Post Malone Is One of the Top Artists of the Year – Again

While everyone was busy trying to figure out what NFTs were, Post Malone became one of the few Dallas artists to make the Billboard year-end charts for 2021.

We know, Post Malone’s most recent album, Hollywood’s Bleeding, came out in 2019, but in defense of the Grapevine-raised rapper’s timeliness, he and The Weeknd did just drop a collaborative single titled “One Right Now.”

The song is charting at No. 21 this week, but considering that it’s having to compete with a litany of Christmas songs, that’s no small achievement.

Plus, Posty ranked No. 26 on Billboard’s Top Artists year-end chart, beating out artists with way hotter irons to strike such as Ed Sheeran, Young Thug, Machine Gun Kelly and Tyler the Creator.

He also beat The Beatles, who ranked No. 59 despite their unavoidable ubiquity considering Peter Jackson’s documentary Get Back (and their general unavoidable ubiquity always).

Mr. White Iverson’s success this year is by no means an anomaly. As of writing, he is the seventh most streamed artist of all time on Spotify, beating out other North Texas Top 300 contenders for the streaming platform such as Demi Lovato (No. 58), Usher (No. 164) and Kelly Clarkson (No. 275).

In short, Post Malone had a good year even if it was a quiet one on the release front.

With this gem of good news comes the bad, and the bad news is that DFW’s presence in the year-end charts otherwise came up empty.

For one, there is little we know about how artists like Post Malone did on Spotify compared with previous years, as Spotify only released Top 5 lists for artists, songs and albums (none of which include Dallas artists).

Despite 2021 seeing the release of what is unarguably Miranda Lambert’s most inspired work, The Marfa Tapes, the Lindale-based country artist ranked a measly No. 91 on the charts. And while the Christmas season is known to catapult festive and evergreen songs and albums to the charts, Pentatonix’s album The Best of Pentatonix Christmas only ranked at No. 187 on the Billboard 200 Albums year-end chart. It should be noted that Mariah Carey’s Christmas album charted at No. 178, and she’s the CEO of Christmas music.

So given how relatively barren this year was for Dallas’ presence on the yearly charts, what music did move the needle in the year of our Lord 2021?

Well, the No. 1 single of 2021 was “Levitating” by Dua Lipa (although it’s unclear whether that includes the versions with and without DaBaby), and Nos. 2 and 3 are both numbers by Canadian R&B singer extraordinaire The Weeknd (“Save Your Tears” with Ariana Grande and “Blinded By the Lights,” respectively.)

Meanwhile, Drake secured the No. 1 entry for Billboard’s Top Artists year-end chart and was trailed by respective Top 5 entries Olivia Rodrigo, The Weeknd, Taylor Swift and Morgan Wallen.

Did Morgan Wallen say the N-word in that one video? Sure, but many country fans and sycophantic music industry executives who stand to make money from his success don’t give a shit, and it’s for that reason that Wallen’s double album Dangerous is No. 1 on Billboard’s Top 200 Albums year-end chart, ahead of Rodrigo’s Sour and Pop Smoke’s posthumous album Shoot For the Stars, Aim For the Moon.

But there is a silver lining: the Jonas Brothers and Maren Morris were both cemented into Billboard’s year-end Hot 100 Songs chart. The former’s “Leave Before You Love Me,” a collaborative track with famed producer and Spirit Halloween costume Marshmello, charted at No. 63, just as Morris’ and Ryan Hurd’s collaborative track “Chasing After You” landed two notches above at No. 61.

Billboard Hot 100 Songs – 2021
Dua Lipa – “Levitating”
The Weeknd and Ariana Grande – “Save Your Tears”
The Weeknd – “Blinded By the Lights”
24kGoldn ft. iann dior – “Mood”
Olivia Rodrigo – “good 4 u”

Billboard Top Artists – 2021
Drake
Olivia Rodrigo
The Weeknd
Taylor Swift
Morgan Wallen

Billboard 200 Albums – 2021
Morgan Wallen – Dangerous: The Double Album
Olivia Rodrigo – Sour
Pop Smoke – Shoot For the Stars, Aim For the Moon
Taylor Swift – Evermore
Drake – Certified Lover Boy

Spotify Most Streamed Artists Globally – 2021
Bad Bunny
Taylor Swift
BTS
Drake
Justin Bieber

Spotify Most Streamed Songs Globally – 2021
Olivia Rodrigo – “drivers license”
Lil Nas X – “MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)”
The KID LAROI – “STAY (ft. Justin Bieber)”
Olivia Rodrigo – “good 4 u”
Dua Lipa – “Levitating (ft. DaBaby)”

Spotify Most Streamed Albums Globally – 2021
Olivia Rodrigo – Sour
Dua Lipa – Future Nostalgia
Justin Bieber – Justice
Ed Sheeran – =
Doja Cat – Planet Her