The Chainsmokers (4) – Week Of October 29, 2016

Welcome everyone to the special spooky edition of the Hits 1 Halloweekend Countdown. This week we have Niall Horan guest hosting. I personally thought this week was a relatively good week. We got rid of one huge piece of trash, replaced it with a really good entrant, and the Top 5 is actually looking really good at the moment. Before we get to this week's Fresh 45, here are the songs we're saying goodbye to this week.

• Meghan Trainor – No (#45)

Last Week's #1 Song: Twenty One Pilots – Heathens

The Countdown

45. Fifth Harmony – Work From Home (#39)

44. Lukas Graham – Mama Said (#42)

43. Demi Lovato – Body Say (#41)

42. AJR – I'm Not Famous (#43)

41. Ariana Grande – Dangerous Woman (#44)

40. Mike Posner/SeeB – I Took A Pill In Ibiza (#37) [2 Weeks At #1]

39. P!nk – Just Like Fire (#40)

38. Flume/Kai – Never Be Like You (#35)

37. Taylor Swift – New Romantics (#38) [2 Weeks At #1]

36. Lady Gaga – Perfect Illusion (#31)

35. Charlie Puth/Selena Gomez – We Don't Talk Anymore (#36)

34. Runaground – Chase You Down (#33)

33. Adele – Send My Love (To Your New Lover) (#32) [1 Week At #1]

32. Calvin Harris – My Way (#29)

31. 5 Seconds Of Summer – Girls Talk Boys (#30)

30. The Weeknd/Daft Punk – Starboy (#25)

29. Twenty One Pilots – Stressed Out (#28) [5 Weeks At #1]

28. Ariana Grande/Nicki Minaj – Side To Side (DEBUT)

27. Andy Grammer – Fresh Eyes (#34)

26. Calvin Harris/Rihanna – This Is What You Came For (#14)

25. OneRepublic – Kids (#24)

24. The Chainsmokers/Daya – Don't Let Me Down (#27) [3 Weeks At #1]

23. Gnash/Olivia O'Brien – I Hate U, I Love U (#22)

22. Nick Jonas – Bacon (#23)

21. Kenny Chesney/P!nk – Setting The World On Fire (#14)

20. Justin Timberlake – Can't Stop The Feeling (#18) [10 Weeks At #1]

19. Panic! At The Disco – Death Of A Bachelor (#26)

18. Sia/Kendrick Lamar – The Greatest (#21)

17. X Ambassadors – Unsteady (#6)

16. Alessia Cara – Scars To Your Beautiful (#17)

15. Kiiara – Gold (#19)

14. Niall Horan – This Town (#20)

13. Bruno Mars – 24K Magic (#12)

12. Maroon 5 – Don't Wanna Know (#15)

11. DJ Snake/Justin Bieber – Let Me Love You (#7)

10. Twenty One Pilots – Ride (#10)

  9. Ariana Grande – Into You (#11)

  8. Shawn Mendes – Treat You Better (#3)

  7. Daya – Sit Still, Look Pretty (#5)

  6. Sia/Sean Paul – Cheap Thrills (#4)

  5. Hailee Steinfeld & Grey/Zedd – Starving (#9)

  4. Coldplay/Beyoncé – Hymn For The Weekend (#8)

  3. Major Lazer/Justin Bieber/MØ – Cold Water (#16)

  2. Twenty One Pilots – Heathens (#1) [1 Week At #1]

  1. The Chainsmokers/Halsey – Closer (#2) [4^th Week At #1]

#1 Song This Week One Year Ago: One Direction – Drag Me Down

Biggest DROP!!!... Of The Week: Calvin Harris/Rihanna – This Is What You Came For (–12)

Biggest Jump Of The Week: Major Lazer/Justin Bieber/MØ – Cold Water (+13)

New Entrants
~ Our lone new entrant this week comes from Ariana Grande bringing her third song on the countdown. I've been really enjoying Side To Side lately. That chorus has been in my head. I think the song is really fun and catchy. Ariana's voice sounds really good. I love the production. I love Nicki Minaj's verse. She definitely helps this song. While I thought the AMA's performance of this song was boring, the song itself is actually really fun. I definitely think this is a win for Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj.


Hit-Bound
~ Here is the Hit-Bound list:

• Jason Derulo – Kiss The Sky
• Shawn Mendes – Mercy
• Fifth Harmony – That's My Girl
• The Summer Set – The Night Is Young (DEBUT)
• Pitbull/Flo Rida/LunchMoney Lewis – Greenlight
• Mike Posner – Be As You Are
• Gavin DeGraw – She Sets The City On Fire
• Ellie Goulding – Still Falling For You
• John Legend – Love Me Now
• DNCE – Body Moves
• Jon Bellion – All Time Low
• Rihanna – Love On The Brain
• Bastille – Good Grief
• Magic! – Red Dress

~ While I definitely think The Night Is Young is better than Figure Me Out, I still don't think it's that amazing. I just can't get on board with this guy's voice. It sounded really good on what I think was their best song, Boomerang. But ever since then, it's gotten kind of annoying. But I like everything else about this song.

