December 17, 2016 - Hailee Steinfeld + Grey + Zedd (1)

So we begin a new year in countdown land...and to be blunt, this is not what I had hoped for. Yeah, this week was a mess. Not only did a song that was just about to make a year on the countdown get short, but our #1 hardly makes any sense whatsoever. I don't know what to say. I'm already out of words for this entire countdown post.

...Okay, not really. I'll power through it for you guys. There were things here that were good, others not quite as much. So without further ado, here are the songs leaving us this week.

• This Is What You Came For by Calvin Harris with Rihanna (#36)
• Stressed Out by Twenty-one Pilots (#39) (Why?!?!?!?!?!?!)

The Countdown!
Last Week’s #1 Song: Treat You Better by Shawn Mendes
45. Girls Talk Boys by 5 Seconds Of Summer (#44)
44. My Way by Calvin Harris (#45)
43. Setting The World On Fire by Kenny Chesney featuring P!nk (#41)
42. I Took A Pill In Ibiza by Mike Posner (#42) (two weeks at #1)
41. Body Moves by DNCE (#37)
40. Send My Love (To Your New Lover) by Adele (one week at #1)
39. Just Hold On by Steve Aoki featuring Louis Tomlinson (debut)
38. Fresh Eyes by Andy Grammer (#20)
37. Don't Let Me Down by The Chainsmokers featuring Daya (#30) (three weeks at #1)
36. Can't Stop the Feeling! by Justin Timberlake (#34) (ten weeks at #1)
35. Cheap Thrills by Sia featuring Sean Paul (#33)
34. I Hate U, I Love U by gnash featuring Olivia O'Brien (#29)
33. After The Afterparty by Charli XCX (#40)
32. Love Me Now by John Legend (#38)
31. Ride by Twenty-one Pilots (#31)
30. Cold Water by Major Lazer featuring Justin Bieber and MØ (#28)
29. Million Reasons by Lady Gaga (#32)
28. Chase You Down by Runaground (#26)
27. Sit Still, Look Pretty by Daya (#16) (:D)
26. I Don't Wanna Live Forever by Zayn Malik and Taylor Swift (debut)
25. Good Grief by Bastille (#24)
24. That's My Girl by Fifth Harmony (#25)
23. Say You Won't Let Go by James Arthur (#35)
22. Into You by Ariana Grande (#9)
21. Hymn For The Weekend by Coldplay (#27)
20. Let Me Love You by DJ Snake with Justin Bieber (#19)
19. Unsteady by X Ambassadors (#18)
18. The Greatest by Sia featuring Kendrick Lamar (#23)
17. Kids by OneRepublic (#12)
16. Green Light by Pitbull featuring LunchMoney Lewis and Flo Rida (#15)
15. All Time Low by Jon Bellion (#17)
14. Play That Song by Train (#14)
13. 24K Magic by Bruno Mars (#7)
12. Water Under The Bridge by Adele (#22)
11. Side To Side by Ariana Grande featuring Nicki Minaj (#21)
10. Treat You Better by Shawn Mendes (#1) (two weeks at #1)
9. Death Of A Bachelor by Panic! At The Disco (#8)
8. In The Name Of Love by Martin Garrix and Bebe Rexha (#11)
7. Heathens by Twenty-one Pilots (#6) (one week at #1)
6. Starboy by The Weeknd featuring Daft Punk (#13)
5. Don't Wanna Know by Maroon 5 (#10)
4. Scars To Your Beautiful by Alessia Cara (#5)
3. This Town by Niall Horan (#4)
2. Closer by The Chainsmokers featuring Halsey (#3) (eight weeks at #1)
Top 5 This Week One Year Ago: 5. Confident by Demi Lovato
4. Perfect by One Direction
3. Ex's and Oh's by Elle King
2. Wildest Dreams by Taylor Swift
#1 Song This Week One Year Ago: Hello by Adele (sixth of 12 weeks at #1)
1. Starving by Hailee Steinfeld and Grey featuring Zedd (#2) (first week at #1) (...)

