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Justin Bieber Lovefest continues

Before diving into Today’s Hit Music, the Bieber lovefest launched by his Coachella performance continues for a second week. These Biebs Bring Backs are on the Spotify 200 this week:

With over 10 million plays this week, “Beauty And A Beat” is #3 most played song on Spotify in the U.S. this week.

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Sam Hunt’s “Body Like A Back Road” set many records on the Billboard Country charts, but its most significant milestone is entirely ignored: Hunt’s megahit was the first Country song to be huge on streaming. In 2017, music fans in general stopped buying their favorite songs on iTunes and began streaming them on Spotify and similar services instead, as I detailed in this article

However, most Country fans weren’t quite ready to ditch downloads, country radio, or even the CD aisle at Walmart.

“Body Like a Back Road” was the only Country song among Billboard’s chart of the most-streamed songs of 2017. Back then, Hip Hop—fueled by younger music fans early to adopt streaming—dominated streaming. Only one other Country song would be among the year’s most streamed songs for the rest of the decade.

It wasn’t until 2023 that Country titles lagged on streaming compared to the overall biggest songs of the year by less than 10 percentage points.

The following year (2024). Country fans were finally fully on board with streaming.

Unlike other contemporary genres such as Hip Hop or Pop, however, the artists Country fans stream is quite different than the artists Country fans hear on their local Country station.

Country Radio vs. Country Streaming:

This chart shows the County artists who landed on the Billboard year-end radio airplay chart during 2023-2025, showing the percentage of songs each artist had:

Forty-nine (49) different artists had at least one song among the 75 most-played songs on the radio during this three-year period, ranging from newcomers Jelly Roll and Bailey Zimmerman to longtime Country stalwarts such as Cole Swindell, Jason Aldean, and Thomas Rhett. Naturally, Morgan Wallen leads with 11% of all year-end hits from 2023 to 2025.

Things look very different when examining the Country songs fans stream most.

Just like on the radio, Morgan Wallen is the artist with the most titles among the 75 most-streamed songs of the year for the past three years. Unlike radio, where Wallen merely leads, on streaming, Wallen dominates: Almost four out of ten of the most-streamed Country songs are by Morgan Wallen.

In second place with 15% of all Country songs reaching the Billboard year-end streaming songs chart in 2023-2025 is an artist with no songs at all on the year-end radio airplay chart—Zach Bryan.

Combined, Morgan Wallen and Zach Byran account for the majority of the most-streamed Country songs each year.

Add in Luke Combs (11%) and Post Malone and Morgan Wallen’s “I Had Some Help” (among the most-streamed Country titles multiple years) and Morgan Wallen, Zach Bryan, and Luke Combs account for two-thirds of the Country songs that were among the 75 most-streamed songs of the year.

Given that Country is now on par with other genres on streaming, why have only 17 artists made Billboard’s top streaming songs of the year chart during the last three years, while 49 artists made the year-end radio airplay chart? Why are some artists big on streaming, but not on the radio, and vice versa?

There are three primary reasons.

1) Younger Country listeners are more likely to use streaming

Unlike Hip Hop and even mainstream Pop, Country appeals to the widest age range of any contemporary music genre: Your local Country station’s loyal listeners are just as likely to be 71 years old as 21 years old. Few septuagenarians are listening to today’s Hip Hop unless their grandchildren are picking the tunes.

Since the age of the genre’s fans aligns well with the age of the heaviest streaming users, Hip Hop and Pop songs that are massive on streaming accurately represent the biggest songs among Hip Hop and Pop fans. When a Pop song is huge on streaming, but MIA on your local Top 40 station, it’s because your town’s Kiss-FM is ignoring a hit. (I outlined this issue in The Hits Radio Ignored in 2025 and the Stiffs they Played Instead)

Country works differently.

The artists and songs younger listeners (18- to 34-year-olds) prefer dominate what’s most played on streaming platforms. That’s why Sam Hunt was the first artist with a major Country hit on streaming back in 2017.

Today, this phenomenon hugely benefits Morgan Wlallen.

Meanwhile, established artists such as Cole Swindell, Jason Aldean, Thomas Rhett, Blake Shelton, and Dierks Bentley still have plenty of fans who want to hear their songs on the radio but aren’t setting records on streaming. With their fans now largely adults 35 and older, there’s still plenty of appetite to hear them on the radio, but not as much demand to hear them among heavy streaming users.

2) Streaming provides a place for the misfits

Radio wasn’t sure what to do with Zach Bryan. His breakthrough hit “Something In The Orange” didn’t sound like a typical Country hit. Furthermore, Byran became a star outside of the traditional Nashville Industrial Complex, where Music Row executives work closely with America’s Country radio stations to determine which songs will become hits and which artists will become stars. (In exchange for radio’s cooperation, Country artists go out of their way to be accessible to Country radio listeners.)

Instead, Bryan signed with a non-Nashville label imprint, communicates directly with fans, eschews awards shows, and—most importantly—relies on high volume streaming instead of exposure on Country radio.

Will streaming’s direct to consumer model finally bring down the infamously closed Nashville system? Time will tell. At the very least, streaming provides a platform for Country partisans seeking alternatives to Music Row’s chosen.

3) The biggest fans use streaming like a record player

An artist’s biggest fans don’t simply listen to the one song radio is playing right now. They listen to all the songs on the latest release from their favorite artists when that new album drops. Morgan Wallen was the first major Country artist to use this fact to his advantage when releasing his 2021 album Dangerous: The Double Album with an unprecedented 30 tracks. His fans binged all of them.

Other songs benefit from long lifespans. Zach Bryan Featuring Kacey Musgraves

“I Remember Everything” from Zach Bryan Featuring Kacey Musgraves has been among the most-streamed songs of the year for the past three years. (It was the most-streamed song in the U.S. of any genre in 2024). When you love a song, you’ll play it for years.

That’s especially true for Country.

Unlike Pop or Hip Hop, where fans care about what’s “in” at the moment, Country fans connect with the song’s storyline and how it makes them feel. Country songs can stay relevant for years, not months. Nevertheless, radio is rightly concerned with playing a song too often once it’s old enough that at least some of their listeners are tired of hearing it.

Country is biggest on Amazon Music

I usually cite the Spotify 200 chart for streaming consumption here on Graphs About Songs. It’s the leading music streaming service in the U.S. and its user base is most representative of contemporary music fans across the nation.

If your day job involves picking Country hits, however, Amazon Music should be your reference of choice:

Just like Spotify, you’ll find plenty of Morgan Wallen, Luke Combs, Zach Bryan, and Ella Langley material among the most streamed songs on Amazon. However, you’ll also find Riley Green, Russell Dickerson, Cody Johnson, Eric Church, and Jelly Roll.

Why are a wider roster of Country stars popular on Amazon Music?

First, Amazon Music attracts an older user base, primarily because it’s the default music service on Alexa and is the path of least resistance for Prime members. Amazon Music has the highest percentage of subscribers aged 55 and older than any major streaming provider.

Secondly, Amazon Music has more aggressively pursued Country fans than other streaming services, including promotional partnerships with core artists. Most notably, Amazon is the only service where you can stream Garth Brooks.

(For the most complete information about any genre, it’s best to analyze aggregated data for all streaming music platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube music, and Amazon Music, as I do at my day job…)

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Data sources for this article:

• Billboard’s 2025 year-end charts: Hot 100 Songs: https://www.billboard.com/charts/year-end/2025/hot-100-songs/

• Billboard’s 2025 year-end charts: Streaming Songs (Top 75): https://www.billboard.com/charts/year-end/2025/streaming-songs/

• Billboard’s 2025 year-end charts: Radio Songs (Top 75): https://www.billboard.com/charts/year-end/2025/radio-songs/

• (Data from previous years’ Billboard Year End charts archived)

• Amazon Music Top Songs (Retrieved 4-21-2026): https://music.amazon.com/popular/songs

Here are resources to get you ready to use The Hit Momentum Newsletter:

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Here are resources to get you ready to use The Hit Momentum Newsletter:

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• Complete Guide: Here, you’ll learn in detail what the report shows you and why behind our recommendations on how to use it.

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“2026’ is the new 2016.”

t’s been one of the hottest social media trends this year. All over Tik Tok, Instagram, and Facebook, people are sharing what their lives were like 10 years ago. They’re bringing back fashions, augmented with bright colorful Instagram filters popular at the time. They’re reliving viral trends of the time, such as the Mannequin Challenge.

And of course, they’re bringing back the music of 2016. Popular songs by Drake, The Chainsmokers, Fetty Wap, and The Weeknd are a major part of the Tik Tok 2016 soundtrack.

Lest you think this trend was inconsequential or short lived, consider the graph below: It examines the total number of weekly plays on Spotify in the U.S. for nine of the biggest songs of the #BringBack2016 trend, including “Closer” from The Chainsmokers & Halsey, The Weeknd and Daft Punk’s “Starboy” and Fetty Wap’s Trap Queen (from 2015):

• As soon as the trend started the first week of 2026, plays for these nine songs almost doubled.

• By the time the 2016 trend was in full swing, these songs’ weekly streaming had more than quadrupled.

• Even three months later, 2016 songs were still garnering more than double the plays they were getting in late 2015.

The Typical 20-Year Nostalgia Cycle

Nostalgia is a virus every generation eventually catches.

Boomers fully dove into remembrances of their 1960s youth in 1983 when The Big Chill hit theaters. The film about seven college friends gathering for a funeral, had a soundtrack featuring Motown classics including “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” “My Girl,” :The Tracks of My Tears”, Pop classics such as The Rascals’ “Good Lovin’” and “Joy to the World” by Three Dog Night, and the psychedelic anthem “A Whiter Shade of Pale.” From Procol Harum. By the end of the 1980s, every city in America had a Good Times and Great Oldies station with Big Chill songs in heaviest rotation.

