We’ve been keeping an eye since last fall on Darius “Hootie” Rucker’s conquering of the Country chart, and this might be the last week we make even a passing reference to his ex-rock band.Here’s a rundown of the rest of this week’s charts: 32 at Modern Rock, 2006) to their forthcoming album track “Pete Wentz Is The Only Reason We’re Famous.” Maybe we should coin a term for featured-artist credits like the one on “Good Girls Go Bad”: the Double Glom-On. But former Midtown frontman Gabe Saporta’s band has been attaching itself to trendy things for more than three years now-from their their dead-on-arrival theme song to Snakes on a Plane (No.
It’s therefore a little hard to know who’s using whom on “Good Girls.” On the surface, Meester, a TV-to-pop crossover act, needed the pre-album promotional boost, and the shred of credibility it brings, more urgently. But it’s also (oddly?) the first pop-chart hit of any kind for Cobra Starship. It’s the first Hot 100 hit for Meester, who is working on her post-fame debut album for Universal Republic. That leaves the final Top 10 debutante (with emphasis on that last word): “Good Girls Go Bad,” by emo-popsters Cobra Starship featuring Gossip Girl starlet Leighton Meester. These days, Wayne’s name opens doors he could probably get a country record onto a few stations if he stuck his name on it. But even without black radio supporting it, “Down” obviously would be nowhere without the Cash Money seal of approval. It could therefore be argued that the bump Lil Wayne is providing is fairly limited, as the song is rather out of his wheelhouse (not unlike Kevin Rudolf’s “Let It Rock,” on which Weezy also cameoed). How can you tell this song is pure pop? It’s nowhere to be found on the R&B/Hip-Hop list, a rarity for a Cash Money release. Wayne remains the busiest man in music (even if his own product is getting forever delayed), and he’s featured on the biggest Hot 100 leap of the week and highest new track in the Top 10: Jay Sean’s “Down.” In a fortnight, the perky pure-pop tune has skipped from No. 15 pop), which was supported by just one megastar: Lil Wayne. 78 pop), and the modest 2009 hit “Turnin’ Me On” (No.
Prior singles with Hilson in the lead position included the 2008 flop “Energy” (No. Hilson has been primed to break big ever since her prominent, ethereal vocals on Timbaland’s 2007 megasmash “The Way I Are.” But clearly the double-teaming of ’Ye and ’Yo had something to do with “Knock” outperforming. When it came to guests, the longtime songwriter and background vocalist didn’t screw around: “Knock” includes prominent rap breaks from Kanye West and a whole verse sung by Ne-Yo. In June, the electro-hop ditty topped the R&B/Hip-Hop chart and peaked at No. The oldest “featuring” single in the winners’ circle is “Knock You Down,” from first-time Top 10 denizen Keri Hilson. All three of these singles benefit to some degree from the name(s) to the right of the magic word. Simply put, in pop music, there are friends, and there are friends. Examining just these three tracks, you get a sense of the power of the featured-artist credit. Back on the Hot 100, three of this week’s “featurers” are in the Top 10, and two are brand-new to the winners’ circle. On this week’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, “featuring” appears no less than 37 times. (But then it goes back down to 16 if you exclude the craven Pussycat Dolls single “featuring” existing lead singer Nicole Scherzinger, a la Diana Ross in ’67 or George Michael in ’85.) A dozen of these tracks, unsurprisingly, come from the worlds of R&B and hip-hop – genres where the team-up is standard operating procedure for both emerging acts (Drake, Kid Cudi) and veterans (T.I., Mary J. “Remix”? “Tha”/“Da”? “Dre”? “T-Pain”? No, the most common word on the chart, pretty much every week, is “Featuring.” This week, for example, 16 songs with “featuring” credits are on the Hot 100-17 if you count a “duet with” credit on Keyshia Cole’s latest single with Monica. The charts are in a bit of a Dog Days slumber, so let’s try a little trivia: What’s the most oft-recurring word on Billboard‘s Hot 100 over the last decade? I’m thinking of a word that appeared virtually never prior to, say, 1990 and eventually became ubiquitous.