Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up newsletter, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip.
This week: Olivia Rodrigo’s much-anticipated new single also spurs gains for her older songs (and for another singer-songwriter’s song on a similar subject), the second season of The Bear goes big with its classic alt soundtrack, TikTok produces a couple (near-literal) runaway hits and more.
Olivia Rodrigo’s Return Yields ‘Sour’ Bump – And Sweet Gains for Madison Beer
All eyes will be at the top of the Hot 100 chart next week, as Olivia Rodrigo’s massive new single “Vampire” will presumably try to dethrone Morgan Wallen’s country-pop juggernaut “Last Night” for the No. 1 spot. “Vampire,” the lead single from Rodrigo’s upcoming sophomore album GUTS, zoomed to a fast start at streaming, with 8.43 million U.S. on-demand streams on its opening day last Friday (June 30), according to Luminate. The long-awaited single got off to such a hot start that it buoyed the rest of Rodrigo’s studio output – as well as the older single from another pop star.
Sour, Rodrigo’s 2021 debut full-length, benefited from the release of “Vampire” on streaming services: the album scored a 47% jump in daily streams last Friday to 4.66 million, then sustained its uptick over the weekend and hovering above 3.5 million daily streams. Meanwhile, the release of “Vampire” – an anthem about romantic betrayal, that has been rumored to be inspired by Rodrigo’s relationship with DJ/producer Zack Bia – coincided with streaming gains for “Selfish,” a 2020 song from Madison Beer, also believed to be about Bia.
“Selfish” scored an 18.7% gain in daily streams to 43,000 from June 26 (the Monday before “Vampire”) to July 3 (the Monday after) – and Beer, who released the single “Home to Another One” last month, even acknowledged the spike on social media. In response to a fan account pointing out the “Selfish” resurgence, Beer posted in a since-deleted tweet, “thank u miss olivia.” – JASON LIPSHUTZ
Listeners ‘Bear’ Down on New TV Season’s Rock Synchs
The Bear has been one of the most acclaimed new TV shows of the decade, and now its second season – which debuted on Hulu June – has made good on the promise of the first. Everything about the second season of the restaurant-set Chicago dramedy is bigger and more ambitious, and that includes the soundtrack, which features recurring themes, song callbacks to the first season, and artists as big as Trent Reznor, Eddie Vedder and even Taylor Swift making up the show’s musical universe.
Several of those songs, of course, have seen big gains since the season’s June 22 premiere. Vedder & Neil Finn’s cover of Hunters & Collectors’ “Throw Your Arms Around Me,” which soundtracks the closing montage to the season’s emotional eighth episode, was up from under 5,000 official on-demand U.S. streams for the chart week ending June 22 to over 89,000 the week after – a gain of 1,806%, according to Luminate. Refused’s “New Noise,” used multiple times in the season as now it’s on pump-up music, rose 123% to nearly 147,000 streams over that same period.
The biggest gains, however, came for R.E.M.’s “Strange Currencies,” the shimmering mid-’90s ballad that serves as a sort of love theme for show protagonist Carmy and his now-grown childhood crush Claire. The song rose from 27,000 to nearly 283,000 streams over that period, a gain of 945% – showing that food isn’t the only thing The Bear is whetting appetites for this season. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Flyana Boss Sprints Towards Sizable Streaming Gains
In just under two weeks, Flyana Boss has gone from a virtual unknown to an inescapable social media phenomenon. Aided by videos in which they sprint through crowds of unsuspecting onlookers while they lip-sync to their latest single “You Wish,” the half-Detroit half-Dallas hip-hop duo have sneakily infiltrated the zeitgeist across social media platforms like TikTok and Twitter.
According to Luminate, “You Wish” collected 1.3 million official on-demand U.S. streams during the period of June 16-22. The following week (June 23-29), that figure ballooned to 2.1 million streams, a 61.4% increase in streaming activity. As the duo’s profile continues to rise, expect these numbers to keep growing. During this year’s Essence Festival, Megan Thee Stallion invited them onstage to twerk alongside her during her headlining set. At the festival, Flyana Boss also performed at the Girls United kickback. The viral duo has seen a wave of recent industry support, including messages of affirmation from the likes of Missy Elliott, Keke Palmer, and Timbaland.