Generation X isn’t immune to nostalgia, but we’re compelled to be ironic about it. During the mid-2000s, a new radio format erupted across Canada and then the U.S.: Jack-FM proclaimed it was “playing what we want,” but in reality, it was an 80’s focused Oldies station in disguise. It was playing what Gen X wants---music from their newly discovered youth nostalgia.

Both the Boomer Big Chill and Gen X Jack FM nostalgia occurred right around the time the heart of the respective generations reached age 35.

Millennials have now reached that magic age, too.

The 2K Throwbacks trend brings back Usher, Britney Spears, Nelly, 50 Cent, Linkin Park, Avril Lavigne, and Beyoncé for that first wave of Millennials now ready to relive their early 2000s youth.

These predictable nostalgia cycles lo back about 20 years.

In contrast, #BringBack2016 is looking back only ten years. And its people in their early and mid-twenties embracing their pasts, not folks in their 30s.

Why are these oldest members of Generation Z going retro ten years ahead of schedule?

To learn why, let’s go back 54 years to the last time America saw this trend:

“Where were You in ‘62?”

That’s the tagline of the 1973 blockbuster American Graffiti. The film rode a wave of longing for the late 1950s and early 1960s featuring the first wave of Rock ‘n’ Roll. “Rock Around The Clock” by Bill Haley and the Comets, 16 Candles” by the Crests, and The Beach Boys’ “Surfin’ Safari,” were among the Golden Oldies from the time before The Beatles soundtracking the film about teenagers enjoying one last night of cruising and drive-in freedom before adulthood’s pall inevitably hit.

The movie was an allegory for how America itself was about to change.

1962 was the last year before President Kennedy’s assassination, the Beatles usurping Elvis, Dr. King’s “I Have A Dream” speech and the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham bringing Civil Rights to the forefront.

As the real sixties progressed:

• The sexual revolution overturned mores.

• U.S. involvement in Vietnam—and opposition to that involvement—escalated rapidly.

• Deadly riots erupted in Watts, Detroit, and Newark over the living conditions of our inner-city Black citizens.

• Dr. King was murdered.

• Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was murdered.

• Our own national guard murdered four young people at Kent State in Ohio.

Finally, right after American Graffiti became a surprise blockbuster, the 1973 oil crisis and newfound concerns about safety killed America’s muscle cars.

No 10-year-period of the 20^th century changed America’s culture more than the 1960s. However, living through rapid change—even overdue and positive changes—is exhausting.

Don McClean oblique recap of the era began with…

A long, long time ago, I can still remember how that music used to make me smile. And I knew if I had my chance, that I could make those people dance and maybe they’d be happy for a while.

The thing is, it wasn’t “a long, long time ago.” As Don McClean wrote the song, that moment before “the day the music died” was barely a decade old.

It wasn’t a short-lived fad, either.

From Happy Days on TV, Grease on Broadway, and “Crocodile Rock” on the radio, the early 1970s were rich with nostalgia for a time that seemed more familiar and forgiving.

The era also saw the launch of the first radio stations in major cities dedicated to playing old pop hits. Two of the biggest are still with us playing the classics today—albeit from the 80s and 90s, not the 50s and 60s:

In the early 70s, the adults in their mid-20s longing for their teens where the Silent Generation, the folks born just before the Boomers, the ones who came of age with Elvis Presley, not The Big Chill.

Let’s now go to what some are calling the last good year ever.

#BringBack2016

On November 2^nd 2016, just before midnight, the Chicago Cubs won their first World Series since 1908. It was a thrilling 10^th inning victory that energized our nation.

It was the last good thing to happen in America.

Six days later, defying all polling, Donald J. Trump secured an electoral college majority and became President in 2017. In the ensuing ten years, we’ve collectively experienced:

• Stark political division

• Fake news on social media

• 14 major mass shootings, including Uvalde Elementary School in Texas, the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Parkland High School in Florida, and the deadliest mass shooting in American history at a concert in Las Vegas.

• Wars and military actions in Ukraine, Gaza, Venezuela, Iran, and threats of invading Greenland. (That’s merely the ones the average American tracks.)

• A mob attacks the U.S. Capitol.

• Housing prices skyrocket, which while great news for older homeowners, has left young adults hopeless of ever owning their own home.

• The onslaught of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) and its threat to wipe out entire categories of jobs in an already shaky economy.

And of course, the pandemic. Stressful and scary for all of us—but our schoolchildren and college students lost the most from Zoom. School isn’t merely academic learning. It’s social learning. Those fun, awkward, and sometimes awful interactions help us understand how to be human.

Those students robbed of that formative experience are now the young adults fueling #BringBack2016.

This is Trauma Nostalgia.

The main difference between “Where Were You in ‘62” and #BringBack2016 is that 1963-1972 brought disrupted America’s values and social expectations, while 2017-2026 has disrupted America’s institutions and global order. As historian Neal Howe (whose work on generational cohorts I cite frequently) notes, the 1960s changed our inner world. The 2020s are changing our outer world.

The question is, will it last?

If #BringBack2016 is indeed analogous to Where Were You in ’62, brace yourself for mid-2010s remanences for the remainder of the 2020s.

What will those Gen Z kids listen to next?

• If you’re a fellow chart nerd: Choose the “FREE” option to get Graphs About Songs’ directly in your inbox.

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Date source for this post:

Spotify Charts (weeks of 1/3/2019 through 3/26/2026 for the USA): https://charts.spotify.com/charts/overview/us

Here are resources to get you ready to use The Hit Momentum Newsletter:

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Here are resources to get you ready to use The Hit Momentum Newsletter:

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• Complete Guide: Here, you’ll learn in detail what the report shows you and why behind our recommendations on how to use it.

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Some still do.

Back in the day, those discoveries rarely made it past a few friends gathered around the turntable unless the crate diver was in the mass media.

Nowadays, you can check out music you’ve never heard simply by opening the Spotify app. The real difference, however, is that you can now share the songs you find as Tik Tok memes. When those memes become viral trends, that unearthed song can reach millions.

Today on Graphs About Songs, we’re checking out those old classics that young people discovered recently. I’ve examined every song that reached the Spotify 200 chart in the U.S. from January 2025 through February 2026, tagging those songs released before this decade.

How do we know that younger adults are the ones streaming these songs? Because Spotify usage in the U.S. is biggest among younger Millennials and Generation Z: While older users are growing rapidly, the majority of Spotify users in 2026 are still under age 35:

Note that Spotify users are younger than music streaming users in the U.S. overall. Sixty (60%) of Apple Music listeners are 35 and older, compared to 44% of Spotify users. Amazon Music is even more popular with Boomers and Xers (45+).

(That’s why, at my day job helping contemporary radio stations pick the mass appeal hits, I use proprietary data combining all music streaming platforms. Here on Graphs About Songs, however, I generally cite Spotify because their data is freely available for you to access and analyze yourself.)

Note:

• I’ve removed songs that people only stream during holidays. That includes Christmas, obviously, but also includes classics fans now associate with Halloween, such as Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” or Independence Day, such as Bruce Springsteen’s “Born In The U.S.A.” If a song only appears in the Spotify 200 during a holiday week, I didn’t include it.

• I did include songs that retroactively became bigger hits in the 2020s than they were when they were new, such as “Running Up That Hill” from Kate Bush. I’ll note those songs when mentioned.

• I’ll compare these songs with the songs we examined in last year’s series, This year’s data covers January 2025 through Feburary 2026, while the data in last year’s articles covers January 2024 through February 2025

More classics, fewer currents, among the Spotify 200

The vast majority of streams among songs reaching the Spotify 200 are still for current songs from the 2020s. Since our last examination, though, the percentage of streams for pre-2020 songs has increased. Almost one in five plays is for a song from a previous decade.

Streaming of 1990s and 2000s classics increases

That growth stems from songs released between 1990 and 2010, the formative years for many Millennials. In contrast, streaming of songs from the previous decade (2010-2019) has declined in the last year.

What songs from the 1990s and 2000s are fans streaming? Not the Hip Hop and 2K throwbacks you might expect…

Alternative Classics are Huge—but not the ones you think

Almost half (47%) of all streams for pre-2020 classics are for Alternative songs, followed by Pop and Hip Hop.

However, the classics fans play from each genre aren’t from the eras you’d expect:

• The 1990s: Alternative classics dominate the 1990 from Nirvana, Radiohead, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Surprisingly, none of the foundational Hip Hop songs from this decade reached the Spotify 200.

• The 2000s, In a decade often remembered for Crunk ‘n’ B, Alternative classics dominate as well, specifically from artists that were the soundtrack of Millennials’ formative years; Coldplay, Linkin Park, Three Days Grace and Empire Of The Sun. Meanwhile, Kanye West leads for Hip Hop. The only Crunk Classic reaching the Spotify 200 is Yeah! From USHER feat. Lil Jon & Ludacris.

• The 2010s: This decade reflects Generation Z’s old favorites. For Alternative, that’s largely from Indie artists such as TV Girl and Cigarettes After Sex. For Hip Hop—for which the 2010s accounts for more streams than any previous decade—the leading artists are Generation Z stars Fetty Wap, Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Tyler, the Creator, and XXXTENTACION.

What songs have Spotify listeners revived from each decade?

1960s: One final hit for a forgotten Pop icon

Only three songs from the 1960s reached the Spotify 200 recently, including perennial favorites “Brown Eyed Girl” from Van Morrison and CCR’s “Fortunate Son”.

