State of the Chart, Mid-Year 2025

What were some of the most notable trends on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart in the first half of 2025?

Hit Songs Deconstructed, which provides compositional analytics for top 10 Hot 100 hits, has released its Mid-Year 2025 State of the Hot 100 Top 10 report.

Here are five takeaways from Hit Songs Deconstructed’s latest in-depth research.

Country Surges Past Hip-Hop & Pop

In the first six months of 2025, country was the most common primary genre in the Hot 100’s top 10, contributing to 29% of all top 10 hits.

Hit Songs Deconstructed notes the genre’s “dramatic rise from just 4% in 2021–22. This surge was driven largely by Morgan Wallen, who appeared on nine of the 11 country top 10s” from this January through June.

Also, notably, Latin songs, which had no presence in the Hot 100’s top 10 in 2024, rebounded to an 8% share in the first half of 2025 thanks to three Bad Bunny hits: “Baile Inolvidable,” “DtMF” and “Nuevayol.”

If country holds on through the end of the year, it will make for a new genre champion. Looking back through the past decade, hip-hop led in 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2024, while pop wrapped on top in 2016, 2019, 2021 and 2023.

As for hip-hop and pop in the Hot 100’s top 10 over the first six months of 2025, both fell in prominence. “Pop has been on a general decline since 2020, decreasing from 40% of songs to just 24% during the first half 2025,” Hit Songs Deconstructed analyzes. “Hip-hop, after rising to 38% in 2024, dropped back to 26%.”

Solo, So High

“Songs with a solo lead vocalist continued to rise for the fifth straight year, reaching their highest level in over a decade, at 74%” of Hot 100 top 10s in the first half of 2025, Hit Songs Deconstructed finds. “Conversely, songs with multiple lead vocalists dropped to their lowest level during the same time period at just over one-quarter.”

Hot 100 top 10s with multiple lead singers last held a majority in 2021, eking out a 51% – 49% win. Such No. 1s that year included The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber’s “Stay” and Lil Nas X and Jack Harlow’s “Industry Baby.”

From this January through June, while two duets logged lengthy runs atop the Hot 100 — Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s “Luther” (13 weeks) and Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ “Die With a Smile” (five weeks) — Wallen (nine top 10s) has helped boost the share of top 10 hits by solo lead vocalists, along with, in addition to Bad Bunny, three each by Sabrina Carpenter and Drake.

A Major Development

“For the first time in a decade, top 10s in a major key surpassed those in a minor key, with a 53% – 45% split between them,” Hit Songs Deconstructed notes of the Hot 100 during the first half of 2025. (Top 10s driven by both keys have ranged between 0% and 3% over the past five years.)

Digging deeper, the mid-year report finds that despite the climb for major-key Hot 100 top 10s, the two most common keys were both minor: F-sharp minor and A minor, accounting for 13% and 11% of songs, respectively. Three of the five top 10s in F# minor peaked at No. 1: “4×4” by Travis Scott, “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey and “Lose Control” by Teddy Swims.

Introspection Increased

What did Hot 100 top 10s sound like, lyrically, in the first six months of 2025?

“The theme of introspection rose to its highest level in over a decade, at 42% of songs,” Hit Songs Deconstructed’s report shows. “The theme traversed an array of genres and styles,” via songs including Doechii’s “Anxiety,” Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club” and Wallen’s “Smile.”

Introspective songs have bounded from a 33% share of Hot 100 top 10s in 2024 and a 12% take in 2022.

Roomy Writers’ Rooms

“Songwriting teams of five or more writers accounted for 61% of 2025’s top 10s, up notably from 37% in 2024,” per Hit Songs Deconstructed’s Hot 100 review.

“Conversely, those credited to a single writer dropped from 10% to 5% of songs — both attributed to Drake: “Nokia” and “Gimme a Hug,” the mid-year research reveals.

The next most common totals of songwriters behind Hot 100 top 10s in the first half of 2025 after five-plus: two (16%), three (11%) and four (8%).

Groups of five or more writers have dominated this decade, also leading in 2023 (38%), 2022 (54%) and 2021 (56%). No other combination in that period has claimed more than 23% of Hot 100 top 10s (two writers in 2024).

Meanwhile, producer teams of two were the most represented over the first half of 2025, with a 32% share of top 10s. Twosomes likewise led for all of 2024 (27%), 2023 (41%) and 2022 (40%).