Roar's brief reign as the #1 Hit of the World came to an end during the month of October thanks to Lorde and her anti-gaudy lifestyle hit, Royals. The 17 year old phenom's single spent the entire month at #1 in Canada and the U.S., and hit #1 in Italy and the UK amongst others as well.

#1 Hits Of The World provides you with a monthly snapshot of the #1 songs dominating the singles charts in 10 key countries throughout the world, spotlighting the compositional characteristics and emerging trends across categories including lyrical themes, sub-genre influences, primary instrumentation, vocal gender and more.

Country Dominators

These songs dominated key singles charts in certain countries during the month of October:

  • Roar: Spent the entire month at #1 in Australia.
  • Royals: Spent the entire month at #1 in Canada and the United States.

Crossover Hits

These songs charted at #1 in more than one country during the month of October:

  • Roar: #1 in Australia & Mexico.
  • Royals: #1 in Canada, Italy, the UK & the U.S.
  • Talk Dirty: #1 in Germany & the UK.
  • Wake Me Up:  #1 in Italy & Mexico.

The #1 Hits of the World

The number inside the parentheses indicates the total # of weeks the song spent at #1 during the month.

Click the song to listen & watch the video.

Australia
Australia
Roar (5)
Japan
Japan
Hiri Hiri No Hana (1)
Kamonegikkusu (1)
Bye Bye Du Bye (1)
Mada Namida... (1)
Winter Games (1)
Brazil
Brazil
Nao Para (2)
Na Linha do Tempo (2)
Tudo Que Você Quiser (1)
Mexico
Mexico
Roar (2)
Darte Un Beso (2)
Wake Me Up (1)
Canada
Canada
Royals (5)
Korea
Korea
Love, At First (2)
The Red Shoes (2)
You Don't Know Love (1)
Germany
Germany
Talk Dirty (2)
Bonfire Heart (1)
Hey Brother (1)
Jubel (1)
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
Counting Stars (2)
Talk Dirty (1)
Wrecking Ball (1)
Royals (1)
Italy
Italy
Wake Me Up (3)
Royals (1)
Cambia-Menti (1)
United States
United States
Royals (5)

Total Time Spent at #1

The graph below shows the cumulative number of weeks (i.e. the combined weeks for all countries) that each song spent at #1 during the month.

Lorde's  Royals left everyone in the dust during the month of October, spending a cumulative 12 weeks at #1 throughout the world.  Katy Perry's Roar, (last month's #1 Hit of the World), was a distant second, spending a cumulative 7 weeks at the top spot.

Compositional Characteristics
Key: B Bass O Other P Piano S Synth AG Acoustic Guitar EG Electric Guitar ST Strings

Trend Breakdown

This section provides you with an overall look at the compositional characteristics that shaped the #1 hits throughout the world during the month.

Genres

Although Pop dominated the world charts as you would expect, it had some company during the month of October including Rock (Cambia-Menti, Counting Stars), Folk (Bonfire Heart, Hey Brother) and R&B (You Don't Know Love).

Sub-Genre Influences

As usual, the majority of songs that reached the top of the charts throughout the world possessed a fusion of sub-genres that helped to shape their sound.

Not surprisingly, the most popular was Dance, showing up in varying degrees of prominence within 47% of all songs.  It was followed far behind once again by Rock and Ballads (last month's runners up), each of which were an element within 20%.
Some of the songs that utilized a more diverse/interesting combination of sub-genres which really helped them to stand out amongst all others include Avicii's Wake Me Up and Hey Brother (Country/Folk and EDM), Jubel (Dance, Jazz and World), Love, At First (K-Pop, Alt, Funk, Disco), The Red Shoes (K-Pop, Retro Big Band/Dance) and Royals (Minimalist Alt/Pop).

Lead Vocal Gender

After finally breaking back into the majority for the first time in over a year, songs featuring a female lead vocal fell back to second place, accounting for just 27% of all songs compared to their male counterpart's 50%.
Additionally, all of the boy bands and girl groups stemmed from Japan, which is usually the case from month to month.

Lyrical Themes

As you would expect, songs featuring the most universal of all lyrical themes, love/relationships, accounted for the vast majority during the month of October.  Most featured the theme as a stand-alone, but 2 featured it in conjunction with additional themes including empowerment (Roar) and introspection/inspiration (Wake Me Up).  Additionally, Bye Bye Du Bye See You Again is about the love of a specific place (i.e. Dubai).
As for the handful of songs that possess a non-love/relationship theme, they include overcoming adversity (Counting Stars), Lifestyle (Royals),  Inspiration (Cambia-Menti) and Hooking Up (Talk  Dirty).

Primary Instrumentation

As love/relationships is most popular lyrical theme from month to month, so is the synth when it comes to the primary instrumentation featured within global chart-topping hits.
During the month of October, the synth was featured within the vast majority of songs (73%), either as the sole primary instrument (Nao Para, Winter Games, Wrecking Ball), or in conjunction with other primary instrumentation including synth, piano, acoustic guitar (Na Linha do Tempo ) and synth, electric guitar, strings (Mada Namida Ni Naranai Kanashimi Ga), for example.
The "other" category during the month included the sitar (Bye Bye Du Bye), brass (Cambia-Menti, Jubel, Talk Dirty and The Red Shoes), prominent snaps (Royals), Uke (Darte Un Beso), and a prominent Funk/Disco bass (Love, At First).

Country of Origin

The majority of songs that topped the world charts during the month of October stemmed from U.S. and Japan based artists.  Note that none of the Japanese #1's had the staying power of over a week, which is usually the case.
Korea and Brazil followed, each supplying 3 songs, and were followed by Sweden which supplied 2 thanks to Avicii.
All of the other countries accounted for 1 song each.
Back to Top