1. PANIC! AT THE DISCO High Hopes 155.444 +0.119

2. MARSHMELLO Happier f/Bastille 132.036 +0.437

3. ARIANA GRANDE Breathin 118.920 +0.891

4. HALSEY Without Me 116.360 +1.235

5. ARIANA GRANDE thank u, next 111.593 +0.644

6. MAROON 5 Girls Like You 89.654 +2.741

7. BENNY BLANCO, HALSEY & KHALID Eastside 88.160 +1.091

8. TRAVIS SCOTT Sicko Mode 86.663 +0.077

9. 5 SECONDS OF SUMMER Youngblood 85.049 -0.274

10. KHALID X NORMANI Love Lies 76.174 +0.567

 

11. POST MALONE Better Now 74.623 +0.220

12. ELLA MAI Trip 66.085 +0.420

13. BAD BUNNY MIA f/Drake 65.396 +0.353

14. POST MALONE & SWAE LEE Sunflower 60.264 +0.478

15. LOVELYTHEBAND Broken 58.069 +0.272

16. DJ SNAKE/SELENA/OZUNA/CARDI B Taki Taki 56.996 +0.397

17. GUCCI MANE/BRUNO/KODAK Wake Up In The Sky 55.204 +0.107

18. KODAK BLACK Zeze f/Travis Scott & Offset 52.513 +0.343

19. BAZZI Beautiful 51.479 +0.351

20. DAN + SHAY Speechless 51.105 +0.811

 

23. ELLIE GOULDING X DIPLO Close To Me f/Swae Lee 45.835 +0.660

24. DAN + SHAY Tequila 45.417 +0.914

31. CAMILA CABELLO Consequences 41.468 +0.259

40. LADY GAGA & BRADLEY COOPER Shallow 37.845 +0.732

43. KHALID Better 35.957 +0.164

45. CARDI B Money 33.407 +0.202

51. SILK CITY F/DIPLO/MARK RONSON Electricity f/Dua Lipa 30.189 +0.060

53. DEAN LEWIS Be Alright 28.787 +0.397

57. THE CHAINSMOKERS F/K BALLERINI This Feeling 27.928 +0.192

59. LAUREN DAIGLE You Say 26.508 +1.480

64. SHECK WES Mo Bamba 25.804 -0.070

67. MARK RONSON F/MILEY CYRUS Nothing Breaks Like A Heart 25.123 +0.564

86. LUKAS GRAHAM Love Someone 20.011 +0.653

101. CARRIE UNDERWOOD Love Wins 16.605 +0.642

117. TWENTY ONE PILOTS My Blood 13.980 +0.055

121. LOUD LUXURY Body f/Brando 13.624 +0.161

124. ZARA LARSSON Ruin My Life 13.170 +0.096

134. MUMFORD & SONS Guiding Light 12.133 -0.080

153. ALESSIA CARA Trust My Lonely 10.275 +0.004

168. WHY DON'T WE 8 Letters 9.434 +0.117

169. AVA MAX Sweet But Psycho 9.417 +0.162

189. MARIAH CAREY With You 7.990 +0.791

211. MUSE Pressure 6.873 +0.125

225. KELLY CLARKSON Heat 6.310 +0.095

236. BILLIE EILISH You Should See Me In A Crown 5.874 +0.034

257. FOR KING & COUNTRY Joy 5.210 +0.527

258. KATY PERRY Cozy Little Christmas 5.208 -0.440

271. BACKSTREET BOYS Chances 4.804 +0.069

295. P!NK A Million Dreams 4.253 +0.079

300. GEORGE EZRA Shotgun 4.138 +0.129

Has High Hopes been around for as long as it has in the uk and only just reached no1 on airplay??

Has High Hopes been around for as long as it has in the uk and only just reached no1 on airplay??

It reached #1 a couple weeks ago! The radio charts are going through a bit of a holiday freeze right about now so it could probably stay on top for another 2 weeks granting thank u, next doesn’t skyrocket past it in early January

 

-

 

FRIDAY 12/28 US POP AIRPLAY UPDATE:

1 1 PANIC! AT THE DISCO High Hopes 18352 18972 -620 94.992

2 2 ARIANA GRANDE Breathin 17142 17542 -400 93.213

4 3 HALSEY Without Me 16288 16467 -179 81.626

5 4 ARIANA GRANDE thank u, next 16266 15227 1039 91.915

3 5 MARSHMELLO Happier f/Bastille 15754 16517 -763 78.324

6 6 BENNY BLANCO, HALSEY & KHALID Eastside 14351 14506 -155 70.944

7 7 5 SECONDS OF SUMMER Youngblood 10089 10770 -681 53.218

9 8 BAZZI Beautiful f/Camila Cabello 9952 9944 8 46.736

8 9 KHALID X NORMANI Love Lies 9627 9996 -369 56.699

10 10 POST MALONE Better Now 9204 9544 -340 52.931

 

