What Happens to the Top Songs of Today, Tomorrow? In 2019, the most-streamed song released that same year was Billie Eilish’s “bad guy.” Last year, though, the top 2019 song of the year was not “bad guy” but Taylor Swift’s “Cruel Summer” which saw a huge resurgence due to a number of impacts, namely The Eras Tour, as well as the release of “Cruel Summer” as a single to contemporary Pop/Top 40 radio. “bad guy,” meanwhile, declined in rank in 2023, falling from the No. 1 2019 song that year to the No. 25 song from 2019 streamed in 2023.
These fluctuations are part of a trend that happens to all top songs year over year: they move down in popularity as new songs from the past are uncovered by next year’s listeners. All of the top 10 songs from 2019 dropped in rank over the next five years, eventually landing anywhere from No. 10 (“Middle Child” by J. Cole) to No. 264 (“Panini” by Lil Nas X).
As for 2023’s top 2019 songs, their origins are far more erratic. When “Cruel Summer” was released in 2019, it was only the No. 235 song that year. Similarly, “Under the Influence” by Chris Brown, now the No. 2 song from 2019 streamed in 2023, did not even rank in the top 1,000 songs when it came out, nor the year after. Most impressively, only one of the top 2019 songs in 2023 was a Top 10 song in the year it was released.
Almost all of 10 of these songs seem to have come from “out of nowhere,” although a quick glance at the artists helps to explain their success. Taylor Swift, Morgan Wallen, Zach Bryan…each are artists who dominated the charts in 2023, regardless of their 2019 releases. Their spikes in rank appear to be driven by fans digging through the artist’s catalog, finding songs that, while old to the market, are nevertheless new to the fans. And that isn’t the only way for old songs to bubble up. Chris Brown’s “Under the Influence” went viral on short-form video platforms in 2022 in a way that translated to real On-Demand Audio streaming growth, as it was the No. 2 song from 2019 both last year and this year as well. Luminate Insights’ consumer research data also shows that short-form video platforms are a key way for younger audiences to find music as Gen Z Music Streamers are +50% more likely than the average U.S. streamer to discover new music via SFV sites/apps.
Rank mobility varies by factors including genre and artist, what seems clearer than anything else, though, is that song rank is not permanent. If a song is not a hit this year, that does not mean that it won’t be next year.
Sources:
Luminate Music Consumption Data
Luminate Insights US Music 360 Consumer Research (Q1 2024)
