Characteristics of a Billboard Hot 100 song of all time

Billboard Hot 100 has been the gold standard to measure a song’s popularity and sales for a long time in the United States. It ranks songs based on the physical and digital sales, online streaming and radio plays in the United States.

Billboard Hot 100 is back in the news after Lil Nas X’s Old Town Road continues to top for the 15th week in a row, as of the chart dated July 20, 2019.) Lil Nas X will probably go on to break the all time record of held by “Despacito,” by Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber, that topped the chart for 17 weeks in a row.

Lil Nas X and the marketing geniuses at his record label will keep dropping another remix to keep the Old Town Road success going. Latest remix of a remix featured Young Thug and Mason Ramsey. Of course, Billy Ray Cyrus is always around to make the song more country.

Billboard Hot 100 Songs of all time : Record holders

Full list of Billboard Hot 100 longest-leading songs that spent 10 or more weeks at the top is available on Billboard website.

Post year 2000, Below is the full list of songs that spent 10 or more weeks in a row as the number one song on Billboard Hot 100 chart.

19 Weeks as No.1:

“Old Town Road,” by Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, April 13, 2019 (*as of the chart dated August 16)

16 Weeks as No.1:

“Despacito,” by Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber, May 27, 2017

14 Weeks as No.1:

“Uptown Funk!,” by Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars

“I Gotta Feeling,” by The Black Eyed Peas

“We Belong Together,” by Mariah Carey

12 Weeks as No.1:

“Shape of You,” by Ed Sheeran

“Closer,” by The Chainsmokers featuring Halsey

“See You Again,” by Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth

“Blurred Lines,” by Robin Thicke featuring T.I. + Pharrell

“Boom Boom Pow,” by The Black Eyed Peas

“Yeah!,” by Usher featuring Lil Jon & Ludacris

“Lose Yourself,” by Eminem

11 Weeks as No.1:

“God’s Plan,” by Drake

“Independent Women Part I,” by Destiny’s Child

10 Weeks as No.1:

“In My Feelings,” by Drake

“One Dance,” by Drake featuring WizKid & Kyla

“Hello,” by Adele

“Happy,” by Pharrell Williams

“We Found Love,” by Rihanna featuring Calvin Harris

“Low,” by Flo Rida featuring T-Pain

“Irreplaceable,” by Beyonce

“Gold Digger,” by Kanye West featuring Jamie Foxx

“Dilemma,” by Nelly featuring Kelly Rowland

“Foolish,” by Ashanti

“Maria Maria,” by Santana featuring The Product G&B

We will take a close look at the 25 songs that spent 10 or more weeks on Billboard Hot 100.

Characteristics of a Billboard Hot 100 Song of all time:

Is it about Love?

Most of the songs that spend at the top of Billboard Hot 100 are about love. Not surprising, since love in its various forms is what everyone wants in life. It’s difficult to imagine songs that express anything against love. In Shape of You, our London ginger boy singing about how much he loves the shape of his boxing trainer. Other songs in love category are, ‘We found Love’ by Rihanna is about youthful love, while ‘Hello’ by Adele deals with breakup, like always. ‘Foolish’ by Ashanti feels like a love story of Goodfellas adapted into a music video format.

Is it a Collaboration?

13 out of the above 25 songs involve collaborations between artists. The featured artists usually tend be to from a different genre from that of the lead artist. In ‘See You Again’ Wiz Khalifa teams up with Charlie Puth to remember Paul Walker. In the mega hit Uptown Funk, Bruno Mars jams to the beats of British DJ Mark Ronson.

Is it a Dance song?

Most of the hot songs that top the Billboard Hot 100 charts for double digit weeks are dance numbers. Black Eyed Peas songs like ‘Boom Boom Pow’ and ‘I gotta Feeling’ are songs mad to set the dance floor on fire. If the song can be played on house parties and radio stations that this will help. Black Eyed Peas have two songs that are made for parties and dance floors on both sides of the Atlantic.

Is it a Superstar song?

Most of the songs in the above list involve songs who have already made a name for themselves. Exceptions include the latest superstar Lil Nas X who broke out with his Old Town Road. Eminem was a superstar in his own right before ‘Lose Yourself’, and so was his imaginary girlfriend Mariah Carey before ‘We belong Together’ came out.

Is it a Pop song?

Except Eminem’s ‘Lose Yourself’ and Kanye West and Jamie Foxx’s ‘Gold Digger,’ all other songs belong to Pop, R&B etc., The popularity of these chart busters is fueled by how listener friendly they are. For a song to go viral and spread across it needs to be loved by people with all kinds of sensibilities. Songs with cuss words and adult themes don’t make for good hot song that will stay hot for more than 10 weeks.

Pop songs are rarely controversial. People want some feel good song which they can enjoy without questioning the words that come out of the singer’s mouth.

Can you put the song on repeat, please?

The songs that top the chart for longer tend to be addictive songs. If the song is addictive, people put the song on repeat or buy the song so they can play it all the time. Hot songs stay hot because every influencer in the music promotion ecosystem, the Disc jockeys, radio jockeys and video jockeys all promote the song by replaying it millions times to get into people’s cultural landscape.

We know these are few characteristics of a chart topping hot song, let us know in comments what other characteristics make the song stay longer as number one on Billboard Hot 100.

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