11 11 POST MALONE & SWAE LEE Sunflower 8722 8829 -107 37.416

12 12 ELLIE GOULDING X DIPLO Close To Me f/Swae Lee 7399 6940 459 34.352

13 13 CAMILA CABELLO Consequences 6881 6848 33 29.836

15 14 TRAVIS SCOTT Sicko Mode 6425 6400 25 26.501

14 15 SILK CITY F/DIPLO/MARK RONSON Electricity f/Dua Lipa 6290 6445 -155 28.202

17 16 THE CHAINSMOKERS F/K BALLERINI This Feeling 6114 5921 193 25.402

18 17 DJ SNAKE/SELENA/OZUNA/CARDI B Taki Taki 5805 5570 235 27.711

16 18 LOVELYTHEBAND Broken 5144 6036 -892 20.808

19 19 KHALID Better 4971 4842 129 22.293

20 20 MARK RONSON F/MILEY CYRUS Nothing Breaks Like A Heart 4837 4298 539 21.078

 

25 21 ZARA LARSSON Ruin My Life 3421 3096 325 12.260

21 22 LADY GAGA & BRADLEY COOPER Shallow 3334 3624 -290 12.579

22 23 DAN + SHAY Tequila 3307 3267 40 12.997

23 24 DEAN LEWIS Be Alright 3259 3244 15 11.565

24 25 ALESSIA CARA Trust My Lonely 3037 3144 -107 9.237

27 26 LOUD LUXURY Body f/Brando 2704 2553 151 13.352

28 27 BAD BUNNY MIA f/Drake 2680 2358 322 21.217

26 28 WHY DON'T WE 8 Letters 2557 2604 -47 9.295

31 29 AVA MAX Sweet But Psycho 2355 2199 156 9.181

32 30 IMAGINE DRAGONS Natural 1840 1968 -128 7.837

 

33 31 TWENTY ONE PILOTS My Blood 1558 1638 -80 3.762

30 32 SHAWN MENDES & ZEDD Lost In Japan (Remix) 1554 2274 -720 10.686

34 33 LAUV There's No Way f/JuliaMichaels 1541 1570 -29 3.390

29 34 DRAKE Don't Matter To Me f/M Jackson 1500 2344 -844 2.859

37 35 GUCCI MANE/BRUNO/KODAK Wake Up In The Sky 1405 1232 173 4.759

35 36 LUKAS GRAHAM Love Someone 1391 1414 -23 3.819

36 37 RITA ORA Let You Love Me 1293 1325 -32 2.397

40 38 BENNY BLANCO & CALVIN HARRIS I Found You 1184 1142 42 2.812

43 39 MADISON BEER Hurts Like Hell f/Offset 1111 1005 106 2.499

42 40 CHARLI XCX 1999 f/Troye Sivan 1060 1091 -31 2.150

 

41 41 ELIJAH WOODS X JAMIE FINE Ain't Easy 1051 1097 -46 1.684

39 42 STEVE AOKI Waste It On Me f/BTS 802 1147 -345 1.232

45 43 ELLA MAI Trip 764 728 36 2.218

44 44 LOGAN HENDERSON Pull Me Deep 747 778 -31 1.175

47 45 LAUREN DAIGLE You Say 694 614 80 2.084

38 46 LSD (LABRINTH/SIA/DIPLO) Thunderclouds 679 1232 -553 2.114

46 47 XXXTENTACION X LIL PUMP Arms Around You f/Maluma, Swae 662 649 13 2.487

48 48 ZAYN No Candle No Light f/N. Minaj 533 525 8 0.673

50 49 KODAK BLACK Zeze f/Travis Scott & Offset 486 461 25 1.547

51 50 LIL DUVAL Smile B*tch f/Snoop & B.Greezy 419 453 -34 0.689

So why does it take so long to reach no1 over there?

So why does it take so long to reach no1 over there?

In the CHR format, there are over 200 different markets with each one corresponding to a certain city + satellite and TV markets, and they each have around 2-3 separate radio stations representing that market, each with different playlists and, by consequence, different playlist velocities. When a song is announced as “new music”, it’s usually from a playlist of songs that are just taking off or haven’t reached that level of heavy rotation that most of the songs in the top 10 (and some recurrents) have reached at that point. If a certain song connects with that audience then they’ll be obliged to play it more to garner more attention. It’s always a slow acceleration process, especially for songs that don’t get radio deals and take off organically (the comparison to High Hopes vs say... thank u, next is one example). I’d say the average time it takes for a song to reach #1 on this radio format would be 9-11 weeks.

