billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - october 22, 2016 (VIDEO)

Look, I don't need to say anything with this one beyond HOLY SHIT FALSE ALARM IS AWESOME and you all need to be listening it - okay, I'll stop.

On a different note, we've got Epica, Opeth, OneRepublic, and Daya on the way, so stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - october 22, 2016

So here's the other thing about the last weeks of a Billboard year - more than ever, it becomes a game of timing if you're looking to land a song on the year end list. Release the song early enough and it's no issue, but unless you've got a guaranteed smash hit heading for an inevitable #1, it might actually serve you better to release your songs a little later - keep in mind that most tracks will only ever stick around for twenty weeks on the charts, and the last thing you want is to release a track where midway through its lifespan the year shifts and you're only left with a portion of that time to rack up the accumulated sales, streaming, and airplay to get on the next year's list.

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - april 23, 2016 (VIDEO)

Man, this took WAY too long to finish. Long episode too, so I hope you all enjoy!

Next up... hmm, time to take care of some unfinished business, so stay tuned!

billboard BREAKDOWN - hot 100 - april 23, 2016

And to think this week was going to be busy enough. The chart instability is only getting more pronounced, we've got a healthy list of new arrivals - including what looks to be bad signs coming from Drake's lead-off to Views From The 6 - I thought things would be mostly stable. So of course here comes Kanye West with eight new songs from The Life Of Pablo, an album I covered nearly two months ago with one of the most confused release strategies I've ever seen play out. Of course, such is the transcendent power of Kanye's fame and fanbase that the album went to #1 on streaming alone, regardless of middling quality or the fact that it's been out for two months already.