Conan Grey, who’s labored his method up from the YouTube content material mines to grow to be a pop star in his personal proper, enters this week’s chart at No. 3 together with his album Wishbone.
Katja Ogrin/Redferns
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Katja Ogrin/Redferns
This week, Morgan Wallen‘s I am the Drawback sits at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart but once more. However the two titles slightly below it are making probably the most noise: At No. 3, former YouTube star Conan Grey hits a brand new profession peak with Wishbone. And at No. 2, KPop Demon Hunters pulls off one thing no soundtrack has ever completed: It is landed 4 high 10 singles concurrently. Not even Saturday Evening Fever or Ready to Exhale ever pulled that off — although, to be truthful, the world of streaming providers was nonetheless a long time away.
TOP ALBUMS
Final week, one other wave of high 10 debuts washed up on shore, because the Billboard 200 albums chart welcomed new entries by Gunna, MGK, Jonas Brothers and Babymetal. This week, Gunna stays on a sunny patch of dry land — The Final Wun slips a single spot, to No. 4 — whereas the opposite three are despatched hurtling again to the turbid seas whence they got here. (Babymetal went from “the primary all-Japanese band ever to hit the highest 10” to “off the charts totally” in simply seven days, nevertheless it’ll all the time have that one week at No. 9.)
That is per the charts’ basic sample in current weeks, wherein a number of new albums debut within the high 10, solely to be jettisoned per week later by a good more energizing crop of information. This week, nonetheless, the jettisoning actually solely advantages one debut: Conan Grey’s Wishbone, which enters this week’s chart at No. 3. Grey has visited the highest 10 twice earlier than, however Wishbone is the highest-charting album of his profession. It is a good second for Grey, who’s labored his method up from the YouTube content material mines to grow to be a pop star in his personal proper.
However Wishbone is the one debut on this week’s high 10, whereas — as famous above — three of final week’s debuts plummet precipitously. So what’s filling the void?
On this case, the reply lies in two of 2024’s greatest hits, albeit for various causes. Billie Eilish launched a particular vinyl version of Hit Me Exhausting and Comfortable to commemorate the album’s one-year anniversary. That helped the album climb from No. 24 — it had left the highest 10 as of this previous June — to No. 6.
Then there’s Taylor Swift‘s The Tortured Poets Division, which leaps from No. 18 to No. 10. That blockbuster wasn’t rereleased in some recent iteration — no new vinyl, no recent bonus tracks, nothing like that. However Swift did just lately announce the discharge of a brand new album referred to as The Lifetime of a Showgirl (out Oct. 3), which she promoted on Travis Kelce’s New Heights podcast throughout the eligibility window for this week’s charts. With a following the scale of Swift’s, a easy act of prerelease promo is sufficient to transfer an album again into the highest 10.
With Morgan Wallen’s I am the Drawback sitting at No. 1 for a twelfth nonconsecutive week, KPop Demon Hunters seems positioned to imminently full its run to the highest of the Billboard 200. Why? For one, the development traces within the albums’ respective streaming numbers have been headed on this course for weeks now, and the 2 titles are already extraordinarily shut. For one more, a sing-along version of KPop Demon Hunters simply acquired a profitable theatrical launch — and the word-of-mouth increase that comes with it.
However the greatest motive of all for KPop Demon Hunters to anticipate a seat at No. 1 subsequent week? The soundtrack’s label simply lastly launched a CD version, and people first-week gross sales numbers must be greater than sufficient to shut the hole on their very own. It is a matter of time.
TOP SONGS
As famous above, the runway is now clear for the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack to imagine its place atop the Billboard 200 albums chart. However the album picks up yet one more important milestone this week — one which no different soundtrack has completed within the historical past of the Billboard charts. It is acquired 4 singles within the Sizzling 100’s high 10 concurrently, which has by no means occurred for the reason that Sizzling 100 premiered in the summertime of 1958.
