Pop Music Will Always be the Best Music.
Billboard Top 10 for Week of Oct. 7th
The summer season has finally reached it's end and now we get to enjoy some falling leaves and cooler weather... well someone in the world will anyway. This also means that the charts will be making big changes as all the big fall albums will be dropping from all the artists that are going to try to dominate the rest of the year and possibly a lot of next year with the singles from these new albums. The last time I wrote anything about these charts was back in June when Despacito was dominating the charts for the whole summer and nobody could bring it down. Of course it took a giant mega star's comeback to bring it down with the big return of Taylor Swift (which will be covered later). Now that the charts have pretty much completely changed I guess it would be a good time to try this again. I'm hoping for the best but preparing for the worst. (also check out the songs on my Spotify playlist at the bottom of the page if you want to, if not that's okay. I mean I took the time to put it down there in hopes you would use it, but it's cool if you don't. I mean seriously, it took me one whole second to put it down there, the least you could do is click on it. JUST DO IT ALRE--)
1. Cardi B - Bodak Yellow
Oh.
No wait... this is definitely a typo, it's gotta be.
1. Post Malone - Rockstar (w/ 21 Savage)
Ah, there you go.
I've listened some of the tracks from Post Malone's album (Stoney), and there's actually some pretty good tracks on it. This new single "Rockstar" isn't too bad either. Out of all the tracks though, this is one of the weaker ones i've heard from him. The whole hip-hop star comparing himself to a rockstar because of his drug and party habits thing has been done to death and it doesn't do this song any favors. Besides the weak lyrics, it's still an above average trap song by pop standards. It's not difficult to listen to like a lot of trap songs, maybe that's because Post Malone is actually a pretty good artist who's got a lot of potential for making some great charting songs. 21 Savage also does a good verse near the end of the song, which is good since i'm tired of guest verses that bring down decent songs. Overall a pretty good song, i'd recommend listening to other Post Malone songs if this interests you in any way, there's some good ones on his most recent album.
3. Sailor Swift - Look What You Made Me Do
Poor Taylor Swift didn't even last a month on the number one spot, losing out to Post Malone and... Well this was her big comeback single from her new album that's coming out later this year. I can admit that I really enjoyed her last album "1989" and it still mostly holds up today. I was definitely curious to see what this new album was going to bring from Swift. Would it be another "1989" style pop album? Would it bring back some more of her country roots into it? Would it just be something completely new? Well so far it looks like it's the last one.
So this song is a massive disappointment on many levels. The main one being the terrible, terrible chorus. The music is also terrible though. Then there's the cringy bitter lyrics to go along with all the bad music and melody. Top it all off with the awful over dramatic line "I'm sorry the old Taylor can't come to the phone right now. Why? Cause she's dead!". Now I haven't heard all of Taylor's music, but out of the songs I HAVE heard, this is for sure the worst. Hopefully it's just one bad song from an overall good album, but I guess time will tell.
4. 1-800-867-5309 (Alessia) - Logic
Wow. It's so strange to see a song that actually has something important to say in the Top 10 chart. So I really like this song, it's quiet uplifting lyrically. The music is pretty simple and it's nothing special, but I think that's okay when the song clearly has a message it wants to spread and it's a message that I think everyone can agree with. It's a short story about a person who's decided they want to end their life, but call a suicide hotline for one last try. By the end of the song the phone call has given the person enough light for them to realize that suicide is never an option and to keep going. Normally a song like this I would call average, but the lyrics and the meaning behind it all are great and it's great to see something like this getting big attention.
5. Despacito - Luis Fonsi (w/ Daddy Yankee)
Now that summer's over this giant hit is going to start slowly going away. While it's been overplayed to death and it's probably a good thing it's going away now since this song really should stay in the summer, it was nice to see something different take over the charts for a while. Yes, it had been a very long time since a Spanish language song was in the top spot and who knows when it will happen again, but it's just time to put this one away for now. This song also showed that Justin Bieber has some sort of magic touch, since he always seems to have a long lasting song in the Top 10 every season for the last year or two. Anyway this song really isn't that different from what Puerto Rico's been making since forever, but still nice to see it get some fame.
6. Unforgettable - French Montana
It must take a lot of talent to be this boring. This just feels so monotone and dull, it just drags on and on. The vocals are boring and annoying at the same time. Pass.
7. Belieber - Imagine Dragons
I think I actually liked this song at once, but wow it got old quick. Especially when you hear it in sporting events, commercials, movie trailers, tv shows and protests (probably). This song IS EVERYWHERE. Imagine Dragons songs are always everywhere though, whenever they release a new single you can bet it will be played at NBA shows and movie trailers and car commercials. Anyway that's more a rant about how commercial the band is versus the actually quality of the song. It's hard to separate the annoyance of that sometimes. This is a decent Imagine Dragons song, it's what you would expect from the band at this point. It's one of the better songs from the album they released a few months ago, which wasn't good overall. I would be happy just to hear a rock song in the top 10 for once, but there's actually another great one already on here... (foreshadow!). Believer is a song that I got a few enjoyable listens from, but it just doesn't stand the test of time... that time being like 2 weeks.
8. Rake It Up - Some wank pheasant (Yo Gotti)
I can't. I just... I can't.
9. Attention - Generic white guy
Well there was potential here from a musical standpoint. A nice guitar and bass guitar in the chorus could have been something cool. Still when you give it to someone as boring as Charlie Puth there's only so much that can be done with it. Charlie isn't an artist who can elevate the music, he's an artist who needs good music behind him to make him at least somewhat interesting. That's what you get here, a somewhat interesting idea that's brought down by Puth's boring personality, lyrics and vocals. very enjoyable bass though.
10. Feel it Still - Portugal. The Man
It's not too often I see an artist I genuinely love in the top 10 of the billboard charts (reminds me of when WALK THE MOON made the top 10 recently). Portugal the Man is one of those bands that never really got the attention they deserved and they've been around for longer than a decade now. I really liked their new album "Woodstock" a lot, it's a very fun and cool album to listen to. It's pretty shocking in a good way to see this song make it all the way up here on the charts. This is one of my favorite songs of the year even outside of the charts and every time it comes on I can't help but to listen to it all they way through. It's super catchy and smooth, and it's simple but meaningful at the same time. Catchy bass line and I love those horns at the end of the guitar lines. Super happy to see something like this on the top 10 and they totally deserve it.
Overall Thoughts: I'd say it's not such a bad start for the fall season. The songs were kinda all over the place in terms of quality, but I think the good slightly outweighed the bad this time. Of course this is probably because of how excited I was to see Portugal the Man on the list. Still, there are more than enough decent songs on here to make up for the garbage that was Taylor Swift, Cardi B and Yo Gotti. Welp, see you next season/year.
This is not good. - Michael C.
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