Top 5 Hit-Bound Picks

1. Jon Bellion – All Time Low

2. Ellie Goulding – Still Falling For You

3. DNCE – Body Moves

4. Gavin DeGraw – She Sets The City On Fire

5. Shawn Mendes – Mercy

Blurb To Blurb

~ I did not see the jump into the Top 3 from Major Lazer/Justin Bieber/MØ – Cold Water coming. But I'll accept it. It's definitely better than what we've had here in the Top 5 previously (i.e. Sit Still, Look Pretty, Cheap Thrills, etc.).

~ Also in the Top 5, we have my favorite song on the countdown in the form of Coldplay – Hymn For The Weekend! I'm so glad we managed to get this song into the Top 5! I have never seen a Coldplay song do so well on this countdown and I'm very happy that I got to witness it with Hymn For The Weekend. As much as I love all of their music, Hymn For The Weekend definitely has a spot in my Top 10 favorite songs from them. Coldplay is just amazing. I absolutely love them. It'd be a miracle if this hit #1, which I HIGHLY doubt it will. But it'd be nice. But I'm happy that it reached the Top 5.

~ Why is the ugly Gold by Kiiara jumping??? I was listening to this song yesterday on Hits 1 and it was so boring and frankly, very annoying. I personally don't see what people like about this song. But to each their own, I guess.

~ Words cannot even describe how annoyed I get when I hear the beginning line, "Baby, this is what you came for." Thank god it dropped this week. That jump to #4 two weeks ago was pretty damn scary. Now we just need to get it out of the countdown.

~ I'm not very pleased to The Weeknd/Daft Punk – Starboy drop to #30. This song is really popular and really good. Why underrate The Weeknd's good songs??? Hits 1 already underrated The Hills big time despite it being very successful across the country. I'd like to not see Starboy follow that path.

~ Of course Runaground – Chase You Down has to drop on its second week. This is quality music right here being underrated. I want to see a song like this one be successful, so it's not always the same artists towards the top of the chart.

~ I'm glad Mike Posner – I Took A Pill In Ibiza is still here going strong. I definitely think it's one of the best songs of the year and at this point, I'll pretty much never get sick of it.

~ After the huge drop from Flume/Kai – Never Be Like You, I kind of started to get bored listening to the song. It's okay at the moment. But I will start to get tired of it at some point in the near future. It was mainly the beat that grabbed my attention at first and now that's starting to fade.

~ We have four really bad/old songs in the Bottom 5 that need to leave, like next week. Poor Demi Lovato – Body Say is being sandwiched between them. But seriously, it'd be amazing to see these four songs all leave in the same week, kind of like when Selena Gomez's two bad songs (Kill Em With Kindness and Hands To Myself) both left in the same week.

~ As far as the exit goes, I'm very glad No has finally left us and we can have a nice countdown without a trashy Meghan Trainor song. I thought No could be the start of something new for Meghan Trainor. Something better. But no, clearly not. Same trashiness as when All About That Bass was a thing. Gross.

~ The Hit 45 Chart is currently being worked on and will be out as soon as possible.

Top 20 Review

0 – Crap:

20. Kiiara – Gold

19. Twenty One Pilots – Ride

18. Bruno Mars – 24K Magic

17. Daya – Sit Still, Look Pretty

1 – Bad:

16. Sia/Sean Paul – Cheap Thrills

2 – Mediocre:

15. X Ambassadors – Unsteady

14. Shawn Mendes – Treat You Better

3 – Decent:

13. Ariana Grande – Into You

4 – Good:

12. Justin Timberlake – Can't Stop The Feeling

11. Niall Horan – This Town

10. Hailee Steinfeld & Grey/Zedd – Starving

5 – Great:

9. Major Lazer/Justin Bieber/MØ – Cold Water

8. Maroon 5 – Don't Wanna Know

7. Sia/Kendrick Lamar – The Greatest

6. Twenty One Pilots – Heathens

5. The Chainsmokers/Halsey – Closer

4. Alessia Cara – Scars To Your Beautiful

3. DJ Snake/Justin Bieber – Let Me Love You

2. Panic! At The Disco – Death Of A Bachelor

1. Coldplay – Hymn For The Weekend

Total Score: 65/100

Throwback Pick Of The Week: Panic! At The Disco – I Write Sins Not Tragedies

Most Missed Countdown Song: Cher Lloyd – With Ur Love

#1 Recommendation For Hits 1: Maren Morris – 80s Mercedes

Favorite Countdown Song This Week One Year Ago: X Ambassadors – Renegades

My Top 5 Picks

1. Coldplay – Hymn For The Weekend

2. Panic! At The Disco – Death Of A Bachelor

3. DJ Snake/Justin Bieber – Let Me Love You

4. Ariana Grande/Nicki Minaj – Side To Side

5. The Weeknd/Daft Punk – Starboy

My Bottom 5 Picks

1. Kiiara – Gold

2. AJR – I'm Not Famous

3. Lukas Graham – Mama Said

4. Calvin Harris/Rihanna – This Is What You Came For

5. Lady Gaga – Perfect Illusion

Twenty One Pilots (1) – Week Of October 22, 2016

For those who do not look at this blog during the week, I did finally post my 800K pageview special. The other specials will get here as soon as possible. Just know that I'm working on them. It may not be here for another month, but I'm gonna try to have the 1M special out by the end of the year. That's kind of my goal at the moment. We'll see if I can accomplish that. Before we get to this week's Fresh 45, here are the songs we're saying goodbye to this week.