 

However, this is not the only format that exists. Songs normally have to greatly appeal to multiple formats in order to reach the top of Billboard’s Radio songs chart, and certain formats move much slower than pop. So to answer the question, I’d attribute it to this and the fact that the UK is around the size of Michigan and has nearly 1/5 as many people as the US.

 

Personally I prefer this format, there’s not much foul play introduced and despite 90% of the stations owned by iHeartMedia nearly synchronizing their playlists, it moves at a nice speed. It’s a bit slower than the UK charts but my interest in charts started with radio and looking at what was the most played, so I’ve grown accustomed to that. It’s also one of the reasons why I cringe at every ACR drop.

Thanks for the detailed explanation - I sort of had a feeling it was to do with the vast nature of each US state and the amount of radio stations etc!

The overall update is just a bunch of old songs getting the biggest updates, typical for the end of the year I guess :drama:

 

1. PANIC! AT THE DISCO High Hopes 156.435 +0.355

2. MARSHMELLO Happier f/Bastille 133.052 +0.606

3. ARIANA GRANDE Breathin 119.957 +0.198

4. HALSEY Without Me 117.610 +0.704

5. ARIANA GRANDE thank u, next 115.387 +0.748

6. MAROON 5 Girls Like You 95.458 +3.006

7. BENNY BLANCO, HALSEY & KHALID Eastside 88.944 +0.388

8. TRAVIS SCOTT Sicko Mode 87.420 +0.460

9. 5 SECONDS OF SUMMER Youngblood 84.793 +0.044

10. KHALID X NORMANI Love Lies 77.060 +0.115

 

11. POST MALONE Better Now 74.827 +0.036

12. ELLA MAI Trip 65.784 -0.047

13. BAD BUNNY MIA f/Drake 65.293 +0.026

14. POST MALONE & SWAE LEE Sunflower 60.679 +0.344

15. DJ SNAKE/SELENA/OZUNA/CARDI B Taki Taki 58.419 +0.610

16. LOVELYTHEBAND Broken 58.277 +0.111

17. GUCCI MANE/BRUNO/KODAK Wake Up In The Sky 55.543 +0.085

18. LAUV I Like Me Better 53.648 +1.626

19. KODAK BLACK Zeze f/Travis Scott & Offset 53.116 +0.062

20. BAZZI Beautiful 51.586 -0.069

 

21. DAN + SHAY Speechless 51.564 +0.147

22. LIL WAYNE Uproar 47.747 -0.286

23. DAN + SHAY Tequila 47.370 +1.007

24. ELLIE GOULDING X DIPLO Close To Me f/Swae Lee 46.915 +0.594

30. CAMILA CABELLO Consequences 42.557 +0.450

38. LADY GAGA & BRADLEY COOPER Shallow 38.888 +0.468

46. KHALID Better 35.957 -0.021

48. CARDI B Money 33.741 +0.268

49. CARDI B Ring 32.803 +0.068

50. CARDI B I Like It 31.613 +0.359

51. LUKE BRYAN What Makes You Country 30.510 +1.028

52. SILK CITY F/DIPLO/MARK RONSON Electricity f/Dua Lipa 30.461 +0.325

54. LAUREN DAIGLE You Say 29.686 +1.623

55. DEAN LEWIS Be Alright 29.601 +0.349

58. THE CHAINSMOKERS F/K BALLERINI This Feeling 28.497 +0.095

64. MARK RONSON F/MILEY CYRUS Nothing Breaks Like A Heart 26.373 +0.635

84. LUKAS GRAHAM Love Someone 21.062 +0.469

99. CARRIE UNDERWOOD Love Wins 17.936 +0.635

121. TWENTY ONE PILOTS My Blood 13.957 -0.053

122. LOUD LUXURY Body f/Brando 13.814 +0.119

124. ZARA LARSSON Ruin My Life 13.354 -0.047

157. ALESSIA CARA Trust My Lonely 10.228 +0.065

167. AVA MAX Sweet But Psycho 9.662 +0.092

168. WHY DON'T WE 8 Letters 9.623 -0.002

186. MARIAH CAREY With You 8.428 +0.546

208. NICKI MINAJ Good Form 7.273 -0.065

215. MUSE Pressure 6.924 +0.052

223. KELLY CLARKSON Heat 6.637 +0.232

242. HILLSONG WORSHIP Who You Say I Am (Live) 5.908 +1.061

243. BILLIE EILISH You Should See Me In A Crown 5.883 +0.050

273. BACKSTREET BOYS Chances 4.972 +0.095

283. P!NK A Million Dreams 4.599 +0.177

301. GEORGE EZRA Shotgun 4.315 +0.046