The rapper has supplanted his rival atop the charts, and now he’s crooning just like him on his biggest smash yet. We know how pop-star feuds catch fire—a nasty breakup, an onstage embarrassment, some sibling rivalry, or … um, that thing where someone steals your backup dancers. But how does a beef end? As a [...] Read more

Two of the 2010s’ biggest stars are back atop the charts. One of them needed it more. By Chris Molanphy Johnny and June. Marvin and Tammi. James and Carly. Barbra and Neil. Lionel and Diana. Paul and Stevie. Kenny and Dolly. Aretha and George. Method and Mary. Brandy and Monica. Usher and Alicia. Ed and [...] Read more

“A Bar Song (Tipsy)” ties the record set by “Old Town Road,” but some of its feats are even more impressive. The week ending July 13, 2024, was a long time ago. How long? Get this: Kamala Harris still wasn’t running for president. How’d that turn out? Um … pour yourself a double shot of [...] Read more

A Black former rapper is atop the country charts—and for once, even country listeners are embracing him. n popular music, the hype machine works in delightfully mysterious ways. You never know who will benefit from our fickle hit parade. A vice president turned presidential candidate gets a meme boost from a British pop star named [...] Read more

To understand how the “Espresso” singer got so big, you have to understand her history—and her controversies. In the summer of 1982, a rocker from Indiana was finally breaking on the charts after years of trying anything for a hit. Born John Mellencamp, he marketed himself, reluctantly, under his manager’s preferred sobriquet, John Cougar. After [...] Read more

The past two months have seen Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, and Morgan Wallen all duet with the same face-tattooed star. There’s a moment in an article I wrote for this No. 1 hits series a little over a year ago that today seems unwittingly funny. Explaining the appeal, or at least the wild popularity, of Morgan Wallen’s [...] Read more

With TheTortured Poets Department, she breaks even more sales records. But is a song like “Fortnight” a lasting smash? Quick pop quiz: Prior to this week, what was Taylor Swift’s last new No. 1 hit on Billboard’s Hot 100? I know, I know … it’s a little hard to keep up with her relentless output. [...] Read more

Rap beef records were once too inside baseball to touch the Hot 100. Now they’re topping it. Growing up listening to New York radio in the ’80s, I was exposed to a parallel universe of rap singles that missed the pop Top 40 but were treated by local deejays as if they were mainstream hits. [...] Read more

“We Can’t Be Friends” is a master class in how to ride backlash all the way to No. 1. Tweet Share Share Comment In the summer of 1997, Swedish songwriter and producer Max Martin scored his first Top 10 hit in America with a song co-written and fronted by a fellow Swede, a teenager who [...] Read more

The singer has the No. 1 song on Billboard’s country chart. That’s not the same as being No. 1 on country radio. In the summer of 1984, Lionel Richie, in the middle of an epic run of pop and R&B hits from his blockbuster album Can’t Slow Down, chose a fourth single from the LP [...] Read more