Biggest DRRRRRRROP!!! Of The Week: Fresh Eyes by Andy Grammer (-18)

Biggest Jump Of The Week: Say You Won't Let Go by James Arthur (+12)

New Entrants
- So we haven't heard that much from Steve Aoki, huh? There was A Light That Never Comes with Linkin Park from 2013, which was a huge favorite of Adrian's, and then Back 2 U with Walk The Moon earlier this year, which sadly failed to debut on the countdown. Now he's back with Louis Tomlinson of One Direction, in Just Hold On. There's plenty going on here, and if I'm not mistaken this was supposed to be in the aftermath of his mother's departure, as it was first performed on the X Factor soon after that point. While it's not as good as Back 2 U, I like this. However, the song does feel like it ends a bit too quickly. Still, it's fun for right now.

- Then the big one. I Don't Wanna Live Forever, a duet between Zayn Malik and Taylor Swift, the former of whom had Pillowtalk, which was big this year, and the latter of whom took two years off until this point to make a song for the Fifty Shades Darker soundtrack, which is pretty unusual. While I'm not totally sure this is the kind of atmosphere that really fits Taylor, I guess it works for the theme of the movie it's for. Love Me Like You Do was certainly more enjoyable, but right now this is kinda cool. It probably won't stick with me, though. Also, interestingly, both our debuts this week feature former One Direction members.

I Just Wanna Keep Blurbing Your Name
- I don't even want to talk about our exits. Well, first there's This Is What You Came For by Calvin Harris with Rihanna, which nobody cares about anymore (except Graham). But then there's Stressed Out by Twenty-one Pilots, which was two weeks from lasting a year on the countdown. I even heard it both on Monday and Thursday. I couldn't believe that it got the boot, like this legit just doesn't make any sense. What on earth, Hits 1. Why?!?!?! It doesn't help that the superior Tear In My Heart left one year ago. Interesting note: had that song lasted one more week or had this debuted one week earlier, the band would have had an uninterrupted tenure of over a year and a half. All that being said, I have a feeling that it will be the #1 song on the final Top 45.

- I have no idea how Girls Talk Boys by 5 Seconds Of Summer is still here. It lasted one week on the Billboard Hot 100 and Ghostbusters hype is long since over, if it was ever there to begin with. I mean, I do still enjoy the song, but I feel like it was rather underappreciated by this community just for having more of a funk sound than most other 5sauce songs. But what exactly's wrong with that?

- Fresh Eyes by Andy Grammer took a sudden drop into the bottom 10. I may have mentioned in a previous page a few weeks ago how some adult contemporary stuff I don't particularly care for, but there are some I like, and this is one of them.

- All four of our debuts from last week jumped in some capacity.

- And we had Sit Still, Look Pretty by Daya finally drop out of the Top 20. Hopefully in time Hits 1 will finally let go of their love for Daya and it'll be gone for good.

- Then we've got Into You by Ariana Grande, which abruptly dropped to #22. But once again it's been there for a while so I can't be too surprised.

- It feels like The Greatest by Sia featuring Kendrick Lamar just re-enters and leaves the Top 20 whenever it wants to.

- Not only did Play That Song by Train hold at #14, but this is the second week in a row that it was introduced by a guest DJ. What are the odds.

- I reckoned it wasn't long before Water Under The Bridge by Adele would enter the Top 20.


- Here's a little bit of trivia regarding I Took A Pill In Ibiza and Treat You Better: their second week at #1 was four weeks after their first, and then on their second they dropped out of the top spot to #10. Shows that they hit #1 after their real prime.

- In The Name Of Love by Martin Garrix and Bebe Rexha only gets more enjoyable to me, and yes you are seeing that right. That claiming purple may not last long in the face of 24K Magic, but the song has neat production and a good vocal performance. I do want to give the underdog some credit here.

- The guest DJ who introduced Closer said that it was his favorite song on the countdown, and Spyder guessed "for the same reason as his girlfriend", what with the roommate back in Boulder. That guest DJ was from Denver, Colorado. I'll admit that was pretty funny...

