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.
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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.
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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.
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%.
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).
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.
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.