Every week, Scoreboard brings The Knockturnal readers the 411 on who is moving up and down the charts in the U.S., with an artist feature and a check-in on the international Scoreboard.
Billboard Artist Top 10
For the magazine dated July 9, 2016
See the full chart at http://www.billboard.com/charts/artist-100
| Billboard Artist Top 10 | Name | Billboard 200 Album Rank | Billboard Hot 100 Singles | Highest Charting Single |
| 1 | Drake | 1 | 11 | 1: One Dance |
| 2 | Red Hot Chili Peppers | 2 | 1 | 67: Dark Necessities |
| 3 | Twenty One Pilots | 8 | 3 | 10: Ride |
| 4 | Rihanna | 7 | 5 | 5: This Is What You Came For |
| 5 | Beyoncé | 3 | 1 | 32: Sorry |
| 6 | Justin Bieber | 19 | 2 | 25: Love Yourself |
| 7 | Meghan Trainor | 10 | 2 | 18: Me Too |
| 8 | Adele | 12 | 1 | 19: Send My Love (To Your New Lover) |
| 9 | Justin Timberlake | − | 1 | 2: Can’t Stop The Feeling |
| 10 | Ariana Grande | 14 | 2 | 15: Dangerous Woman |
Drake’s summer dominance of the Billboards continues on this week with @champagnepapi maintaining the #1 spot on the Billboard 200, the Hot 100 (with “One Dance”), and the Artist 100. It is his seventh week having the three #1s simultaneously, tying Taylor Swift’s record from last year. Stay tuned to next week’s Scoreboard to see if Papi can make the record his own. On the Hot 100 even when Drake loses, he wins. He again has 11 charting tracks, and while “With You” ft. PARTYNEXTDOOR drops out, YG’s excellent question “Why You Always Hatin?,” which features Drake and Kamaiyah, enters at #92.
Among other movers on the Artist Top 10, Twenty One Pilots are back at their previous peak of #3, first reached in February. @tylerrjoseph and @joshuadun are riding high as the top group of 2016 on the Scoreboard. Given their millennial genre-bending, I would venture to say that @twentyonepilots are the #1 rock, pop, dance, and hip-hop group of the year. What makes this week special is the debut of their new single “Heathens,” which is not the next single off of their Platinum album Blurryface, but instead a track from the soundtrack to DC Comics film Suicide Squad, which comes out on August 5. Are all your friends heathens? If this track blows up that might the question of the summer!
@twentyonepilots channeling their Papa Roach, or maybe Linkin Park, in the video for “Heathens”
Artist Spotlight: Red Hot Chili Peppers
Back in 1987 the obscure Los Angeles rock-funk band Red Hot Chili Peppers released their third album The Uplift Mofo Party Plan. 25 years later Anthony Kiedis, Flea, and their bandmates were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a lifetime achievement award that the Scoreboard fully approves of.
Now in 2016 the Red Hot Chili Peppers are back with their eleventh album The Getaway, which comes in at #2 on the Billboard 200 and also lands them at #2 on the Artist 100. You can read the Knockturnal’s review of the album here and I will not dwell on their new music much, except to endorse “Go Robot,” in which Kiedis gets his freak on with a robot. NB: Zapp’s “Computer Love” from 1986 remains the standard for any kind of musical technological love making.
What I want to focus on instead is the legacy of @chilipeppers. RHCP have occupied two distinct musical zones over their prolific existence. Their yin is the loud rap-rock of “Give It Away,” “Around The World,” and “Love Rollercoaster.” Their yang is the stoned contemplative balladry of “Under The Bridge,” “Soul To Squeeze,” and “Scar Tissue.” In between this yin yang is their most popular song on Spotify, “Californication,” which was an average radio hit in 2000, but has since become the #1 song of the year 2000 on Spotify, gaining a “Don’t Stop Believing”-like cult following and becoming a subversive anthem for the most fabulous state in the union.
So what made @chilipeppers so popular for so long? IMO it boils down to the musical mixture of funk and bass guitar and the lust-tinged anti-establishment humor RHCP bring to their lyrics, music videos, and concerts. When I visited Russia in the summer of 2002 the most-anticipated American rock album of the year was RHCP’s By The Way. Although the lyrics to the title track made little sense in English, both American and international fans of @chilipeppers loved the uplifting mofo party spirit of Kiedis’s rap and Flea’s bass, which made them feel like jumping and generally going HAM.
It is good to see RHCP keep the californication going in 2016, whether with James Corden or on tour in Europe. I just hope they treat their robots right.
Who says you can’t be shirtless in public after turning 50?
International Scoreboard: Flume
If you listened to pop radio this summer you already heard Flume on DJ boards even though you may not know his name. Flume comes from Sydney, Australia, and the song is “Never Be Like You” ft. Kai, a Canadian singer does her best channeling Alicia Keys. “Never Be Like You” is #35 on the Hot 100 right now and was #1 in Australia back in February.
Flume was born Harley Streten and picked his DJ name after one of his favorite songs, “Flume” from Bon Iver’s 2008 indie rock classic For Emma, Forever Ago. While Flume’s DJ work adheres to contemporary EDM standards, he channels Bon Iver’s softness on both “Never Be Like You” and “Say It” ft. Tove Lo, a naughty single off of his album Skin, which is currently in the Australian singles Top 10.
Flume is coming to America later this summer, starting with Lollapalooza in Chicago on July 31, and finishing at Austin City Limits on October 7. Keep watching the Scoreboard to see if he ends up on the Artist Top 10, right now he’s #78 and climbing.