The other song reached the Spotify 200 for only one week in May 2025. It’s from an artist who hasn’t been on the radio in decades, even on Oldies stations that still play 60s tunes. According to calculations from radio consultant and music guru Sean Ross, this artist had more hits disappear from the radio than any other 1960s artist. Despite 15 Top 10 hits on the Hot 100 in her day, her recently unearthed classic wasn’t one of them. It was an obscure album cut before album cuts mattered.

Connie Francis’ “Pretty Little Baby” went viral last year as the soundtrack for Tik Toks about cute or nostalgic things like babies, pets, or outfits. Celebrities including Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian pushed the meme.

Connie Francis died in July 2025, just two months after “Pretty Little Baby” because a meme soundtrack. I hope she enjoyed returning to cultural relevance and having one more hit on the Hot 100.

1970s: A hitmaker urges you to touch grass

Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” remains the most-played 70s song on Spotify. It’s been on the chart every week since January 2025, peaking as high as #11. Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Have You Ever Seen The Rain,” Hall & Oates’ “Rich Girl,” and fall favorite “September” from Earth, Wind & Fire also still are regularly among Spotify’s 200 most played songs.

Fans are now going deeper into Fleetwood Mac’s catalog: Both “The Chain” and “Landslide” have regularly reaching the Spotify 200 since summer 2025, while “Silver Springs” began charting in January 2026.

Ozzy Osbourne’s death generated new streaming for three Black Sabbath songs, including “Paranoid,” which spent five weeks in the Spotify 200.

The 1979 original single version of The Cure’s “Boys Don’t Cry” is now reaching the Spotify 200 thanks to Tik Tok memes and bolstered by the re-release of the 1986 version on vinyl.

The biggest unearthing of a 70s song recently is Billy Joel’s “Vienna.” The album track from Joel’s 1977 album The Stranger is loosely based on his dad who left the family and moved to Vienna. Joel stated in 2008:

“you don’t have to squeeze your whole life into your 20s and 30s trying to make it, trying to achieve that American dream, getting in the rat race and killing yourself. You have a whole life to live. I kind of used ‘Vienna’ as a metaphor, there is a reason for being old, a purpose”

Congruent with Joel’s intentions, Tik Tokers are using “Vienna” in videos about slowing down, enjoying a nostalgic memory, and taking care of your mental health.

1980s: Nothing Strange about reviving this classic

Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’,” “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” from Tears for Fears, and Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” remain the most-streamed songs from the 80s on the U.S. Spotify 200. TOTO’s “Africa” and Billy Joel’s “Uptown Girl” also remain mainstays.

Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” returned for a month following his death.

Randy Travis’ “Forever and Ever, Amen,” also began making occasional appearances among Spotify’s 200 biggest songs in 2025, now that Country fans have fully embraced streaming.

However, most of the 80s songs that recently surged in streaming can all thank Stranger Things: ‘ After becoming a bigger hit in 2022 than it originally was in 1985, Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” rejoined the Spotify 200 for seven weeks starting in late 2025 because of the show’s finale. The Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go” reached the Spotify 200 for the first time ever after the finale.

But the Stranger Things song that received the most interest was also the song that was the biggest hit in its time: Prince’s “Purple Rain.”

1990s: A posthumous legend

Alternative Classics dominate the songs fans stream most form the 1990s The most-streamed 90s song is The Goo Goo Dolls’ “Iris,” a Pop smash from an (originally) Alternative band that’s become the go-to track to evoke 90s nostalgia. “Iris” is second only to Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” as the most-streamed classic on Spotify.

The 90s song listeners unearthed this past year isn’t from one of the decade’s alternative hitmakers. Instead, it’s from an artist who only released one album before he drowned in a Tennessee river in 1997:

Fans first discovered Jeff Buckley’s interpretation of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” (Buckley’s version is based on John Cale’s reimagining of the song.) The next track on the album Grace, “Lover, You Should’ve Come Over” has become a standard for Tik Toks evoking sentimental, romantic, and heartbreak.

2000s: An early hit from a 21^st century superstar

Historically, The Killers’ Mr. Brightside was the most played classic from this decade. It’s as big among Millennials as “Don’t Stop Believin’” is among Xers. This past year crowed a new 2000s Spotify Streaming king: Arctic Monkeys’ “505” has grown even bigger than the perennial Killers’ classic, now the 2^nd most played song from the 00s on Spotify.

Rihanna’s “Breakin’ Dishes,” Nelly Furtado and Timbaland’s “Promiscuous” “Bring Me To Life from Evanescence, and the CVS staple “Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield remain popular.

The biggest song Spotify users have rediscovered from the decade is an Indie song that hardly anyone noticed when it was released in 2008: She & Him’s “I Thought I Saw Your Face Today” is now streaming as if it were a brand-new current hit. It reached the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time in late 2025, 17 years after its release. Of course it’s a Tik Tok thing, with users pairing the song with TV and film clips to evoke a sentimental vibe.

2010s: Generation Z’s biggest Classics aren’t on FM radio

Just as The Killers’ Mr. Brightside has become an all-time favorite among Millennials, Generation Z’s equivalent is The Neighbourhood’s “Sweater Weather” from 2013. Like “Mr. Brightside,” “Sweater Weather” was originally an Alternative hit that ultimately went mainstream. Unlike “Mr. Brightside,” you didn’t—and still won’t—hear “Sweater Weather” on mass-appeal Pop radio.

After its original run, “Sweater Weather” first became a coded social media signifier for bisexual teenagers. It has since grown larger than that audience. Every fall, Spotify streams surge when the weather gets cold enough to---uh—wear sweaters.

The other song that’s a Generation Z stalwart is 2015’s “See You Again” from Tyler, The Creator featuring Kali Uchis.

Bruno Mars’ recent hits have revived interest in seven of his biggest 2010 hits, including “Locked out of Heaven “, “That’s What I Like,“ and,“ Just the Way You Are,”

There’s also a lot of listening to the songs Gen Zers enjoyed around 2016. Some artists’ songs have surged thanks to 2016 nostalgia, such as The Weeknd, Fetty Wap, and The Chainsmokers. Other artists from the era, including Frank Ocean, Kendrick Lamar, and TV girl, have been perennial presences in the Spotify 200 for years. As you’ll see below, there’s no love for the last two years of the decade:

The 2010s song listeners have revived as a current hit is from an artist who currently has new music on Top 40 radio, where you’d typically hear her 2025 releases “Crush” or “Midnight Sun”. But the song from this artist that’s blowing up recently on Spotify is a 2015 song this artist has revived at her European concerts: Zara Larsson’s “Lush Life.”

Recently, a video of a fan on stage flawlessly performing the dance moves for “Lush Life” went viral. That moment launched the song back into the Top 10 globally and also taps into 2016 nostalgia. For the week ending March 12, 2026, fans streamed “Lush Life” 25% more often than “Midnight Sun,” her current hit your local Top 40 station is playing,

Want to stay on top of what the kids are digging these days?

• If you’re a fellow chart nerd: Choose the “FREE” option to get Graphs About Songs’ directly in your inbox.

• If you program a CHR station: “The Hit Momentum Newsletter” analyzes the Spotify 200 to find the songs that could be huge hits on your station. It’s yours every Monday for a $22 a month subscription below.

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Date source for this post:

Spotify Charts (weeks of 1/3/2019 through 2/26/2026 for the USA): https://charts.spotify.com/charts/overview/us

Here are resources to get you ready to use The Hit Momentum Newsletter:

• Quick Use Guide: You just want to know how to read and implement the report ASAP

• Complete Guide: Here, you’ll learn in detail what the report shows you and why behind our recommendations on how to use it.

Read more

Here are resources to get you ready to use The Hit Momentum Newsletter:

• Quick Use Guide: You just want to know how to read and implement the report ASAP

• Complete Guide: Here, you’ll learn in detail what the report shows you and why behind our recommendations on how to use it.

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“From 1976 to 1984, the radio airwaves were dominated by really smooth music, also known as Yacht Rock.”

With those words, music critic “Hollywood” Steve Huey accidentally—and retroactively—created a genre.

Yacht Rock started in 2005 as a mockumentary from J.D. Ryznar, Hunter Stair, Lane Farnham, and David Lyons, with commentary from AllMusic’s Hollywood Steve. It chronicles the ludicrously (mostly) fictional backstories of Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins, Christipher Cross, Toto, and their brethren artists’ quest for smooth music.

The plotlines were perverse, but their appreciation for smooth music was genuine.

A subgenre hiding in plain sight

In the early 2000s, Ryznar regularly invited friends over to grill out and listen to old records. After a Steely Dan bender, Ryznar was obsessed with west coast influenced studio-driven soft rock popular during the Carter Administration. As Ryznar told Rolling Stone:

You know, like Michael McDonald is singing background vocals and like there’s guys on boats on the covers; it feels like you’re on a yacht listening to it. And the guys were like, oh, we know this music.

A quarter century ago, that smooth soft rock from the late 70s was woefully uncool—and they knew it. Huey explains to Rolling Stone:

I turned 30 right before we started doing the series, and I thought, […] What do 30-year-olds do? I feel like it’s time I get into Steely Dan. […] This is my new identity. I’m gonna unwind, start listening to Steely Dan, and leave parties early.

Originally, they submitted Yacht Rock to Channel 101, a non-profit short film festival where a live audience in Los Angles votes to renew or cancel your “TV” show. They did 10 episodes, a good run for the contest.

That would have been the end of it had it not been for something else that came along in 2005… YouTube.

Yacht Rock becomes a thing

As YouTube grew, new fans discovered those original 10 Yacht Rock episodes there. The fame of the genre they found hiding in plain sight entered its own orbit.

