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 September 3, 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 | 2 | 9 | 7: One Dance |
2 | Twenty One Pilots | 5 | 3 | 4: Heathens |
3 | Rihanna | 9 | 5 | 5: This Is What You Came For |
4 | Adele | 8 | 1 | 10: Send My Love (To Your New Lover) |
5 | Chainsmokers | 145 | 2 | 1: Closer |
6 | Ariana Grande | 14 | 1 | 13: Into You |
7 | Shawn Mendes | 84 | 1 | 12: Treat You Better |
8 | Justin Bieber | 27 | 3 | 3: Cold Water |
9 | Justin Moore | 4 | 2 | 79: You Look Like I Need A Drink |
10 | Meghan Trainor | 16 | 1 | 25: Me Too |
As we enter the final stretch of summer ’16, Drake remains at #1 on the Artist 100. It is his 15th week on top in 2016 and we do not need an algorithm to crown him #1 on the Scoreboard for the summer. Nonetheless @champagnepapi will need to perform through the competitive fall season to finish as the #1 artist of the year.
This week’s biggest debut is by country singer Justin Moore who comes in at #9 on the heels of his fourth album Kinda Don’t Care. With songs like “You Look Like I Need A Drink” and “More Middle Fingers” @justincolemoore don’t care about what people think of him and his songs, except when he kinda does, like when he lands in the Artist Top 10 on the Scoreboard.
The biggest event of the week is on the Billboard Hot 100 where there is a new #1. Sia and Sean Paul led the chart for the past four weeks with “Cheap Thrills,” but that run has been finished as the Chainsmokers ft. Halsey take #1 with “Closer,” which only came onto the Scoreboard two weeks ago. The achievement is especially impressive because the NYC DJs defended against two major EDM releases by Major Lazer and DJ Snake, both featuring Justin Bieber, to take the #1 spot in America.
This week, @thechainsmokers and @iamhalsey get their first Billboard #1s
Artist Spotlight: Meghan Trainor
Last week we highlighted Ariana Grande‘s strong performance on the Scoreboard all summer and this week we go from the Arianators to the Megatronz. Meghan Trainor has been in the Artist Top 10 for 21 of the last 24 weeks on the heels of the success of her second album Thank You, which came out in May.
While @arianagrande was awarded the Breakthrough Artist of the Year award for 2013, @meghan_trainor received it for 2014, and both have been living up to high expectations in summer ’16. However, while Ari has been all about that voice, Trainor continues to be all about that bass. Well, kinda. Musically, Thank You took Trainor’s pop in a contemporary direction, mostly abandoning the 1950’s and 1960’s nostalgia tunes of her first album that all sound like “Runaround Sue.” What we get from the new Meghan is a mix of goofy pop (see: “Me Too”), toe dipping into hip-hop (see: “No”), and maudlin tributes to her mom and her fans. The Megatronz are not only fans of Trainor’s music, but also fans of her message of female empowerment, which embraces all body types and shapes. Last year, she told The Daily News “I’m not trying to bash skinny people…I’m just promoting loving your curves and being confident in your own skin,” and this year she pulled the original version of the “Me Too” music video after discovering that the video editors digitally slimmed her waist.
Hate it or love it, the message of “all about that bass” has become Trainor’s theme song for her career. The Scoreboard will keep track of @meghan_trainor stats into the fall – Thank You third single “Better” ft. Yo Gotti drops this coming week, look for it!
Get ready NYC, meghan_trainor is coming September 8th
International Scoreboard: Meghan Trainor
Meghan Trainor is not international, she is from Massachusetts and spent her pre-teen and teen years singing and performing in her family’s soca band. However, since her breakthrough in 2014, Meghan has gained legions of Megatronz globally. “All About That Bass” went to #1 in 13 countries tracked by ACharts, and beyond that, Trainor picked up two additional #1s outside the U.S. Both were soulful duets from 2015 – the John Legend collaboration “Like I’m Gonna Lose You” topped the charts in both Australia and New Zealand, while the playful “Marvin Gaye” with Charlie Puth also went to the top in New Zealand, as well as in Britain, France, and Ireland. Let’s Marvin Gaye then with Meghan’s second biggest hit of her career: