Since its August debut, Taylor Swift’s “Shake it Off” has been considered a lock to reach #1 at pop radio.
The inevitability of that reality came into question this week, when Iggy Azalea’s “Black Widow (featuring Rita Ora),” the number three song on Mediabase’s rolling pop airplay chart, began moving at a faster pace than the runner-up “Shake it Off.” If the two songs held their respective rates of growth, it would have been “Black Widow”–not “Shake it Off”–that leapfrogged Meghan Trainor’s multi-week leader “All About That Bass” for the top spot.
It was a legitimate concern. But in the spirit of Swift’s new song, the appropriate response was to “Shake it Off.”
Sure enough, the portrait began changing as the week progressed. Swift’s “Shake it Off” began making comparable or even bigger gains than Azalea’s tune and thus kept itself at a distance.
Those gains gave it the push it needed to finally leapfrog Meghan Trainor’s “All About That Bass.”
According to Mediabase, Swift’s “Shake it Off” was pop radio’s most-played song between October 4 and October 10. While its advantage is not dominant, it is significant enough that “Shake” should possess that spot when the chart goes official Sunday evening.
“Shake it Off” received 17,425 spins during the aforementioned tracking period, while Trainor’s “Bass” was good for 17,248. Azalea’s “Black Widow” received 17,051.
Interestingly, “Shake it Off” commanded the fewest audience impressions during that frame. While “Bass” reached 113.70 million and “Widow” scored 111.95 million, “Shake it Off” was only good for 110.05 million.
— Swift’s song also remains the leader at Hot AC radio. Its spin count of 6,726 between October 4 and 10 bests the 6,534 earned by Trainor’s “All About That Bass.”