I can tell you that will.i.am went to raves as a kid, that he knew the history of intersection moments between rap and dance music. I can tell you how the Black Eyed Peas built a shameless brand over the decade, how the unexpected pop stardom of group member Fergie benefitted the rest of the Peas. I can tell you how the 2008 economic collapse left millions of young Americans in desperate financial straits and about how those young Americans turned to shiny, frictionless European club sounds for consolation - how that sensationalistic inebriation-soundtrack shit hit the zeitgeist. I can point out the currents that led to that moment. It seemed strange in the moment, and it seems even stranger in retrospect. Somehow, though, they rose up to absolutely dominate the pop charts, both in America and around the world, for half of the 2009 calendar year. They’d been fluffy alt-rap also-rans and even-fluffier pop-rap punchlines. When the Black Eyed Peas reached #1 for the first time, the group had been around for many years. When it comes to the Black Eyed Peas, though, I have no idea. I write this column because it’s fun to trace the social and musical threads that brought all these songs to the top of the mountain. I’m reviewing these songs - talking about if I think they’re any good or not - but the song’s story is usually a whole lot more interesting than whatever my opinion might be. How did this song cut through the noise and, however briefly, become the most popular single in America? That’s what I’m always trying to figure out. How did this happen? If this column has a point - debatable - then it’s that question. Book Bonus Beat: The Number Ones: Twenty Chart-Topping Hits That Reveal the History of Pop Music.
In The Number Ones, I’m reviewing every single #1 single in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, starting with the chart’s beginning, in 1958, and working my way up into the present.
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