Listeners of CHR, adult contemporary and hot AC stations might have noticed a slight difference in each format's current hit mix this year, that difference being the impact of country music. For the first time in more than two decades, three songs – Morgan Wallen's “Last Night,” Luke Combs' “Fast Car,” and Jelly Roll's “Need a Favor” – have made significant inroads at all three formats.
Those three, along with others from Wallen, helped push country's share of all primary song genres in the Billboard Hot 100's top 10 up to 21% during the first nine months of 2023, according to the latest quarterly report from song analytics firm Hit Songs Deconstructed. While that ties pop's 21% share, that was also the case during Q1 2023 (26% each) and at the midyear point (23% each).
Hit Songs Deconstructed's analysis shows that while country was in the 2-4% share range from 2019-2022, it zoomed to 21% for this year-to-date mainly due to Wallen, whose album “One Thing at a Time,” released on March 3 of this year, has generated five songs to reach the Hot 100's top 10.
While that's the highest top 10 share for country in more than a decade, according to the report, the reverse has been the case for pop. Since 2019, its overall share has steadily downtrended, from a leading 47% in 2019 down to 35% last year, to 21% so far in 2023.
Aside from country and pop, other primary genres with double-digit shares of Hot 100 top 10 songs Jan.-Sep. include hip-hop at 19%, and R&B/soul at 15%. The two genres are moving in opposite directions, with hip-hop down from 34% in 2019 and 38% in 2022, while R&B/soul is up from last year's 8%. Other uptrending genres include dance/club/electronic, Latin, and rock.
Programmers may want to take note of other year-to-date song trends in Hit Songs Deconstructed's report. Love and relationships are key in two-thirds of top 10 song lyrics, followed by lifestyle-related lyrics at 36%. Bass and non-bass synths continue to be featured in most top 10-charting songs, although both have downtrended significantly since 2015, and the average tempo of top 10 hits has steadily risen from 87 beats per minute in 2020 to 97 this year to date.