When it comes to Hot 100 #1 hits, 2021 was the year of pop, retro, love/relationship-themed lyrics, and a rise of traditional instruments including electric guitar, bass and acoustic piano.

Of the 71 songs that charted in the Top 10, only 25% (18 songs) made it to the top spot (see Spotify playlist below).  BTS’ Butter, was the longest-charting of them all with 10 weeks at #1, and Columbia scored the most #1 hits with seven.

The majority of #1 hits were crafted by teams of five credited songwriters or more (56%) and producer teams of two (44%).

So what did these chart-toppers look like compositionally?

Primary Genres 

For the third year in a row, pop was the most popular primary genre and accounted for 56% of #1 hits, double the number of hip hop #1 hits (28%). However, when looking at the overall Top 10, pop and hip hop were neck and neck, with 39% and 34% respectively.

Just as in 2020, there were two R&B #1s, Leave The Door Open (Silk Sonic) and Peaches (Justin Bieber feat. Daniel Caesar and Giveon).  And for the first time in well over five years, we saw a rock song chart at #1, Olivia Rodrigo’s Good 4 U.

Sub-Genres & Influences 

As one would expect, pop was also the most popular influence across all #1s, followed distantly by hip hop and trap, the latter of which has dropped in popularity by almost half since 2018.  Conversely, #1s featuring a rock influence have been on the rise for the past three years, increasing from just 8% of songs in 2018 to one-third in 2021.

Instruments 

Twenty main instruments were used to shape the sound of Hot 100 #1 hits in 2021. The top three, as usual, were drums/percussion, synths (non-bass) and synth bass.

There was also an overall rise of traditional instruments including electric bass, acoustic piano, electric guitar and acoustic drums.  Following a dip in 2020, all reached five-year highs in 2021 save for electric guitar, which remained relatively steady at roughly half of #1 hits (though it rose considerably in the years prior).

Lyrics

Love/relationships was once again the most popular theme among #1 hits. Not surprisingly, its level of prominence is nearly identical to the prominence of the pop primary genre, where the theme has historically been most popular.

Lifestyle and boasting themes followed at one-third of songs each. Like the love/relationships theme’s correlation to pop, the prominence of these two themes closely matched that of hip hop songs, where they have consistently been the most popular.

Vocals 

Two-thirds of #1 hits featured exclusively male vocals, while just over a quarter featured exclusively female.  This is essentially on par with the overall Top 10.

All-male duets/groups were most popular among both #1 hits and the overall Top 10. Notably, while solo male vocals were more common in the overall Top 10, they lost out to solo female vocals when looking at #1s.

Song Length 

The average length of a #1 hit in 2021 was 3:08, 16 seconds shorter than the overall Top 10 and seven seconds shorter than last year’s average. The past three years’ averages have all been significantly shorter than years prior.

*Note that this excludes Taylor Swift’s 10-minute long All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)

What else was trending among 2021’s #1 hits?  Stay tuned for our year-end trend report, The State of the Hot 100 Top 10, being released on January 31st!

Spotify Playlist: 2021’s Hot 100 #1 Hits