Where we left off with Summer Ranking is that the pop chart has been stale for a while beside for the this chart I'm using and even then, no one can denied the steep downfall in quality that occured during Summer where a lot of artists should've been hitting big but I guess they got cold feet because Morgan Wallen basically rammed his 37 inch pp called "his album" on the chart. Thankfully the start of the Fall season, the pop chart looks healthy again with only five songs being carried over the last ranking. These crop of new songs are also very interesting to talk about as well. From the biggest animated movie of the year surprising everyone on how big it was, to Sabrina Carpenter's follow up to her star making album with diminshing return, new comers left and right, and of course discourses! Let's get this ranking started shall we?
BAD TIER
20. Just Keep Watching - Tate McRae
The chart for this season overall is actually improved a lot from last season, but there are still carryover from that chart and most of them are not good so let's get through them quickly and we'll be reshuffling some stuff here. This one is still as bad as when I first covered it and my opinion hasn't changed since then. Though apparently a lot of people did watched that overbloated mess that is the F1 The Movie that it's the official song of the summer according to MTV VMA...yeah this is definitely the song that the bleakest summer season deserved.
19. Manchild - Sabrina Carpenter
Welp this definitely shrunk on me a lot. The problem I mentioned in my last ranking got worse by subsequent listen. The worst part though is that it's not even the worst part of Man's Best Friend. I know the intention behind the wink nudging of the lyrical contents that hide her sadness and frustrations. And I do kinda agree as a trans woman that yeah a lot of men especially Gen Z ones are kinda asshole. But playing on tropes and trying to take it ironically is not really the way to go either. We'll get to more on this problem later but all I'm saying that her post Disney angst is the ones that I don't think work unlike Olivia Rodrigo.
18. Don't Say You Love Me - JIN
Okay this grew on me slightly. But it doesn't negate the fact that this song is a facsimile of "Leave Before You Love Me" which in turned a facsimile of "Last Christmas". I think what I said on my last ranking I stand by is that I'm sick of these kinds of 80s pastiche and I want other parts of 80s music to be explored more. Heck that's why I don't mind APT because at least that song took inspiration of the early 80s new wave and early MTV novelty cheese. This song on the other hand is just boring plodding mess that's barely saved by JIN performance.
MEH TIER
17. The Dead Dance - Lady Gaga
If there's one thing that I like about looking at music history is seeing a lot of artists that got massive success from a viral trend will always make a sequel song to that memetic thing or just do anything that really doesn't have substance but you are big so you don't care. Yeah this is the vibe I got from listening to this which is just pathetic even for Gaga. I don't know who thought that we should bring back the messy productions of Born This Way and make it even more sterile but here we are. Of course naturally this will be the era where Lady Gaga will get her Album Of The Year at the Grammys probably.
16. When Did You Get So Hot? - Sabrina Carpenter
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This song really synthesized my problem with the album as a whole. Barely run two minutes as Sabrina meet her older peer she met in probably high school and surprised that he became hot. So after a breakup she tried to hook up with him with the mind that on he's hot so why not a lot of women go after him. My main issue with this song is the ironic detachment and attitude is a lot. While it can work to her favor, on this album it's everywhere and it got repetitive quickly. There's no song like Juno or even Taste where the former felt very sincere while the latter the joke really played out very tongue and cheek. To me it became more mean spirited more than anything. We'll get to the best part of the album later on but Man's Best Friend felt like a sophomore slump...even though this is her seventh albums.
15. Tu Vas Sin (fav) - Rels B
Okay so this is Rels B and he's a Spanish artist and I don't know much about him. Honestly this is probably one of my problem with me. While I do love a lot of latin music, when there's some songs that really run of the mill to me I can't tell if this song is actually great in the wider Spanish speaking community. I do know that a lot of people in the reggaeton scenes saw Spanish native artists to be a bit of a poser and that's from me looking from a far. So I'm probably feeling a bit better for calling this a bit lousy. My main problem is definitely the non charisma of Rels B and it dragged the song to the ground because of it.