• In 2007, members of an Atlanta indie band formed the Yacht Rock Revue to perform covers of the songs on the show.

• In 2015, SiriusXM launched their Yacht Rock Radio channel.

• In 2024, Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary debuted on HBO MAX, chronicles the rise of the smooth sound.

Some artists, such as Michael McDonald, credit the Yacht Rock trend for reviving their careers. Others, such as Steely Dan’s Donald Fagan, reject it in the most Donald Fagan manner imaginable.

In 2016—a decade after the original Yacht Rock mockumentary series—its creators regrouped to host the Beyond Yacht Rock 2000 podcast, discussing both Yacht Rock and other retroactively concocted subgenres, including Regressive Rock, Divorcecore, Camero Summer, and Hobbit Metal.

The Genre Everyone Thinks They Know

While many have now heard of Yacht Rock, few truly understand it.

Yacht Rock is not merely any soft rock from the late 70s and early 80s. It’s a specific subgenre of smooth music, created by a tight-knit group of formally trained west coast studio musicians obsessed with musical perfection. It’s sophisticated, but it’s still Pop music. It’s smooth, but it grooves.

• It’s not the acoustic folk of James Taylor, Gordon Lightfoot, or Cat Stevens.

• It’s not the Quiet Storm balladry of Phillys Hyman, Teddy Pendergrass or Anita Baker.

• It’s not the British Sophisti-pop of Joe Jackson, The Style Council or Roxy Music.

• It’s not Pop-Jazz of Chuck Mangione or Herb Albert

It’s also not about boats.

Myriad “Yacht Rock” playlists include Brandy” by Looking Glass, “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)” from Rupert Holmes, and Bertie Higgons’ “Key Largo,” only because they’re songs with nautical or beach themes. It’s music you would play on your yacht, not music about your yacht. (They later created Marina Rock to distinguish it.)

And it absolutely, positively is NOT Jimmy Buffet.

“Yacht” conjures highbrow sophistication, not Destin, Florida.

Having grown tired of hearing their retronym soiled by these songs, the Yacht Rock inventors created the Yachtski Scale. On their aforementioned podcast, and now on the “Yacht or Nyacht” podcast, they rate songs on a scale of 1 to 100.

Above 50 is “Yacht,” 49 and below is “Nyacht”.

Because anyone worth their Yacht has loved a good spreadsheet since VisiCalc, they’ve conveniently created one for us with every song they’ve rated at: www.yachtornyacht.com.

The quintessential Yacht Rock song is “What A Fool Believes” by The Dobbie Brothers, which all four creatures rated a perfect 100. Kenny Loggins’ “This Is It,” (98.25) Christopher Cross’ “Sailing” (94.5) and Toto’s “Africa” (93.0) are also “essential” Yacht Rock.

In contract, “Peaceful Easy Feeling” (1.25) and “Best Of My Love” (1.50) by The Eagles, America’s “Sister Golden Hair,” (5.25) and Jimmy Buffett’s “Margaritaville (2.75) define what is “Nyacht” Rock.

The Yacht Rock creators retroactively outlined these six criteria for determining whether a song belongs in the genre they also retroactively created:

1. “Was it released from 1976 to 1984? “These years represent the period when the prime purveyors of Yacht Rock were active and popular. By this period, recording technology advancements facilitated the technical precision and sophistication that defined Yacht Rock’s quality reputation.

2. “Does it musically acknowledge the existence of Black people?” While most Yacht Rock icons are white, their music has R&B and Jazz influences. Michael McDonald’s music incorporates St. Louis soul. Country Rock such as the Eagles lacks this element. “It’s a groove, not a Hippie campfire singalong.”

3. “Is this song more complex than your typical Pop song?” Listening to The Doobie Brothers’ “What A Fool Believes” is effortless, but playing it is notoriously difficult. Real Yacht Rock exhibits musical sophistication that the typical disco hit of the era lacks.

4. Did specific L.A. studio musicians play on the song? That short list includes Jeff Porcaro, the drummer who worked with Steely Dan and dozens of Jazz and Rock legends before forming Toto along with his brother Steve and guitarist Steve Lukather, as well as “Skunk” Baxter, guitarist for Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers. Others include drummer Steve Gadd and Guitarist Jay Graydon, vocalists Bill Champlin and Patti Austin, and producers David Foster and Quincy Jones. (And if there’s a saxophonist, it damn well better be David Sanborn). If you were smooth enough for Steely Dan, you probably helped create Yacht Rock.

5. “Are the lyrics of this song a little jaded?” This upbeat music often belies stories of lovesick fools on the verge of relationship meltdown.

6. “Is It Pop Music?” The era’s Jazz fusion that would later become New Age (and devolve into Smooth Jazz) is soulful and sophisticated, but Pat Metheny, Chick Corea, and Herbie Hancock weren’t making three-minute ditties you could sing in the shower. Neither were balladeers of The Quiet Storm such as Teddy Pendergrass or Phyllis Hyman. Yacht Rock is meant to be mass appeal.

These six criteria clarify why songs like Seals and Crofts’ “Summer Breeze” and “Diamond Girl, from the early 70s, “She’s Gone” and “Sara Smile” from Philadelphia Soul inspired Hall & Oates, and Scotsman Gerry Raffarty’s “Baker Street,” are not, in fact, Yacht Rock, despite their omnipresence on Yacht Rock playlists.

Now that we’ve clarified what Yacht Rock is and is not, let’s get into what we’re here to do to music: reduce it to PowerPoint charts.

Quantifying Yacht Rock

At last count, The Yacht Rock certified Playlist J.D. Ryznar curates on Spotify has 885 songs that officially make the boat. You’ve probably never heard most of them. (But if you do know Airplay’s “Nothin’ You Can Do About It” or Maxus; “Nobody’s Business,” you have my respect.)

I’ve cross-referenced all the songs with Yacktski scores from 50 to 100 with the Billboard Hot 100 chart, as well as the Adult Contemporary and Album Airplay charts, to determine how many real Yacht Rock songs are also real hits.

#1: There are only about 77 real Yacht Rock hits

Professionally, Steve Reynolds is a talent coach for morning radio personalities. On Facebook, however, he’s known for his barbed accusations against Sirius/XM’s Yacht Rock Radio for playing songs that either aren’t Yacht Rock or aren’t familiar hits.

Many prominent radio programmers are sailing with Steve on his journey.

Here’s the challenge: There are only 77 Yacht Rock songs that were hits.

• 56 were Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100

• 19 were Top 40 hits that peaked at #11 or below but were bigger hits on Adult Contemporary or Album Rock stations.

• 2 weren’t released as singles and, therefore, were never on the Hot 100, but were album tracks that album rock radio plays a lot.

You likely heard those songs that weren’t Top 10 hits on your mom’s Soft Rock station or your dad’s Album Rock station.

Casey Kassem officially counted down 75 Yacht Rock hits.

77 songs simply aren’t enough to sustain a radio station around the clock. It’s barely seven hours of music. Even the most annoyingly repetitive Classic Hits station has around 250-300 songs on its playlist.

That’s why attempts to make Yacht Rock a traditional radio format either add compatible Nyacht songs from the era or dive into the deep tracks nobody knows.

#2: Yacht Rock hits were huge mass-appeal hits

Just because there aren’t a lot of real Yacht Rock hits doesn’t mean those hits weren’t popular.

Many were massive.

• 10 of the songs scoring 50-100 on the Yachtski scale were #1 hits, including The Doobie Brothers’ What A Fool Believes,” Christopher Cross’ “Sailing,” and Toto’s “Africa.”

• Another 9 songs only reached #2, but spent 10 or more weeks in the Top 10 (a long run in Billboard’s pre SoundScan era), including Toto’s “Rosanna,” “Baby Come Back” from Player, and “Just the Two of Us” from Grover Washington Jr. & Bill Withers.

A lot of fans remember these songs because of the many years they were mainstays on “the station the whole office can agree on.” While Yacht Rock today is a subgenre of “Soft Rock,” most Yacht Rock classics were bona-fide Top 40 Pop hits when they were current.

• Only about 17% of the Yacht Rock hits were predominantly hits on Adult Contemporary radio when new

• Almost as many (13%) were big hits on Album Oriented Rock.

• As soulful as many Yacht Rock hits are, only 4% were predominantly R&B hits.

#3: 1980 was peak Yacht Rock

The graph below shows the percentage of Top 10 hits in a typical week each year were bona-fide Yacht.

Peak Yacht was 1980, when 15% of the biggest songs were on the boat. You couldn’t leave your house in 1980 without hearing “”Ride Like the Wind” from Christopher Cross, or his aforementioned “Sailing, Ambrosia’s “Biggest Part of Me”“ Steal Away” from Robbie Dupree (flagrantly ripping off that Doobie Bounce from “What A Fool Believes), or George Benson’s “Give Me the Night”

14 different Yacht Rock classics reached the Hot 100 in 1980, more than any other year.

In the two graphs above, you can clearly see how Smooth music sank after 1983 once MTV-era New Wave took over the charts.

#4: There are only 20 “Essential” Yacht Rock Hits

Technically, there are 23, since I included three Steely Dan album cuts that Rock stations played heavily at the time.

