured in certain algorithms and playlists which can obviously increase streaming numbers but it’s not like they’re sitting here buying a million streams or a chart position. It’s no different than paying a record store to put your record front and center to see when people walk in.