Led by Drake, Hip-Hop Doubled Its Share of Hot 100 Top 10s Year-Over-Year in Third Quarter, Per Hit Songs Deconstructed Report
As a primary genre, hip-hop represented 71 percent of all top 10s in Q3 2018, up from 35 percent in the same span last year. Hip-hop has also essentially swapped spots with pop since 2015.
Led by Drake, hip-hop sharply solidified its stronghold in the Billboard Hot 100‘s top 10 in the third quarter of 2018.
According to Hit Songs Deconstructed’s analysis and genre classifications, hip-hop, as a primary genre of songs, more than doubled its presence in the top 10 in the third quarter of 2018 as compared to the same span in 2017.
Conversely, pop continues its downward trend as a factor in the Hot 100’s top 10.
Here are five key findings from Q3 2018, per Hit Songs Deconstructed, which analyzes the compositional characteristics of Hot 100 top 10s.
Hip-hop got hotter — by twice as much: Hip-hop, as a primary genre on songs, accounted for 71 percent of all Hot 100 top 10s on charts dated July 7 through Sept. 29. That’s more than double, up from 35 percent, its share in the third quarter of 2017.
Hip-hop’s Q3 share of 71 percent is also up from the first half of 2018, when the genre contributed to 55 percent of all top 10s (on charts dated Jan. 3 through June 30).
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Pop dropped: Meanwhile, pop continued to tumble in Q3 2018, accounting for 14 percent of all top 10s as a primary genre. That’s down from 26 percent in the same stretch in 2017.
Pop’s 14 percent claim in July through September is also down from 25 percent in the first half of 2018.
Hip-hop and pop have essentially switched places in three years: Year to date, hip-hop, as a primary genre, accounts for 63 percent of all Hot 100 top 10s, the highest amount for any genre since Hit Songs Deconstructed began tracking data in 2013. The figure bests pop’s 49 percent take in 2015.
Thus, illustrating just how far the two genres have diverged, in 2015, pop was at 49 percent of all Hot 100 top 10s and hip-hop, 13 percent; three years later, hip-hop claims 63 percent and pop, 21 percent.
Hip-hop influenced 93 percent of all top 10s: As an influence shaping the sound of songs (but not a primary genre), hip-hop played into a whopping 93 percent of all Hot 100 top 10s between July and September. The total is up from a still-impressive 78 percent during the same stretch in 2017.
The 93 percent cut is also up slightly from 89 percent in January through June.
(“An influence is a vocal or instrumental characteristic associated with a particular genre, time period or geographic location that helps shape the sound and vibe of a song,” Hit Songs Deconstructed co-founder Dave Penn says. “For example, rapped vocals could be used to impart a hip-hop vibe in a song outside the hip-hop genre.”)
Drake dominated: Unsurprisingly, given his record-breaking run, Drake led hip-hop’s rule in the third quarter of 2018, spending 11 of the 13 weeks from July to September at No. 1 on the Hot 100. In that span, he was the only artist with two No. 1s as a lead artist (“Nice for What” and “In My Feelings”) and earned more than twice as many top 10s (seven) as the next-closest competitor, Eminem (three).