"Dark Matter" and its tracks on the charts

TJ25487

BF25394 said:

Original post updated for charts for week ending February 8, 2025.

"Waiting for Stevie" rebounds from No. 12 to No. 11 in its twenty-second week on the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart. (It peaked two weeks ago at No. 8.) The song also tumbles from No. 17 to No. 28 in its nineteenth week on the Rock & Alternative Airplay chart, after previously peaking at No. 12. It also falls off the 25-position Hot Hard Rock Songs chart after previously peaking at No. 11 on that chart when the RSD-exclusive single was released.

I guess grunge is dead! 

BF25394

Original post updated for charts for week ending February 15, 2025.

Something very strange has happened. After 22 weeks on the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart, "Waiting for Stevie" falls completely off the 40-position chart from No. 11. Unless there has been some kind of reporting or tracking error, it appears that the song was summarily removed from radio playlists across the nation. (It has also disappeared from the Mediabase Active Rock chart.) The song also tumbles from No. 28 to No. 38 in its twentieth week on the Rock & Alternative Airplay chart, after previously peaking at No. 12. 

igotid88

BF25394 said:

Original post updated for charts for week ending February 15, 2025.

Something very strange has happened. After 22 weeks on the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart, "Waiting for Stevie" falls completely off the 40-position chart from No. 11. Unless there has been some kind of reporting or tracking error, it appears that the song was summarily removed from radio playlists across the nation. (It has also disappeared from the Mediabase Active Rock chart.) The song also tumbles from No. 28 to No. 38 in its twentieth week on the Rock & Alternative Airplay chart, after previously peaking at No. 12. 

Yea checking allaccess and nothing 

marumaruko

What a shame that WFS dropped off the charts so quickly. Maybe it's time for a new single. Which song would work best - Won't Tell, Setting Sun, or perhaps Got to Give?


Edit: I just realised that WFS is already the 4th single. So perhaps it's time to close that Dark Matter chapter and move on. 

Spiritual_Chaos

marumaruko said:

What a shame that WFS dropped off the charts so quickly. Maybe it's time for a new single. Which song would work best - Won't Tell, Setting Sun, or perhaps Got to Give?


Edit: I just realised that WFS is already the 4th single. So perhaps it's time to close that Dark Matter chapter and move on. 

IF METALLICAS THE BLACK ALBUM COULD HAVE A MILLION SINGLES AND STAY AT THE CHARTS FOR YEARS THEN SO CAN DARK MATTER

The Juggler

Spiritual_Chaos said:

marumaruko said:

What a shame that WFS dropped off the charts so quickly. Maybe it's time for a new single. Which song would work best - Won't Tell, Setting Sun, or perhaps Got to Give?


Edit: I just realised that WFS is already the 4th single. So perhaps it's time to close that Dark Matter chapter and move on. 

IF METALLICAS THE BLACK ALBUM COULD HAVE A MILLION SINGLES AND STAY AT THE CHARTS FOR YEARS THEN SO CAN DARK MATTER

Jesus. How many songs were on that one?

BF25394

marumaruko said:

What a shame that WFS dropped off the charts so quickly. Maybe it's time for a new single. Which song would work best - Won't Tell, Setting Sun, or perhaps Got to Give?


Edit: I just realised that WFS is already the 4th single. So perhaps it's time to close that Dark Matter chapter and move on. 

Technically, it was the third single. "Running" was not really a single. It was not worked to radio. Think of it more as the functional equivalent of a B-side to "Dark Matter."

BF25394

Spiritual_Chaos said:

marumaruko said:

What a shame that WFS dropped off the charts so quickly. Maybe it's time for a new single. Which song would work best - Won't Tell, Setting Sun, or perhaps Got to Give?


Edit: I just realised that WFS is already the 4th single. So perhaps it's time to close that Dark Matter chapter and move on. 

IF METALLICAS THE BLACK ALBUM COULD HAVE A MILLION SINGLES AND STAY AT THE CHARTS FOR YEARS THEN SO CAN DARK MATTER

You just compared Dark Matter, which wasn't even one of the 200 most-consumed albums in 2024, to Metallica, which is the single biggest-selling album since 1991. It's also a weird comparison because there were five singles from Metallica, which is more than average but not any kind of record. (Off the top of my head, Thriller had seven singles, and that album only had nine songs.)

Anyway, like Thriller, they kept issuing singles from Metallica because it was massively popular and there was an audience and appetite for more. Dark Matter is great-- maybe Pearl Jam's best album, in my opinion-- but there is not a huge audience for it. Every radio station in the country simultaneously dumping "Waiting for Stevie" from their playlists is not a signal that mainstream audiences are clamoring for more Pearl Jam.

The Juggler

BF25394 said:

Spiritual_Chaos said:

marumaruko said:

What a shame that WFS dropped off the charts so quickly. Maybe it's time for a new single. Which song would work best - Won't Tell, Setting Sun, or perhaps Got to Give?


