Pop Shots - A Look At The Charts
Welcome to your weekly dose of pop world musings. Covering all things pop culture, this week Pop Shots is hitting you with some Billboard singles chart analysis, and with Canadian reggae, an interpolation of a Rob Thomas classic, and a Swedish star on the rise, all making noise, there’s plenty to talk about. The chart positions I’m using are from the Billboard Hot 100 as it was listed on Billboard.com this past Thursday, and since this is Pop Shots, you know everything is seasoned with a little bit of attitude.
There’s a really easy answer as to why Nico & Vinz’s “Am I Wrong” is such a huge hit, it sounds like it’s a classic late 80s song. It’s not actually a classic late 80s song, in fact it doesn’t even sample a classic late 80s song, it just expertly recreates that feel, and that feel will always result in a monster hit. What’s surprising about “Am I Wrong” is that it’s taken over a year for it reach the top ten. First released in Norway in April of 2013, the video for “Am I Wrong” hit YouTube in June of that year. This makes me wonder, how freakin slow are we as a listening public? I guess it just goes to show what can be accomplished when a label doesn’t give up on a song.
Last week I joked on Twitter that I totally had 2014 as the year a Canadian reggae band would have a hit about asking a father for his daughter’s hand in marriage. Of course, no one could have possibly predicted that, but MAGIC! made it happen. Appealing to anyone who still occasionally finds themselves lost in the Sublime era of music, which should be all of us, because that was a damned good era, “Rude” is a song that’s impossible to get out of your head, and will probably be used at weddings, much to many fathers’ chagrin, for the next calendar year, and beyond. As an aside, Canada hasn’t had this kind of foothold in the reggae world since Snow. Maybe it’s time for the “Informer” to make a comeback.
Much like Nico and Vinz’s “Am I Wrong,” Rixton’s “Me and My Broken Heart” is a song you probably think you’ve heard before. Unlike “Am I Wrong,” however, it’s because you actually have, as “Me and My Broken Heart” borrows heavily from Rob Thomas’ 2005 hit “Lonely No More.” The chorus has nearly the exact same cadence, to the point where you could sing “I don’t wanna be lonely more, I don’t wanna have to pay for this” over the first two bars, and it would fit almost perfectly. Thomas has reportedly responded positively to the song, and was even given a writing credit on it, as the band openly says they took a lot of inspiration from him. So why is “Me and My Broken Heart” so big? Because “Lonely No More” was gigantic, and also, apparently Rob Thomas is an evil pop music genius we should be giving a heck of a lot more respect to.
I’m not sure you can define two guys as a boy band, but the label is one that makes sense when talking about MKTO, whose current single, “Classic,” is an ode to classy ladies everywhere. On the song the duo looks to sing, and rap, their way into a lady’s heart as they drop references to great artists of the past, openly talk about acts of chivalry, and wonder if they were born in the wrong era. Their sound shows they’re in the right era, as “Classic” is a happy tune that’s infectious and summery. Also, I gotta say, with Chris Brown singing about how “these hoes ain’t loyal,” and K Camp rapping “it ain’t nothing to cut that bitch off,” it’s really nice to hear a song that celebrates, rather than denigrates, women. Brown can have his hoes, and K Camp can have his bitches, I’d rather crank up MKTO and have a lady that’s “Classic.”
I have to admit I was really excited when I saw Tove Lo’s “Habits (Stay High)” had entered the charts this past week. I interviewed Tove a few months ago, and I’m a big fan of her work. As a songwriter she’s worked with a plethora of well known pop acts, including Cher Lloyd and Icona Pop, and she’s currently part of a songwriting collective put together by the legendary Max Martin and Shellback. Tove’s drunken, make out filled, video for her latest single is completely authentic, as the Swedish songstress told me the entire cast, who are all good friends, ended up sharing a nasty cold by the end of the shoot. Tove is the latest in a long line of pop acts from her country (ABBA, Roxette, Ace of Base), so this is likely only the beginning for her.
And with that, my time is up for the week, but I'll be back next week with more shots on all things pop.
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