Welcome to Billboard Pro’s Trending Up newsletter, where we take a closer look at the songs, artists, curiosities and trends that have caught the music industry’s attention. Some have come out of nowhere, others have taken months to catch on, and all of them could become ubiquitous in the blink of a TikTok clip.
This week: Linkin Park’s second act is off to a remarkable start on streaming, Rich Homie Quan’s catalog skyrockets on streaming after his tragic passing, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce give an ’00s classic a singalong bump and much more.
Linkin Park’s Streaming Catalog Soars Following Comeback News
Next week’s Hot 100 chart will likely feature a new Linkin Park single — a sentence that would have seemed improbable just one week ago. Yet the band’s return, as covered in Billboard’s exclusive cover story last Thursday (Sept. 5), has produced new arena tour dates (kicking off tonight at The Forum in Los Angeles), a new studio album (From Zero, out Nov. 15) and a high-powered new song, “The Emptiness Machine,” that’s off to a hot start at streaming.
After being released at 6 pm ET on Thursday as Linkin Park launched into a global livestream performance, “The Emptiness Machine” earned 2.22 million U.S. on-demand audio streams on Friday, its first full day of release, according to Luminate. The single hovered about one million U.S. audio streams over the next three days, and ended its first full four-day stretch with 6.47 million streams, while also racking up over 6,000 in digital sales — likely setting it on pace for a big Hot 100 bow.
Yet Linkin Park’s return is also boosting the band’s back catalog and biggest hits, as listeners revisit their past albums before receiving a new one in November. From Sept. 6-9, the band’s catalog (minus “The Emptiness Machine”) earned 30.11 million combined U.S. audio streams — a 62% increase compared to the same four-day period during the previous week. That spike also included big week-over-week gains for hits like “Numb” (up 60%), “One Step Closer” (up 76%) and “Faint” (up nearly 100%), as fans heard new co-vocalist Emily Armstrong sing all three during the band’s livestream and wanted to hear the classic versions, too. – JASON LIPSHUTZ
Rich Homie Quan Catalog Surges on Streaming Following Rap Great’s Death
The hip-hop world was shaken last week (Sept. 5) by the tragic news of Rich Homie Quan’s death at the age of just 33. The Atlanta rapper, whose real name was Dequantes Devontay Lamar, had been one of hip-hop’s leading hitmakers of the mid-2010s, during a time in which his home city essentially took over as the U.S.’s rap capital. Over the days that followed, tributes poured in from Quan’s collaborators and contemporaries, saluting both the man and artist and expressing shock over his premature passing.
Fans of Rich Homie Quan of course also expressed their grief by streaming his music in massive numbers. Over Sept. 2-4, the three days before his death, the rapper amassed 1.7 combined million official on-demand U.S. streams for his solo catalog as a lead artist – but that number skyrocketed to 31.7 million total over the following three days, according to Luminate, an eye-popping gain of 1,727%. Leading songs from his catalog over that period include his Hot 100 hits “Type of Way” (4.5 million combined streams, a 1,892% gain) and “Flex (Ooh, Ooh, Ooh)” (3.6 million streams, up 1,666%).
Those numbers do not account, however, for perhaps the song most celebrated on social media following Quan’s passing: “Lifestyle,” his classic 2014 team-up with Atlanta rap icon Young Thug, released under the collective name Rich Gang. Over the same period, “Lifestyle” was up to 4.7 million combined streams, a 598% gain from the previous three-day period. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
The Taylor Bump: Works for ‘00s Retro-Rockers as Well as Presidential Candidates
Taylor Swift made global headlines on Tuesday night (Sept. 10) with her official endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, announcing her support of the current vice president with a social media blast following Harris’ debate with former president Donald Trump. The impact of the biggest figure in contemporary pop culture’s co-sign will likely be major — but Harris isn’t the only person benefiting from the Taylor Swift Bump this week.
On Sunday (Sept. 8), Swift attended the U.S. Open men’s tennis finals in Queens, New York (featuring another Taylor in American finalist Taylor Fritz), along with celebrity beau Travis Kelce. There, the pair were spotted singing (and even air-guitaring) along to a ’00s classic — “I Believe in a Thing Called Love,” signature hit for ’00s U.K. retro-rockers The Darkness — with Swift of course dramatically pantomiming the lyrics as well.
Click here for the full story on The Darkness’ Taylor/Travis streaming bump. – AU
‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ Has the Recipe for a “MacArthur Park” Revival
For the recently released box office-topping film Beetlejuice Beetlejuice – sequel, of course, to the cult classic 1988 comedy Beetlejuice – the filmmakers wanted to recreate the magic of the first film’s famous cast lip sync scene, set to Harry Belafonte’s “Banana Boat (Day-O).” They didn’t want to re-use Belafonte’s ‘50s staple for the scene, however, so they decided to go with something very, very slightly more modern for the 36-years-later sequel: “MacArthur Park,” the bizarre Jimmy Webb-penned psych-pop rhapsody that became a No. 2 Hot 100 hit for actor-singer Richard Harris in 1968, before Donna Summer took her discofied version of it all the way to No. 1 in 1978.
Since appearing in the hit sequel, “MacArthur Park” has been rising on streaming, with the Harris version featured in the film racking up over 110,000 U.S. on-demand audio streams from Sept. 8-11 – the film’s four days of release – a 939% gain over the same period in the prior tracking week, according to Luminate. Summer’s version, which also appears on the film soundtrack, has been a similar beneficiary – it’s up 241% to 98,000 streams over the same period – and Belafonte’s “Day-O,” which only appears on the soundtrack through a cover version from Alfie Davis & The Sylvia Young Theatre School Choir, is also up 52% to 485,000 streams. – AU
Season’s Gainings: Kendrick Lamar Super Bowl Announcement Strikes a Chord on DSPs
The NFL season has kicked off once again, and even if you weren’t following the action on Sunday (Sept. 8), you might’ve still felt the excitement of football’s return – thanks to the early-day announcement that the upcoming Super Bowl LIX in New Orelans would be headlined by rapper-of-the-moment Kendrick Lamar. The announcement was met with some controversy, as many rap purists voiced their support for Big Easy hip-hop icon Lil Wayne as an alternate headliner, but plenty of streaming listeners were evidently still pumped by a prospective K Dot set – the rapper’s total streams for Monday were over 11.6 million, according to Luminate, a 12% gain from the prior Monday. – AU