Every year, Hit Songs Deconstructed publishes its year-end trend report, which takes an in-depth look at compositional and industry-related trends for the previous year's Billboard Hot 100 Top 10.

In 2019, there were 58 songs, 57 credited performing artists, 236 credited songwriters, 90 credited producers, and 14 record labels that landed in the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100.

15 songs charted at #1, 11 of which were Pop, three Hip Hop and one R&B. In 2018, the vast majority of #1s were Hip Hop songs.

Post Malone was the top artist of 2019, with six Top 10 hits and two #1s. Equally impressive is that he had at least one of his songs in the Top 10 throughout almost the entire year (51 weeks). Malone was also a credited writer on all six of his songs. Louis Bell was the top behind-the-scenes writer for the second year in a row, scoring eight Top 10 hits, six of which were co-written with Post Malone, and four #1 hits.

Republic was the dominant record label for the sixth straight year with 19 Top 10 hits. The majority of its hits were Pop songs as opposed to Hip Hop – the opposite of what it was in 2018.

And speaking of Pop, as a primary genre its popularity skyrocketed from one quarter of songs in 2018 to almost half in 2019, surpassing Hip Hop for the first time since 2016. However, as a sub-genre influencing the sound of songs across primary genres, Hip Hop remained the most popular for the third straight year, including playing a role in half of non-Hip Hop genre hits.

Some other notable trend shifts in 2019 were Alt/Indie as a sub-genre almost tripling in prominence during the second half of the year, more love/relationship themed lyrics, an increase in non-electronic instrumentation, and the percentage of songs landing under three-minutes in length skyrocketing in popularity. Outside of the Hip Hop genre, songs in a major key surpassed those in a minor key for the first time since 2015.

What other compositional characteristics were trending in the Hot 100 Top 10 in 2019? Where has the mainstream music scene been and where is it headed?

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