Edit: I just realised that WFS is already the 4th single. So perhaps it's time to close that Dark Matter chapter and move on. 

IF METALLICAS THE BLACK ALBUM COULD HAVE A MILLION SINGLES AND STAY AT THE CHARTS FOR YEARS THEN SO CAN DARK MATTER

You just compared Dark Matter, which wasn't even one of the 200 most-consumed albums in 2024, to Metallica, which is the single biggest-selling album since 1991. It's also a weird comparison because there were five singles from Metallica, which is more than average but not any kind of record. (Off the top of my head, Thriller had seven singles, and that album only had nine songs.)

Anyway, like Thriller, they kept issuing singles from Metallica because it was massively popular and there was an audience and appetite for more. Dark Matter is great-- maybe Pearl Jam's best album, in my opinion-- but there is not a huge audience for it. Every radio station in the country simultaneously dumping "Waiting for Stevie" from their playlists is not a signal that mainstream audiences are clamoring for more Pearl Jam.

....pretty sure you didn't pick up on Spirtual's sarcasm there lol...

igotid88

I still think they can release a new single. Like I said possibly around when the tour starts back up

The Juggler

igotid88 said:

I still think they can release a new single. Like I said possibly around when the tour starts back up

Won't Tell would be a good one

T-Bone 82

That's kind of bizarre that it just fell off, isn't it? Usually songs just kind of work their way down the charts slowly and fade. Weird to see it be around top 10 and then just disappear.

But, then again, I know nothing about this...

igotid88

The Juggler said:

igotid88 said:

I still think they can release a new single. Like I said possibly around when the tour starts back up

Won't Tell would be a good one

If they listen Little Stevie. Hopefully it can crossover. I thought Wreckage would. 

T-Bone 82

At 3:25, I think Won't Tell would have more crossover appeal than Wreckage. Wreckage is a great pop-rock song, IMO, but it clocks in at 5 mins. 

Won't Tell feels like a journey and soars in the chorus and outro, but packs it all in to 3:25. Great bridge, too.

I just love the song and feel like the structure would work well at radio. 

vedpunk

I still find in very odd that WFS fell completely off all charts one week after being close/in the top 10.  Wouldn’t be surprised if it reappears next week.  Or another single is locked and loaded.

BF25394

The Juggler said:

BF25394 said:

Spiritual_Chaos said:

marumaruko said:

What a shame that WFS dropped off the charts so quickly. Maybe it's time for a new single. Which song would work best - Won't Tell, Setting Sun, or perhaps Got to Give?


Edit: I just realised that WFS is already the 4th single. So perhaps it's time to close that Dark Matter chapter and move on. 

IF METALLICAS THE BLACK ALBUM COULD HAVE A MILLION SINGLES AND STAY AT THE CHARTS FOR YEARS THEN SO CAN DARK MATTER

You just compared Dark Matter, which wasn't even one of the 200 most-consumed albums in 2024, to Metallica, which is the single biggest-selling album since 1991. It's also a weird comparison because there were five singles from Metallica, which is more than average but not any kind of record. (Off the top of my head, Thriller had seven singles, and that album only had nine songs.)

Anyway, like Thriller, they kept issuing singles from Metallica because it was massively popular and there was an audience and appetite for more. Dark Matter is great-- maybe Pearl Jam's best album, in my opinion-- but there is not a huge audience for it. Every radio station in the country simultaneously dumping "Waiting for Stevie" from their playlists is not a signal that mainstream audiences are clamoring for more Pearl Jam.

....pretty sure you didn't pick up on Spirtual's sarcasm there lol...

I definitely didn't! I guess I'm used to his being serious as a heart attack when it comes to climate. The All-CAPS should have tipped me off.

BF25394

T-Bone 82 said:

That's kind of bizarre that it just fell off, isn't it? Usually songs just kind of work their way down the charts slowly and fade. Weird to see it be around top 10 and then just disappear.

But, then again, I know nothing about this...

In the old days of physical singles, it used to be common that a single would be "deleted"-- i.e., removed from retailers' shelves on the order of the distributor-- to make room for the next song the label wanted to boost up the chart, whether by the same artist or, more often, by a different artist. But things don't work that way anymore, in part because physical singles have largely disappeared. Songs now stay on the charts for multiples of what they used to. A song that spent 16 weeks in the top 40 in 1987 was an unusually long-running hit. Now you have songs that spend more than 30 weeks just in the top ten. "Blinding Lights" stayed in the top ten for 57 weeks!

In this instance, I can think of two possible explanations, although both would be unusual. The first is that there was some sort of glitch  whereby either the encoded song-specific identifier that tracks airplay malfunctioned and no spins were recorded. The second is that there was somehow a reporting error that resulted in the song's airplay metrics being omitted from the Luminate data. I guess it's also possible that there was a corporate decision at iHeartRadio to pull the song across their channels, thus cratering its overall airplay totals.

Or it could be that Elon Musk has stuck his nose somewhere else it doesn't belong...

vedpunk

BF25394 said:

T-Bone 82 said:

That's kind of bizarre that it just fell off, isn't it? Usually songs just kind of work their way down the charts slowly and fade. Weird to see it be around top 10 and then just disappear.

But, then again, I know nothing about this...

In the old days of physical singles, it used to be common that a single would be "deleted"-- i.e., removed from retailers' shelves on the order of the distributor-- to make room for the next song the label wanted to boost up the chart, whether by the same artist or, more often, by a different artist. But things don't work that way anymore, in part because physical singles have largely disappeared. Songs now stay on the charts for multiples of what they used to. A song that spent 16 weeks in the top 40 in 1987 was an unusually long-running hit. Now you have songs that spend more than 30 weeks just in the top ten. "Blinding Lights" stayed in the top ten for 57 weeks!

In this instance, I can think of two possible explanations, although both would be unusual. The first is that there was some sort of glitch  whereby either the encoded song-specific identifier that tracks airplay malfunctioned and no spins were recorded. The second is that there was somehow a reporting error that resulted in the song's airplay metrics being omitted from the Luminate data. I guess it's also possible that there was a corporate decision at iHeartRadio to pull the song across their channels, thus cratering its overall airplay totals.

Or it could be that Elon Musk has stuck his nose somewhere else it doesn't belong...

Really had to add that at the end?  It’s just sooooo horrible that somebody is actually trying to expose government corruption and a misallocation of our tax dollars.  

BF25394

vedpunk said:

BF25394 said:

T-Bone 82 said:

That's kind of bizarre that it just fell off, isn't it? Usually songs just kind of work their way down the charts slowly and fade. Weird to see it be around top 10 and then just disappear.

But, then again, I know nothing about this...

In the old days of physical singles, it used to be common that a single would be "deleted"-- i.e., removed from retailers' shelves on the order of the distributor-- to make room for the next song the label wanted to boost up the chart, whether by the same artist or, more often, by a different artist. But things don't work that way anymore, in part because physical singles have largely disappeared. Songs now stay on the charts for multiples of what they used to. A song that spent 16 weeks in the top 40 in 1987 was an unusually long-running hit. Now you have songs that spend more than 30 weeks just in the top ten. "Blinding Lights" stayed in the top ten for 57 weeks!

In this instance, I can think of two possible explanations, although both would be unusual. The first is that there was some sort of glitch  whereby either the encoded song-specific identifier that tracks airplay malfunctioned and no spins were recorded. The second is that there was somehow a reporting error that resulted in the song's airplay metrics being omitted from the Luminate data. I guess it's also possible that there was a corporate decision at iHeartRadio to pull the song across their channels, thus cratering its overall airplay totals.

Or it could be that Elon Musk has stuck his nose somewhere else it doesn't belong...

Really had to add that at the end?  It’s just sooooo horrible that somebody is actually trying to expose government corruption and a misallocation of our tax dollars.  

First of all, it's a joke. And I don't know what to tell you if you actually believe that that's an accurate description of what's happening. It's the opposite of that. They are actually paving the way for corruption on a scale not seen since the 19th century. You won't read this, but you should: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/us/politics/trump-musk-corruption.html.

Spiritual_Chaos

vedpunk said:

BF25394 said:

T-Bone 82 said:

That's kind of bizarre that it just fell off, isn't it? Usually songs just kind of work their way down the charts slowly and fade. Weird to see it be around top 10 and then just disappear.

But, then again, I know nothing about this...

In the old days of physical singles, it used to be common that a single would be "deleted"-- i.e., removed from retailers' shelves on the order of the distributor-- to make room for the next song the label wanted to boost up the chart, whether by the same artist or, more often, by a different artist. But things don't work that way anymore, in part because physical singles have largely disappeared. Songs now stay on the charts for multiples of what they used to. A song that spent 16 weeks in the top 40 in 1987 was an unusually long-running hit. Now you have songs that spend more than 30 weeks just in the top ten. "Blinding Lights" stayed in the top ten for 57 weeks!

In this instance, I can think of two possible explanations, although both would be unusual. The first is that there was some sort of glitch  whereby either the encoded song-specific identifier that tracks airplay malfunctioned and no spins were recorded. The second is that there was somehow a reporting error that resulted in the song's airplay metrics being omitted from the Luminate data. I guess it's also possible that there was a corporate decision at iHeartRadio to pull the song across their channels, thus cratering its overall airplay totals.

Or it could be that Elon Musk has stuck his nose somewhere else it doesn't belong...

Really had to add that at the end?  It’s just sooooo horrible that somebody is actually trying to expose government corruption and a misallocation of our tax dollars.  

I feel so sad for you