5 Things We Learned From Travis Scott Debuting at No. 1 Again

Travis Scott became the first ever artist to debut three songs at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in one year, with "Franchise." Here are five things we learned.

Travis Scott
YouTube

Image via YouTube/Travis Scott

Travis Scott

Travis Scott broke another record.

When his new single, "Franchise," debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 this week, Travis became the first artist to ever debut three No. 1 songs on the chart within the span of a year. It's the fourth No. 1 song of his career.

The accomplishment is the latest sign that Travis has transitioned into a global star, but if you spend a little time digging behind the numbers, there's a lot more you can learn about both Travis' career right now and the current state of the music industry. From insights about the charts to revelations about the Houston rapper becoming too big to fail (commercially, at least) here are five things we learned from Travis Scott's latest achievement.

When "Franchise" dropped, it wasn't met with unanimous praise from critics. In fact, it wasn't even received with the usual breathless praise we expect to see from his most devoted fans. Critics shrugged at the safe but unremarkable sonic direction of the song, and his own fans filled comment sections with complaints about M.I.A.'s verse, sharing five-word reviews like, "Wait, this is kinda mid." The song isn't terrible by any means, but it doesn't have the kind of big catchy hook you might expect from a single of this magnitude, or any obvious quotables to latch onto. Unlike Travis' first No. 1 hit, "Sicko Mode," it didn't light the internet up in conversations or memes, either. It's just a fine song with a cool video. That's what made the No. 1 debut a little surprising to see on Monday.

This shows us just how massive of an artist Travis Scott has become. Following a record-breaking Fortnite show, a McDonald's partnership, and a song in a summer blockbuster, Travis has multiplied the exposure of his brand and firmly entrenched himself as a global figure. If your grandma didn't already know who he was in January, she knows who he is now. She saw him on the news when her local TV network did a story about video games that she didn't quite understand, and she saw him again on the drive-thru menu at McDonald's. At this moment in time, at least, his commercial success feels inevitable and the actual music might be secondary. When Travis Scott drops a song, an unprecedented amount of people are going to at least check it out. And even if it doesn't blow fans away on first listen, most will keep listening, as long as it's not repulsive. No matter how many "mid" comments you might read, Travis is set up for commercial success every time he releases something. He's pop star at the height of his powers, and the team around him is exceptionally good at selling his product (more on that in a moment). Expect more No. 1s in his future.

This summer, Billboard introduced new rules intended to discourage artists from bundling free digital albums with merchandise to inflate sales numbers. At first, it looked like this would hurt artists like Travis Scott the most, because he has a large group of fans who want to get their hands on any piece of physical good he sells (even McNugget body pillows). Looking at the first-week numbers for "Franchise," though, it seems Travis' team has come up with a new plan. As reported by Billboard, here's a breakdown of the song's consumption so far: "'Franchise' opens with 19.4 million U.S. streams and 98,000 sold (58,000 on cassette and CD; 40,000 digital downloads) in its first week."

Read those numbers again. 58,000 people purchased a cassette tape or a CD. Let me say that one more time. 58,000 people purchased a cassette tape or a CD that had only one song on it in the year 2020. That's incredible. Travis knows his fans loyally purchase cool products, so he commissioned George Condo to create eye-catching artwork and sold reasonably affordable CDs for $6 each and cassettes for $8 each, as collector's items. He knew most of his fans aren't going to play these cassettes. The majority of them don't even have cassette players! But he knew they would want a physical piece of the song that they could hold in their hands as a collector's item. And he knew that it would count towards his sales totals. It worked, and he topped the charts. Of course, not everyone has a fan base like Travis Scott's, and not everyone creates products that are as desirable (and resellable) as he does. But at a time when artists are trying to figure out ways to replace the old merch bundling model, this might be a trend we see a lot more in the months to come.

Have you ever been on Stan Twitter when Billboard updates one of its charts? It's a wild place. Be careful, or a stan army might try to cancel you. (Ask ASAP Ferg if you don't believe me). The same was true this week. In the days leading up to the new Billboard Hot 100 update, stan accounts were busy calculating projections for this week's chart. I don't know how they do it, but these projections are usually fairly accurate. This week, though, they were way off. Many projections had "Franchise" way down at No. 5 or No. 6, while BTS' "Dynamite" and Cardi B's Megan Thee Stallion-assisted "WAP" were in a neck-and-neck battle for the top spot. So, when Billboard announced that "Franchise" debuted at No. 1, Twitter was a mess. Lots of fans claimed Travis "cheated," which was reminiscent of Nicki Minaj's tweets back in 2018. There is, of course, no actual evidence that Travis cheated. Instead, this is another example of how confusing the charts are. The concept of what counts as a "sale" is very abstract, and with each update, the calculation methods become increasingly unclear. Fans are skeptical, and chart updates are routinely leading to the kind of widespread confusion that existed on Monday.

Travis' accomplishment wasn't the only new Billboard record that was set on Monday. "Franchise" is the ninth song to debut at No. 1 in 2020. That's more than double the previous record for debut songs in a single year (four songs debuted at the top of the chart in 1995 and 2018). Interestingly, Billboard reports that all nine of these songs have debuted at No. 1 since April, which means we're in the midst of an unprecedented moment in music. It appears that it's easier to debut at No. 1 than ever before. Until we've had a little more time to see this trend play out, it's difficult to pinpoint exactly why this is happening, but several factors might be at play here. The ability for a song to immediately land at the top of every major playlist the moment it drops likely has something to do with it. Clever physical sale models like Travis Scott's cassette tapes is another factor. And the immediate boost from viral music videos (see: Tekashi 6ix9nie) on the week of release also factors in. During an era of immediate gratification, will the art of the slow-building record die? Maybe. It'll be interesting to see how this trend develops over time. 

If it wasn't already clear, Travis has reached a new level of cultural saturation, and the massive first-week success of "Franchise," despite a lukewarm response from fans, proves he's in a new phase of his career. At this point, he doesn't necessarily need to release a revolutionary song that breaks the internet and makes all his fans happy to top the charts. Any time he drops music, an ungodly number of streams will follow because of the sheer volume of his fans, as well as his guaranteed place atop every playlist that matters. Fans will loyally buy up copies on his website, especially if there are any physical offerings. The real question is whether he can sustain success past strong opening week numbers. Will casual fans keep streaming these songs after a precursory listen? Both of his previous No. 1 singles, "The Scotts" and "Highest In the Room" quickly dropped out of the top 10 after their impressive debuts, so it's not guaranteed. According to Twitter accounts like Talk of the Charts, at least, "Franchise" is projected to see a similar drop this time. Regardless, Travis is a streaming monster, his overall level of fame is higher than ever, he's landing unheard-of sponsorship deals, and he's breaking records. When you consider he hasn't released a solo album since 2018 and this is all happening during a pandemic when he can't perform, it's even more impressive. This is a great time to be Travis Scott.

Latest in Music