• Big Gigantic/Angela McCluskey – The Little Things (#21)
• DNCE – Cake By The Ocean (#34) [4 Weeks At #1]
• Panic! At The Disco – Victorious (#38) [x2] {1 Week At #1}
• The Strumbellas – Spirits (#41)

Last Week's #1 Song: The Chainsmokers/Halsey – Closer

The Countdown

45. Meghan Trainor – No (#35)

44. Ariana Grande – Dangerous Woman (#41)

43. AJR – I'm Not Famous (#42)

42. Lukas Graham – Mama Said (#44)

41. Demi Lovato – Body Say (#45)

40. P!nk – Just Like Fire (#36)

39. Fifth Harmony – Work From Home (#37)

38. Taylor Swift – New Romantics (#33) [2 Weeks At #1]

37. Mike Posner – I Took A Pill In Ibiza (#39) [2 Weeks At #1]

36. Charlie Puth/Selena Gomez – We Don't Talk Anymore (#23)

35. Flume/Kai – Never Be Like You (#43)

34. Andy Grammer – Fresh Eyes (#32)

33. Runaground – Chase You Down (DEBUT)

32. Adele – Send My Love (To Your New Lover) (#27) [1 Week At #1]

31. Lady Gaga – Perfect Illusion (#16)

30. 5 Seconds Of Summer – Girls Talk Boys (#30)

29. Calvin Harris – My Way (#31)

28. Twenty One Pilots – Stressed Out (#27) [5 Weeks At #1]

27. The Chainsmokers/Daya – Don't Let Me Down (#14) [3 Weeks At #1]

26. Panic! At The Disco – Death Of A Bachelor (#22)

25. The Weeknd/Daft Punk – Starboy (#24)

24. OneRepublic – Kids (#15)

23. Nick Jonas – Bacon (#29)

22. Gnash/Olivia O'Brien – I Hate U, I Love U (#17)

21. Sia/Kendrick Lamar – The Greatest (DEBUT)

20. Niall Horan – This Town (#20)

19. Kiiara – Gold (#26)

18. Justin Timberlake – Can't Stop The Feeling (#13) [10 Weeks At #1]

17. Alessia Cara – Scars To Your Beautiful (DEBUT)

16. Major Lazer/Justin Bieber/MØ – Cold Water (#8)

15. Maroon 5 – Don't Wanna Know (DEBUT)

14. Calvin Harris/Rihanna – This Is What You Came For (#4)

13. Kenny Chesney/P!nk – Setting The World On Fire (#25)

12. Bruno Mars – 24K Magic (#19)

11. Ariana Grande – Into You (#5)

10. Twenty One Pilots – Ride (#11)

  9. Hailee Steinfeld & Grey/Zedd – Starving (#10)

  8. Coldplay/Beyoncé – Hymn For The Weekend (#6)

  7. DJ Snake/Justin Bieber – Let Me Love You (#18)

  6. X Ambassadors – Unsteady (#9)

  5. Daya – Sit Still, Look Pretty (#7)

  4. Sia/Sean Paul – Cheap Thrills (#12)

  3. Shawn Mendes – Treat You Better (#3)

  2. The Chainsmokers/Halsey – Closer (#1) [3 Weeks At #1]

  1. Twenty One Pilots – Heathens (#2) [1^st Week At #1]

#1 Song This Week One Year Ago: Taylor Swift – Wildest Dreams

Biggest DROP!!!... Of The Week: Lady Gaga – Perfect Illusion (–15)

Biggest Jump Of The Week: Kenny Chesney/P!nk – Setting The World On Fire (+12)

New Entrants
~ Kicking off the entrants with Runaground – Chase You Down. I have to say, I am really liking this song. I love the beat and the vocals are so on point. This is a great example of a really good underrated songs. Sure, I hear it every now and then on Venus, but I really don't hear it anywhere else. This is one of the things I like about Hits 1 because they expose us to some underrated music like this song that we may not have heard before and probably won't hear elsewhere. Hopefully this song can last a decent amount of time.

~ If you're like me and you just wanna jump out of the car every time Cheap Thrills comes on at this point, you'll be happy to see that Sia has a new single now, which will hopefully take over for Cheap Thrills in the near future. This one is called The Greatest. I definitely think this song is a pretty good follow-up. It has a pretty solid beat and I like the vibe. Sia really does have a great voice and I like the lyrical content as well. I think Kendrick Lamar's verse flows pretty smoothly. Overall, I'm definitely enjoying this song. I don't even need to hope for success with this song. I just hope it doesn't become the next Cheap Thrills. But we'll just have to wait and see.