- ...But that brings us to our new #1. As you can see, I'm not thrilled about this. To me this song was never that good at all. That drop has only gotten more annoying, and the lyrical content is dumb. Liking this song was hard enough for me, but this was the icing on the cake. At this point I'm left with no choice but to put it in orange. Sorry. :/ As strange as it is, I'm actually starting to find Closer more tolerable now. I mean, not to the point where I'd want to see it break records, but I can listen to it. Hence why it's still in blue.

Hit-Bound
You're Not There by Lukas Graham
Bad Things by Machine Gun Kelly and Camilla Cabello
Guys My Age by Hey Violet
Mercy by Shawn Mendes
Blow Your Mind (Mwah) by Dua Lipa
HandClap by Fitz And The Tantrums
Shout Out To My Ex by Little Mix
She Sets The City On Fire by Gavin DeGraw
Versace On The Floor by Bruno Mars (debut)
In My Mind by Maty Noyes
Words by Daya
Dancing On My Own by Calum Scott
Love On The Brain by Rihanna
Love Like We Used To by Captain Cuts (?)

- Little Mix hosted Hit-Bound this week.

- We've got but one debut, it being Versace On The Floor by Bruno Mars. Sounds like it's the second official single from 24K Magic, and while I definitely don't like it as much as the title track and would've preferred Chunky or Finesse to be singles, it's fun for sure.

- Words by Daya is really getting annoying after really analyzing it. And I don't just say that because I'm sick of Daya after her two solo hits and Don't Let Me Down... I'll talk more about it should it debut.

- I'm confused... Is Love Like We Used To by Captain Cuts still on Hit-Bound? Because I didn't hear it this round, there were only 13 songs that played.

Also, since I haven't done one of these in a while, I'll do a review of the YouTube15 with Jenna Marbles. I still think she can get very cheesy at times, but it's fun to find of songs I probably wouldn't have discovered otherwise. Here were the songs there this time around:

Side To Side by Ariana Grande featuring Nicki Minaj
Home by gnash featuring Johnny Yukon
Like I Did by Shane Harper
Starboy by The Weeknd featuring Daft Punk
Savage by Whethan featuring Flux Pavilion and Max Schneider
Heathens by Twenty-one Pilots
Vengeance On My Mind by G-Eazy featuring Dana
Closer by The Chainsmokers featuring Halsey
Nobody's Better by Z featuring Fetty Wap
Treat You Better by Shawn Mendes
Jumpshot by Dawin
24K Magic by Bruno Mars (okay, putting this in purple feels like cheating)
Make Me (Cry) by Noah Cyrus featuring Labrinth
Black Beatles by Rae Sremmurd featuring Gucci Mane
Setting Fires by The Chainsmokers featuring XYLO

- For starters we've got Home by gnash featuring Johnny Yukon. While I Hate U, I Love U wasn't a long-term sticker with me, this is one that had detail and depth to it. I like the sentiment of this one.

- I'm not huge on Like I Did by Shane Harper. There's some clunkiness here, including the repetition of the word "did" in the post-choruses, and multiple parts feel overproduced.

- I feel like people underrate G-Eazy. Do I think he's an epic ground-breakingly amazing rapper? No. But he has flow and he sounds like he cares about what he does. Vengeance On My Mind makes for a nice one I'd say.

- Nobody's Better by Z featuring Fetty Wap has good flow from Fetty Wap. While it doesn't top 679, which was easily my favorite thing he's been on, it's fun.

- More Dawin? Come on... Dessert I could kinda enjoy ironically, but that is not the same with Jumpshot.

- Similarly I don't care for Make Me (Cry) by Noah Cyrus featuring Labrinth. This one feels a little overwrought and melodramatic, but that's just me.

- And I guess this is as good a chance as any to talk about Black Beatles by Rae Sremmurd featuring Gucci Mane, which has been #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for a few weeks now. Now, I can't lie... I actually kinda like this. I mean, it's only blue, as the production is cool but the lyrics are another story. Unlike a lot of their songs this one has a decent amount of energy to it. But I'm hoping it doesn't become Billboard's #1 song of 2017.