Ignoring “Black Cow,” “Deacon Blues,” and “Kid Charlemagne” (which I would never advise you to do in your own life), there are only 20 songs the Yacht Rock creators deem “essential,” with a 90+ Yachtski score. However, most of those 20 songs were massively popular:

• 12 were Top 10 Pop hits: Four of them were #1s, including “What a Fool Believes”, “Sailing”, “Africa” and Patti Austin and James Ingram’s “Baby, Come to Me” Other Top 10s include Toto’s “Rosanna” (#2), “Love Will Find a Way” from Pablo Cruise #6), and “I Keep Forgettin’ (Every Time You’re Near)” from Michael McDonald (4)

• 7 were Adult Contemporary hits: Kenny Loggins’ “Heart to Heart,” Christopher Cross’ “Never Be The Same”, and “Mornin’” from Al Jarreau didn’t make the Hop 100’s Top 10, but they’re among the songs that were Top 3 hits on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart. (By the way… if you spent your childhood horrified at Jarreau’s biracial slur he’s singing, “sister Oriole.” I am relieved to know he merely thinks he’s related to a bird.)

• 1 was a Rock hit: “Peg” from Steely Dan’s Aja album peaked at #11 on the Hot 100 but was huge on album-oriented Rock radio.

Meanwhile at the stern are those Yacht Rock songs that barely made it on board. There are almost as many bona-fide hits that are barely Yacht Rock, with a Yachtski Score between 50 and 60, than there are songs that are “essential Yacht Rock”

Some of those songs that even the Yacht Rock arbiters aren’t sure should be on board include:

• “Proto Yacht Rock: “How Long” by Ace (1975) and Steely Dan’s “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” (1974) predate Yacht Rock, but point towards its ascendance.

• Not from the scene: They have parts of the sound, but lack connections to the west coast musicians at its core, including Canadian Gino Vannelli’s “I Just Wanna Stop” and “”Living Inside Myself”, as well as “Reminiscing” from Australia’s Little River Band.

• Doesn’t have the sound: On the other hand, these artists are connected to the scene, but the songs barely have the sound, such as “Hold The Line” from Toto and Bill Withers’ “Lovely Day.”

#5: There’s no correlation between a song’s Yachtiness” and its Chart Performance

The chart below plots the 56 songs that were both above 50 on the Yachski Scale and Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100.

• How far a song is from left to right reflects its Yacht score (right=Yacht)

• How far a song is from bottom to top reflects its weeks in the Top 10 (Top=Longer)

For context,

• Toto’s Rosanna is on the far upper right because its the combination of the most Yachty and the most weeks in the Top 10. (Very Yacht + Big Hit)

• Meanwhile, the Captain & Tennille’s “You’ve Never Done It Like That Before” is the lowest combination of Yachtiness and the fewest weeks in the Top 10. (Barely Yacht + Lesser Hit)

Does a song’s relative Yachtiness impact its performance as a Pop hit?

Nope.

If it did, those dots above would cluster around a line showing a corollary trend. The correlation factor between these two metrics is “0.03,” indicating a high Yacht Score neither helps nor hurts a song’s longevity on the charts.

Today’s article is brought to you by my day job, providing custom analysis of local music streaming that’s more accurate, less delayed, and way cheaper than old-school callout:

Why is Yacht Rock suddenly so popular?

Every generation reaches a point in life where it collectively gains newfound appreciation for its parents.

Two decades ago, many Boomers, who wouldn’t have been caught dead listening to their parents’ music in the sixties, suddenly discovered the Great American Songbook. (I discovered my own dad, who at last check had been into John Lee Hooker, playing Peggy Lee.)

They were the ones buying all those Rod Stewart Standards’ albums.

Generation X has reached that age.

Suddenly, those memories of hearing The Doobie Brothers, Kenny Loggins, and Christopher Cross as little kids in the back seat when Mom switched the radio to her station are a lot more precious than they seemed at the time.

Of course, when Gen Xers get nostalgic, we’re obligated to do it ironically

The Boomers originally made those smooth soft rock songs popular in the late 70s and early 80s. They’re now well into their 70s. t’s their kids, who heard this music as grade-schoolers and are now in their 50s, who are largely fueling the Yacht Rock resurgence.

Plus, one very cool pre-teen in Iowa…

Want your favorite music turned into graphs?

• For my fellow chart nerds and music geeks: Choose the “FREE” option to get Graphs About Songs’ stuff like today’s article directly in your inbox.

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Data sources for today’s article:

• Yacht or Nyacht? https://www.yachtornyacht.com/

• The Billboard Hot 100: https://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100

• The Billboard Adult Contemporary (Easy Listening) chart: https://www.billboard.com/charts/adult-contemporary/

• The Billboard Hot Soul Singles (now the R&B/Hip Hop Songs) chart:

  https://www.billboard.com/charts/r-b-hip-hop-songs/

• Radio & Records Album Airplay chart: https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Radio_and_Records.htm

• Wikipedia’s Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 singles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Billboard_Hot_100_top-ten_singles

Here are resources to get you ready to use The Hit Momentum Newsletter:

• Quick Use Guide: You just want to know how to read and implement the report ASAP

• Complete Guide: Here, you’ll learn in detail what the report shows you and why behind our recommendations on how to use it.

Read more

Here are resources to get you ready to use The Hit Momentum Newsletter:

• Quick Use Guide: You just want to know how to read and implement the report ASAP

• Complete Guide: Here, you’ll learn in detail what the report shows you and why behind our recommendations on how to use it.

The 2016 Thing continues…

Before exploring the Current, new songs and Recurrents this week, note that Dominic Fike - Babydoll (5.9 million plays) and Fetty Wap - Trap Queen (3.0 million plays) remain on the Spotify 200 this week, reflecting younger listeners’ newfound nostalhia for the year the Cubs won the World Series.

Read more

There’s a song that fans streamed in greater numbers in 2025 than Sabrina Carpenter’s “Taste”, sombr’s “Undressed”, or Justin Bieber’s “Daisies.”

It wasn’t a flash in the pan either. Fans have kept playing it month after month: As of late January 2026, the song—in its 79^th week—was still Top 30 on Spotify in the U.S., with listeners showing no signs of being sick of it.

Here’s the streaming for this mystery song for each week it was on the Spotify 200 in the U.S. compared to Alex Warren’s “Ordinary,” among the year’s biggest hits on radio and on streaming:

As you can see, their appeal is almost identical.

And yet, unlike “Ordinary” and those other three songs, you probably never heard this song on your local “#1 for Hit Music” station.

Gigi Perez’ “Sailor Song” is among the most egregious examples of a big mass-appeal hit on streaming that Pop radio pretty much ignored. If you heard it on FM radio, it was probably a college station or one of the more adventurous Alternative Rock stations.

In Billboard’s Year End Charts for the 2025 chart year, “Sailor Song” was overall the #36 biggest song of the year on the Hot 100 and #26 on Billboard’s year-end Streaming Songs chart.

On Billboard’s year-end chart of the 75 biggest Radio Songs, “Sailor Song” was nowhere. Is there some obvious reason?

• The song is melodic enough to be approachable, arguably even catchy.

• There’s nothing weird about the song’s structure that makes it a bad fit for radio.

• If you listen closely to the lyrics, “Gigi” as fans call her is crushing pretty hard for another woman (one she imagined looks like actress Anne Hathaway) Anything you’d cringe to explain to your first grader, however, will probably go over their head.

It’s not the only one.

The Marias’ “No One Noticed” was an even bigger streaming hit (#19). n 2025 Radio barely played it. Those stations that did play it did so only tepidly months after it was already a proven streaming hit.

Today’s post is the final in the series exploring Billboard’s Year End Charts, specifically Billboard’s tabulations of the 75 most played songs on the radio in the U.S. compared to the 75 biggest songs on music streaming platforms.

To be clear, most of the songs that America’s radio stations played a lot last year were also the songs Americans played a lot for themselves: Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars’ “Die With A Smile” was #1 on both radio and streaming. Kendrick Lamar & SZA’s “Luther”, “Ordinary” from Alex Warren, and Post Malone Featuring Morgan Wallen’s lingering 2024 hit “I Had Some Help,” were all among the Top 10 most played songs on both radio stations and streaming services.

However, an interesting variety of songs that were huge on streaming were not among radio’s most-played songs last year—and vice versa.

Late to the party

Consider the K-Pop Demon Hunters’ track “Golden” from the movie’s fictional protagonist band HUNTR/X, the 18^th most-streamed song of 2025. Radio did ultimately embrace “Golden” (It’s still Top 10 in airplay as of late February 2026). However, the song was a huge hit on streaming for months before radio decided it wasn’t merely pre-teen K-Pop fanatics fueling its streaming—thereby completely missing the 2025 radio songs chart.

Then there’s “Back To Friends” by sombr. Pop radio had no problem with the artist—sombr’s “undressed” was the 37^th most played song on U.S. radio and the 55^th most streamed song of 2025. However, for months, many Pop music stations believed “Back to Friends,” the 28^th most streamed song of the year, was only for Alternative Rock stations. (I doubt listeners heard any such distinction.)

Top 40 radio finally saw the light this year. “Back To Friends” was the #1 most-played song on U.S. hit music stations by the first week of February 2026—when the song was already 11 months old.

Why do hit music radio stations ignore songs that listeners stream in record numbers? Is there a common thread with these songs that makes programmers leery of spinning them? Is it time to rethink how we think about streaming?

When streaming was huge—but not mainstream

Consider these tunes, all among the most streamed songs of their respective recent years, but NOT among the year’s most played songs on the radio.

• Polo G’s “Rapstar” (#8 in 2021)

• Cardi B (Featuring Megan Thee Stallion) “WAP“ (#10 for 2020)

• Travis Scott’s “Sicko Mode (#4 for 2019)

• XXXTENTACION ‘s “Sad!” (#6 for 2018)

Yep. They’re all Hip Hop.

