Music

When Fans Choose The “Single”

by Ky Stewart  8 November 2023
when fans choose the singles harry styles taylor swift olivia rodrigo lorde marina one direction le sserafim

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Taylor Swift fans are notorious for a lot of things but mostly for making Taylor’s songs dominate the charts. That’s because when Swifties set their minds to something, they go out and do it. What’s interesting though is the songs that chart aren’t necessarily the lead singles chosen by Taylor. 

For the second time in history, there are no men in the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 this week after Taylor Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version) smashed the chart. The only other time this happened was when Taylor released Midnights last year. 

Although it’s a big slay for women in the industry, the Hot 100 chart is literally just Taylor Swift right now. The other two artists are Doja Cat and SZA. Taylor’s ‘Is It Over Now?’ snatched the top spot, dethroning her ‘Cruel Summer’, which spent two weeks at Number 1. She’s now the only woman to replace herself twice at the top of the Hot 100. I think we should harness the power of Swifties to solve climate change or end world hunger.

You’ll notice that neither ‘Is It Over Now?’ and ‘Cruel Summer’ are lead singles from their respective albums. Obviously the former is an unreleased song but the latter was notoriously not a single from Lover. After intense fan pressure, it was released as a single four years after the album’s release. But this isn’t the first time fans have exerted their influence to make a song popular even if it wasn’t shown much love by the artist originally. 

One Direction – ‘No Control’ 

I had to go into One Direction Wiki to find this one out. It’s not a place I ever thought I’d end up but hey, here we are. The things I do for you. 

Anyways, ‘No Control’ is one of most notable songs that fans went wild for even though the band didn’t promote it as a single. Usually when a record label or artist chooses singles from an album, they get more radio play, music videos, and act as the public representation of the album. Fans are lucky if an artist decides to make a music video for a non-single. That’s why Directioners started a campaign called #ProjectNoControl. The song appears on the band’s fourth studio album Four and was the first time Louis Tomlinson was the primary vocal lead in the chorus. Interestingly enough, Louis wrote the song with Liam Payne — that’s a fun little duo. 

For context, fans started to push ‘No Control’ after Zayn Malik and producer Naughty Boy fought with Louis online (I miss 2015). Naughty Boy implied that Louis wasn’t as good a performer as the rest of the band and One Directioner’s weren’t having a bar of that. Fans started tweeting in support of the song, calling radio stations all over the world to play the song. In 2015, ‘No Control’ won a Teen Choice Award, the first non-single to do so. See what happens when like minded people come together to achieve a common goal? Beautiful. 

Lorde – ‘Ribs’ and ‘Supercut’ 

It actually makes me sick knowing that ‘Ribs’ wasn’t a single from Pure Heroine. My darling Tumblr days were filled with this song on repeat. I do wonder, however, how much of a beloved following ‘Ribs’ would’ve had if it had been a single. It almost feels like it should be left in the album for people to be sucker punched when the anxiety of growing up seeps into their pores. Even Lorde’s mum loves ‘Ribs’, which was inspired after her parents went away and they threw a party. In my opinion ‘Buzzcut Season’ is one of her best from that album but ‘Ribs’ will always be in a league of its own. 

You’d think that Lorde would’ve learnt to release good singles after the ‘Ribs’ debacle. When she released ‘Green Light’ as the lead single from Melodrama we were on a good track. That’s until the album came out and everyone fell in love with ‘Supercut’. It’s widely considered the best song from Melodrama and is Lorde’s best selling non-single from the album in the US. A few fans actually speculate that Lorde purposefully under-promoted Melodrama and that’s why ‘Supercut’ wasn’t released as a single. 

Katy Perry – ‘Walking On Air’

I’ve already gushed about my love for ‘Walking On Air’ and my anger that it wasn’t the second single from Katy Perry’s PRISM. Even though ‘Dark Horse’ is an incredible song I strongly believe that the album would have been received a lot better if ‘Walking On Air’ was a single instead of ‘This Is How We Do’. The song is truly beloved by the fan base. It’s almost an unanimous opinion that it should have been a single or at least had a music video. 

MARINA – ‘Bubblegum Bitch’

Electra Heart is an album that changed a lot of people’s lives (including mine) back in 2012. The album and MARINA became one of Tumblr’s obsessions. With bright and fluffy sounds, rather dark and sad themes and lyrics, Electra Heart continues to capture the hearts of all who listen to it. Besides ‘Primadonna’, the album’s three singles weren’t necessarily the best songs from the album (shocker). One such song is ‘Bubblegum Bitch’, which is now MARINA’s most streamed song on Spotify. 

Given how iconic the ‘Primadonna’ and ‘How to Be a Heartbreaker’ music videos are (they helped me realise I was gay), I truly mourn what we could have had with a ‘Bubblegum Bitch’ music video. 

Olivia Rodrigo – ‘all american bitch’ and ‘lacy’

Olivia’s GUTS single run was a little odd. ‘vampire’ did well to sell the album, as did ‘bad idea right?’ but ‘get him back!’ didn’t hit as well as the first two. It made a lot of people wonder why ‘all american bitch’ or ‘lacy’ weren’t chosen as singles from Olivia’s sophomore album. We ranked both songs among the best in Olivia’s entire discography and yet we will never get a music video for them. ‘all american bitch’ lends itself perfectly to a music video because it’s literally filled with feminine rage — a rage that has garnered a deep love and respect from fans. 

LE SSERAFIM – ‘Sour Grapes’

When I asked fellow Junkee writer Lia Kim about songs that are fan favourites without being singles, she informed me of the long list of K-Pop songs that have a cult following. Here’s what she said: 

The ‘B-sides that are better than the title tracks’ discussion is a long-running trend in K-Pop that I’ll always appreciate for introducing me to songs like ‘Sour Grapes’ by LE SSERAFIM. Honestly, it’s always a win-win. Either you join the B-side truthers and tell anyone who will listen that ‘Sour Grapes’ is far superior to ‘Fearless’ at showing off LE SSERAFIM’s gorgeous vocals and unique, heavenly vibes, or you can still enjoy the pure bop of ‘Fearless’. 

Harry Styles – ‘Medicine’

This one is a little different because technically the song was never officially released, but Harry continues to play it at live shows. Every time he performs it, some footage of people thirsting after it will end up on my TikTok, mostly because it’s a queer-coded song many herald as a bisexual anthem. 

Harry said that he probably wouldn’t release it because it’s not where he’s at sonically anymore but I’m sure if fans push like they did during Project No Control something might happen. 

Ky is a proud Kamilaroi and Dharug person and writer at Junkee. Follow them on Instagram or on X.

Image: Spotify / Helene Marie Pambrun / Beth Garrabrant