~ Alessia Cara has kind of been one of those artists who hasn't really released anything too memorable. Wild Things flopped and Here just got really annoying at some point. This week, she returns with Scars To Your Beautiful. It's one of those songs where the lyrical content can easily make me love the song. It is a beautiful song. Just beautiful. It's definitely my favorite song from Alessia Cara and very possibly my favorite debut this week. Her voice fits in this song so nicely and when she hits that high note right before the last chorus, it gives me chills. This song is just perfection and I never thought I'd say that about Alessia Cara's music after her first two singles. This song deserves success without a doubt and thankfully, the high debut at #17 tells me that it might get what it deserves.

~ Finally, we have the return of Maroon 5. As far as their last album went, I very much enjoyed Maps and Animals, Sugar was a huge disappointment and was really annoying, and This Summer's Gonna Hurt... I liked in more of a guilty pleasure kind of way. Their new single, Don't Wanna Know is definitely a different sound for them. It's a lot more calm. It's not one of those raging loud pop songs that can give people headaches. I actually did not like this song at first listen because I thought it was pretty boring. But now I've kind of come around to it. For those like me who have always been Maroon 5 fans, it does take a little time for this song to sink in just because it's so different. But now it's definitely a song I can listen to and enjoy every now and then. However, there is no way in hell this will survive radio overplay. But because it's Maroon 5, it's pretty set to be overplayed. So brace yourselves, everyone.


Hit-Bound
~ Here is the Hit-Bound list:

• John Legend – Love Me Now (DEBUT)
• Gavin DeGraw – She Sets The City On Fire (DEBUT)
• Pitbull/Flo Rida/LunchMoney Lewis – Greenlight
• Rihanna – Love On The Brain (DEBUT)
• Jon Bellion – All Time Low
• Fifth Harmony – That's My Girl (DEBUT)
• Shawn Mendes – Mercy
• Magic! – Red Dress
• Mike Posner – Be As You Are
• DNCE – Body Moves
• Ariana Grande/Nicki Minaj – Side To Side
• Ellie Goulding – Still Falling For You
• Bastille – Good Grief
• Jason Derulo – Kiss The Sky

~ After All In My Head flopped, Fifth Harmony return with That's My Girl. First off, I can really do without the weird fart-sounding horns in the verses. Those get pretty annoying at some point. But I love that chorus. It is pretty loud, but it's just so much fun! That's all I got for this song right now.

~ Gavin DeGraw has definitely some really good singles in the past. She Sets The City On Fire isn't exactly anything amazing. I've heard it a lot on The Pulse so I am pretty familiar with this song. It's good, but nothing to make it really stand out. But it's nice to see some more adult contemporary music hitting Top 40 radio.

~ I can't really say I'm enjoying John Legend – Love Me Now. I just don't really find it too interesting and I don't like the vocal work on this one. All Of Me from 2014 is definitely hard to top.

~ Of course Rihanna has to release the trashiest of songs from Anti as singles. And the good single, Kiss It Better, is the one that flopped because of the boring Needed Me. I'm having a pretty hard time at the moment picking which single is worse between Work and Love On The Brain. I'll talk more about Love On The Brain if it debuts. But let's just say that if I prefer listening to Magic! – Red Dress, there's a problem.

Top 5 Hit-Bound Picks

1. Jon Bellion – All Time Low

2. Ellie Goulding – Still Falling For You

3. Ariana Grande/Nicki Minaj – Side To Side

4. Shawn Mendes – Mercy

5. DNCE – Body Moves

Blurb You Down

~ The re-entries into the Top 5 from Daya – Sit Still, Look Pretty and Sia/Sean Paul – Cheap Thrills were both extremely unnecessary. Way to easily demote these songs to worse rankings in my book.

~ The jump back into the Top 10 from Twenty One Pilots – Ride was unnecessary as well. I never even liked this song, so I'm sure you can imagine how infuriating it is at this point. Now it's gonna be the new Stressed Out where it just doesn't drop for another couple months or so.

~ But thank the lord Calvin Harris/Rihanna – This Is What You Came For took a drop out of the Top 10. Now let's PLEASE let it drop!!! Rihanna is just getting worse and worse and worse as time goes on.

~ DJ Snake/Justin Bieber – Let Me Love You easily recovered from a few weeks of doing absolutely nothing. Now it's in the Top 10. That's pretty impressive. Of course with that, Cold Water dropped out of the Top 10, which is ultimately fine with me as I much prefer Let Me Love You over Cold Water.

~ Kenny Chesney/P!nk – Setting The World On Fire took quite the jump up to #13 this week, which frankly I'm more confused about than I am happy. But I'll take it.

~ It is indeed very pleasing to see Lady Gaga – Perfect Illusion have the Biggest DROP!!!... of the Week. It is absolutely nowhere near her best work, or even her good work. This song is just so bad. And honestly her fans are acting the same way Twenty One Pilots fans act when someone says they don't like the song. Frankly, I think it's obnoxious how ignorant they are and how unaccepting they are towards one's opinion.

~ Andy Grammer – Fresh Eyes thankfully has been consistently dropping. Hopefully that means we can see it depart the countdown very soon. This song is extremely boring and I'd like for it to not stay that much longer.

~ X Ambassadors – Unsteady still in the Top 10 is going to get really aggravating at some point. This song has been here for a very long time and it's just now spending time in the Top 10??? Oh well. I guess it could be worse.

~ It's really nice to Twenty One Pilots – Heathens at #1. I know I say this quite often, but I really do believe that this is quite a standout track for the band. Hopefully we get more songs like this in the future because this is what's grabbing my attention.

~ As far as our exits go, it's very disappointing to see Spirits and The Little Things go so soon, with the latter having spent only 3 weeks on the countdown. But Victorious and Cake By The Ocean have been overdue for quite a while. Victorious was reasonably to having lasted a full year. It would've lasted a year had it not been for the six or so week gap from when it first left to when it re-entered. And I'm sure we were pretty damn close to Cake By The Ocean spending one year as it was on Hit-Bound this week one year ago.

~ The Hit 45 Chart is currently being worked on, but is certainly closer to being done than it was last week. So I can guarantee it will be out before Wednesday unlike last week's chart.

Top 20 Review

0 – Crap:

20. Kiiara – Gold

19. Calvin Harris/Rihanna – This Is What You Came For

18. Twenty One Pilots – Ride

17. Bruno Mars – 24K Magic

16. Daya – Sit Still, Look Pretty

1 – Bad:

15. Sia/Sean Paul – Cheap Thrills

2 – Mediocre:

14. X Ambassadors – Unsteady

13. Shawn Mendes – Treat You Better

3 – Decent:

12. Ariana Grande – Into You

4 – Good:

11. Justin Timberlake – Can't Stop The Feeling

10. Kenny Chesney/P!nk – Setting The World On Fire

9. Niall Horan – This Town

8. Hailee Steinfeld & Grey/Zedd – Starving

5 – Great:

7. Maroon 5 – Don't Wanna Know

6. Major Lazer/Justin Bieber/MØ – Cold Water

5. The Chainsmokers/Halsey – Closer

4. Twenty One Pilots – Heathens

3. Alessia Cara – Scars To Your Beautiful

2. DJ Snake/Justin Bieber – Let Me Love You

1. Coldplay – Hymn For The Weekend

Total Score: 59/100

Throwback Pick Of The Week: Rick Astley – Never Gonna Give You Up

Most Missed Countdown Song: Justin Bieber – Sorry (#1YEAROFSORRY)

#1 Recommendation For Hits 1: Tove Lo – Cool Girl

Favorite Countdown Song This Week One Year Ago: X Ambassadors – Renegades

My Top 5 Picks

1. Coldplay – Hymn For The Weekend

2. DJ Snake/Justin Bieber – Let Me Love You

3. Alessia Cara – Scars To Your Beautiful

4. Twenty One Pilots – Heathens

5. The Weeknd/Daft Punk – Starboy

800,000 Pageview Special: Q&A Post

Hey guys! So remember those questions you asked me months ago? Well I finally have the answers! First off, I am extremely sorry that this post is so late. Senior year in high school has just been crazy so far and I really haven't had much time to blog during the week. But anyway, we'll just get into the post. As I keep saying, I'm extremely grateful for everything you guys do to help keep this blog going strong. We are already past 1,000,000 pageviews and I thoroughly appreciate what you guys do for this blog simply by reading my posts. As we have passed 800,000 pageviews, I'm going to be doing another Q&A. It does feel like I do these really often but I was behind with this one AND the 700K special, so I needed to get this one out rather quickly since we're already past 1M! You guys sent me questions, I have the answers! So let's jump right into it!


Question #1: Have you met any celebrities?
Answer: No, I have not. The closest I've gotten to meeting a celebrity is seeing them in concert.


Question #2: What are some places you have visited in the United States?
Answer: My family and I often go to Wisconsin, which, since we live in Illinois, is right up above us. But we've also been to Michigan a couple of times. We went to Pensacola Beach in Florida for about a week. We spent one night in Nashville, Tennessee. We have also spent about a week in Washington D.C. Although I wasn't a part of these, my dad spent some time in Las Vegas and my parents went to New Orleans last year for their anniversary.


Question #3: On a scale of 1-10 how much do you love doorknobs?
Answer: 8


Question #4: How's life?
Answer: It's really good. Thanks for asking. :)


Question #5: Is Matthew your only sibling?
Answer: Yes, he is.


Question #6: Are you sleepy?
Answer: Not really. I may be sleepy in the morning, but by afternoon I am wide awake.


Question #7: Can you guess who is typing this?
Answer: No. :P


Question #8: Do you have any hobbies/habits that are not music-related?
Answer: It's questions like this one that make me realize how boring my life is. Typically, the most non-music-related thing I do is hang out with my friends, which I always have a really fun time doing.


Question #9: If you were to take a sport, what would it be?
Answer: If I had to pick a sport, I'd probably pick soccer. I feel like that is the sport that I try the hardest in in P.E.