On TikTok, “You Wish” has already been used in over 73,000 videos, most of which are users imitating the sprint-and-rap template of Flyana Boss’ original clip. More importantly, perhaps, “You Wish” appears to be connecting with audiences outside of the viral trend. The lyrics “I’m made of sugar, spice, Kanekalon, and cinnamon,” have launched scores of debates around race, hair politics, and what happens when lyrics steeped in Black cultural experiences crossover to the mainstream. “You Wish” is just getting started, and Flyana Boss could potentially run all the way to a surprise summer hit with the fast-growing track. – KYLE DENIS
‘Titan’ Tragedy Results in ‘My Heart Will Go On’ Streams
Last month, the implosion of the Titan submersible made global headlines, as an expedition to view the famed wreck of the Titanic in the Atlantic Ocean caused an international search and rescue operation, and ultimately claimed the lives of the five passengers aboard. As the news unfolded over multiple days beginning on June 18, when the submersible first lost communication, streams of “My Heart Will Go On,” Céline Dion’s smash single that doubled as the theme song to James Cameron’s world-conquering 1997 film Titanic, saw an uptick, as social media users posted both memes and tributes in kind.
“Heart” rose 12.9% in weekly streams during the ending June 22 (the day that debris believed to be from the submersible was discovered), to 743,000 U.S. official on-demand streams, according to Luminate. The song topped 1 million streams the following week, spiking nearly 40 percent in streams for the week ending June 30. “Heart,” of course, became a Hot 100 chart-topper for Dion upon its release, and the Titanic soundtrack spent 16 straight weeks atop the Billboard 200 chart in 1998 on its way to becoming one of the biggest-selling albums of all time. – JL
DeJ Loaf Deep Cuts Are Running Through TikTok’s Mind
Although DeJ Loaf last hit the Billboard Hot 100 in 2018 with “At the Club,” a duet with R&B star Jacquees that reached No. 86, the Detroit rapper could make a grand return to the chart if this deep cut continues to make steady gains. “Running Through My Mind,” a track from her 2020 No Saint EP, is the soundtrack to one of the latest viral TikTok trends. Users film themselves running while flashing an indiscernible picture on their phone as a sped-up version of DeJ Loaf’s voice croons the song’s hook, “You been running through my mind all day.” The idea is that the user is cheekily revealing the person who they have a crush on without confirming their specific identity.
The “Running Through My Mind” TikTok sound has been used in 128,000 videos and counting, and according to Luminate, “Running Through My Mind” has posted double-digit streaming gains for the past three weeks. During the tracking week ending June 8, the song collected 44,000 official on-demand U.S. streams, but as the TikTok trend continued to gain steam, that number rose to over 254,000 official on-demand U.S. streams for the week ending June 29, a 470% hike. With “Running Through My Mind” continuing to grow, DeJ Loaf may be looking at her biggest unaccompanied solo song since “No Fear” reached the Hot 100 back in 2017. – KD
Season’s Gainings: It’s Definitely a Fourth of July Party
Our country’s 247th birthday was celebrated nationwide on July 4, and despite the holiday falling on a Tuesday in the middle of the workweek, it doesn’t seem to have stopped folks from cranking the patriotic (and/or bitterly ironic) tunes to commemorate the occasion. Zac Brown Band’s cookout-ready “Chicken Fried” rose from 796,000 to 1.6 million daily official on-demand U.S. streams from July 3 to July 4, according to Luminate, while Bruce Springsteen’s not-what-your-drunk-uncle-thinks-it’s-about anthem “Born in the U.S.A.” rose 333% to 2.1 million streams, and the entire catalog of American greats Creedence Clearwater Revival was up 33% to 4.8 million streams. And of course, the Fourth of July crown went to Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the U.S.A.,” up 137% to nearly 2.3 million, our country’s unofficial second national anthem for yet another year. – AU