From 2017 through 2021, almost all of the songs that were huge on streaming but not on radio, according to Billboards year-end charts, were Hip Hop titles

Contemporary Hit Radio (CHR) played plenty of Hip Hop during this time. However, it was songs like Post Malone’s “Better Now”, “Savage” from Megan Thee Stallion, and (eventually) “Old Town Road” that were more accessible to Primarily Pop listeners. Instead, the songs that were huge on streaming, but missing on Pop radio, appealed to Hip Hop’s core fan base. Hip Hop/R&B stations that primarily target Black and (in some cities) Hispanic listeners played these songs.

It’s understandable why Taylor Swift or Ariana Grande fans might not have been into these songs and—therefore—why they didn’t make Billboard’s rankings of the biggest hits on the radio those years.

Hip Hop fans were the first genre fan base to embrace streaming. For the first few years after Spotify usurped iTunes, those Hip-Hop fans overwhelmingly picked which songs became streaming hits. Understandably, radio didn’t follow suit.

Consider below the genre of Billboard’s top streaming and radio songs of each year from 2017 (the last year iTunes had a greater chart influence than streaming) through 2021: While radio’s biggest songs represented a mix of genres, Hip Hop and Rhythmic/R&B titles dominated streaming during this period.

Then in 2022, things changed dramatically.

2022: The year streaming went mass-market

As I detailed in the previous post in this series, 2022 marked the year Pop fans fully embraced streaming. Country fans weren’t far behind, achieving parity by 2024. With Hip Hop fans no longer having Spotify, Apple, and Amazon Music to themselves, tthe genres of songs people played most on streaming each year started looking a lot more like the most played songs on the radio.

Along with a much wider audience embracing streaming, the types of songs that were big on streaming—but not on radio—also changed:

Just to show how important the change was between 2021 and 2022, consider these two graphs…

2022: Streaming-only hits aren’t just Hip Hop anymore

With the styles of songs people stream now closely mirroring the styles popular on the radio, exactly which songs did people stream that radio ignored?

First, there were three different Reggaeton tracks from Bad Bunny that were on Spanish-language radio but understandably weren’t on English Pop stations (see my previous post about why he’s a bigger deal than you realize and how he won big at halftime.)

There was also this Latin-inspired track that vexed radio:

“We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from the Disney film Encanto was the 7^th most played song on streaming in 2022. It was the biggest streaming hit to date that radio refused to play. Unlike other songs fueled by young children playing them incessantly, such as “Baby Shark” or Frozen’s “Let It Go,” adults actually played “Bruno” for themselves after the kids went to bed.

(Encanto’s “Surface Pressure” by Jessica Darrow also made the list.)

It’s understandable why radio programmers feared a Disney tune might alienate listeners.

However, another style of streaming hit emerged in 2022, the absence of which on Pop radio is less easy to justify.

“Glimpse Of Us” by Joji, the 36^th most streamed song of 2022 that was absent from Pop radio.

Then in 2023, JVKE’s “ Golden Hour,” the 28^th most streamed song of the year, was largely absent from Pop radio.

2024 saw Chappel Roan’s “Hot To Go!” (#42) and Mitski’s “My Love Mine All Mine” (#51) become mass hits on streaming, while receiving miniscule airplay.

Gen Z Pop: proven hits on streaming, absent from radio

What Joji, Glimpse Of Us” and “Golden Hour”, along with Chappell Roan and Mitski, have in common with Gigi Perez’ “Sailor Song” and The Marias’ “No One Noticed” is their strong appeal among Generation Z.

• These songs and artists have a minimalist, stripped down texture, compared to the EDM-infused maximalist sound of Millennials’ biggest hits a decade ago. “No One Noticed” is the kind of song that sounds great in your earbuds, but not on a dance floor.

• Many openly celebrate LGBTQ+ identities and romantic themes. Chappell Roan’s hits sound a lot like 80s hits, but they explore themes that few 80s songs would dare.

• Some are lyrically more introspective, exploring personal feelings and struggles instead of clubbing and partying.

So why is radio ignoring these songs?

I strongly suspect that those few Top 40 stations who still can afford traditional music research are testing songs among listeners in their late 20s and 30s, not listeners in their early- to mid-20s. The logic is that 36-year-olds spend more time with FM radio than 24-year-olds do these days.

That’s a bad idea.

First, those younger adults who do still enjoy FM radio won’t keep listening if they don’t hear songs they love. The erosion—both now and in the future—of Generation Z listening to the radio will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Second, even if that young adult is never coming back to radio, her tastes influence which songs and musical styles ultimately become popular among older adults, too. 22-year-olds determine what 38-year-olds like. 38-year-olds don’t influence 22-year-olds.

The songs radio plays that nobody plays for themselves

What’s even more disconcerting are the songs radio played incessantly in 2025 that few listeners played for themselves on their favorite streaming app. In the graphs below, I’ll compare each of those songs’ weekly streaming on Spotify in the U.S. with Gigi Perez’ “Sailor Song”, the aforementioned streaming smash that radio barely played:

1) Myles Smith “Stargazing” (#10 most played on radio) - At its peak, “Stargazing only garnered about half the Spotify plays that “Sailor Song” did before falling out of the Spotify 200 chart entirely.

2) Benson Boone’s “Sorry I’m Here For Someone Else” (#15 most played on radio) - I’ve defended this song, especially for Adult-oriented Pop stations. It never attracted a large fan base, but the folks who tried it liked it, playing it reliably week after week. Despite massive radio exposure, however, the audience for “Sorry” was always small.

3) Sabrina Carpenter’s “Bed Chem” (#29 most played on radio) - With massive success with 2024’s hits, Carpenter fans were eager to hear her new songs in 2025. Unfortunately, those fans who flocked to hear “Bed Chem” when it dropped didn’t like it like “Espresso.” Streaming fell rapidly each week. By its ninth week, “Bed Chem’s” weekly plays fell below “Sailor Song’s” streaming in its ninth week.

4) Lady Gaga’s ”Abracadabra” (#43 most played on radio) - Whether it was Gaga herself or fans of “Die With A Smile,” "Lady Gaga released “Abracadabra” to great anticipation. Spotify users ultimately abandoned “Abracadabra” even faster than they did “Bed Chem.” It vanished from the Spotify 200 within 20 weeks.

5) Ed Sheeran’s “Azizam” (#51 most played on radio) - I really don’t know how the label got PDs on board with this one. Anyone who has a teenager can tell you Ed Sheeran is woefully uncool. “Azizam” spent just one week near the bottom of the Spotify 200. Yet some stations played this song for months.

Perhaps these songs are performing well in music research among adults in their late 30s and 40s to warrant their airplay.

Perhaps it simply took months for radio’s music research to convince programmers that they weren’t going to be hits.

Perhaps record labels aggressively promoted these artists to radio.

The irony here is that back in 2017, Ed Sheeran became the first artist to debut two singles simultaneously in the Billboard Hot 100’s Top 10, a feat he accomplished specifically because fans were streaming his latest album ÷ (Divide), not buying it.

Nine years later, when the majority of Americans and fans of every music genre have paid music streaming subscriptions, there’s no way a Pop song could be a mass-appeal hit and not be among the 200 biggest songs on Spotify.

Want your favorite music turned into graphs?

• For Radio Programmers: “The Hit Momentum Newsletter” is my weekly analysis of the Spotify 200 that finds the songs that could be huge hits on your CHR or HOIT AC station. It’s yours every Monday for a paid subscription below.

• For chart nerds and music geeks: Choose the “FREE” option to get Graphs About Songs’ stuff like today’s article directly in your inbox.

Subscribe now

Data sources for this post:

• Billboard’s 2025 year-end charts: Hot 100 Songs: https://www.billboard.com/charts/year-end/2025/hot-100-songs/

• Billboard’s 2025 year-end charts: Streaming Songs (Top 75): https://www.billboard.com/charts/year-end/2025/streaming-songs/

• Billboard’s 2025 year-end charts: Radio Songs (Top 75): https://www.billboard.com/charts/year-end/2025/radio-songs/

• (Data from previous years’ Billboard Year End charts archived)

• Spotify 200 Weekly Charts for the USA - Weeks ending 1/3/2019-1/29/2026: https://charts.spotify.com/charts/overview/us

Here are resources to get you ready to use The Hit Momentum Newsletter:

• Quick Use Guide: You just want to know how to read and implement the report ASAP

• Complete Guide: Here, you’ll learn in detail what the report shows you and why behind our recommendations on how to use it.

A note about lingering Bad Bunny titles

You won’t see five of the top 10 songs on Spotify this week in any of the charts below since they’re generally not relevant to CHR and Hot AC radio. That’s because there are still 14 Bad Bunny songs on the Spotify 200 this week, reflecting lingering interest after his halftime show. Five of those 14 songs are still in the Top 10, namely:

• DtMF

• Tití Me Preguntó

• BAILE INoLVIDABLE

• NUEVAYoL

• EoO

Read more

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A week before Super Bowl LX, only four (4) Bad Bunny songs were among the top 200 most-played songs on Spotify in the U.S., collectively receiving less than two million streams a day.

On the Monday after Seattle field-goaled their way to victory, 41 out of the 200 biggest songs on Spotify in the U.S. were from Bad Bunny, totaling over 44 million streams. Nine out of America’s top 10 songs on Spotify on Super Monday were Bad Bunny songs.

His 2025 hit “DtMF” is the biggest, with over 5.7 million plays Monday. That’s four times the daily streams for a typical #1 hit on Spotify.

My previous article spotlighted just how popular Bad Bunny is, so it’s not surprising his halftime performance garnered great anticipation. That anticipation—culminating in the performance itself—boosted daily plays of Bad Bunny songs on the Spotify in the U.S. by over 24 times.

To understand just how big a deal Bad Bunny’s bowl boost is, let’s compare his daily streaming against the previous biggest halftime show of all time, Kendrick Lamar.