Question #10: Are you in puberty and do you have armpit hair?
Answer: I have already gone through puberty. The most drastic thing that came out of it is that my voice is now really deep. I never even noticed until my friends pointed it out and said that I had the deepest voice out of our group of friends. And yes, I do have armpit hair, as strange of a question as that is.


Question #12: Who's your favorite member of One Direction?
Answer: Louis Tomlinson. I personally think he has the best voice in the band. I also think he's the hottest.


Question #13: Do you want to have a 7 exit week next week (07/09/16)?
Answer: Technically, that week already past. But I honestly don't really care at this point how many exits we have. 7 exits certainly makes the countdown interesting, but if it's just 1 exit, I won't really care.


Question #14: Alesso/Nico & Vinz – I Wanna Know or Mike Posner – I Took A Pill In Ibiza?
Answer: I like both songs, but I Took A Pill In Ibiza for sure.


Question #15: All About That Bass or Kamikaze?
Answer: Gross! Honestly why would you even pair these two? It's like a match made from hell. I guess Kamikaze is better by a very very very little bit.


Question #16: Listen to Eric Prydz – Every Day and tell me what you think of it. :)
Answer: I'd say it's pretty catchy. It has a really nice drop in it and I could totally see myself jamming out to it. Let me say this: The track is over 7 minutes long and I'd say I was captivated throughout just about all of those 7 minutes.


Question #17: Have you listened to Views by Drake? Especially Weston Road Flows. That's mah fav!!!
Answer: I never actually listened to the whole album. There were a few tracks here and there that I listened to. For the most part, none of them were anything special. I just listened to Weston Road Flows and I'm personally not a huge fan of it just because I think Drake is honestly a better singer than he is a rapper.


Question #18: Can you give me your opinion on Honeymoon by Lana Del Rey?
Answer: Now this album I actually did listen to (at least most of it) and I honestly don't know why I did. The lead single, High By The Beach, was very uninteresting due to the fact that it was extremely boring. Then I listened to the album and found that every track sounds very similar. If you want me to be honest here, it sounds as though Lana Del Rey recorded this album only half-awake. It's a pretty boring album that the only thing it's capable of doing is putting me to sleep. I understand that she has a target audience that really enjoy her music and probably love this album, but I just don't go for this kind of music. Lana Del Rey's music never really caught my attention and this album is no different.


Question #19: What's so bad about hip-hop/rap? Who are your favorite and least favorite hip-hop/rap artists of all time?
Answer: I personally believe that rap music has gone downhill over the years. Honestly, hip-hop/rap was one of my favorite genres back when we had Eminem, B.o.B, Timbaland, etc. But nowadays, rappers think it's cool to be rapping about girls, money, and drugs with an extremely lazy production team. Fetty Wap was one of the worst new additions to the industry ever making his first appearance last year with the rather obnoxious Trap Queen. I'd probably say he is my least favorite rapper just because not only his voice irritating to me, but his song are just pointless. There's no real meaning to them and they sound awful. Eminem is probably my favorite rapper just because his music actually has meaning to it. His song Love The Way You Lie is like my favorite song of all time. He has a bunch of other really meaningful songs as well as songs that are actually pretty fun.


Question #20: You are in a prison and the guard gives you a choice of 4 songs that will be put on replay for 2 hours. Options:

• Selena Gomez – Same Old Love
• MØ – Kamikaze
• Magic! – Rude
• Fetty Wap – Trap Queen

Which one would you choose?

Answer: I'd probably die from listening to any of these songs on repeat for two hours if I'm being honest here. I'll right away say no to Kamikaze and Trap Queen just because I legit cannot listen to either of those songs once. I can't stand Same Old Love, so it will probably end up being Rude.

Question #21: Marry, f**k, kill: Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, and Justin Bieber.

Answer: I've only done a few games like this one and I have to say, they really make you think. Basically how a marry, f**k, kill works is I've been given three people and I have to pick one who I'd marry and spend my life with, one who I would have sex with for one night, and one I'd just get rid of. I'd probably "kill" Zayn Malik. Of course I would not do that in real life. But for the purposes of this game, Zayn Malik is under "kill". After thinking about these other two for a long time, I think I would "marry" Louis Tomlinson just because he seems like a sweetheart, which means I would "f**k" Justin Bieber, which I would totally want to do. ;)

Question #22: Please list these songs from best to worst:

• Andy Grammer – Good To Be Alive
• Walk The Moon – Shut Up and Dance
• Lukas Graham – 7 Years
• Flo Rida – Good Feeling

Answer:

1. Flo Rida – Good Feeling (best)

2. Lukas Graham – 7 Years
3. Andy Grammer – Good To Be Alive
4. Walk The Moon – Shut Up and Dance (worst)

Question #23: You said on your 600K special that you aren't much into video games anymore, but were you or your brother ever into Pokemon?

Answer: No. I've tried getting into Pokemon, but I just can't. I just don't understand it. Same for my brother. But that's just our opinions.

Question #24: What are you interested in studying in college?
Answer: That's a really good question. I don't know. There are those people who already know what they want to do with their life. Then there's people like me who have no clue what they want to do. I feel like going into teaching is not a bad idea, so I'm considering it. But I don't know for sure yet.