- There's also Setting Fires by The Chainsmokers featuring XYLO. While the drop is snazzy, the rest of the song feels really overdone. I can't say it's something I'll go out of my way to listen to.

Top 20 Breakdown:
0 — Shit:
20. Starving by Hailee Steinfeld and Grey featuring Zedd
19. Don't Wanna Know by Maroon 5

1 — Bad:
18. Unsteady by X Ambassadors

2 — Meh:
17. Treat You Better by Shawn Mendes
16. Play That Song by Train

3 — Decent:
15. All Time Low by Jon Bellion
14. Closer by The Chainsmokers featuring Halsey
13. This Town by Niall Horan
12. Let Me Love You by DJ Snake with Justin Bieber

4 — Good:
11. Death Of A Bachelor by Panic! At The Disco

5 — Great:
10. Side To Side by Ariana Grande featuring Nicki Minaj
9. Heathens by Twenty-one Pilots
8. Kids by OneRepublic
7. Green Light by Pitbull featuring LunchMoney Lewis and Flo Rida
6. The Greatest by Sia featuring Kendrick Lamar
5. Scars To Your Beautiful by Alessia Cara
4. Starboy by The Weeknd featuring Daft Punk
3. Water Under The Bridge by Adele
2. 24K Magic by Bruno Mars
1. In The Name Of Love by Martin Garrix and Bebe Rexha

Overall score: 71/100

Countdown Bottom 5
1. Starving by Hailee Steinfeld and Grey featuring Zedd
2. Sit Still, Look Pretty by Daya
3. That's My Girl by Fifth Harmony
4. Don't Wanna Know by Maroon 5
5. Unsteady by X Ambassadors

Countdown Top 5
1. In The Name Of Love by Martin Garrix and Bebe Rexha
2. 24K Magic by Bruno Mars
3. Water Under The Bridge by Adele
4. Just Hold On by Steve Aoki featuring Louis Tomlinson
5. Love Me Now by John Legend

Hit-Bound Top 5
1. Shout Out To My Ex by Little Mix
2. Versace On The Floor by Bruno Mars
3. In My Mind by Maty Noyes
4. HandClap by Fitz And The Tantrums
5. Guys My Age by Hey Violet

YouTube15 Top 5
1. 24K Magic by Bruno Mars (even though putting it in purple here would be unfair)
2. Nobody's Better by Z featuring Fetty Wap
3. Home by gnash featuring Johnny Yukon
4. Starboy by The Weeknd featuring Daft Punk
5. Vengeance On My Mind by G-Eazy featuring Dana

Most Missed Song: Love Me Like You Do by Ellie Goulding

#1 Recommendation For Hits 1 And The Countdown: False Alarm by The Weeknd

Songs That Debuted This Week One Year Ago:
Get Ugly by Jason Derulo — WAMB10's bane, but I thought this one was pretty funny at least, what with Jason Derulo essentially doing a Ned Flanders imitation. Sorry. xP
S.O.B. by Nathaniel Rateliff and The Night Sweats — Wait, are we sure this song was released in 2015 and not in 1959? (And no that's not a color coding error)
I Know What You Did Last Summer by Shawn Mendes and Camilla Cabello — I'll talk more about this one come my Year-End Hot 100 piece, but this song has a good premise but it feels like it's trying to do too much.
When We Were Young by Adele — Once again, I'll have more words for this in detail soon, but you know, it's songs like this and New Americana that make me feel like Adrian should be watching Spectrum Pulse.

So with that, I'm hoping to have the 2016: A Year In Review page out tomorrow at the latest, but it depends on how productive I get (read: if I don't get consumed in trying to breed/chain Pokémon). My Top 45 (or again, however many) Songs Of The Year and the Year-End Hot 100 may not be until after Christmas, though (maybe on Christmas day I'll marathon the entire thing). But I'm gonna do what I can. Thanks for reading, everybody!