By Elias Leight, Wall Street Journal | Michael Jackson showed off his signature move, the moonwalk, on television in 1983, skimming backwards across the stage to his No. 1 hit “Billie Jean.” On May 14, almost exactly 43 years later, the track was No. 1 again, prancing to the top of Spotify’s global chart following the release of the biopic “Michael.” Jackson’s toughest competition for streaming supremacy has come from Justin Bieber’s 2012 single “Beauty and a Beat.” Dominic Fike’s “Babydoll,” which came out in 2018, has lingered in the top 10 after crowning the chart in March.
It’s a record year for oldies. More listeners across generations are turning to songs from the past, according to “Retro Revival,” a new report from the entertainment-data company Luminate.
Spotify has observed a similar trend: From January through April, around one out of every three streams on Spotify went to songs at least a decade old, and roughly one out of every six went to a track at least two decades old. Affinity for older tunes is up significantly from 2016, which marked the peak “for new music dominance on Spotify,” according to a company spokesman. He called 2026 “the most nostalgic year” in the history of the platform, which launched in the U.S. in 2011.
“There’s a lot less friction to discovering new songs,” said Matt Bailey, founder of the music analytics company Hit Momentum. “You have people in their 20s who are getting nostalgic for 10 years ago—they’re remembering those good times back when things were simpler. And there’s kind of been a malaise with current music that makes older music more attractive.”
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Read more here – Article has photos & videos:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/news/the-biggest-hits-on-spotify-right-now-are-from-the-past/
Write to Elias Leight at elias.leight@wsj.com
[“Everything old is new again???”]
Michael Jackson Songs Debut on April 2026 Top Movie Songs Chart
By Kevin Rutherford, Billboard
The release of the Michael Jackson biopic Michael spells a strong debut on Billboard’s Top Movie Songs chart, powered by Tunefind (a Songtradr company), with four Jackson classics debuting on the April 2026 list.
Rankings for the Top Movie Songs chart are based on song and film data provided by Tunefind and ranked using a formula blending that data with sales and streaming information tracked by Luminate during the corresponding period of April 2026. The ranking generally includes newly released films from the preceding three months, with exceptions given to movies whose music is still experiencing a high volume of public interest.
Released on April 24, Michael has snagged sizable catalog gains for both Jackson and family groups Jackson 5/The Jacksons, earning Jackson four solo appearances on the April 2026 chart despite the movie coming out just six days before the end of the month’s tracking period (which is to say, stay tuned for May 2026’s edition).
“Billie Jean,” a seven-week No. 1 on the weekly Billboard Hot 100 for Jackson in 1983, paces the group at No. 3, having scored 32.9 million chart-eligible streams and selling 4,000 downloads in the United States in April 2026, according to Luminate.
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Read the rest of the article here:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/michael-jackson-songs-debut-on-april-2026-top-movie-songs-chart/