Bad Bunny vs. Kendrick Lamar

Last year, I spotlighted how Kendrick Lamar’s halftime performance, despite your Uncle Dave’s opinion on X, was a huge hit. How did Bad Bunny’s music consumption compare?

• Kenrick Lamar had a head start: Unlike Bad Bunny, whose most recent album came out almost 14 months before his halftime performance, Kendrick Lamar’s album GNX was less than three months old and had several current hits still charting at the time of Super Bowl LIX. Lamar was already garnering just under seven million streams the Sunday before halftime. Compared to Bad Bunny’s under two million streams, Lamar had an almost four times head start.

• Fans pre-gamed Bad Bunny: There was a lot more anticipation for Bad Bunny. On game day, Kendrick Lamar’s Spotify 200 streams doubled to 14 million plays compared to the previous Sunday. In contrast, Bad Bunny’s U.S. Spotify 200 streams jumped the Monday before the big game and ultimately were 15 times higher on Super Bowl Sunday than they were a week before. Whether the bulk of that streaming came from Bad Bunny fans eagerly awaiting his show, or from music consumers curious about his hullabaloo, that’s an unprecedented boost in streaming before kickoff.

• Kendrick Lamar won on Monday: On Super Monday, Kendrick Lamar’s U.S. Spotify 200 streams jumped from 14 million to 33 million, over 2.4 times as many plays as he received on game day. Bad Bunny’s streaming had already grown to almost 29 million Spotify streams on Sunday (over twice as many as Lamar received the day of his halftime show). On Monday, U.S. Spotify users played Bad Bunny songs over 44 million times. That’s a record, beating Kendrick Lamar’s Super Monday streams by 33-percent. It is, however, a Sunday to Monday jump of only 1.5 times compared to Lamar’s 2.4x jump.

In short, experiencing Kendrick Lamar’s halftime performance spurred his (then) record setting streaming growth. Bad Bunny, the new record-holder, grew his music consumption before he ever took the stage.

What about other halftime performers?

How Bad Bunny compares to other halftime headliners

Below are recaps of each solo performer at a Super Bowl halftime show this decade. (I’m not including shows spotlighting multiple artists, such as Shakira and Jennifer Lopez in 2020 or 2022’s show featuring Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, and Kendrick Lamar):

The Weeknd (2021) – “Blinding Lights” was still a Top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and in the Spotify 200, while “Save Your Tears” was also already Top 10 on Spotify heading into gameday. His daily streaming only grew about five times from the previous Sunday to Super Monday, with just under nine million Spotify plays for the day.

Rihanna (2023) – Her last hit from the previous year had already fallen out of the Spotify 200. However, her halftime show brought back 32 of her hits to the Spotify 200 on Monday, totaling over 19 million plays the day after her halftime show.

Usher (2024) – He hadn’t had a Top 10 hit since 2012. On Super Monday, 11 of his songs were among Spotify’s 200 most played for the day with just under 7 million streams.

If the score is how many streams a performer garners the Monday after the big game, Bad Bunny clearly beats them all this decade.

However, the artist who grew daily streams the most on Super Monday compared to game day was Rihanna. Her streams jumped 3.4 times from game day to the following Monday, beating even Kendrick Lamar’s 2.4 Sunday to Monday leap. If that metric indicates artist interest generated by the halftime performance itself, Rihanna stole the show.

So what happens after the big halftime show? Is there anything past performances can tell us about what awaits Bad Bunny’s popularity beyond this week?

How long does the Halftime Halo last?

Kendrick Lamar sustained greater streaming levels for weeks after his halftime performance. Not only did “Not Like Us” receive renewed interest after it is already fading among its core fans, “luther” went from being an album cut to a Top 40 radio smash.

The Weeknd didn’t sustain much interest in past hits, but his halftime show did help “Save Your Tears” keep climbing, ultimately spawning the remix version with Ariana Grande.

Rihanna, without a current hit, saw streaming levels drop over the next few weeks quicker than other halftime stars. Her performance did return her 2016 hit “Needed Me” to the Spotify 200 for a month.

Usher, whose hits had ended a dozen years ago, benefited the least from his appearance. Within a week, all of his songs had fallen out of the Spotify 200 except his signature 2004 hit “Yeah!” with Lil Jon and Ludacris. Even “Yeah!” fell out of the Spotify 200 by the end of March but returns from time to time when we collectively need a pick-me-up from Usher’s shawty-related club dilemmas.

The performers who benefit most from headlining the halftime show are artists with both passionate fan bases and with current hits on the chart. The Weeknd and Kendrick Lamar’s performances made what could have been middling songs into massive hits thanks to their super exposure, while nostalgia for Usher and Rihanna faded within weeks.

That puts Bad Bunny in a middle ground: He’s very much a relevant, contemporary artist, highly likely to have more hits this decade. Unlike Kendrick Lamar and the Weeknd, however, who both had hits only a few weeks old moving up the charts, Bad Bunny’s most recent big hit “DtMF” is now over a year old and no longer new enough to have growth potential.

With that context in mind…

Has Bad Bunny gained new fans?

Let’s now see how Bad Bunny’s streaming did on Tuesday:

He still had 37 of Spotify’s top 200 songs for the day, with almost 36 million streams in the U.S. Only Kendrick Lamar—who had several charting hits at the time of his halftime performance—retained a higher percentage of daily streams on Tuesday from Monday.

So far, that’s impressive retention compared to other halftime headliners,

However, consumption data alone can’t tell us how much of Bad Bunny’s record-setting streaming came from his massive existing fanbase ecstatic to see him on such a big stage versus how many people who normally prefer Taylor Swift sampled his music out of curiosity.

We’re not in such a vacuum. Leading up to Sunday, we were bombarded with news reports and social media posts about Bad Bunny’s upcoming performance and folks who weren’t happy about it. The curious among us responded by sampling his music, watching the halftime performance, and learning more about Puerto Rico’s culture and current struggles and how it relates to his music. Perhaps only a few will ultimately become Reggaeton fans, but their knowledge of why his music matters to so many people will hopefully remain.

(By the way, Kid Rock did not make the Spotify 200 at any time during the last two weeks.)

Data source for this article: Daily Spotify Charts for the USA: https://charts.spotify.com/charts/overview/us

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A certain segment of the U.S. has their Hanes in a honker over the NFL inviting Bad Bunny to headline its Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show.

Bad Bunny is a Puerto Rican rapper, singer, song writer and record producer whose hits are mostly Spanish-language songs in the Reggaeton and Latin Trap genres. On the scene since 2016, he’s already become the top-grossing Latin artist of all time, according to Billboard Boxscore. He also just became the first Latin artist to win the Grammy’s Album of the Year award.

Those folks upset about his pending performance, however, argue that such a solemn event worthy of only our finest Buffalo wings and queso deserves a more popular performer, someone who appeals to all Americans.

One segment—including U.S. Houst Speaker Mike Johnson—suggests Lee Greenwood is a more broadly appealing choice. Between 1983 and 1986, Greenwood had seven #1 Country hits—but unlike his contemporaries Ronnie Milsap, Randy Travis, Eddie Rabbitt, Juice Newton, Alabama, the Oak Ridge Boys, The Judds, Reba, Kenny, or Dolly, Greenwood never had a Top 40 Pop crossover hit.

These days, “God Bless The U.S.A.,” his #7 Country hit from 1984, is the only reason Greenwood performs anywhere.

I’m not here to discuss the merits of that song: Mr. Greenwood’s sentiments about our nation are as valid as those of Kate Smith, Woody Guthre, Ray Charles, Steve Miller, Neil Diamond, Bruce Springsteen, Waylon Jennings, James Brown, Miley Cyrus, or Childish Gambino.

I’m also not here to qualitatively discuss Bad Bunny’s cultural impact. He’s particularly tuned in to the complicated feelings of many Puerto Rican Americans who have moved from the island to the mainland out of economic necessity, as NPR spotlighted

What I am here to quantitatively assess is how consumption of Bad Bunny’s music compares to other contemporary hitmakers.

Is he, as some pundits suggest, a niche artist with limited appeal? Or is he among the most popular artists of our time?

Here are five statistics that answer this question definitively.

#1: Bad Bunny has 12 Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100.

Since first reaching the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 in 2018, Bad Bunny has had 12 songs reach the Top 10 as lead artist, plus three other Top 10s as a featured artist.

His biggest hits are 2022’s “Me Porto Bonito,” which only peaked at #6 but stayed in the Top 10 for 13 weeks, and 2025’s #2 hit “DTMF,” in which Bad Bunny laments not taking more pictures of his friends and the beautiful scenery of Puerto Rico when he was younger. It was a #1 hit in 20 countries and has become an anthem among the Puerto Rican diaspora. As featured artist, Bad Bunny reached #1 on Cardi B’s “I like it” in 2018.

Those 12 Top 10 hits are more than Pop superstars such as The Weeknd, Justin Bieber, Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, Cardi B, BTS, Sabrina Carpenter, and Chappell Roan. That’s also more Top 10 songs than every Country artist who isn’t Morgan Wallen.

Only four artists—Drake Taylor Swift, Morgan Wallen, and Kendrick Lamar—have more Top 10 hits since 2018.

The most comparable artist by this metric is Ariana Grande, who has also had 12 Top 10 hits.

Granted, Bad Bunny’s hits do not tend to stay in the Top 10 for as long as some artists. Cumulatively, Bad Bunny has spent 33 weeks in the Hot 100’s Top 10 as lead artist. That pales compared to Drake, Post Malone, and Taylor Swift, but it’s still more weeks than Justin Bieber, Luke Combs, Chappell Roan, Beyoncé, or Adele have spent in the Top 10 from 2018 through today.

