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: The legendary Quincy Jones’ catalog sees a big bump after his passing, a ’70s hitmaker officially becomes one of the big names of spooky-season streaming, a 2003 pop-rock jam gets a big horror synch and more.
Quincy Jones Catalog Explodes on Streaming Following Legend’s Passing
Late Sunday night (Nov. 3), Quincy Jones, a 28-time Grammy-winning giant who played a key role in some of the world’s most impactful works of art across the music, film, television and the stage, passed away surrounded by family in his Bel Air home. In commemoration of Jone’s near-unquantifiable legacy, fans have found solace in some of his biggest musical contributions.
According to Luminate, Jones’ entire catalog is up 1,229% in streaming activity, earning nearly 1.25 million official on-demand streams on the first full-day following his passing (Nov. 4). On the Monday prior (Oct. 28), Jones’ catalog collected just under 94,000 streams.
“Just Once,” a Grammy-nominated single from Jones’ The Dude LP that introduced the world to James Ingram is up 632%, earning 77,000 official on-demand streams on Nov. 4 versus 10,500 streams on Oct. 28. “One Hundred Ways” — another Jones-Ingram team-up from The Dude (this one actually won its Grammy category) — saw a similar bump, jumping 626% in streaming activity from a little over 8,000 official on-demand streams on Oct. 28 to over 60,000 streams on Nov. 4. About two decades before The Dude, Jones composed the massively influential “Soul Bossa Nova” instrumental, which has been used as the theme song for everything from 1997’s Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery to the 1998 FIFA World Cup. Streaming activity for “Soulful” leapt a whopping 755% from 11,500 official on-demand streams (Oct. 28) to just over 98,000 streams (Nov. 4).
Of course, “We Are the World,” the Billboard Hot 100-topping charity single that won record and song of the year at the 1986 Grammys, is a towering part of Jones’ far-reaching legacy. That classic is up 146% in streams from 37,500 official on-demand streams (Oct. 28) to over 92,000 streams (Nov. 4). With a career spanning seven decades, Jones hits also included Lesley Gore’s timeless 1963 Hot 100 chart-topper “It’s My Party.” That iconic track jumped 17% in streaming activity, going from 33,000 official on-demand streams (Oct. 28) to just over 39,000 streams (Nov. 4).
As a producer, Jones’ sprawling catalog also includes three of the most seminal albums in pop history: Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982) and Bad (1987). Jones-related gains for Thriller and Bad are a bit complicated because both house Halloween anthems (the title track for Thriller and “Smooth Criminal” for Bad). Nonetheless, Off the Wall – Jackson’s first Jones-helmed LP – is up 10%, pulling 794,000 official on-demand U.S. streams (Nov. 4) versus 720,000 streams (Oct. 28).
Jones’ oeuvre also includes the classic soundtracks for The Color Purple and The Wiz. The former is up 290%, collecting over 41,000 official on-demand U.S. streams on Nov. 4, while the latter is up 219%, earning over 47,000 official on-demand U.S. streams on the same day.
Jones passing is a particularly painful one for global pop culture, but he’s left behind an incredibly rich catalog for us to continue to revisit and learn from. – KYLE DENIS
Andrew Gold: The New King of Halloween?
Scan the Hot 100 this week and you’ll see some of the most familiar names long associated with Halloween music: Michael Jackson (“Thriller,” No. 20), Ray Parker Jr. (“Ghostbusters,” No. 28), Bobby Boris Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers (“Monster Mash,” No. 30) and Danny Elfman – technically “The Citizens of Halloween” (“This Is Halloween,” No. 38). But finishing just below their ranks and outside the Hot 100 (for now) is a guy who is only come in recent years to be majorly associated with Spooky Season: ‘70s singer-songwriter and pop-rock hitmaker Andrew Gold.
For most of his career, Gold (who died 2011) in was primarily associated with two singles: The heartrending story song “Lonely Boy” (a No. 7 hit in 1977) and the heartwarming “Thank You for Being a Friend” (a No. 28 hit in 1978 – though better associated with a Cynthia Fee cover version, used as the theme to the timeless ‘80s sitcom The Golden Girls). But thanks to some TikTok trending that first started at the end of the 2010s, Gold is now best known to younger fans as the guy behind 1996’s “Spooky, Scary Skeletons,” a cartoon-y Halloween number that has been remixed and memed to death over the past half-decade.
“Skeletons” racked up 11.2 million official on-demand U.S. streams for the week ending Nov. 2, according to Luminate – a massive number, and a bump of 1,146% from the 898,000 streams the song notched six weeks earlier. It’s not the only song of Gold’s to see such gains, either, as his entire ‘96 set Halloween Howls: Fun & Scary Music is way up, including his version of the classic theme to The Addams Family – which amassed 2.1 million streams for that same week. All in all, Gold totaled 14.7 million streams for the week, up 1,040% from his 1.3 million total the week of Sept. 19 – proving that Gold is on the verge of becoming the standard for Halloween-week streaming performance. – ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Joé Dwèt Filé Eyes Stateside Konpa Hit With “4 Kampé”
The streaming era and increased globalization have largely leveled the playing field for more niche genres to make inroads in the U.S. market – and konpa could be up next. Popularized in the 1950s, konpa (sometimes spelled “kompa”) is a descendant of méringue music that is characterized by the prominent use of tanbou drum, buoyant horns and rhythmic guitars.
With “4 Kampé,” Joé Dwèt Filé — a singer, songwriter and engineer of Haitian descent – is eyeing a hit single with notable crossover potential. During the period of Oct. 25-28, “4 Kampé” earned over 393,000 official on-demand U.S. streams. By the post-Halloween period of Nov. 1-4, consumption activity for the track rose 13%, collecting over 446,000 streams.
Filé started teasing the song a week before its Oct. 25 release with a post that has since garnered over 1.6 million views and over 195,000 likes. Two more teasers followed, with each each video earning more views than the last. Currently, the official “4 Kampé” TikTok sound boasts nearly 190,000 posts, with many of them featuring users performing the kare dance that traditionally accompanies konpa music. In just 12 days, the official “4 Kampé” lyric video hit 3.4 million views on YouTube, while the track’s official music video crossed two million views in under a week.
Although it is still early in the song’s run, these gains for “4 Kampé” look promising. – KD
So Yesteryear: Time Cut Offers Big Bump to ‘00s Hilary Duff Classic
Netflix’s time-traveling slasher flick Time Cut is currently the streaming service top-ranked film, with its ending proving to be a source of controversy for viewers. But before that was a source of debate for the movie, social media users were busy arguing about whether a scene from the movie released as a teaser on Netflix’s channels – a high-school hallway montage, meant to reflect teenage life in the year 2003 – was actually all that reflective of the fashion and styles of the time. One choice was pretty inarguable though: the use of Hilary Duff’s 2003 pop-rock hit “So Yesterday.”
“Yesterday,” which only peaked at No. 42 on the Hot 100 in Oct. 2003 (but was much bigger on MTV and Radio Disney-type platforms), is featured as the slow-motion scene’s soundtrack, evoking the cultural moment fairly effectively. Unsurprisingly, the clip sent nostalgic viewers heading to streaming services to play the period classic – “Yesterday” totaled over 85,000 official on-demand U.S. streams combined for the first four days of November, a 49% gain over the previous four-day total in the prior tracking week. Not quite “Unwritten” numbers yet, but a good start for a song that has lived in the shadow of Duff’s bigger hit “Come Clean” for too long. – AU
