In our weekly feature “THE WEEKLY,” music critic Seo Seongdeok takes stock of the biggest developments in the music industry each week. Catch up on the latest stories in music, from major artist moves to notable new releases, “Billboard” chart highlights, and more.
Rod Wave returns to No. 1 on the “Billboard” 200
Rod Wave’s new album “Don’t Look Down” debuted at No. 1 on the “Billboard” 200 chart dated September 12. All eight of his albums have been Top 10 hits, starting with his 2019 debut, “Ghetto Gospel.” It’s also his fourth No. 1. “Don’t Look Down” opened with 99,000 album equivalent units in its first week, 90,000 of which came from 95.1 million streams, placing it atop the streaming chart. The album sold 9,000 copies, No. 13 for the week. A total of 16 songs off the album charted on the Hot 100, bringing his current total to 107 and making him the 24th artist to reach triple digits. 19 of those songs reached the Top 40, with his highest being “Tombstone,” which peaked at No. 11.
Even with four No. 1 albums under his belt, Wave has yet to have a Top 10 hit on the Hot 100. “Tombstone” didn’t turn into a radio hit either. His is one of several cases where ongoing success comes not from individual breakout songs but devoted fans who keep the artist’s entire catalog in rotation. A similar pattern can be observed across today’s American pop music landscape. Zach Bryan is a prime example, where over the past three years, he’s placed more songs on the “Billboard” year-end streaming chart than any country artist outside of Morgan Wallen. Still, he hasn’t landed a single song on the year-end radio chart in that same time frame. Even so, his concert in Michigan last September sold 112,408 tickets, setting a new record for the most attended ticketed concert in US history.
Streaming can take that deep dedication to an artist’s catalog and translate it into hard numbers, even without a radio-friendly single. After all, TikTok pays dividends on a single, striking line that users can repurpose to relate to their own lives. That’s why artists working in confessional territory can bypass radio entirely and still build a rock-solid fanbase through a direct connection with listeners. And Rod Wave is the hip hop version of that same phenomenon.
The path’s similar, but the material’s different. The confessional style that comes down from country/folk is built on the singer-songwriter tradition. Wave, on the other hand, does so through his vocal performances rather than being about his personal experiences exclusively. As he stressed in an interview back in August, when he bares his soul, it’s testimony, and it’s real. In the Black church, testimony is the part of the service where someone recounts a personal journey of hardship and recovery. It’s probably no coincidence that he titled his debut album “Ghetto Gospel.”
Alex Warren achieves a new personal best on the “Billboard” 200
Alex Warren’s sophomore album, “WILDCHILD,” entered the “Billboard” 200 at No. 2. That beats the No. 5 debut of his first album, “You’ll Be Alright, Kid,” for a personal best. “WILDCHILD” moved 75,000 units in its first week, with 55,000 copies sold, landing it atop the Top Album Sales chart. 20.7 million streams accounted for 20,000 units and placed the album at No. 25 on the Top Streaming Albums chart.
It all started with the now-famous “Ordinary.” Released in February 2025, the song spent 10 weeks at No. 1 on the “Billboard” Hot 100. It held No. 1 on Radio Songs for 27 weeks, tying Shaboozey’s hit “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” for the longest reign of all time. On Pop Airplay, its 16 weeks at No. 1 broke the 14-week record Ace of Base had held since 1994 thanks to “The Sign.” He even earned a Best New Artist nomination at this year’s Grammys. Critics, though, have been stingy with the praise the whole time. On websites like Album of the Year, the stigma of his influencer past feeds straight into accusations that his music is specifically written to be picked up by the algorithm. The Grammys, meanwhile, didn’t send the record-breaking “Ordinary” artist home with a single trophy.
Reviews of “WILDCHILD” have been divided. Some praise the album for its sincerity and warmth, or else its experimentation with genre, while cautiously noting that Warren’s still finding his sound. Others call it merely inoffensive, saying it artificially forces emotions with dramatic arrangements. If the two sides agree on anything, it’s that the new album—featuring Nile Rodgers and John Mayer—features a broader musical sound than before. One thing’s for sure—Warren isn’t afraid of cliches. He pushes back against the cynicism with an attitude that says he values the ordinary. The fans buying his albums agree, and there are more and more of them every day.
KAROL G proves the power of Latin music
KAROL G’s song “BbY WOW,” with Judeline and rusowsky, jumped from No. 5 to No. 1 on the “Billboard” Global 200 chart. It’s her second Global 200 No. 1, following “TQG” with Shakira in 2023. The song racked up 42.3 million streams globally in a single week, making it the most-streamed song in the world. It also jumped from No. 10 all the way to No. 1 on the Global Excl. US chart.
What’s really notable is the song it bumped from the top. Shakira and Burna Boy’s song “Dai Dai,” the official theme of the 2026 World Cup, had been at the top of the Global 200 for seven weeks since July. And now, one Colombian woman took the crown from another. Latin music continuing to reign over the global charts proves its popularity isn’t a fluke—it’s become a constant of the market. Add in the fact that Judeline and rusowsky, both from the Spanish alternative scene, just earned their first-ever chart-topper together, and the fact that “BbY WOW” samples Jamaican dancehall producer Cordel “Scatta” Burrell’s classic “Coolie Dance Riddim,” and this No. 1 starts to look less like one artist’s triumph and more like several people from the fringe breaking into the center all at once.
Of course, KAROL G was already a star of the genre. In 2023, she became the first woman to take an all-Spanish album to No. 1 on the “Billboard” 200 with “MAÑANA SERÁ BONITO.” She followed the album up that same year with another that hit No. 3, making her the first artist to land two Spanish-language albums in the Top 10 in a single year. Earlier this year, she became the first Latin artist to headline Coachella. She announced her world tour right after, and according to organizers, it’ll make her the first Latin artist to play stadiums across Europe as part of a global tour. KAROL G works her Latin identity right into the structure of her shows, too. As seen when she brought out Peso Pluma, Becky G, J Balvin, and Ryan Castro at Coachella, she treats her own success as something the whole scene has a stake in—an attitude that was condensed into a single song that the world gladly sent to No. 1.