billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - march 26, 2016

So I get the feeling that the universe saw the charts last week, wondered how the hell they could let that much concentrated awful pile up, and sprung into action to correct it. And as a result... okay, it wasn't amazing, but definitely a major improvement. And while I knew Kendrick was going to land a few songs - thankfully enough to compensate for Meghan Trainor - I didn't expect that we'd also get hits from Jake Owen and Shakira, two of the most naturally charismatic performers in the past fifteen years, so we're bound to get an upswing, right?

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - january 16, 2016

Well, this was pretty light. I think I managed to figure out where my uploads are breaking, though - further testing might have to check at the house, see if it's my internet or my computer...

In any case... hmm, this Hinds album looks interesting, so stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - january 16, 2016

You know, after how rough last week was, it's nice to see things pivot back to something pretty damn agreeable. Part of this was the exodus of Christmas music, which triggered a lot of re-entries and boosts, and sure, there are definitely questionable songs and trends there, but I'm not quite as angry about it as I expected, mostly thanks to our new arrivals and one specific entry into the Top 10 that I would never have expected.

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - june 27, 2015 (VIDEO)

You know, for a week that was pretty lightweight all things considered, this review was absolute hell to make. Between so many reshoots and that damned video glitch... ugh, I'm just happy it's over.

Next up, I think I'm about ready to talk about FFS or Kamelot before Kacey Musgraves comes through - stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - june 27, 2015

So here's the mixed blessing of a week like this one. You look at the charts, see that very little actually happened across the board with perhaps one of the smallest numbers of songs new or returning to the Hot 100, and it allows you to breathe a sigh of relief. Finally, something that's pretty light across the board. But then it's the creeping question of whether I'll be able to keep all of this interesting on a week where - gasp - there's little to actually complain about!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - june 20, 2015 (VIDEO)

Completely forgot to post this. Oops!

Next up, Surf - stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - june 20, 2015

You know, after the past few weeks – and somehow falling behind again in my reviews – it’s nice to actually have a new Hot 100 that’s actually fairly lightweight in terms of new songs, most of which I’ve already heard before in some capacity. It’s one of the breather moments you get as summer starts to settle into gear and the album release schedule eases back a bit, at least for the pop charts.

the top ten worst hit songs of 2013 - video

First list finished! Next up, the top ten best hit songs of 2013 - stay tuned!

the top ten worst hit songs of 2013

It's that time again.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's that time of year where I take a look at the biggest hit songs of the year and pick out the top ten best and worst to the complete indifference of artists, producers, and fans alike! Sounds like fun, eh? Okay, let's get started, and I think the prime place to begin is at the absolute bottom: the top ten worst hit songs of the year.

First, some ground rules. For one, a song will only ever make the list if it debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 Year-End chart this year. Of course there are holdovers I dislike from last year, but they had their chance to pop up on my 2012 list (which is available here). And I'm only choosing songs from this list - of course there were worse tracks that I covered in my album reviews, but I want to make the point that not only are these songs terrible, they're also impossible to escape throughout the year.

And here's another thing to keep in mind: for a song to reach my list, it has to actively annoy or irritate me, and simply being boring is often not enough to propel a song into my line of fire. The year-end charts are less aggressively bad than they are boring, and this year had that problem more than previous years, mostly because the indie boom lost momentum and mainstream radio had no idea what to replace it with. That means large tracts of this year were dominated by easy listening slow jams, interchangeable EDM, increasingly listless hip-hop, and a disco revival that came out of nowhere. 

But that's not saying there weren't songs that pissed me off, so let's begin by tackling some Dishonourable Mentions, shall we?

video review: 'b.o.a.t.s. ii: me time' by 2 chainz

Yeah, here's the review that I'm sure will get me all manner of hatred. Eh, I'm honest, and I won't apologize for that.

Next up is Sean Kingston, stay tuned!

album review: 'b.o.a.t.s ii: me time' by 2 chainz

You know, for the most part, this whole reviewing gig is pretty sweet. It's not nearly at the point where it's going to pay my bills or anything, but for the most part, I really enjoy it. I like having the opportunity to discuss material that is on the front edge of pop culture, the stuff that is currently engaging people and sparking discussion, and the fact that I might be able to contribute something to that discussion, if only a fleeting observation, can be a real treat at points.

But there is a downside to this job: reviewing albums you know you're probably going to despise, and then expecting the maelstrom of hate to hit you like a goddamn tsunami. This doesn't even have the thrill of clinical dissection or shooting fish in the barrel that tackling the real catastrophic albums tend to bring - no, this is the workman's duty of covering mediocrity because for some reason it has captured the attention of pop culture and even though you have a sinking feeling that it'll fail to even meet your low expectations, you've got to talk about it anyway. 

But let's be optimistic. Even though going into 2 Chainz's follow-up album Based On A True Story II: Me Time I had the strong suspicion that I'd end up hating it, I am curious about the 2 Chainz phenomenon, if that makes any sense, in the way I'm perplexed by how a singer like Future became famous. Keep in mind that 2 Chainz has been in the rap game since 1997, and once was on Disturbing Tha Peace, Ludacris' record label - and yet it has taken him over a decade to become commercially successful, or get a real major label debut. 

And then Kanye West - making one of many inexplicable Kanye West decisions - decided to recruit 2 Chainz for the lead-off single for 'Mercy' off of 2012's Cruel Summer, the collaboration album that did very little to impress me, particularly coming off of the much stronger Watch The Throne from Kanye. And suddenly, 2 Chainz was everywhere on hip-hop radio, to the bewilderment of critics, myself included. There were so many better rappers working, and yet we gave chart success to the rapper who formerly had the name 'Tity Boi', and whose rapping was also roughly on that intellectual level? 

And I'll be honest, I hated his debut album Based On A T.R.U. Story, as it was yet other trap-instrumentation driven wasteland of worthless punchlines and terrible rapping. 2 Chainz did absolutely nothing to inspire any sort of emotional reaction from me other than groans of disgust. But the chart success of the album was kind of mesmerizing in the ways it did not make the slightest iota of sense to me: we had a rapper who had nothing to say and very little in the way of how he might say it, and yet he was hugely successful. 

So this review is going to be a bit different. B.O.A.T.S. II: Me Time is going to (in my opinion, very wrongly) outsell every other record that comes out this week, so I'm going to use my time to explore why this guy is popular, what his appeal is to the mainstream. I want to understand the phenomenon of 2 Chainz, I want to understand why this guy is popular. Hell, if I missed something about this guy or misjudged him, I want to be surprised and proven wrong - I mean, if the problem is me, I want to realize that. So, what do I think?