2016-02-27-RickDees

Twenty One Pilots continues rocking it on the apex of the Rick Dees' countdown with Stressed Out...

This week, there's not been much of a change in our top five candidates as they remain to be in the same position with the only difference that Alessia Cara and The Chainsmokers Featuring Rozes exchanged windows. The vibrant duo from Ohio, Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun continue to host the countdown with their song Stressed Out while Justin Bieber is still parked at Number 2 with Love Yourself. We still have The Weeknd at Number 3 waiting for an opening for In The Night to step up the pace and at Number 4 we have The Chainsmokers Featuring Rozes up one slot with Roses. Alessia Cara's Here is now at Number 5 as she unhurriedly leaves the tops.

It's healthy to see a countdown that stays within a genre other than pop on the alp. As predicted, what we're seeing here is a dramatic change in music style as I mentioned in my previous recap, and I personally find that the diversity in categories creates a more solid hit list for radio. When we talk of current hits, we don't just want to hear a CHR format that's focused on let's say dance or rap or even pop.

If we go back to when contemporary hits were first acknowledged, we had all types of songs in there from R&B, rock, soul, urban all the way to pop. Although the term contemporary hit radio was only coined in the early 80s to describe the Top 40, it's been going on as far back as the hills! Of course, it was predominantly pop when The Beatles took the stage or The Rolling Stones' stepped it up with some rock or when Marvin Gaye & Tammy Terrell's Motown phenomenon Ain't No Mountain High Enough broke through. But let's go back to those 60s for example where you had Otis Redding with his soul hit (Sitting On) The Dock Of The Bay, duking it out with Simon & Garfunkel's folk track Mrs. Robinson, The Doors' psychedelic rock sensation Hello I Love You and The Beatles' pop rock powerhouse Hey Jude – these were emphatically the greatest archetypes of a wide-ranging mix of tunes.

The 70s also brought a variety of genera as so did the 80s, 90s and 2000s. We had incredible rivalries in the music world like Prince versus Madonna or Van Halen versus Loggins. We had the "King of Pop" Michael Jackson always leading the charts and the ever-so-British Police or the ever-so-Irish U2 up there too.

And today, we have the Biebs, the Tays, the Selena Gomezes and what nots ruling the countdown with all too many dance pop or EDM kinda songs so where I'm coming from is that it's in the pink to watch that multiplicity of song styles enter into our charts.

As I said, Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 has taken a relatively significant spin from the 2015 pop pikes to the new-fangled zeniths that 2016 is coming in with so bring it on Rick! More of that hip hop, R&B, and rock in the apexes and a good deal less of that assembly-line commercial pop would be epic!

Incidentally, here's what you ought to look out for: Daya with Hideaway, Flo Rida with My House and Rihanna Featuring Drake's Work which is presently placing at Number 1 in the Billboard Hot 100 this week – they're sizzling hot!

Stay cuffed to Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 and be into the future with the hottest tracks from the US right here on Y101 Always First. Lock it in from 2 PM to 6 PM every Sunday or on Wednesdays for the replay from 6 PM to 10 PM.

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