It may seem incredible, but Tame Impala has just entered the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time in its career. It has done so with its latest single, ‘Dracula’, a psychedelic piece of alternative rock with touches of electronica. The fact that a song like this ranks as high as number 55 on the chart is rare, but it’s even stranger that it happened at this point in Kevin Parker’s career.
‘Dracula’ sits right between Billie Eilish’s ‘WILDFLOWER’ (#54) and Doja Cat’s ‘Gorgeous’ (#56). The rest of the list is made up of pop bops, too many country songs and some rarities that could be close to the alternative nature of Tame Impala and that can be counted on the fingers of one hand.
There’s ‘MUTT’ by Leon Thomas, which surprises being on the verge of the top 10 with an alternative R&B released a year ago. Of course, the work of TikTok. Further down the list we find ‘Sugar On My Tongue’ by Tyler, the Creator, whose 90s groove ranks at number 46.
At number 69 is the new ‘Ninja’ by Young Thug, which just by listening to the first seconds you can clearly understand why it is so viral. At number 70, the ‘Marlboro Rojo’ run stands out as the only representation of the genre on the list, while Radiohead’s ‘Let Down’ at number 91 takes the cake when it comes to alternative music on the Hot 100.
That is why it is even more worthwhile that Parker has achieved a mid-table position with a song that, in principle, does not sound so special in the context of his discography. ‘Currents’ reached number 4 on the Billboard 200 and represents the first example of the Tame Impala sound we know today.
There’s ‘The Less I Know The Better’, with more than 2 billion listens, or ‘Let It Happen’, approaching 800 million. None reached the top at the time. Not to mention ‘New Person, Same Old Mistakes’, which was covered by Rihanna just a year later. Not even the contagion effect helped. ‘The Slow Rush’ improved the mark by reaching third place, but the result on the hit list was the same. So why now?
‘Loser’, the second after ‘Deadbeat’, sounds like a kind of rehash of everything Parker had been doing. On the other hand, the extensive ‘End Of Summer’ finds the Australian artist experimenting with house. ‘Dracula’, however, hits that ‘sweet spot’ between these two sounds. Even so, there is no TikTok trend significant enough to elevate its presence on the list so much. Could this be the beginning of Tame Impala’s more commercial era?
Tame Impala will present their new album on April 7 at the Movistar Arena in Madrid and on April 8 at the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona. JENESAISPOP is official media.
