A huge thank you to everyone who has been reading, commenting, sharing and inquiring about our weekly piece. It’s fun putting this together because of all the different data points, discussing radio and hearing what others think about certain artists or songs. We’ll always do our best at presenting the facts without bias and opinion in hopes that we are able to entertain, challenge and expose you to important new information. Let’s find out what’s hot this week!
Lola Young – “Messy”: It has exploded in the past three weeks, at #4 on Shazam and #14 on Spotify in America (if you exclude the Bad Bunny songs) and broken into the Liveline top 20 requests this past week (#16). It’s about her struggles with ADHD and her last relationship, feeling good about yourself one day and then losing all hope and confidence the next. It’s showing the major signs of becoming a massive hit. Currently #34 on Top 40 radio, up from #52 last week. Now on Z100, KIIS, KMVQ (30x), WXKS and most of the iHeart stations.
What an incredibly relatable, fresh, unique and song from this 24 year old likely-to-be superstar. Signed with Island Records in 2019, she released her debut single “6 Feet Under” followed by the EP “Intro“. In the past year, she collaborated with Tyler, the Creator on his succesful “Chromakopia” album. “Messy” came out in May of 2024 and didn’t really blow up until social media stars Jake Shane and Sofia Richie posted a clip of them dancing to the song on TiKTok, followed by a lip-sync video from Kylie Jenner.
Bad Bunny – “DtMF”: From his album “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS“, the world’s 17th most-streamed artist currently occupies 17 of the top 50 slots on Spotify in America. “DtMF” isn’t even the single, yet it’s the one getting more attention than any of his others. Currently #1 on Spotify in America and globally, #2 on Shazam in America and #3 globally. He is an amazing performer, easily the biggest Latin artist of the past 15 years. He blew up at the Superbowl halftime Show 2020 performing with Shakira. It was just announced that he would begin a 21-show residency at Coliseo du Puerto Rico in San Juan on July 11th.
As we’ve stated, you might get the impression that we just endorse or any song that’s doing well on Spotify. While streaming charts often show early passion and hit-potential, most people don’t investigate the reasons behind their exceptionally fast-rise popular songs. Bad Bunny is a great example of someone with a very niche, but passionate and large fan base. His album came out on January 5th, so it’s always good to wait a solid two to three weeks for the early hype and hardcore fans to disperse. That’s when you’ll see which songs from the album are really the most beloved by the broad audience if any. Rhythmic radio has embraced a few of his songs in this past, but Top 40 never did much with him except for the features on “K-POP” with Travis Scott, “I Like It” with Cardi B and “MIA” with Drake. On Liveline, we’ve had no requests for any of his songs yet.
Buried Treasures of the Week
Daft Punk – “One More Time”: O In his latest treatise on the state of Pop radio, the esteemed Guy Zapoleon bemoans the state of pop music, now in the fifth year of a “doldrums rut” with no variety of styles and everything essentially formula pop. The surprise breakout of the David Guetta/Ava Max redo of the 1985 chestnut “Forever Young showed an appetite for variety and EDM. “One More Time’ was voted as the greatest dance song of all time
Daft Punk’s signature track was released in 2000 when clubs, techno music and anything longer than 4 minutes was actually cool. It never went away. All this time later, it’s one of the few from that era which stand the test of time. It’s used in so many mashups, mixshows and heard at parties with people of all ages who just love this song. Everyone knows this song, despite the fact it only reached #61 on Billboard and #33 on Pop radio. Their album “Discovery” is a pioneering piece of dance music history and generated tons of iconic dance-chart-topping hits like “Digital Love“, “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” (sampled in Kanye’s “Stronger”)and “One More Time“, for which requests still come in for. John Garabedian’s Open House Party radio show was quite possibly the reason for it’s success in America, as he heard it in a club one night and started playing it for his millions of listeners on over 175 affiliates, with top ten requests as a response. Pop Radio sadly limited it to night airplay. The song became an “Open House Party staple until John’s departure from the show in 2017. Daft Punk broke up in February 2021. RIP. No Top 40 station has played this song more than once in the past two weeks. Worth considering for your music test and to add some cool variety.
Avicii – “Levels”: After the December 31st Netflix release and success of his wonderful, shocking and beautifully produced “Avicii – I’m Tim” documentary, many of his massive EDM songs spiked in streams and popularity, including “I Could Be The One“, “The Nights“, “Hey Brother” and the his biggest hit “Wake Me Up“. The film is stacked with concert footage, details on his early life and interviews with legends like Nile Rodgers, David Guetta and Chris Martin of Coldplay. It takes you through the timeline of how his career came to be, in-studio footage, backstage moments, the pressures of touring and pleasing everyone, which led to his drug problem and the shock of his eventual suicide at 28 in April 2018. “Levels” was the song that started it all for him. It is this generation’s “Sandstorm” (which is still huge) and has generated dozens of requests in just the past few weeks. Definitely a good song to spike in Gold. Everyone knows the words!
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(@livelineradio)This story first appeared on radioinsight.com