In the spring of 1983, as David Bowie’s 15th studio album Let’s Dance began its charmed climb up the charts, the album’s producer, Chic bandleader Nile Rodgers, was receiving regular phone calls from his friend and client. “David might not want me to say this,” Rodgers told Rolling Stone in 1989, for the magazine’s feature [...] Read more

Picture a young pop act selling a rare 10 million copies of an album: “diamond” status in America, a major career pinnacle. This is a remarkable feat, especially considering that the act originally launched in the shadow of another genre-defining artist. Our young act reached the diamond level the old-fashioned, solid-and-steady way: never selling a [...] Read more

A crucial part of being a star is knowing how to make an entrance. Perhaps no one knew this better than golden-age movie stars. They made entrances that pretended to be about the material but were really all about them. Picture Rita Hayworth, flipping her hair and issuing a mock-surprised “Me?” in 1946’s Gilda. Or [...] Read more

Shouldn’t the most talked-about, most-memed song of the week be on top of the hit parade? I mean, what’s a pop chart for? From “Call Me Maybe” to “Harlem Shake” to “Wrecking Ball,” this decade has brought us a raft of No. 1 hits that got to the top thanks to a combination of musical [...] Read more

It’s always a mug’s game to try to predict which songs will wind up atop the Billboard Hot 100, but let me just establish this up-front: I did not see The Weeknd’s “The Hills” coming. In fact, I am on record, here at Slate, on that very point. Six weeks ago, when The Weeknd’s infectious, [...] Read more

Here’s a list of No. 1 hits from the last half-dozen years of Billboard’s Hot 100. What do they have in common? Britney Spears, “3” (October 2009) Eminem, “Not Afraid” (May 2010) Ke$ha, “We R Who We R” (November 2010) Britney Spears, “Hold It Against Me” (January 2011) Lady Gaga, “Born This Way” (February 2011) [...] Read more

A singer steps in front of a glittery curtain on a tiny stage at a seedy nightclub. As he begins to sing, he leans hard into the mic, closing his eyes and throwing down his best Michael Jackson splayed-leg dance moves. The crowd at the club looks on passively—a woman smiles coyly, but the rest [...] Read more

Well, America, you certainly are consistent. One year—to the week—after the Hot 100 was topped by the frilly, reggae-based, down-on-one-knee “Rude” by Canadian jammers Magic, Billboard’s flagship pop chart is topped by another border-crossing, reggae-derived tune ending in a popped question. Only this time the act actually hails from Jamaica: Clarendon native Omar Samuel Pasley, [...] Read more

“Every movie in every cinema is about death,” a wise man once said. “Death sells.” Of course, Spinal Tap manager Ian Faith was saying this about an album with a none-more-black cover, featuring songs with titles like “Hell Hole.” But as history has shown time and again, if you combine death with a hopeful melody, [...] Read more

On Billboard’s Pop Shop podcast a couple weeks ago, the magazine’s associate editor Jason Lipshutz and associate director of charts Keith Caulfield were politely debating whether the new album at No. 1 had had a great week or a meh week. Imagine Dragons’ Smoke + Mirrors opened at No. 1 on that week’s album chart [...] Read more