alejandreaux

CSPC units are too narrow of a way to define an artists' "peak" comprehensively. Katy arguably rolled out the most successful run of singles for any era in history with TD. most of the singles from that album are legit generational pop smashes, and CSPC units are set up to reward that kind of thing, especially with singles rolled out during the digital/streaming eras. but that doesn't change how wildly dominant Britney's peak was commercially and culturally at the time. Britney's debut was legit like a meteor striking earth, very few artists have debuted with that level of immediate worldwide saturation. It's hard to quantify that kind of raw cultural inescapability in a numeric format like CSPC.

best duet is debatable, but i really do think it might be the biggest/most successful duet of all time. i know the metrics for tracking music stats has changed too much over the years to compare many songs directly, but i genuinely don't know if any duet in history has enjoyed the amount of sustained massive global consumption that DWAS has

the mid-tier songs on Lover are as good or better than the best songs on Showgirl. which isn't hard because Showgirl only has 2 good songs on it (Ophelia and Elizabeth Taylor)

Talk of the Charts Global Year-End Data: I Just Might - 3.4k points / #4 peak / 6 weeks in top 10 (2026 chart) Abracadabra - 3.4k points / #5 peak / 8 weeks in top 10 (2025 chart) Spotify streams: I Just Might first 10 months (1/26 - 10/26) 600M+ streams Abracadabra first 10 months (2/25 - 11/25) 600M+ streams obviously we don't know what I Just Might's overall longevity will be so there's always a chance for it to overtake Abra, but so far after the first 10 months they genuinely do have extremely similar WW stats IJM is definitely bigger in the US though.

she's been goofy ever since this

it's definitely still Crazy in Love, and it probably will always be. Halo is more easily consumable for like grocery store playlists and stuff but Crazy in Love just screams "BEYONCÉ" in a way that is universally identifiable. like everyone of every demographic knows what tf time it is when those opening horns come on, it's damn near "Billie Jean bass-line" or "We Will Rock You stomp-stomp-clap" level of recognizable.

i don't understand how Gaga could be listed here without Bruno? for 2 years i was told her songs can't be hits without him involved.

the fact that she very possibly has had one of thee top 10 most quintessential worldwide mega-hits (consumption-wise, culturally, or both) in three consecutive decades Shallow is the only one i'd even slightly argue because it's not quite as consumed as the true ceiling of 2010s hits, but it's still in that neighborhood with 3B+ streams/10m+ sales. and then it was a genuine cultural phenomenon with the ASIB movie + Oscar win and iconic performance, so it could still plausibly be argued as a top 10 overall hit of the 2010s. i keep trying to rack my brain to think of other artists who could meet that threshold for 3 consecutive decades, maybe Taylor? (Love Story or YBWM > Blank Space or Shake it Off > Anti-Hero or Ophelia)

would a random ugly AI generated Twitter graphic that places Ariana Grande above Mariah Carey and Alicia Keys on the same tier as Jennifer Hudson lie?

this isn't fair to Drake

your thread specified "in recent years". her recent years haven't been nearly as politically polarizing as her peak controversial moments during the Lemonade era.

the fact that these are her biggest "controversies" and it's things only ATLRers and stan twitter would even know about

the critique of repeating the gay memes followed by another gay meme is sending me rn why can't we just talk NORMAL

Abra was more impressive because it was a brand new Lady Gaga song that was only blocked from #1 by another brand new Lady Gaga song

The College Dropout > Late Registration > Graduation (Kanye West) is probably the most acclaimed, popular, and influential debut 3 album run of the century if we're considering all genres here these also deserve a mention: LP1 > MAGDALENE > EUSEXUA (FKA twigs) Vampire Weekend > Contra > Modern Vampires of the City (Vampire Weekend) The Archandroid > The Electric Lady > Dirty Computer (Janelle Monáe) Olivia's run definitely sits among these though

Song: POM > HN > Petal > LWYMMD Video: LWYMMD > HN > POM > Petal

this is more like "a list of 30 great pop songs" rather than "the top 30 greatest pop songs ever"

radio airplay can be so fraudulent in general. the fact that there's multiple songs in the top 10 who's airplay % outweighs their sales and streams % combined is just egregious.

ok i'm neutral on Taylor Swift but this actually is kinda wild is this normal for a lot of huge songs that spend weeks the top 5 on the Hot 100?

it did respectable numbers for normal pop star standards, but it was a sizable step down from her astronomical standards, so i understand why it's considered a flop. she was also coming off of one of the most successful/impactful pop star rollouts in history with her first 3 projects. its all about expectations and how the album is received. ARTPOP had a mixed reception and was her overexposure/backlash era on top of not performing as well, so that feeds into the "flop" narrative even though it did decent numbers.

is anyone denying or pushing back against the fact that it probably would've been top 10 with YouTube data counted? i didn't see the outcome of the other threads, but is it really this big controversial topic that needs so much re-iteration?

Blame it on the Rain stays being one of my go-to 90s pop songs. i NEVER gaf

it's really not that hard to understand. in conversations about industry achievements, TF/M is treated as one project because they were technically packaged together as a deluxe. the industry abides by technicalities like that. in conversations about artistic achievement, they are treated as two separate projects because they had two distinct eras/identities attached to them in the cultural memory. it's not some "coup" devised by little monsters to be able to pick and choose when to apply bragging rights, the fans didn't choose for it to be released this way it's a genuine anomaly that applies to this album and very few others that have deluxe editions that serve as their own mini-era.

Abracadabra being above 4 Hot 100 #1 songs, and yet it's the only song out of those people would argue with you that it's not a hit