Harry Styles Floods Global Charts With ‘Harry’s House’
Harry Styles is without question the biggest pop star on the planet right now, as Harry’s House smashes records — some questionable.
The British pop star completes the chart double in at least 16 countries, as Harry’s House and its lead track “As It Was” simultaneously lead the albums and singles charts.
Harry’s House, Styles’ third studio album, makes a huge dent on the Billboard 200 with over 521,500 week-one chart units, the largest seven-day cycle for any album in the United States this year.
If there was any doubt about the No. 1 status for “As It Was,” it’s answered as the single enters an eighth week at No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts, which, as their titles suggest, are based on streaming and sales activity pulled from more than 200 territories, and compiled by Luminate (formerly Nielsen).
With “As It Was” returning to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for a fourth week, and three additional songs in the Top 10 (“Late Night Talking,” “Music For A Sushi Restaurant,” and “Matilda”) Styles joins some elite company.
The former One Direction star joins The Beatles as the only British acts to land four concurrent Hot 100 Top 10s. The Fab Four achieved the feat for five weeks in 1964.
This is where the fine line can be drawn. Styles’ album is a streaming juggernaut, with each of the album’s 13 tracks charting in the U.S. Top 30, a result that few outside of 1D fans, Columbia and Sony Music will be thrilled with.
It’s a similar story on the ARIA Singles Chart, where all Harry’s House numbers appear in the Top 15, something no artist has ever done before.
Drake, another act who typically puts up massive streaming numbers, previously held the record for highest number of tracks by one act in the ARIA Top 15, with eight in September 2021.
And Taylor Swift once dropped 13 songs on the chart, but did so between Nos. 1-25 in August 2020.
Styles beats both those marks.
In Australia, he also becomes the first artist to simultaneously hold the Top 4 songs and he busts the record for the most Top 10 appearances, with eight.
Chart anoraks will be having night sweats with those results, and history buffs will apply an asterisk to them.
In his homeland, it’s a different picture.
The Brit doesn’t plaster the singles chart, but he does become just the third act to lock-up the singles chart trifecta (after Justin Bieber and Ed Sheeran) with “As It Was,” “Late Night Talking” and “Music for a Sushi Restaurant,” respectively.
Styles’ impact on the U.K. singles chart is limited thanks to adjustments introduced in July 2017, which meant an act could place just three of their most popular tracks in the Top 100.
According to the Official Charts Company, those tweaks were designed to “ensure the chart continues to be a showcase for the new hits and talent which are the lifeblood of U.K. music.”
In other words, those rules were implemented as a type of barrier, put in place to stop albums by superstars of the streaming age — from Sheeran to Drake, Styles and others — from flooding the singles chart.
Whether ARIA will adopt similar chart criteria to those in the U.K., time will tell.
Don’t expect Styles’ recordings to disappear from sight anytime soon. He’s heading to Australia in February and March 2023 for his delayed Love on Tour stadium trek, presented by Live Nation.