A lot can happen in the course of a year, especially when it comes to hit songwriting.
When you compare today’s trends with those of this time last year, some of the most notable shifts include solo male vocals being the most popular, song titles appearing less frequently, and first choruses hitting later. Among those that remained the same are the top lyrical theme, primary instrumentation, and record label categories.
What follows is a comparison of the top performing categories within the HSD Music Charts during the fourth week of September in 2014 and 2015.
[Header 1 header=”Songs In The Hot 100 Top 10″]
*Note: Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off is not included in the 9/27/14 Spotify playlist
[Header 1 header=”Remained The Same From 2014 to 2015″]
| Categories | Then | Now |
| Top Lyrical Theme | Love/Relationships | |
| Top Electric Vs. Acoustic Instrumentation Category | Primarily Electric | |
| Top Primary Genre | Pop | |
| Top Record Label | Republic | |
| Top Song Title Word Count Category | Two Words | |
| Top Primary Instrumentation | Prominent Drums/Beats/Perc. Synth |
|
| Top Sub-Genre/Influencer | Electropop | |
[Header 1 header=”Changed From 2014 to 2015″]
| Categories | Then | Now |
| Top Song Title Appearance Category | 6 – 10 Appearances 11 – 15 Appearances |
1 – 5 Appearances |
| Top Lead Vocal | Solo Female | Solo Male |
| Top Song Length Category | 3:00 – 3:29 | Under 3:00 3:00 – 3:29 |
| Top First Chorus Occurrence Category | Moderately Early (0:20 – 0:39) |
Moderately Late (0:40 – 0:59) |
| Top Intro Length Category | Short (0:01 – 0:09) |
Moderately Short (0:10 – 0:19) |
| Top Songwriter Count Category | Three-Writer Teams | Four Writer Teams Five+ Writer Teams |