BB: Ariana’s 7 Rings, Ava Max's SBP & Pop's Complex Chart Comeback

[BUtterfield 8 41,445]

Meanwhile, Halsey’s “Without Me” and “Eastside,” her concurrent hit with Benny Blanco and Khalid, have both slowly accrued huge numbers on radio and streaming -- becoming hits the old-fashioned way, in a sense -- and both employ the crackling programmed beats that have become a hallmark of the singer’s sound, and fit comfortably on Top 40 radio alongside Drake and Post Malone. Goulding’s “Close To Me” boasts ad-libs and a verse from Rae Sremmurd’s Swae Lee; Smith gets a sultry assist from Normani on the rhythmic “Dancing with a Stranger”; and Gomez and Mars are parts of collaborations that include Cardi B and Gucci Mane, respectively. Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s “Shallow” represents one exception here, although sometimes you’re part of a pop culture phenomenon and become an outlier.

A more telling outlier? Ava Max’s “Sweet But Psycho,” which bumps up to No. 35 on this week’s Hot 100. The single from the little-known 24-year-old Milwaukee native became a smash overseas before slowly creeping up the U.S. charts over the past three months, and after one listen to its pristine, instantly repeatable chorus — “Oh, she's sweet but a psycho, a little bit psycho/ At night she's screamin' ‘I’m-ma-ma-ma out my mind’” — it’s easy to understand why.

Yet “Sweet But Psycho” is a fascinating anomaly within modern pop music: there’s nothing else on the charts right now that sounds anything like it. With showy synths, campy lyrics and a bridge that lets Max belt a bit, the song’s a slice of danceable electro-pop straight out of 2010, a time when artists like Kesha, Katy Perry, Taio Cruz and Flo Rida were defining the sound of Top 40.

“Psycho” is a relic of a sonic style that hasn’t played a major factor in pop music in nearly a half-decade, which makes its burgeoning success in the States all the more jarring. The song is produced by Cirkut, a dominant studio force at the beginning of the 2010s, and Max has even drawn several comparisons to a young Lady Gaga both in sound and aesthetic (that “I’m-ma-ma-ma” contains at least a whiff of “Bad Romance,” right?). Pop radio, which has been slow and somewhat clumsy in its addition of hip-hop to its rotation in the age of streaming, is already embracing Max as a more traditional mainstream sound (“Psycho” moves to No. 23 on this week’s Pop Songs chart).

“Sweet But Psycho” could prove to be a harbinger of an electro-pop revival, or a total fluke that never rises to inescapability in America; either way, it will be interesting to monitor how ubiquitous, or inconsequential, it becomes over the next few months. As “7 Rings” marks the continuation of pop’s adoption and fusion of hip-hop and R&B sonics as a path forward in a time of rap domination, “Sweet But Psycho” exists farther down the chart as a potential case for more straightforward pop to coexist with and thrive alongside hip-hop. If "7 Rings" finds a classic star fashioning her sound into pop's present, "Sweet But Psycho" mines its past to offer a surprising vision of its future.

https://www.billboard.com/amp/articles/columns/pop/8495546/ariana-grande-7-rings-ava-max-sweet-but-psycho-pop-chart-analysis?__twitter_impression=true

[JustAnother 5,113]

Meghan is quaking 

[Sneaky Oliver 22,185]

That’s a good article! Thanks for sharing! Pop will come back eventually and a bunch of young lady gagas and katy perrys will come with it 

[Epione 10,896]

Ava Max is coming. Now I know how madonnanation feels. 

[DiscoHeaven23 35,007]

Yet “Sweet But Psycho” is a fascinating anomaly within modern pop music: there’s nothing else on the charts right now that sounds anything like it. With showy synths, campy lyrics and a bridge that lets Max belt a bit, the song’s a slice of danceable electro-pop straight out of 2010, a time when artists like Kesha, Katy Perry, Taio Cruz and Flo Rida were defining the sound of Top 40.

“Psycho” is a relic of a sonic style that hasn’t played a major factor in pop music in nearly a half-decade, which makes its burgeoning success in the States all the more jarring

 

 

EXACTLY HOW I FEEL ABOUT IT and i'm glad Billboard is recognizing it that way. 

Prob why i love it so much. It's a throwback sound with a modern touch. 

Ava Max could LITERALLY save pop music. And i think we all need to root for and celebrate that.

[JR Gg 12,985]

Lady Gaga coming to save the bland industry again. What's new? 

[Sanne Godijn 2,203]

Not as long as ariana is arround

[DiscoHeaven23 35,007]

3 minutes ago, Sanne Godijn said:

Not as long as ariana is arround

 

R&B/rapping Ariana? lol

 

We're talking about Pop here 

[Sanne Godijn 2,203]

1 minute ago, DiscoHeaven23 said:

 

R&B/rapping Ariana? lol

 

We're talking about Pop here 

I was being sarcàstic 

[DiscoHeaven23 35,007]

Just now, Sanne Godijn said:

I was being sarcàstic 

ooooh i like it

[Quartz 12,535]

Why isn't anyone talking how Shallow was portrayed here? She an outlier again! And she's smashing. No one can touch Gaga, no one.