Final week, Alex Warren‘s “Atypical” reclaimed the No. 1 spot, thanks partly to the discharge of a stay model Warren recorded at Lollapalooza with nation star Luke Combs. This week, “Atypical” slides again all the way down to No. 2 and HUNTR/X’s “Golden” — constantly the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack’s top-performing hit, a minimum of up to now — resumes its run on the high of the Sizzling 100.
Two extra songs from the soundtrack — each by HUNTR/X’s display rivals in Saja Boys — now reside within the high 5: “Your Idol,” which holds at No. 4, and the sugary earworm “Soda Pop,” at No. 5. Then, HUNTR/X lands a brand new entry within the high 10: “How It is Executed,” which leaps from No. 14 to No. 10. (Three extra songs from the soundtrack flip up within the high 25, as properly: “What It Sounds Like,” “Free” and “Takedown.” It’d take an enormous surge to cram a fifth KPDH music into the highest 10 — “What It Sounds Like” is ranked the very best, at No. 20 — nevertheless it’s removed from inconceivable within the coming weeks.)
The explosion of KPop Demon Hunters songs has lastly crowded one withered chestnut out of the highest 10: Shaboozey‘s “A Bar Music (Tipsy),” which was within the midst of a record-tying 19-week run at No. 1 a whole calendar yr in the past, drops to No. 13 this week. (It is not even the highest-charting Shaboozey music anymore, with “Good Information” leaping to No. 12.) By some means, Teddy Swims‘ “Lose Management” nonetheless manages to carry at No. 7 because it extends its record-obliterating runs within the high 10 (75 weeks) and the Sizzling 100 (105 weeks, which suggests it is now in its third yr on the chart). Sadly, “Lose Management” is not more likely to go away the highest 10 till shortly after the discharge of Taylor Swift’s The Lifetime of a Showgirl in October.
WORTH NOTING
This is not to rain on KPop Demon Hunters‘ parade — it is an ideal and enjoyable film, and the songs are terrific! — however a couple of of its statistical milestones must be put in perspective. Sure, no soundtrack in historical past had ever posted 4 simultaneous high 10 hits previous to this week. However “historical past” seemed quite a bit completely different previous to the streaming period.
Think about the blockbusters that got here earlier than it. The soundtrack that is posted probably the most high 10 hits in historical past — not concurrently — is Ready to Exhale, which holds the all-time file with 5. That movie, which starred Whitney Houston and boasted a assassin’s row of further soundtrack superstars (Mary J. Blige! Toni Braxton! Brandy!), got here out in 1995.
Three different soundtracks have produced 4 high 10 hits: Saturday Evening Fever, from 1977; Grease, from 1978; and Purple Rain, from 1984. As famous final week, Saturday Evening Fever and Ready to Exhale even landed three songs within the high 10 on the identical time. These numbers are spectacular however unsurprising, provided that we’re speaking about among the most iconic and best-selling soundtracks ever launched.
However the hits from these earlier films weren’t all launched concurrently. Earlier than streaming, the charts have been based mostly on gross sales of vinyl singles (and, in a while, songs offered on cassette and CD) and radio airplay. And labels usually maintained a system wherein they have been extraordinarily deliberate about pacing the discharge of economic singles. It took a wild phenomenon — Beatlemania, for instance, or the Bee Gees‘ late-’70s assault on the charts — to create a pileup of singles from one album close to the highest of the Sizzling 100.
These days? It simply takes an ideal huge surge of streaming — like, for instance, the one which gave Taylor Swift the highest 14 songs within the nation within the aftermath of The Tortured Poets Division‘s launch final yr. Simply one thing to bear in mind when contextualizing not solely KPop Demon Hunters, but in addition the arrival of Swift’s The Lifetime of a Showgirl in October. It is a completely different world on the charts, and each new milestone is happening in an ecosystem that might have been unrecognizable 15 or 20 years in the past.