Question #25: List these songs from greatest to most trash:

• MØ – Kamikaze
• Fall Out Boy – Uma Thurman
• Meghan Trainor – All About That Bass

Answer:

1. Fall Out Boy – Uma Thurman (least trash)

2. MØ – Kamikaze

3. Meghan Trainor – All About That Bass (most trash)

Question #26: Have you heard any new songs right now? (If you did, tell me some)

Answer: All the new songs I've heard are songs that I'm sure everyone who goes on iTunes would know. For example, one new song is Don't Wanna Know by Maroon 5 featuring Kendrick Lamar, which is like #2 on iTunes at the moment. But the best new song in my opinion is All Time Low by Jon Bellion, which is pretty new to radio. I listened to his debut album that was released earlier this year, The Human Condition, and frankly, I think it's amazing. That would be my album recommendation for you if you haven't listened to it yet.

Question #27: What do you do with your free time?

Answer: With school and senior year, I really don't have much free time. But when I do have free time, I like to just relax after all the work I've done. But I also try to blog and catch up on whatever I'm behind on whenever I have free time.

Question #28: Which one is the worst out of the 5?

• Twenty One Pilots – Ride
• Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – Downtown
• Adele – When We Were Young
• Charlie Puth – One Call Away
• Silento – Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)

Answer: It's between Downtown and Watch Me right now. I hate both songs with a passion. But if I had to pick the worst of the two, it would probably be Watch Me, being one of the most annoying songs of last year.

Question #29: If you had to grade the following 3, what order would you put them in?

• P!nk – Just Like Fire
• David Guetta/Nicki Minaj/Bebe Rexha/Afrojack – Hey Mama
• Coldplay/Beyoncé – Hymn For The Weekend

Answer:

1. Coldplay/Beyoncé – Hymn For The Weekend (best)

2. David Guetta/Nicki Minaj/Afrojack – Hey Mama

3. P!nk – Just Like Fire

Question #30: Rank these songs, all of which lasted at least a year on the countdown:

• Fall Out Boy – My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light Em Up)
• Imagine Dragons – Radioactive
• Ed Sheeran – Thinking Out Loud
• Walk The Moon – Shut Up and Dance

Answer:

1. Fall Out Boy – My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark

2. Imagine Dragons – Radioactive

3. Walk The Moon – Shut Up and Dance

4. Ed Sheeran – Thinking Out Loud

Question #31: What is your opinion on the following songs?

• Daya – Thirsty
• Elle King – Ex's & Oh's
• Lukas Graham – Mama Said
• Jacob Whitesides – Lovesick
• Twenty One Pilots – We Don't Believe What's On TV
• MØ – Final Song

Answer: 

Thirsty: While Daya has a really good and unique voice, this song isn't really anything special. Maybe I just haven't listened to it enough. I like it, but I don't love it.

Ex's & Oh's: I enjoyed this song for quite a while. Elle King is one of those artists who, while being an alternative/rock artist, incorporates some folk in there as well. It shows on other songs more than it does on this one. But overall, I do like this song. I'm not necessarily sure it'll show up on my Top 45 songs of 2016, but I'll think about it.

Mama Said: Easily a step-down from 7 Years. The song overall is mediocre at best. The kids singing in the chorus just makes the song even worse in my eyes. I'm not feeling the vocal work done, especially in the last chorus. While 7 Years was a hit in my opinion, Mama Said is a definite miss.

Lovesick: Like Daya, this guy does have a very unique and interesting voice. I like the production on the track and like I said in my entrant review, that chorus may be something that gets stuck in my head.

We Don't Believe What's On TV: I'm not a huge fan of Twenty One Pilots and I'm not really loving this song. It's okay. But there are definitely some better songs on that album. This one just does nothing for me.

Final Song: I have to say, I'm not a fan of her as a solo artist. This song isn't necessarily bad, but I feel the production needs some more work. Also, there are parts in the song where I don't really like her voice. But for the most part, it sounds decent-ish. It's certainly better than Kamikaze, but it's not as good as her collaborations with Major Lazer.

Question #32: All of the following songs are ones that were heavily overplayed by Hits 1. Rank them as either still great (no problem at all with listening to them again and would still seek out now), good/okay (a decent listen every now and then), meh (don’t care for them anymore but it wouldn’t be disastrous if you had to hear them again), bad (an undesirable listen but you wouldn’t completely rule out liking them again someday), or irredeemable (no chance of them ever growing back on you).

• Imagine Dragons – Radioactive
• Pitbull/Ke$ha – Timber
• OneRepublic – Counting Stars
• Taylor Swift – Shake It Off
• Taylor Swift – Blank Space
• Mark Ronson/Bruno Mars – Uptown Funk
• Walk The Moon – Shut Up and Dance
• Wiz Khalifa/Charlie Puth – See You Again
• Adele – Hello

Answer: 

Radioactive: I did grow back into this one. Overplay kind of scarred it like it did with most of these songs. I would say it's good/okay to listen to every now and then.

Timber: Same thing applies here. It's good/okay to listen to every now and then.

