How do August’s 13 Hot 100 Top 10 hits look at compositional level? Check out highlights below!
For a complete overview of August’s hits, click here.
- Primary Genres: A little over three-quarters (10 songs) were pop songs, six of which peaked at #1, with two belonging to BTS – Butter and Permission to Dance. There were two hip hop songs (Industry Baby and Rumors), and the sole R&B representative was Kiss Me More.
- Sub-Genres & Influences: In addition to straight-up pop, which was an influence across all 13 songs, a whopping 62% featured a retro influence, with the 1980s being most popular decade. Electropop/synthpop followed at a little over half, while hip hop, R&B and dance/club followed close behind with six songs each.
- Featured Artists: Only three songs had a featured artist, represented by all three of August’s primary genres: Kiss Me More (R&B), Levitating (pop) and Rumors (hip hop).
- Lyrical Themes: Just over half featured a love/relationships lyrical theme. All were pop songs save for the R&B hit Kiss Me More.
- Instrumentation: Every song featured synths, synth bass and drums (with acoustic/electronic combo drums being most popular at a little over half of songs). Around three-quarters featured electric guitar and nearly two-thirds featured claps.
- Key: Major and minor keys were neck and neck with 54% (seven songs) in a minor key and 46% (six songs) in a major key.
- Tempo: Average tempo was 111 BPM with over half of songs landing at 110 BPM or more.
- Song Length: The average song length of August’s Top 10 hits was just 3:06. Stay was the shortest at 2:15, followed by Montero (Call Me By Your Name) at 2:16.
- Intro: The average length of a Top 10 hit intro was just 10 seconds, with a notable outlier being the very lengthy 31-second intro in The Weeknd’s Take My Breath. The majority of songs featured an intro with a sparse arrangement that established the backing music of the section that directly follows. A little over one-third introduced one or more of the song’s instrumental and/or vocal hooks.
- Post-Chorus: Nearly two-thirds of songs featured a post-chorus, with a vocal break post-chorus being the most popular (a section with a vocal hook focus).
- First Chorus: The average amount of time that it took for the first chorus to hit was 40 seconds, or 21% into the song. Only one song, Stay, had the chorus preceding the first verse, which is much more common in the hip hop genre than pop.
- Last Section: Almost all songs concluded with an outro. The two that didn’t were Levitating and Permission to Dance, both of which concluded with a chorus.