These are the top 100 songs that are making gains at mid-month

 

Trending Chart September 2020

POS/ARTIST/SONG/POS ON BR250/POINTS

1              MILEY CYRUS     Midnight Sky      1              3274.85

There was no touching Miley on the trending chart this week as the song also goes to #1 on the BR250 this week. The pulsating dance-pop preview to her 7^th album “She Is Miley Cyrus” addresses pansexuality and debuted at #10 in the UK and #14 on the Hot 100.

2              24KGOLDN f/ IANN DIOR              Mood    27           1660.5

Following the streaming success of “Valentino” last year and reaching the top 15 on Alternative radio earlier this year with “City Of Angels”, the singer and rapper has exploded onto the Pop chart in the last few weeks. He has also hit #1 or #2 on numerous charts around the world as well as the Rock and Alternative songs chart in Billboard. He also shows up on the #25 song by Clean Bandit “Tick Tock” this week.

3              CALVIN HARRIS f/ THE WEEKND Over Now            39           1482.1

I would have expected this this easy-going slice of soul to make a bigger initial splash based on the caliber of the collaboration and The Weeknd’s radio dominance this year. However it is just at #25 on the Pop chart and debuted in the 30’s in the UK and on the Hot 100.

4              DEFTONES           Ohms    20           1444.45

This is the Sacramento alt-metal band’s first release since 2016 and already is at #20 on the BR250. This is their 14^th song to reach the Rock top 40.

5              BTS         Dynamite            21           1356.5

6              BLACKPINK & SELENA GOMEZ    Ice Cream            91           946.25

Back to back K-Pop. The Hot 100 #1 by BTS is pure vintage boy band while Blackpink’s collab with Selena Gomez is a more current sound pop-hip-hop hybrid. “Dynamite” had the largest 1^st day global streaming of 2020 with close to 8 million plays. “Ice Cream”, co-written by Gomez, Ariana Grande, and Victoria Monet is chock full of double entendres. Both songs are in the top 25 on Pop radio.

7              DUA LIPA f/ MADONNA & MISSY ELLIIOTT             Levitating            13           932.3

Another month, another Dua Lipa song in the Trending top 10. The remix is top 10 on the Dance chart but the question is what will be the next radio single in the U.S. after “Break My Heart”.

8              BASTILLE F/ GRAHAM COXON    What You Gonna Do??? 6              890.05

All of last month’s top 10 have lost points in the tracking period this month except Bastille who only drops one position. The only other songs in this week’s top 25 to still see gains from last month are “WAP at #12 and Betty” at #22. “What You Gona Do???” is currently top 10 Alternative and top 25 Adult Alternative.

9              BIFFY CLYRO       Space    42           874

The Scottish band’s 9^th album, “A Celebration of Endings” debuted at #1 on the UK album chart in August, their 3^rd in a row. This ballad was written by Steve Mac who has had a longstanding relationship with Westlife and has written songs for artist like Pink, Demi Lovato and Ed Sheeran.

10           SMASHING PUMPKINS  Cyr         108         844

This mid-tempo electro-pop song just entered the Alternative top 40 and previews the band’s 11^th album.

11           LONDON GRAMMAR      Baby It’s You      30           827.5

There is a subtle groove to the latest from this ethereal band whose 2017 album

12           CARDI B f/ MEGAN THEE STALLION           WAP      10           813.5

13           STEPS    What The Future Holds  136         729.3

14           MARIAH CAREY f/ LAURYN HILL  Save The Day     63           706.9

15           SIGALA & JAMES ARTHUR             Lasting Lover      151         705.8

16           EVERYTHING EVERYTHING           Violent Sun         28           700.3

17           PHOENIX             Identical               128         665.2

18           AGNES  Fingers Crossed 93           631.7

19           NOTHING BUT THIEVES  Unperson            194         586.4

20           DRAKE  Laugh Now Cry Later       86           582.75

21           STRUTS Another Hit Of Showmanship     198         575.1

22           TAYLOR SWIFT   Betty     18           571.45

23           BLOXX   Off My Mind      74           567.9

24           VISTAS  Stranger               212         552.6

25           CLEAN BANDIT & MABEL f/ 24KGOLDN   Tick Tock              51           547.8

See the full chart here

Beyond Radio Alternative Sub-Genre Charts–September 15, 2020

Full charts available via the Genre Charts tab

Alt Pop/Electro

4          1          BASTILLE F/ GRAHAM COXON      What You Gonna Do???

