storminthedark Posted May 3 Posted May 3 Nearly 3m 2 years after release is insane It's coming for Blinding Light's crown 2
makeawish Posted May 14 Posted May 14 this looks like its going back into the top 40, did it get used on tv or something? 1
makeawish Posted May 14 Posted May 14 the answer is no, but apparently it's something to do with this anne hathaway thing? (feels like a stretch tbh) https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2024/05/14/harry-styles-biggest-hit-is-back-on-the-chartspossibly-thanks-to-anne-hathaway/ 1
Moonlight Nation Posted May 14 Posted May 14 7 minutes ago, makeawish said: this looks like its going back into the top 40, did it get used on tv or something? 4 minutes ago, makeawish said: the answer is no, but apparently it's something to do with this anne hathaway thing? (feels like a stretch tbh) https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2024/05/14/harry-styles-biggest-hit-is-back-on-the-chartspossibly-thanks-to-anne-hathaway/ Thank you so much for bringing this up!!! I am an avid chart watcher and it was clear that between late 2023 to April 2024 "As It Was" was following the standard trajectory of a behemoth smash hit gradually losing its presence. It left the UK Charts on the January 25th week, left the US Spotify charts around this period (with brief on-and-off re-entries on lower regions since), found itself closer and closer to the "Blinding Lights" zone on Global Spotify (i.e. where recurrent staples reside). Then this supposed resurgence seemingly came out of nowhere and now it's back to #26 on Global Spotify, plus the shocking re-entry at #41 on the UK Charts more than three months after it stopped charting there. Given it began its ongoing streak on the US Spotify charts 13 days ago (so at the beginning of the month), the timeline kinda aligns with the release of "The Idea Of You" on May 2nd. For those unaware, it's the movie starring Anne Hathaway where she has a fling with a popular member of a fictional boy band, loosely inspired by Harry Styles and One Direction. But from what I can gather, there are no overt references to 1D or Harry in the movie, nor any usage of their songs on the soundtrack or even on the promotional material, so why "As It Was" in particular? Just because it's his biggest hit? You'd think it would also lead to One Direction staples or other Harry hits getting at least a moderate resurgence. And I'm not sure how big of a cultural moment this movie has been either to explain such a significant boost. Honestly, I am a bit skeptical based on Columbia Records' history inflating this song's longevity in the past (something which also happened with "STAY" to a lesser extent). It wasn't reported at all, but "As It Was" spent more than a year in the top 10 of the Today's Top Hits playlist on Spotify. HDD famously called out "Levitating" 's year-long residency, but that was on the 50-song playlist as a whole. This was unprecedented. And it was only removed from the playlist sometime in early December 2023, residing there since its April 1st 2022 release. For reference, "Blinding Lights" was removed on September 25th, 2020 - less than a year since release - and that's a song that wasn't an instant smash like Harry's single. Granted, it returned two months later as showcase of Spotify's support following the Grammy snub, but it was soon overtaken by the follow-up single "Save Your Tears" as the higher priority. Fellow Columbia singles "STAY" and "Flowers" had similar trajectories as "Levitating" despite being instant smashes, but on the one-year mark they were already on their way out (35-48 in placement) - not in the bloody top 10 still. Then there's the sketchy dodging of ACR rules last year on the UK Charts, where following the BRITs boost it kept floating between the #7-#10 region for 18 weeks until July, outlasting several proper 2023 hits including "Flowers". Unlike the Hot 100, songs typically have much shorter runs in the UK top 10. "Flowers" spent 15 weeks, "Blinding Lights" spent 22 weeks, as did Ed Sheeran's "Bad Habits" (which famously landed on the top 2 biggest songs for 2021 and 2022). "As It Was" had 37 weeks thanks to this inflated second run. Any particular motivation for Columbia to do this? I'm not sure. But these are some fishy elements I noticed while following the song's trajectory, so I would take the organic element of this latest resurgence with a grain of salt. 1
makeawish Posted May 17 Posted May 17 yes, this has happened, back in at #33 and yes, something feels slightly dodgy (i'm not a big harry fan but i do love 'as it was' anyway)
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