Harry Styles and Ella Langley nab the top spots on this week's Billboard 200 albums chart and Hot 100 singles chart, respectively. But the week's most intriguing performance belongs to unclassifiable roots-music maverick Sturgill Simpson, whose new album debuts at No. 3 without the benefit of digital sales, availability on streaming services or even the singer's own name on the sleeve.
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The rise of streaming services has changed the Billboard charts in ways too numerous to list here. Suffice it to say that streaming is a profound driver of chart success, to the point where vanishingly few titles are released without being made available on major streaming services.
When that does happen, it's usually for titles that are limited-run pressings like Taylor Swift's Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions, which came out on vinyl in 2023 as part of a special, 75,000-copy run for Record Store Day. That record sold out within its first week, hit No. 3 and disappeared from the chart immediately thereafter, since no further copies were available to purchase. That was the last time an album not available for streaming charted in Billboard's top 10 — until this week.
Mutiny After Midnight is the new album by an artist who goes by the name "Johnny Blue Skies," though he's far better known as Sturgill Simpson. A wild card who's dabbled in everything from bluegrass and country to psychedelia and music for anime, Simpson decided to release Mutiny After Midnight exclusively on vinyl, cassette and CD. (He did let fans listen by leaking it briefly to YouTube.) It was a commercially risky move for an artist who's become defined by his unpredictability and fearlessness — and this week, that move pays off in the form of a No. 3 debut, thanks to 59,000 copies sold.
Simpson has released nine vastly different albums in his eclectic career, but Mutiny After Midnight is only his second to crack the Billboard 200's top 10. In fact, it's his first since A Sailor's Guide to Earth all the way back in 2016. That suggests that staying off streaming services actually improved Simpson's chart fortunes: After all, Mutiny After Midnight's predecessor — 2024's Passage du Desir, also released under the Johnny Blue Skies moniker — peaked at No. 29. (The three records he'd released prior to that, all under his own name, each fell just short of the top 20.)
The strong debut of Mutiny After Midnight suggests a possible path for other artists like Simpson — iconoclasts who don't love streaming, have attracted passionate fan bases and want their music to feel like an event that requires active listening. For many artists, streaming almost certainly prevents more purchases (at least in the first week) than it facilitates, with the tradeoff being exposure to more casual listeners.
Mutiny After Midnight is likely to experience a steep drop on next week's chart. But in the meantime, Simpson (er, Blue Skies) has at least momentarily upended the way music is released — and benefited handsomely in the process.
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Johnny Blue Skies isn't the only artist to debut in this week's top 10. P1Harmony's Unique EP lands right behind Mutiny After Midnight at No. 4 — that's the K-pop group's highest-ever chart position after its previous record (EX) peaked at No. 9 last year. The band's streaming numbers were minimal, so its chart run is likely to be short, but as Sturgill Simpson is out here teaching us, there's more to life than a robust audience on Spotify and Apple Music.
At the top of the chart, Harry Styles' Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally. holds at No. 1, though a 92% drop in sales — which were humongous last week, but obviously don't carry over — has helped bring it back down to earth. Look for it to be swept out of the top spot next week when BTS's long-awaited surefire blockbuster ARIRANG bursts onto the charts.
There's also a curious micro-phenomenon worth noting near the bottom of the Billboard 200. Those who watch the reality TV competition Survivor might remember last week's episode, in which a truly shocking amount of screen time went to country singer Zac Brown — not to be confused with Zach Bryan, who's not to be confused with Luke Bryan. Brown is, it turns out, a Survivor fan, so he showed up to … um, do a lot of spear-fishing, talk quite a bit, perform a few songs and inspire various contestants to expound on how much Zac Brown's music has meant to them. Who knew the "Chicken Fried" guy was chicken soup for so many Survivor players' souls?
Well, the gambit paid off for Brown himself, enough for the Zac Brown Band's 2014 compilation Greatest Hits So Far… to re-enter this week's Billboard 200 at No. 193. Survivor is currently airing its 50th season, and even now, it's got the power to make records reappear on the Billboard charts.
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Once again, country singer Ella Langley tops this week's Hot 100, as "Choosin' Texas" posts a fourth nonconsecutive week atop the chart. It's an impressive run buoyed by steady sales: The song has been selling about 6,000 copies each week, which is a solid number these days — solid enough, in fact, to help keep poor Olivia Dean at No. 2 for the fifth week with "Man I Need." On the plus side for Dean, she actually lands her second-ever top 10 hit this week, as "So Easy (To Fall in Love)" climbs to No. 9.
There are a few other notable moves on this week's Hot 100, including steep jumps into the top 20 for Bella Kay ("iloveitiloveitiloveit" at No. 18) and Dominic Fike ("Babydoll" at No. 19). Neither artist had so much cracked the top 40 before — though Fike's song "White Keys" also climbs to No. 40 this week — so it's worth watching to see if their momentum continues in the coming weeks and months. It's never too early to get the ball rolling on Kay and Fike's respective "song of the summer" campaigns.
A few big names also debut on this week's chart, each with new songs. "Porch Light," the second single from Noah Kahan's forthcoming album, debuts at No. 20, while "Dry Spell," the lead track from Kacey Musgraves' next record, opens at No. 55. Neither number looks spectacular at first glance, but Kahan and Musgraves both have long promotional campaigns ahead of them as their album releases approach.
The news is grimmer for another recent chart mainstay. Jack Harlow, a Kentucky-born rapper who's posted three No. 1 hits in this decade, is experiencing a rough start with his new album, Monica. The record dropped March 13 and debuts at No. 40 on this week's Billboard 200; it's Harlow's first studio album to fall short of the top 10. And Monica's only song to reach the Hot 100, "Trade Places," debuts at No. 91. That's a far cry from the chart success he was experiencing as recently as early 2024, when "Lovin on Me" posted its sixth week at No. 1.
Things change quickly around here.
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