2          2          BEABADOOBEE         Care

5          3          BILLIE EILISH           My Future

1          4          THE 1975      If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know)

10        5          GLASS ANIMALS      Heat Waves

378     6          24KGOLDN f/ IANN DIOR    Mood

48        7          EVERYTHING EVERYTHING           Violent Sun

new     8          LONDON GRAMMAR            Baby It’s You

3          9          FUTURE ISLANDS    For Sure

89        10        I DON’T KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME       Leave Me Alone

 

Retro Soul (R&B, Soul Pop, Jazz Pop, Disco, Throwback Hip Hop)

3          1          JESSIE WARE           What’s Your Pleasure?

1          2          JESSIE WARE           Save A Kiss

new     3          MARIAH CAREY f/ LAURYN HILL  Save The Day

6          4          ANDERSON.PAAK     Lockdown

12        5          SAULT            Wildfires

2          6          VICTORIA MONET    Experience

7          7          LIANNE LA HAVAS  Can’t Fight

21        8          ROISIN MURPHY      Something More

4          9          HAIM   Don’t Wanna

57        10        TONI BRAXTON        Dance

 

Adult Leaning Alternative

new     1          BASTILLE F/ GRAHAM COXON      What You Gonna Do???

1          2          THE KILLERS            My Own Soul’s Warning

9          3          GLASS ANIMALS      Heat Waves

new     4          LONDON GRAMMAR            Baby It’s You

7          5          DOVES            Prisoners

4          6          FUTURE ISLANDS    For Sure

5          7          CHRIS CORNELL      Patience

2          8          PHOEBE BRIDGERS Kyoto

new     9          SAINT MOTEL           Preach

3          10        DOVES            Carousels

 

Alternative Hip Hop

1          1          DISCLOSURE f/ AMINE & SLOWTHAI       My High

4          2          TERRACE MARTIN & DENZEL CURRY     Pig Feet

2          3          RUN THE JEWELS f/ PHARRELL WILLIAMS & ZACK DE LA ROCHA  Ju$t

new     4          THE AVALANCHES   Wherever You Go

6          5          YVES TUMOR            Gospel For A New Century

new     6          CLIPPING       Say The Name

3          7          GORILLAZ f/ SCHOOLBOY Q         Pac-Man

new     8          PORIJ 150

7          9          JPEGMAFIA   Bald!

14        10        TKAY MAIDZA           Don’t Call Again 

 

Alt Rock

4          1          BASTILLE F/ GRAHAM COXON      What You Gonna Do???

new     2          BEABADOOBEE         Care

1          3          NOTHING BUT THIEVES     Real Love Song

5          4          CHRIS CORNELL      Patience

2          5          BRING ME THE HORIZON   Parasite Eve

50        6          I DON’T KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME       Leave Me Alone

7          7          FONTAINES DC        Televised Mind

25        8          BIFFY CLYRO            Weird Leisure

38        9          BLOXX            Off My Mind

12        10        BADFLOWER 30

 

Underground

1          1          FONTAINES DC        Televised Mind

new     2          SUFJAN STEVENS    My Rajneesh

new     3          BEABADOOBEE         Sorry

23        4          JAMES BLAKE          Are You Even Real?

new     5          IDLES  Model Village

3          6          IDLES  Grounds

4          7          FONTAINES DC        A Hero’s Death

new     8          BON IVER      AUATC

5          9          THE HU          Wolf Totem

new     10        THE AVALANCHES   Wherever You Go

 

Roots AAA (Roots Rock, Americana, Folk, Heritage Pop)

2          1          TAYLOR SWIFT f/ BON IVER          Exile

4          2          TAYLOR SWIFT         Betty

10        3          THE CHICKS Sleep At Night

9          4          ALANIS MORISETTE            Ablaze

1          5          SEMISONIC    You’re Not Alone

new     6          JAMES BAY   Chew On My Heart

new     7          THE GO-GO’S            Club Zero

20        8          THE ROLLING STONES f/ JIMMY PAGE   Scarlet

35        9          SEMISONIC    All It Would Take

11        10        ALANIS MORISETTE            Reckoning

 

My Personal Chart, September 8, 1990

See the chart here

The companion Spotify playlist has all the songs discussed in the blog.