14. Rich Man - aespa
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Do you guys gals and pals think that Aespa might be running out of idea? Because how else do you explain this tuneless bore that sounded dated even in 2022. This singles really highlight the problem that K-Pop has been grappling since NewJeans got caught in a legal battle. Seems like a lot of them are experimenting but to diminished return. Aespa is really a great example of this because both Supernova and Whiplash showed they can experiment with other pop genres so well that this song seems to be a step back which I agree to be honest.
DECENT TIER
13. no tiene sentindo - Beele
This is still decent but it's still surprising that Beele hasn't got his due in America just yet. I think it really said something about the downturn of latin music as a whole even after 2023 explosion of Regional Mexican sound. It's just my new observation.
12. No Broke Boys - Tinashe & Disco Lines
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We haven't had any EDM song to become big hit since forever now do we? I mean EDM is still a popular genre but most of those hits are concentrated in Europe and maybe UK and Canada. But a crossover hit like this is still unprecendented y'know. Though this song is only decent, I'm at awe with how this remix of the Tinashe song that really sounded like a bar in Netherland at 9 AM became a hit at all. Guess that's what TikTok will gave you. Speaking of which good luck with American made algorithm by the way.
11. DAISIES - Justin Bieber
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You don't go for Justin Bieber because he's a good artist. He's one of if not the most milquetoast artist to have ever existed. Even during his teenage idol era he's still run of the mill pop star that only got hate because of his voice, presentation, and his songs. I tried to listen to his surprise album "SWAG" and honestly while I still think that it's very one note and boring, Daisies is the most interesting song here because of the producer that made this song. The song was produced by both Dijon and Mk.Gee. Dijon gave the RnB style production while Mk.Gee gave the guitar and the texture of the song which is very lo-fi. This song could've only been made in this era of productions where the guitar is heavy and the production is very scrappy. Out of all the songs on this ranking this will be the one that gonna grow on me and we shall see if that happens.
10. Soda Pop - Saja Boys
And here comes the main event of the ranking. Kpop Demon Hunters came out of nowhere and for the rest of summer has been the surprise hit for both movies and music. An animated musical with as blunt of title as that shouldn't slap this hard but yeah the movie is great. As an avid animation enjoyer, the Sony style of animation really came through with this one while also giving the movie more identity that's very much South Korean. It doesn't afraid to showcase all things Korean and that's their assets. It couldn't have been released at a better time than right now and overall the movie I'll gave it 9/10.
Now with all the success there's always controversy and especially for this song. For the record I'll be only picking three highest charting KDH songs for this week and Soda Pop is one of them. Anyways, this song got flagged because of an article where the producer of the song said that some parts of the song are being polished by ChatGPT. Now as of writing this apparently that's a mistranslated error because in reality ChatGPT only helping with brainstorming the ideas of the song and not the production of the song. So that's why there's a whistling in the song and how this sounded like BTS sellout phase (sellout is not a bad word for me but if it does offend you then sorry).
I'm of two minds when it comes to the usage of generative AI in media. I am a staunch enemy of using generative AI to generate art like paintings, movies, or here music. But I can't fault someone to use Gen AI for brainstorming as long as the production of the art is still made by human which this clearly is. But it does rob the sensation of gathering people to discuss what kind of song you want to make and for that I have to deduct this good song to a mearly decent one.
9. How It's Done - HUNTR/X
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Meanwhile this song is definitely a pastiche of Gen 3 type of braggadocious song as the introduction of the demon hunters who became a Kpop idols. It's bombastic and really fit the theme of the movie at the beginning with awesome airplane to stage scenes. Listening it on its own...different stories. I definitely prefer their other song we'll get to and What It Sounds Like just because of production alone because this one...is a mess. That orchestral hit will never be not funny to me since I listened to too many Distantcry songs. But this does sounds like the "I'm back bitch" song and that mostly be mixed bag so this song is mixed bag saved by the awesome sequence.
