Travis Scott, seen right here acting at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on July 11, 2024, in London, England, hit No. 1 on Billboard‘s album chart along with his album JACKBOYS 2.
Gareth Cattermole/Getty Photos
conceal caption
toggle caption
Gareth Cattermole/Getty Photos
After months of doldrums, we lastly get a very wild week on the Billboard charts, as 5 albums debut within the high 10. Travis Scott and Justin Bieber headline the forged of newcomers, debuting on the Billboard 200 albums chart at Nos. 1 and a pair of, respectively. It is also a giant week for the veteran hip-hop heavyweight duo Clipse, whereas rising R&B star Ravyn Lenae posts a significant milestone, cracking the highest 10 for the primary time in her profession with “Love Me Not.”
TOP ALBUMS
For eight weeks, the Billboard 200 has instructed the same story: Morgan Wallen‘s I am the Downside has run away with the highest spot each week since its launch, whereas everybody else has huffed his exhaust. This time round, although, two albums leapfrog Wallen of their first weeks of launch.
At No. 1, Travis Scott’s second album-length collaboration along with his hip-hop collective JACKBOYS — titled, appropriately sufficient, JACKBOYS 2 — posts a commanding lead over all rivals, because of sturdy gross sales (160,000 copies) and strong streaming numbers (it is No. 4 on the streaming chart). Scott is aware of the way to work each angle within the pursuit of No. 1, and JACKBOYS 2 isn’t any completely different; it is obtainable in many various digital and bodily editions, with a number of configurations and bonus tracks to juice its stats. However Scott is hardly alone in these efforts, and JACKBOYS 2‘s numbers are legitimately enormous. A chart-topper is a chart-topper. Heck, Scott deserves a number of bonus factors for diploma of issue: The brand new report did not drop till Sunday, July 13 — that means it completed extra in 5 days than the chart’s different information did in seven.
That stated, JACKBOYS 2 adopted a completely completely different path to the charts in comparison with the album at No. 2: Justin Bieber’s SWAG. Bieber introduced SWAG on a day’s discover and dropped it with out bodily editions — no vinyl, no CDs — so his chart numbers had been derived nearly totally from streaming. (Bear in mind, bodily gross sales account for almost 70% of JACKBOYS 2‘s numbers, because of Scott’s enterprise mannequin of promoting giant portions of bodily media on to followers.) Fortunately for Bieber, SWAG pulled in the very best single-week streaming numbers of the singer’s profession — greater than sufficient to make it Bieber’s eleventh high 10 album. Anticipate one other chart increase when bodily editions drop later this yr.
With Wallen right down to No. 3, the remainder of the highest 10 will get a great deal of recent blood. Clipse debuts at No. 4 with its first album in 16 years, Let God Kind Em Out; that matches the duo’s profession peak, set in 2004 upon the debut of Lord Willin’. (Followers of each albums would do properly to take a look at Clipse’s latest Tiny Desk live performance, in the event that they have not already.) Two Ok-pop acts both enter or re-enter the highest 10, as TWICE debuts at No. 6 with THIS IS FOR and ATEEZ re-enters the highest 10 — and the Billboard 200 chart, for that matter — because of a deluxe reissue of GOLDEN HOUR : Half.3. That album’s chart trajectory has been wild; it debuted at No. 2 final month, plunged to No. 106, dropped off the chart fully for 2 weeks and now re-enters, in deluxe type, at No. 7.
However wait, that is not all! GIVĒON scores his second high 10 hit as BELOVED — severely, musicians, you do not have to stylize your album titles in all caps — debuts at No. 8. And THIS IS FOR is not the one album that includes TWICE to land within the high 10: Although the soundtrack to KPop Demon Hunters slides from No. 2 to No. 5, its numbers (derived nearly totally from streaming, with bodily editions slated to drop later this yr) are literally up significantly in its fourth week on the chart. It is only a huge, busy week throughout, in the end.
TOP SONGS
First, the boring information: Alex Warren‘s “Abnormal” additional cements its “technically the track of the summer season” standing, because it holds at No. 1 for a seventh nonconsecutive week. Industrial radio stations are spinning the track at a charge that borders on alarming and, given how gradual these stations usually are to replace their playlists, they’re unlikely to ease their grip on “Abnormal” within the weeks and months to return.