By the weeks in the Top 10 measure, Bad Bunny is comparable to Juice Wrld, BTS, Dua Lipa, and current Top 10 squatter Alex Warren.

Don’t let Bad Bunny’s short time amongst the Top 10 mislead you about the long-term appeal of his hits…

#2: 16 different Bad Bunny songs have been among Billboard’s Hot 100 songs of the year

That’s more songs of the year than all other Spanish-language artists combined, including Peso Pluma with three and Daddy Yankee, Luis Fonsi, and Grupo Frontera with two apiece.

More impressive, however, is that Bad Bunny is #5 among all artists for the most songs on Billboard’s year-end Hot 100 chart from 2017 to 2025 That’s more songs than Doja Cat, Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, and yes—even Taylor Swift.

Only Morgan Wallen, Drake, Post Malone, and Luke Combs have had more titles on the Hot 100 Year-End Songs Chart during Bad Bunny’s career.

It’s 21 songs on the year-end Hot 100 charts if you also include songs featuring Bad Bunny.

#3 Bad Bunny is the 6^th most streamed artist on Spotify in the U.S.

As a Reggaeton artist, Bad Bunny’s biggest fans are streaming-first music consumers. Examining the Spotify 200 chart from 2019 through today truly shows how big of a deal he is. Including both songs where Bad Bunny is the lead or featured artist, Spotify users in the U.S. alone have played his songs about 4.5 billion times.

Only Taylor Swift, Morgan Wallen, Drake, Post Malone, and Billie Eilish have more total Spotify 200 streams than Bad Bunny has.

Bad Bunny has more total plays on Spotify than does Kendrick Lamar, Zach Bryan, The Weeknd, Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo, Ariana Grande, Tyler, The Creator, Luke Combs, Chappell Roan, or Tate McRae.

Unlike the Billboard Top 10, Bad Bunny’s hits stay big hits for a long time on streaming…

#4. Bad Bunny’s songs have spent over 26 years on the Spotify 200.

That’s #6 for most cumulative weeks on the Spotify 200 from 2019 through today. Only Morgan Wallen, Taylor Swift, Juice WRLD, Drake, and Post Malone have more weeks during that timeframe.

Once again, Bad Bunny’s consumption outpaces widely appealing Pop, Hip Hop, and Country stars including The Weeknd, Zach Bryan, Kendrick Lamar, Luke Combs, Tyler, The Creator, Ariana Grande, Olivia Rodrigo, and Sabrina Carpenter.

There’s one chart statistic that puts Bad Bunny among a very small group of artists with the most massive and passionate fan bases…

#5 Bad Bunny is one of only 20 artists to ever simultaneously debut multiple tracks in the Hot 100’s Top 10.

That’s a phenomenon I spotlighted in my last article. It’s only happened during the streaming era and only happens for super star artists with massive, passionate fan bases who eagerly await the artist’s new releases.

In both 2022 and 2025, Bad Bunny released a new album that debuted three separate tracks simultaneously into the Hot 100’s Top 10. That accomplishment puts Bad Bunny in an elite group with Drake, Taylor Swift, Travis Scott, and Harry Styles.

So yeah… Bad Bunny is statistically one of the most popular contemporary artists of our time. Based on the size of his fan base and consumption of this music, the only artists categorically more deserving of his stage at Levi’s Stadium would be Morgan Wallen, Drake, or Taylor Swift.

Surely, no American would be unhappy to see these artists at halftime, right?

We’ll track if his halftime show performance further boosts his music’s consumption even further into the stratosphere, as it did last year for Kendrick Lamar, here at Graphs About Songs.

If you’re of a certain age…. Does controversy erupting around a Puerto-Rican American performing at a championship sporting event sound vaguely familiar? That’s because this exact same thing already happened…

The [Other] One with a Puerto-Rican Singer at a Sports Championship

The Detroit Tigers were in the 65th edition of the World Series facing the St. Louis Cardinals. For some reason, the Tigers employee charged with picking popular singers to perform the national anthem was play-by-play icon Ernie Harwell.

For the first home game, Harwell recruited Detroit native Margaret Whiting, a popular standards crooner who hadn’t had a Top 10 hit since “A Bushel and A Peck“ in 1950.

For the second, he invited Motown’s Marvin Gaye, who was two months away from “I Heard I Through The Grape Vine,” becoming instantly iconic.

For the last home game, Harwell selected a 22-year-old singer from Puerto Rico who grew up in New York and was especially in vogue with those young adults of the Greenwich Village set we’d now refer to as hipsters:

José Feliciano had not yet recorded “Feliz Navidad,” the 1970 Christmas chestnut for which he’s renowned today. At the time, José’s hot hit was his sultry, acoustic remake of the Doors’ “Light My Fire.” It reached #3 on the Hot 100 earlier that year.

Due in part to what was about to go down in Detroit, that hit would remain his only contemporary Top 10 hit of his career*.

On October 7^th, 1968, before the first pitch of a must-win game five for the home team, Feliciano performed the Star-Spangled banner in his signature sultry singing style, while playing his acoustic guitar. With Americans fiercely divided about the Viet Nam war, civil rights, and changing cultural mores, José hoped a heartfelt interpretation of our nation’s official song might bring us all a little bit closer together.

“I wanted to show patriotism because, here I was, a poor kid from Puerto Rico, and I thought to myself, only in America could this happen.”

Before continuing, I suggest you take a minute and forty seconds to hear Feliciano tendering “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

The Tigers beat St. Louis to ultimately win the series. Staying alive for game six was not, however, the talk of the town.

It was how José Feliciano desecrated our national song.

Somehow, changing a note here and there for artistic purposes meant Feliciano was anti-American.

“He clearly opposes the Viet-Nam war!”

“He hates our soldiers.”

He must be a communist.”

War veterans reportedly threw their shoes at the TV. People called Tigers Stadium to complain. People called NBC Television to complain. Radio stations pulled his songs.

That night on the news, the National Anthem took up more time than the game…

When learning whose idea it was, some demanded the Tigers fire Ernie Harwell**. (For the non-baseball fans, that’s like Tennessee disowning Dolly Parton.)

Some even demanded the government deport Feliciano.

(As a reminder, 1) Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory. 2) People born in Puerto Rico are U.S. citizens. 3) You cannot deport a U.S. citizen from one state or territory to another. If there were such a legal framework, North Carolina would have long ago deported transplants who criticized our barbecue back to New York.)

Not everybody reacted negatively.

His album Feliciano! continued selling well for months. His Spanish-language albums sold well for decades. Plus, enough Americans bought a copy of his rendition to make José Feliciano’s “The Star-Spangled Banner” reach #50 on the Hot 100. `

With radio stations dropping his music, however, Felician’s follow up single, a remake of the 1963 Blues standard ““Hi-Heel Sneakers,” stalled at #25. (It reached #9 in Canada.)

In defense of 1968 America, it wasn’t yet common practice for artists to interpret The Star-Spangled Banner. Back then, we expected singers to sing it straight, note for note, just as it was when Francis Scott Key stole the melody from an old British drinking song.

Without Feliciano’s 1968 performance breaking that convention, we would never have Whitney Houston’s 1991 rendition at Super Bowl XXV during the Persian Gulf War, arguably the most beloved rendition of our national anthem of all time.***

On May 10th, 2010, the Tigers invited José Feliciano back to Detroit to perform our national anthem in tribute to Ernie Harwell. The legendary sportscaster who invited Felicano the first time had died the previous week.

He performed it note for note as he did at game five 42 years earlier—this time to universal applause.

But back in ‘68, instead of just deciding it wasn’t their cup of tea, a significant portion of Americans took an artistic decision as confirmation that the artist himself was everything and everyone they personally hated and feared.

Surely, we’d never do anything that ridiculous today.

(By the way, it is possible for a native English-speaking white person to face criticism for disrespecting the national anthem, but it’s a much higher bar:)

Additional notes:

* Feliz Navidad became a perennial holiday chart staple that first returned Feliciano to the Hot 100’s Top 40 in 2018. It’s gotten as high as #5, giving Felicio another Top 10 hit. That means “Light My Fire” is still his highest-charting song.

** Ernie Harwell is the only announcer in MLB history traded for a player. The Brooklyn Dodgers needed a replacement for the equally iconic but ailing Red Barber in 1948, they got Harwell from the minor league Atlanta Crackers, whose game calling they’d heard in New York thanks to WSB Atlanta’s 50,000-Watt signal, in exchange for minor league catcher Cliff Dapper. Dapper retired and grew avocados. Harwell became a 42-year Detroit icon.

*** Whitney Houston created a studio recording of The Star Spangled Banner and released it as a single—the only version ever to be a Top 40 hit, reaching #20 in 1991 and #6 in 2001.

Further Listening:

• NPR.org, “What Bad Bunny means to Puerto Ricans” December 31, 2025: https://www.npr.org/2025/12/31/nx-s1-5660683/what-bad-bunny-means-to-puerto-ricans

• WBUR Boston, “The 1968 National Anthem Performance That Changed José Feliciano’s Life” Roger Weber, April 12, 2019: ttps://www.wbur.org/onlyagame/2019/04/12/jose-feliciano-susan-tigers-world-series

Data Sources for this Post:

• The Billboard Hot 100: https://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100

• Wikipedia’s Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 singles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Billboard_Hot_100_top-ten_singles

• Billboard’s 2025 year-end charts: Hot 100 Songs: https://www.billboard.com/charts/year-end/2025/hot-100-songs/

• Spotify Charts (2019-2025 for the USA): https://charts.spotify.com/charts/overview/us

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