It's a tricky situation no matter what Billboard does - people will always find loopholes and ways to game to the system. Whether that's Sony/Tommy Mottola discounting quite a few of Mariah Carey's singles in the 90's at $0.49 in order to push her singles to #1, or record companies and managers paying radio station programmers huge sums to play songs/artists in heavy rotation (back when radio airplay alone meant a high charting position in the early 00's), and now this. 

13 hours ago, BetterForgotten said:

It's a tricky situation no matter what Billboard does - people will always find loopholes and ways to game to the system. Whether that's Sony/Tommy Mottola discounting quite a few of Mariah Carey's singles in the 90's at $0.49 in order to push her singles to #1, or record companies and managers paying radio station programmers huge sums to play songs/artists in heavy rotation (back when radio airplay alone meant a high charting position in the early 00's), and now this. 

It’s tough, I know, but IMO the charts feel particularly off right now.

 

 

 

Taylor Swift is the 8th female solo artist to reach 7 #1s on the Billboard Hot 100. The female solo artists with 7 or more #1s on the Billboard Hot 100 are Mariah Carey (19), Rihanna (14), Madonna (12), Whitney Houston (11), Janet Jackson (10), Katy Perry (9), Beyoncé (7), Taylor Swift (7).

 

When all artists are counted (male solo, female solo, duo/group), Taylor Swift is the 21st artist to reach 7 #1s on the Billboard Hot 100.

And sadly, Madonna, Whitney, Janet, and the first half of Mariah’s career was from an era where it really meant something and it was extremely difficult to consistently hit #1 like that. 
 

Interestingly, between the gap from The Supremes in the 60’s and Madonna and Whitney’s emergence in the mid/late 80’s, it was VERY RARE for female acts to score multiple #1’s - Streisand, Donna Summer, and Diana Ross as a solo act had a handful that was considered good before Madonna, Whitney, Janet and then Mariah started having success on the Hot 100.

Edited December 21, 20204 yr by BetterForgotten

@BetterForgotten You forgot Olivia Newton-John in the list of female solo artists w/ multiple Billboard Hot 100 #1s before the Madonna/Whitney dominance during the second half of the 1980s. Madonna's 4th #1 Papa Don't Preach made her only the 5th female solo artist to reach 4 #1s; the four female solo artists that had reached 4 #1s prior to Madonna were Diana Ross, Barbra Streisand, Olivia Newton-John, Donna Summer.

 

 

 

Yay for Taylor!  I really hope she releases the new versions of "Love Story" (peaked at #4) and "You Belong With Me" (peaked at #2) before she releases the re-recordings on albums because I think those songs can go #1 (as long as there's no viral song that's just too big to overcome). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Basically an all-holiday song Top 10, plus “Mood.” Meanwhile, Taylor’s “Willow” falls to No. 38, the biggest fall for a No. 1 debut in Hot 100 history.

 

Part of me wants Brenda Lee to eke out a No. 1 one year...

We're going to be seeing "All I Want For Christmas Is You" hit #1 every December.

 

Dua Lipa gets her third top 10, after “New Rules” and “Don’t Start Now.”

 

 

 

She's expected to debut at #1 which is pretty crazy for an almost unknown with her first single.