Morgan Wallen Returns to Number One on Artists 500 Chart
Country star Morgan Wallen returned to Number One on the Rolling Stone Artists 500 chart after briefly ceding the top spot to Taylor Swift.
Wallen picked up 118.4 million song streams for the week of February 19th through February 25th, which was actually about 2 million more than he got last week when he slipped to Number Two. Wallen’s latest LP, Dangerous: The Double Album, held on at Number One on the Top 200 Albums chart for another week as well, racking up 96.5 million song streams to help it move 84,400 album-equivalent units. Wallen’s continued success has continued more or less uninterrupted since video of him using a racist slur emerged at the beginning of February.
Swift, meanwhile, dropped back to Number Two on the RS500, picking up 109.8 million streams thanks primarily to her two 2020 album, Folklore and Evermore, which landed at Numbers 13 and 14 on the RS200 with 18.4 million and 23.2 million streams, respectively (Folklore’s higher album sales ultimately gave it the edge on that chart). While Swift’s boost to Number One on the Artists 500 last week was aided by the release of her new version of “Love Story,” that track dropped from Number Four on the Top 100 Songs chart to Number 43, picking up just 5.9 million streams.
The Rolling Stone Artists 500 chart ranks the most-streamed artists of the week in the United States, taking into account audio streams across an artist’s entire catalog during the tracking period. The chart does not include passive listening such as terrestrial radio or digital radio. The Artists 500 is updated daily, and each week Rolling Stone finalizes and publishes an official version of the chart, covering the seven-day period ending the previous Thursday.
While little else changed in the Top 10 of the Artists 500, there were some debuts lower down in the chart. Musician Clinton Kane debuted at Number 363 as his song “Chicken Tendies” bowed at Number 61 on the RS100 with 5.3 million streams. Rapper Bobby Shmurda premiered at Number 454 after he saw a boost following his release from prison, while Drakeo the Ruler debuted at Number 457 after releasing a new track with Drake, “Talk to Me.” Lastly, electronic music pioneers Daft Punk flew from Number 344 to Number 63, picking up 25.3 million song streams, after they announced they were breaking up.
