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Chances are that every week you find yourself reading music-related articles and youl come across multiple mentions of how a song or album is performing on the charts. A song might be topping Billlboard Hot 100. Or an album may have made a landmark jump to the top of the Billboard 200. But what does it all mean? What can be revealed by analyzing the rises, falls and trend on the charts? We’re here to help. Read below to find out what the latest chart action is showing, what it means, and which artists are moving to the top of the pack.

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Carly Rae Is Here To Stay (and so is Feel-Good Pop): If you’ve turned on a radio in the last month or so you’ve undoubtedly heard the smash single “Call Me (Maybe)” from Canadian pop star Carly Rae Jepsen. The fizzy feel-good hit rocketed out of left field into mainstream dominance. And now for the second week in a row it finds itself at Number One on the Billboard Hot 100. This isn’t Jepsen’s only triumph, however: she recently-released a new  single “Good Time” with Owl City that’s busted onto the scene and should be making an appearance on the charts next week. But more, what Jepsen’s recent dominance proves is that even amid a dance-music craze, there’s still room in listener’s aural appetite for straight-up feel-good pop music. “Call Me (Maybe)” isn’t a particularly groundbreaking song; there’ve been pop songs much akin to it for quite some time now. But there’s a reason why: syrupy pop will almost always have a long-lasting appeal to the teenage market. To that end, we don’t expect Carly Rae to be dropping off the charts anytime soon.
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But Dance Music Is Still King: There’s simply no denying the fact that electronic dance music has made a full-scale invasion of the pop universe. And the Hot 100 is as good of evidence as any of this trend: Rihanna’s “Where Have You Been” sits at Number 5, Ellie Goulding’s “Lights” is at Number Six, Nicki MInaj’s “starships” landed at Number Eight and Usher’s “Scream” its at Number 10 The point? All of these songs have a major dance element to them. There are many theories as to why dance music has erupted in the mainstream. But the one that makes the most sense to us is that in a time of economic struggle people just want to feel good. And nothing perks up one’s spirits like bopping your head and shaking what your momma gave ya.
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The Biebs Is Back: If there was ever any question as to whether Justin Bieber could still move units, the massive debut of his new album Believe put any doubts quickly to rest. Bieber’s third album debuted at Number One on the Billboard 200 and became the year’s biggest chart debut selling more than 374,000 copies in its first week. This edges out Madonna, who sold 359,000 copies of MDNA in the album’s first week of release back in March. What Bieber’s impressive first week also shows is that his fans are growing with him. The risk of a teenage pop star is always that his or her younger fans will start to drift as the artist gets older. However, the maturation of Bieber’s voice, coupled with his increasing emphasis on dance music (surprise, surprise) has helped him keep his loyal fans right by his side.
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The Party Never Stops: When LMFAO dropped “Party Rock Anthem” in 2011, few could have predicted the insane future success of the song. And now it’s even setting records: “Party Rock” has now been on the Hot 100 charts for 66 straight weeks. This makes it the longest time a Number One hit has remained on the Hot 100 chart. It also now puts it in third place behind only Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours” and LeAnn Rimes‘ “How Do I Live” for the longest consecutive appearance in the Hot 100 regardless of peak position. LMFAO have also had another major Number One hit in “Sexy And I Know It” which departed the chart this week after 42 consecutive appearances. What does this tell us? Simple: people love to party.