While Mark Ronson’s #1 “Uptown Funk (featuring Bruno Mars)” and Ed Sheeran’s #2 “Thinking Out Loud” are operating with considerable distance from the rest of the pop radio pack, two high-profile songs are making spirited strides toward contention.
Taylor Swift’s “Style” and Pitbull’s “Time of Our Lives (featuring Ne-Yo),” which claim the next two respective positions on Mediabase pop radio airplay chart, are enjoying furious rises at the format.
“Style” remains pop’s greatest airplay gainer. According to Mediabase, pop radio’s #3 song commanded 14,057 spins during the week between February 18 and 24. While its total trails that of “Uptown Funk” by more than 5,000 and “Thinking Out Loud” by more than 4,000, it bests last week’s count by a whopping 2,904 spins.
“Time of Our Lives” enjoyed a similarly significant gain. The #4 song’s weekly count of 13,467 bests last week’s sum by 2,806.
Other big risers at pop radio include Maroon 5’s #7 “Sugar” (+2,137 to 11,536 spins), Rihanna, Kanye West & Paul McCartney’s #10 “FourFiveSeconds” (+2,034 to 9,917 spins) and Ariana Grande’s #21 “One Last Time” (+1,990 to 4,433).
Note: Late last week, Mediabase reclassified certain stations as pop. Since there are more stations on the panel right now than there were at this point last week (prior to the change), the aforementioned week-over-week spin gains are slightly inflated. This does not notably affect the hierarchy — Taylor Swift’s “Style” and Pitbull’s “Time of Our Lives” are indeed the greatest gainers.