Counting Stars: Same as the last two.

Shake It Off: Not so sure about this one. I really liked this one when it was popular. But after hearing all these other singles from 1989, this one doesn't sound that interesting anymore. I may have to say this one is a "meh". I don't really care for it too much anymore, but I can still listen to it.

Blank Space: This one, however, is a different story. This one is definitely still great with no problem at all listening to it because I don't think I ever got sick of it. It's just so catchy.

Uptown Funk: Radio overplay scarred this song pretty bad. This is for sure one of the most overrated songs, if not the most overrated song, of 2015. Unfortunately to this day if this song comes on the radio, I will indeed change the station even if I don't know anything else that's on. I'm going to have to categorize it under "bad" as it is still an undesirable listen, but it's possible I may give into it sometime in the future.
Shut Up and Dance: This one is pretty much the same thing as Uptown Funk. The 12 weeks at #1 on Hits 1 was rather unnecessary and all it did was make a pretty good song overrated. This one is still an undesirable listen, so I'm going to say "bad".
See You Again: Although this one was pretty overplayed, I actually do like it again. I absolutely loved it when it came out, so I knew I would come back around to it eventually. And I did. I'd say it's good/okay to listen to every now and then.
Hello: This one was a lot more recent, so it's going to be a longer while until I grow back into it fully. But for now, I do like this song again. Like See You Again, it was amazing when it came out. I'd say it's good/okay to listen to every now and then.


Question #33: Rank the following songs:

• SonReal – Can I Get A Witness
• Simple Plan – Singing In The Rain
• Big Gigantic/Angela McCluskey – The Little Things
• Hedley – Lose Control
• Twenty One Pilots – Heathens

Answer:

1. Big Gigantic/Angela McCluskey – The Little Things (the best)
2. Hedley – Lose Control

3. Twenty One Pilots – Heathens

4. Simple Plan – Singing In The Rain

5. SonReal – Can I Get A Witness

Question #34: For fun, rate these songs from best to worst:

• Adele – Hello
• Eden XO – The Weekend
• Coldplay/Beyoncé – Hymn For The Weekend
• Priory – Weekend
• Maroon 5 – Sugar
• Robin Schulz/Francesco Yates – Sugar
• Maroon 5 – Animals
• Martin Garrix – Animals
• Glenn Morrison – Goodbye

Answer: First off, I love how you started with Hello and ended with Goodbye. And I see how you attempted to match the titles.

1. Coldplay/Beyoncé – Hymn For The Weekend (the best)

2. Maroon 5 – Animals

3. Glenn Morrison – Goodbye

4. Robin Schulz/Francesco Yates – Sugar

5. Martin Garrix – Animals

6. Adele – Hello

7. Eden XO – The Weekend

8. Priory – Weekend

9. Maroon 5 – Sugar

Question #35: What's the best week of 2016 so far? Worst week?

Answer: I have no idea. I'm sorry, but I am indeed way too lazy to look back at every single week this year to pick the best and worst.


Question #36: What are your favorite and least favorite songs of the year so far?
Answer: Some of my favorites right now include Hymn For The Weekend by Coldplay, I Took A Pill In Ibiza by Mike Posner, Just Like Fire by P!nk, Something In The Way You Move by Ellie Goulding, Jet Black Heart by 5 Seconds Of Summer, and more that I won't get into now. Some of my least favorites include Panda by Desiigner (which I consider the worst song of the year hands-down), Sweatshirt by Jacob Sartorious, Kamikaze by MØ, Don't Mind by Kent Jones, Mama Said by Lukas Graham, and more that I won't get into now. But that's a basic understanding of some of the songs I've enjoyed this year and some of the songs I find to be utter trash.


Question #37: What are the best and worst songs of 2016 so far?
Answer: Please look right above.


Question #38: Rank the years of this decade so far (2010-2016 as is) in your order for mainstream music (between both Hits 1 and Billboard).
Answer: I really didn't think too much about this. Maybe these rankings will be different if I actually put some more thought into it.

7. 2015
6. 2016
5. 2014
4. 2013
3. 2011
2. 2010
1. 2012 (best year)


Question #39: What are your Top 10 favorite artists/bands of all-time?
Answer: Again, like Question #38, I really did not put much thought into this. I rushed it for the sake of getting this post out. So you can consider this a rough draft of the list.

10. Taylor Swift
9. David Guetta
8. Green Day
7. Linkin Park
6. Ke$ha
5. Eminem
4. OneRepublic
3. Maroon 5
2. Nickelback
1. Coldplay



So that was the 800K pageview special! Once again, I apologize for the extremely long delay. I want you guys to know that I love doing these special posts for you guys. I feel like a blog with just countdown posts every week would be pretty boring after a while, which is why I love doing these milestone posts and other specials like the series of America's Got Talent reviews and the Top 10 Songs Series. But it is hard to work on this kind of stuff with my busy schedule. So I ask that you guys bear with me because I do try my hardest to get this stuff out for you. Thinking realistically, the 900K special may not be out until next month, but I am trying and using my free time to work on these posts. But thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed.