Why Sia’s 2014 hit ‘Chandelier’ is this week’s Hot 100 Heatseeker
Sia’s 2014 monster hit ‘Chandelier’ is this week’s TMN Hot 100 Heatseeker.
The Heatseeker refers to a song with the most upward movement on the TMN Hot 100 Airplay Chart.
The spot is typically occupied by a new or emerging track with the backing of commercial radio, but ‘Chandelier’ turns five this year.
The tracks with the second and third-most upward movement this week are also older tunes; Mark Ronson’s ‘Uptown Funk’ (also 2014) and Rihanna’s 2010 hit ‘Only Girl (In The World)’.
In fact, a whopping 10% of the entire Hot 100 is currently made up of older songs that re-entered the chart.
Morgan Evans’ ‘Day Drunk’ (#70), Rudimental’s ‘These Days’ (#75) and Conrad Sewell’s ‘Healing Hands’ (#85) not only re-entered, but skyrocketed up the Hot 100.
While 10% is certainly high, the increasing number of weekly re-entries can be explained by shifting music formats on commercial radio.
The long and short of it is that Aussie radio is leaning even further away from CHR in favour of Adult radio formats.
US radio programmer and consultant Guy Zapoleon explains that a lack of bonafide pop hits and increased polarisation of the CHR format is prompting listeners to retune their dials in search of more variety.
We are at a stage in the Pop Music Cycle when the CHR format is becoming less appealing, so Top 40 pop hits are bleeding over to other formats.
This is backed up by SCA’s 2DayFM and Hit107 no longer being hit music stations, rather spruiking their ‘More Music, More Variety’ music strategies.
The Nova Network’s Greatest Hits Workday began in 2018, has also made an impact.
Meanwhile, the KIIS Network has used a Hot AC format for some time now, leaving Sydney in particular without a pure CHR station.
It’s likely we’ll see a similar portion of re-entries and older Heatseekers until the music cycle pendulum shifts back towards new music again.