In this month’s edition of Under The Hood, we’re taking a look at the characteristics and trends behind November’s 14 Top 10 hits.

The month’s top artist was Ed Sheeran with his two hits Bad Habits and Shivers, which had spent 20 and 7 weeks in the Top 10, respectively, by the end of November.

The #1 hits were Adele’s Easy On Me, which reigned for three weeks in November for a total of four weeks YTD, and Taylor Swift’s All Too Well (Taylor’s Version), with the extended 10-minute version reigning as the most popular of its five released versions.

So how did these four songs, along with the month’s 10 other hits, stack up at the compositional level?

• Primary Genres: Pop continued to reign supreme with 64% of songs, keeping on par with October’s 60%. Hip hop and R&B trailed distantly, accounting for two songs each: Industry Baby and Way 2 Sexy for hip hop (both #1 hits in the months prior), and Need To Know and Smokin Out The Window for R&B.
• Sub-Genres & Influences: Of the 19 different sub-genres and influences that shaped the sound of November’s Top 10 hits, the top three were pop (100%), hip hop (43%, which is significantly higher than its popularity as a primary genre) and rock (36%). Interestingly, while ballads have been few and far between, both of the month’s #1 hits had a ballad influence – Easy On Me and All Too Well.
• Vocals: Male lead vocals outweighed female leads 64% to 29%, continuing the gender trend that has been going on for years. When factoring in solo vs. group vocals, exclusively male duet/group vocals were most popular at 36% of songs, followed by solo female and solo male tied at 29%. Only one song was a female/male duet – Levitating by Dua Lipa feat. DaBaby.
• Lyrics: With pop being the top primary genre, it’s not surprising that love/relationships was the most popular lyrical theme, accounting for 71% of songs. It was followed distantly by hooking up and lifestyle themes rounding out the top 3 at 21% of songs each.
• Key & Tempo: Minor keys slightly edged out major keys with 57% of songs. Average tempo landed at 95 BPM (10 BPM slower than October’s average, which included the uncommonly fast Lil Nas X hit That’s What I Want at 176 BPM), with the most popular tempo range being 80-89 BPM (29% of songs).  Nearly three-quarters of all the month’s hits landed under 100 BPM.
• Song Length: The average length of a Top 10 hit in November was 3:50, 30 seconds longer than October’s average. However, this is largely due to Taylor Swift’s 10-minute long #1 hit All Too Well (Taylor’s Version); removing Taylor from the mix, the average drops to 3:21.
• Instruments: The month’s top instruments were nothing out of the ordinary, with the most popular being drums (93%, the sole exception being Easy On Me’s extremely minimal kick), synths (86%), synth bass (79%), claps (57%), and electric guitar, electric bass and electronic drums rounding out the top five at 50% each. On the more atypical side, All Too Well’s instrumentation stood out with its wind section, saxophone and lap steel guitar.
• Section Count: All but two songs had three choruses, with Levitating and Heat Waves each containing four. The only songs to contain three verses instead of the more typical two were the month’s two hip hop hits, Industry Baby and Way 2 Sexy, which is in line with hip hop’s tendency to be more verse-centric genre than pop.
• First Chorus Appearance: The average time it took for a November Top 10 hit to get to the first chorus was 35 seconds, which is on par with recent trends. The most popular first chorus occurrence range was the 40-59 second range with just over one-third of songs, followed by the 1-19 second and 20-39 second ranges at 29% each.

In addition to the month’s compositional characteristics, November also saw a host of achievements and landmarks by Top 10-charting artists.  A few of the most notable are:

• Adele’s 30, which boasted 12 Hot 100 hits and two Top 10 hits, debuted with the largest week of 2021. It also became the year’s best-selling album, surpassing even Drake’s Certified Lover Boy, which had a record-breaking nine simultaneous Top 10s.
• The Weeknd’s Blinding Lights officially became the greatest Hot 100 hit of all time, replacing the Chubby Checker’s 1960 hit The Twist.
• Following the recent remake of her 2012 album Red and resulting Hot 100 #1 hit All Too Well (Taylor’s Version), Taylor Swift became the first ever artist to top the Billboard Artist 100 chart for 50 weeks. The album also marked Swift’s tenth #1 album on the Billboard 200.

Stay tuned for December Under the Hood to see how the last month of the year shapes up!

November’s Top 10 Hits Playlist