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. The top 50 hasn’t changed much over the past few months, but the bottom half of the chart is filled with a bunch of really interesting songs, and acts, that will hopefully be getting some more airplay in the coming weeks. The chart positions I’m using are from this past Thursday, and since this is Pop Shots, you know everything is seasoned with a little bit of attitude.
If you thought the Jonas Brothers were going to vanish, boy were you wrong. Nick Jonas has a wildly successful solo career as an R&B singer, and now Joe Jonas is back with a brand new band, DNCE. DNCE’s sound can be described as Maroon 5-like, except that Jonas’ vocals aren’t quite in Adam Levine’s falsetto range (other than Justin Timberlake’s, whose are?). The band’s new single is the very summer-y “Cake By The Ocean,” the video for which features, you guessed it, cake, by the ocean. It also features babes in bikinis, and co-stars noted internet plagiarist, The Fat Jew. I'm sure everything he did was something he saw in another video, but will claim the moves are his own. That aside, it’s a pretty fun song, although it probably should have been released in May.
Halsey has become one of my new musical obsessions, and after one listen to “New Americana” you’ll understand why. A fantastic voice, mixed with killer songwriting, and tremendous production, makes for an artist worthy of repeated plays. “New Americana,” with it’s refrain of “We are the New Americana / high on legal marijuana / raised on Biggie and Nirvana / we are the new Americana,” gives multiple generations an anthem, and, with it’s marching band-like drums, is essentially a call to arms. I’m not too sure about the Hunger Games style video, but at 21, perhaps Halsey is looking to reach an even younger generation with the clip.
Fall Out Boy and Demi Lovato are two acts who continue to get better with age. That said, it was a bit surprising to hear FOB re-recorded their song “Irresistible” with Lovato. She’s always had a big voice for the pop world, but could she belt it out with the intensity needed to match a Fall Out Boy song? It turns out not only can she match that intensity, the finished product sounds so tight she might want to consider dabbling in rock music a bit more. “Irresistible” is a genuinely kick ass song I’ll be cranking up all fall, and winter long. Heck, this one might last all the way until next summer! The video, starring Doug The Pug is too adorable for words. He’s living that #PugLife to the fullest!
Lil Dicky has become a slightly controversial character in hip-hop, with some feeling he’s not rapping for the right reasons. Here’s the deal, if your number one concern is entertainment value, you’re going to really enjoy this guy’s work, and being that the majority of the time I listen to music it’s for enjoyment, it put a smile on my face when I saw “$ave Dat Money” on the Billboard Hot 100. Not only is the entire song about extreme fiscal responsibility, the video was made for nothing. Yes, absolutely nothing, and it’s brilliant.
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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