In this first “Under The Hood” of 2022, we’re taking a look at the characteristics and trends behind January’s lucky 13 Top 10 hits.

January’s top artist was Ed Sheeran, with his two Top 10’s Bad Habits and Shivers racking up 22 and 12 all-time weeks in the region, respectively, by the end of the month.

The sole #1 hit of the month was Adele’s Easy On Me, which had reigned for 10 all-time weeks by the end of January.

There were also a host of achievements and landmarks by Top 10-charting artists in January.  A few of the most notable are:

• Disney’s Encanto became the first Disney animated film to score multiple Top 10 hits from its soundtrack, and We Don’t Talk About Bruno became the first #1 hit from a Disney film since the early 90s. This is particularly interesting considering the song’s highly atypical form, ensemble vocals and plot-specific lyrics. Unlike previous Disney hits like Let It Go, Can You Feel the Love Tonight, A Whole New World and Colors of the Wind – which generally have more standard forms, solo or duet vocals, lyrics that work even without the context of the film, and more usual pop arrangement development – Bruno does not fit the more conventional pop mold.
• Adele’s Easy On Me reached 10 weeks at #1, tying with 2016’s Hello for her longest reign at the top. It also became the first song to extend beyond 100 million in radio reach since Blinding Lights did so almost two years ago.
• Elton John re-entered the Top 10 for the first time in almost 25 years with his Dua Lipa duet, Cold Heart – PNAU Remix.

So how did January’s 13 songs stack up at the compositional level?

• Primary Genres: Pop came out on top with just under half of songs (6), a decrease from December’s two-thirds. Hip hop trailed at roughly one-quarter of songs (3), followed by one song each for dance/club/electronic (Cold Heart – PNAU Remix), rock (abcdefu), R&B (Need To Know) and Latin (We Don’t Talk About Bruno).
• Sub-Genres & Influences: Of the 20 different sub-genres and influences that shaped January’s Top 10 hits, the top three were pop (92%, 12 songs), hip hop (46%, 6 songs; notably higher than its popularity as a primary genre) and trap (38%, 5 songs). On the flip side, some of the more obscure and atypical include the theatrical/showtune influence in both of Encanto’s hits; ballad/power ballad in Adele’s #1 smash Easy On Me; and punk in breakout artist GAYLE’s abcdefu (though punk has been getting more traction as of late, most notably in Olivia Rodrigo’s hit, Good 4 U).
• Vocals: Male lead vocals outweighed female 54% to 31%, a gender gap that has been in effect for years. Currently, this is due to the almost exclusively male domination of hip hop and the rising popularity of group male vocals across the board.  While all-male groups/duets rose from 24% of songs in 2019 to 39% in 2021, all-female collaborations have stayed between 0-5% of songs. In January of this year, there were three all-male collabs and not a single all-female.  Only two songs were a female/male duet, both by Dua Lipa: Levitating (Dua Lipa feat. DaBaby) and Cold Heart – PNAU Remix (Dua Lipa & Elton John).
• Lyrics: With pop being the top primary genre in January, it’s no surprise that love/relationships was the most popular lyrical theme. However, at just over half of songs (7), its popularity is notably down compared to December’s roughly three-quarters and 2021’s 81%. Lifestyle followed at 38% (5 songs), double what it was in December, and introspection rounded out the top three at nearly one-quarter (3 songs).
• Key & Tempo: The Top 10 was predominantly minor in January, with just over two-thirds of songs (9) being in a minor key. Average tempo remained on par with previous months at 96 BPM. Interestingly, the slower 70-79 BPM and 60-69 BPM ranges were most popular overall, but were offset by much faster songs like Bad Habits (126 BPM), Shivers (141 BPM) and Stay (170 BPM), which pulled the average up.
• Song Length: The average length of a Top 10 hit in January was 3:15, a bit shorter than the 2021 average of 3:24 (note that this excludes Taylor Swift’s 10-minute epic All Too Well). The 3:00-3:29 range was the most popular with just under half of songs.
• Instruments: The month’s top instruments were nothing out of the ordinary, with the top five being synths and drums (92% each), synth bass (85%) claps (77%), and electronic drums specifically (69%). This is a notable increase for claps in particular, which have been on an overall downfall for several years and were present in just 44% of hits last year. On the more atypical side were Encanto’s two hits, which used uncommon instruments like brass, mallets, snaps and woodwind sections.
• First Section: 85% of songs (11) began with an intro, with the other two – We Don’t Talk About Bruno and abcdefu – kicked off with the chorus, which is quite atypical. Most intros fell between 10 and 19 seconds, featured either a combination of instruments and vocals (46%, 6 songs) or instruments alone (38%, 5 songs), and introduced the backing music of the following section.

Stay tuned for our next Under the Hood to see how the year continues to shape up!

January’s Top 10 Hits Playlist