Writing - Chris Molanphy

Two years ago, Nashville tried to cut ties with Morgan Wallen. Now he’s scored the genre’s first real chart-topper in decades. When I was in fourth grade, I got into a magnet public school on the other side of Brooklyn, and two other kids and I had to get there by carpool. The local mom [...] Read more

Slate Why Is This Song No. 1?

Why Miley Cyrus’s “Flowers” Is Her First No. 1 Song in a Decade

28 January 20234 February 2023

It’s been a long road back, but a bit of celebrity gossip carried her the final mile. Until a few days ago, I thought I was going to be writing in this space about a chart-topper by Solána Imani Rowe, the artist who calls herself SZA. Since late December, SZA has had the top album [...] Read more

Vulture

What the Holiday 100 Reveals About Our Love of Christmas Music

2 December 202221 January 2023

It’s Mariah’s world (obviously) — but Ariana and Kelly are settling into it. Illustration: Carolyn Figel Eleven years ago, trad-pop vocalist Michael Bublé released his first full album of holiday music. Simply titled Christmas, the 2011 collection was an instant blockbuster, topping the Billboard 200 album chart for five weeks and selling 2.5 million copies in [...] Read more

Slate Why Is This Song No. 1?

How Taylor Swift Achieved the Unthinkable

4 November 20229 November 2022

The Beatles’ record once seemed unbeatable, and then Swift doubled it. But this unprecedented debut was planned weeks in advance. You may have heard that, this week, one artist—a notorious cat-lover with an increasingly foul mouth—has locked down the entire Top 10 on Billboard’s Hot 100. Before I dissect how this happened, gather ’round the [...] Read more

Slate Why Is This Song No. 1?

America’s New No. 1 Song Is Both a Big Step Forward and a Total Throwback

29 October 20229 November 2022

Sam Smith and Kim Petras both make history atop the Hot 100, but “Unholy” is not without precedent. From the summer of 1978 through the summer of 1979, singer-songwriter Sylvester James Jr., known by the mononym Sylvester, scored three consecutive Top 40 hits on Billboard’s Hot 100: “Dance (Disco Heat)” (No. 19), the hi-NRG landmark [...] Read more

Slate Why Is This Song No. 1?

America’s No. 1 Song Is a Truly Improbable Smash

8 October 20229 November 2022

Steve Lacy’s “Bad Habit” is a chart-topping hit that’s queer in every sense of the word. Consider, for a moment, the fate of Shuggie Otis, the shoulda-been music legend of the 1970s. The multiracial Los Angeles–based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist was compared to the likes of Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye. Otis spent years working on [...] Read more

Slate Why Is This Song No. 1?

How Beyoncé Finally Got Her First No. 1 in 14 Years

13 August 202221 August 2022

Beyoncé may run the world, but she hasn’t always ruled the charts. In November 2019, with a little over a month left to go before the start of the ’20s, I dropped an episode of my Hit Parade podcast commemorating the ’10s as the decade was passing into history. I walked through the acts, singles, [...] Read more

Slate Why Is This Song No. 1?

No One Makes Hits the Way Lizzo Does

28 July 202231 July 2022

“About Damn Time” shows how the star creates coalitions of young and old fans to patiently work her songs up the charts. About damn time, indeed. For 10 of the last 15 weeks, boy bander–turned–pop hegemon Harry Styles has been commanding Billboard’s Hot 100 with his dreamy ditty “As It Was.” Styles would only step [...] Read more

Slate Why Is This Song No. 1?

It Took More Than ‘Stranger Things’ to Make Kate Bush’s First Top 10 Hit

10 June 202211 June 2022

The Netflix series gave “Running Up That Hill” the final push, but its unprecedented climb is 40 years in the making. In the seven years I’ve been a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame voter, Kate Bush has been nominated three times. I have stubbornly voted for the British art-pop legend each time, even as [...] Read more

Slate Why Is This Song No. 1?

Billboard’s Newest No. 1 Hits Reiterate One Important Rule

23 April 202228 April 2022

More pop stars have an oddball, ultimately forgotten big single than you might think. Pop quiz: Name Maroon 5’s first No. 1 hit. Think back to the mid-aughts, when Adam Levine and his merry men were the hot new act on the charts. What song took them to the top of the Hot 100 for the first [...] Read more

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