GOOD TIER
8. Gabriela - KATSEYE
One of my favorite songs that got caught between the year end is Touch by KATSEYE. What I love about that song is how very innocence this song felt and yeah that's probably for the best as the intro for your new girl group. After that landmark debut they followed it up with one of the most divisive song with Gnarly. A hyperpop style song co-written by Alice Longyu Gao and it was a bonker follow up to Touch. Suddenly you have blocky synth, vocal filter, and the subject matter about the satire of pop culture that's very much in the wheelhouse of hyperpop. Honestly I love the ridiculous nature of the song, but I do agree they have to follow that up with something a bit "normal". So they released a latin inspired funk song that's basically Jolene but with Gabriela.
Now with this one the pivot again to make...basically "Slumber Party" by Britney Spears & Tinashe but with Spanish guitar and more dynamic percussion. I like Slumber Party but I'll say that KATSEYE really improved it with the Spanish guitar and more prominent bass. Now again this song is about Gabriela being this beautiful girl that will hurt you like Jolene. I think there's a flaw in this because it's now one v five rather than one v one with Dolly version. That really created an unrealistic imbalance but I do think the Spanish influence made this one has the same vibe as telenovela and I couldn't agree more with that.
7. Tears - Sabrina Carpenter
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This is the best case of Sabrina Carpenter having the music behind her ironic detachment about relationship. While the wink wink nudge nudge attitude is still there, when the productions is this good, who really cares about what she said. This production is immaculate and very much it's about the drums. This drum is so crisp and really giving the texture that the album was desperately needed. I love the drum fills before the breakdown and the strings are immaculate with that too. It's just a good disco song that only being hindered by short length of the song.
6. JUMP - Blackpink
You know YG you can just let these women rest especially when three fourths of the members are currently rolling out album cycle. You can just wait for their comeback but anyways. This is the first Blackpink singles since Born Pink released in 2022 to a mixed review. And what we got here is an EDM song produced by Diplo with a decent groove and the heavy bass and horns drop...with a hardstyle breakdown right in the end. This song is so weird like the fact that they used hardstyle breakdown at the end at all is just baffling. It made this catchy song even more peculiar. Honestly I prefer this style over their usual trap pop stuff but still the fact that they're using Hardstyle, a electronic dance genre that's very niche to the Benelux area, for their mainstream debut is still surreal.
GREAT TIER
5. Man I Need - Olivia Dean
Well this came out of nowhere...if you didn't pay attention to the UK chart. Olivia Dean is the newest in the line of blues RnB boom that gripped UK right now with RAYE being at the forefront of this revolution. And with this song I can see why this became the crossover hit for her because this song is very easy to get into. The production here is immaculate with the bass, that perfectly timed piano, and the fact that every instrument here didn't hinder Olivia's very assertive vocals is just sublime. She needs that assertiveness because the subject matter is about that she's very assertive and trying to get love. I do wish that she got like a bridge and final chorus but still I'm glad that UK still imports their best here.
4. Back To Friend - sombr
I listened to sombr's debut album and it's a great listen you should check it out if you don't mind him being a bit petty about his breakups. I just found out while listening to the album is that he produced it himself and that really making me love this song more. So much of a rock music these days are always too clean for their own good. But, with Sleep Token (Yes they have their problems but you can't deny their influence) and sombr it's not like they're doing punk but they are trying their best to make a rock sound while also updating with the scrappy way to produced a song and it really worked here.
3. Love Me Not - Ravyn Lenae
This song is very good and I again don't have a lot of opinions on it. But I do have some opinions as to how and why I listen to these type of music and also why I love it so much. I think there are a lot of people that listen to music without paying attention to lyrics and sometimes I can empathized with that sentiment. While yes the lyrics can make or break songs, in the grand scheme of things music mattered more and especially as someone who learned English from pop songs. If a song sounds good it's good and the lyrics became window dressing. That's my feeling right now about this song.