Now, the excellent news: There’s really a good bit of motion throughout this week’s Scorching 100, as new albums upend the charts — Justin Bieber’s SWAG lands 16 of its songs on the Scorching 100 by itself, whereas Clipse and Travis Scott add a bunch extra — and Ravyn Lenae leaps into the highest 10 for the primary time with “Love Me Not.”
“Love Me Not” has skilled a remarkably gradual construct. The track dropped in Might 2024 — almost 15 months in the past! — and blew up on TikTok late final yr. It is solely been on the Scorching 100 since April, making it (at the very least chart-wise) a veritable spring rooster subsequent to the likes of Teddy Swims‘ “Lose Management” and Shaboozey‘s “A Bar Music (Tipsy).” However now that it is lastly taken off, it is rising quick. The track climbs from No. 12 to No. 7 this week, and it is bought simply the proper timeless, summery R&B vibes to stay round for some time.
Although Drake‘s “What Did I Miss?” drops from No. 2 to No. 8 in its second week, two different songs take pleasure in enormous surges this time round. The primary, Bieber’s “Daisies,” debuts at No. 2; it is the clear early breakout from SWAG, although it’s going to probably want extra buy-in from radio programmers if it is going to stick round into the autumn. Then there’s one other streaming hit: HUNTR/X’s “Golden,” from KPop Demon Hunters, which climbs from No. 6 to No. 4. HUNTR/X is a fictional group — albeit one which deploys real-life singers EJAE, Audrey Nuna and REI AMI — however the hits are actual.
And, as all the time, the chart’s immovable objects stay, properly, immovable. “A Bar Music (Tipsy)” sits at No. 6 greater than a full calendar yr after the track started its run of 19 record-tying weeks at No. 1. And “Lose Management” presently sits at No. 9 in its record-obliterating one centesimal week on the Scorching 100. Naturally, on condition that it was the primary track ever to submit 92 weeks on the Scorching 100, it is the primary track ever to hit triple digits. Folks, there are so many different songs. Why are we nonetheless doing this?
WORTH NOTING
The pop charts exist, usually talking, to show the general public’s enthusiasm for brand new music. However, thanks largely to streaming, any scan of the Billboard 200 albums chart will unearth dozens upon dozens of catalog titles — albums from years and even a long time in the past that simply carry on keepin’ on.
Usually, these albums’ chart positions can really feel baked in: Fleetwood Mac‘s Rumours is all the time bouncing across the Billboard 200’s high quartile (it is presently No. 21), Nirvana‘s Nevermind hardly ever fluctuates exterior the chart’s midsection (presently No. 77) and so forth. However previous albums nonetheless often expertise boomlets primarily based on exterior elements, from deaths (search for a surge in Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath‘s catalogs within the weeks to return) to holidays (Toby Keith‘s 35 Greatest Hits surged into the highest 10 final week due to July 4 festivities earlier than dropping again to No. 59 seven days later).
Generally, reviewing the Billboard 200 will produce a thriller that requires a little bit of reverse-engineering: Why that album? Why now?
Think about three albums that are not chart mainstays, circa 2025, however however re-enter the Billboard 200 this week: Backstreet Boys‘ 2000 blockbuster Millennium bursts again onto the chart at No. 29, Juice WRLD‘s posthumous 2020 album Legends By no means Die re-enters at No. 40 and Mac Miller‘s 2011 mixtape I Love Life, Thank You pops up at No. 79. There isn’t any apparent catalyst for his or her sudden resurgences, till you look extra carefully: All three units acquired deluxe reissues on July 11.
For Millennium, that meant a Twenty fifth-anniversary assortment that expanded the album to 25 songs: remasters, stay variations, B-sides, demos. Legends By no means Die‘s 5 12 months Anniversary Version was launched on “Zoetrope Vinyl” — you get optical illusions when the report spins — with a number of new songs. And I Love Life, Thank You acquired its first-ever vinyl urgent for the good thing about followers and collectors alike.
It is a helpful reminder that there is multiple solution to crash the Billboard charts. Within the lengthy and winding life cycle of a success album, artists and labels are certain to deploy most, if not all, of them finally.