Part 1, First Stop Scottish Folk-Pop, Last Stop Scottish Jangle and Juice

Stone Cold Sober/Del Amitri (1)

The Scottish band’s second album “Waking Hours” was released in the UK in July 1989 and rose to #6 on the album chart there. It wasn’t released in the States until March 1990 and was led by the single “Kiss This Thing Goodbye”, a song that reached the Pop top 30 and Alternative top 15 in addition to #8 on my personal chart. There is heavy use of banjo and harmonica in this tune and even with the slide guitar, it doesn’t necessarily come across as a Country song (which it is not). Probably because of the British lilt to lead singer Justin Currie’s voice. Their biggest UK hit (#11) was the strummy “Nothing Ever Happens” which made a random top 100 songs of the ‘90s list. They never reached the top 10 there but did place 5 singles in the top 20 and all 5 of their ‘90s albums reach the top 10.

 

“Move Away Jimmy Blue” (50)is a ballad that I can see a large group of people belting out in a pub with beer mugs in hand (“move away Jimmie Blue before your small, small town turns around and swallows you”). The rootsy Folk-Rock sound of this album helped to usher in the ‘90s Pop-Rock sound made huge by bands like Gin Blossoms, Toad The Wet Sprocket, and Counting Crows. It was the more upbeat tunes on it that had the most impact on me. “Stone Cold Sober” was the second song from the album to reach #1 on my chart. Upbeat yes, but not necessarily happy (“we’re stone cold sober looking for bottles of love, we are the dead life, so come on, come on”). That’s where the bridge kicks the song up a notch. I do love juxtaposition in a song.

The rollicking “Opposite View” (31), a song that was never released as a single, spent 2 weeks at #1 and 11 weeks in the top 10 on my chart, ending up as my #3 song of the year (‘Sober’ was #22 and ‘Kiss” #43). This one is totally a car song to me (“pennies won’t get us to heaven, but a borrowed car just might”) and definitely holds up as my favorite song by the band.

 

“Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello (Petrol)” (11) by Irish band Something Happens serves a similar purpose. Catchy and chugging, this was another Alternative top 15 hit. With the subtitle petrol (the UK term for gasoline), the car imagery is obvious. The song also made the top 50 of the year in the UK mag New Music Express even though it only reached #82 on the UK chart. The album “Stuck Together With God’s Glue” was well received and made the list of 40 greatest Irish albums at #33 when the Irish Times produced the list. The album includes “What Now” (134), the jaunty “The Patience Business”, the downer “Kill The Roses” and their second most well-known song “Parachute”.

Ireland’s Hothouse Flowers saw their biggest U.S. Alternative hit, #2 in 1990 with “Give It Up” (108), a joyously effervescent song. It made it to #16 on my chart but only #30 in the UK. Something about their mix of Irish sensibility, Folk, Rock, and Soul with a nice dose of Gospel makes me feel like they would have been a good Saturday Night Live house band. Or maybe it was their heavy use of saxophone. They appear twice more on my chart this week with the piano-driven “Movies” (70) and the best version of “I Can See Clearly Now” (16) in my opinion. The re-working of the 1972 Johnny Nash hit starts as a solemn ballad and explodes into a Gospel rave-up. The band never reached the top 10 in the UK but had 9 top 10 singles in Ireland including “Hardstone City” and the #1 “Feet On The Ground” from their 1988 debut album “Home”. That was the most successful debut album in Irish history. An obscure fact is that the band contributed to the Indigo Girls song “Closer To Fine”. They provided backing vocals and the tin whistle was played by the band’s vocalist Fiachna Ó Braonáin.

Find the rest here