2. Golden - HUNTR/X
And here it is the main event. Golden has been the best thing to happened to pop music this year probably. I think this is more of an indictment about popular music as a whole because wow people are not listening to music at all. Maybe it's because shits going around the world right now but things as recreationally as music seems to be left behind. I mean I get why that happened but this steep decline after last year is crazy. Golden and Kpop Demon Hunters exploited weak charts that they can dominate the charts for more than three to four months. Not even the Disney movies have this kinds of success but it made sense because the song itself is great. My favorite thing about Golden is how it's just IVE song to the core and I love IVE. It's a phenomenon that will be carved in the pop music history as the most successful animated musical movie ever and the masses are yearning for more of this.
1. 12 To 12 - sombr
You know nu disco most of them have always been mixed bag for me but when it hits, it really hits. This song is probably the best one since the days of Dua Lipa's Future Nostalgia and it's not even close. I really love when a rock artist or band trying to dipped their toes to dance music and this is a prime example as to why. You have this smoldering guitar, tight bass, the vocal filter, and the drums that's organic enough to hold everything together. I do love the writing on this one better than Back To Friends as well. The sense of longing is better fit for a breakup song rather than the notion of can't go back to being friends. This is what Maroon 5 would've sounded like if they didn't abandoned their dance rock sounds on their Hands All Over era. I think this is better than Maroon 5 because how swaggering this song sound and Sombr is definitely a better performer than Adam Levine. So yeah if Maroon 5 is now at their exit door, sombr is happy to enter it.
As per usual, I'll be recommending songs that just fall short from this ranking that deserved some recognitions. For this week lowkey I'm struggling to recommend songs because either most of these songs are just decent or unremarkable. I was planning to use both this chart and the regular Global 200 but it only yielded me one song that I genuinely love for the recommendation...So be it then.
All The Way - BigXthaPlug ft. Bailey Zimmerman (TW: 180 PK: 23 WK: 23)
This is the only song only charted on Global 200 and honestly it's one of the best crossover country hit of the year. What I love about this song is that the productions here are done in house, so the trap country sound here are more substatial and not flimsy when you get Nashville producer at the wheel. Also I love how this song is about breakup but it's not pissy or something like that, more like exasperation that he moved on but she didn't. And the detail of the song doesn't antagonized her either reminiscing the good time they had. Solid stuff
The Subway - Chappell Roan (TW: 104 PK: 10 WK: 6)
It's a damn shame that this song is tanking without radio support because it's one of her best singles to date. Only Red Wine Supernova is more superior here. The pain and sorrow of breakup song here is so felt and so heard with excellent performance by Chappell. This is Alanis at her most retrospective and that's a compliment. Perfect example of doomed yuri in song form.
Sugar On My Tongue - Tyler, The Creator (TW : 110 PK: 110 WK: 5)
Seems like this is the song that became popular from Don't Tap The Glass and it's a decent one. Would've preferred Ring Ring Ring or the title track but the fact that a dance track by Tyler is staying long enough to be here is commendable.
House Tour - Sabrina Carpenter (TW: 59 PK: 33 WK: 2)
This is the best song on the album just because it's probably the only song that doesn't have layers of irony it in. It's just a song about house tour as a euphemism for y'know. Also this song really captured the best part of new jack swing era. My only gripe is that the vocal production is a bit muddy but other than that this is a standout from a mediocre album.
Tabola Bale - Juan Reza, Diva Aurel, Silet Open Up & Jacson Seran (TW: 78 PK: 69 WK: 4)
You know the chart is weak right now that an Indonesian song with modestly big streams can just chart high on this chart. That's something I've been noticing this year's chart in that because of the vacuum of American music, a lot of non-western countries have stepped up and charted pretty high up. If I cover this chart weeks earlier I would've covered a Turkish song and a song from a Bollywood movie. But yeah this Indonesian song felt out of place among the Sabrinas and the Chappells so yeah.
That's it from me and definitely stay tuned from me because list season is around the corner and I'll see you there!
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