Pop Sweep: November 3, 2012...

It's time to kick off today's five-part "chart sweeps" where I take a look at the new songs making their debut on the weekly music charts at Billboard magazine. This time out it's the pop side of the world...

On the all-genre inclusive Hot 100, Maroon 5 spent an incredible (for them) sixth week at #1 with "One More Night"...

The top debut this week at #13 is the last "preview" track from Taylor Swift's Red album to make the chart.Four of the five songs that have made the chart have been the highest debut, but "State Of Grace" is the first to miss the top-10, even though it's the second-biggest seller last week, shifting over 200 thousand copies. What's hilarious is that Billboard chose not to include this as a "country" song in their wacked new composite "Country Songs" chart, even though its no different from "Red", and a mile more "country"-tinged than the #1 "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" (I can even two-step to this). Maybe all the critique has settled in? I respect the editors position and appreciate them trying to explain this whole shift, but you really can't compare this to other singles chart changes since this is the first time they are broadly actively deciding what genre a particular song is in.  And while "State Of Grace" pulls greatly from current modern rock tones (of course why couldn't it be included in the "rock" songs chart), it proves the fallibility of their choice. And as much as I really am a fan of Taylor's music (if notsomuch her live performance), I think this promo tour is generating a lot of mainstream backlash that will ebb this tide.

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Jumping into the top-half at #50 is rapper T.I. (real name Clifford Harris) with the third track to make the Hot 100 from his upcoming album Trouble Man, "Ball", featuring Lil' Wayne. The hip-hop star now known more probably for his criminal record and reality show has scored two #1 hits as a lead artist, "Whatever You Like" and "Live Your Life" with Rihanna, both from his 2008 album Paper Trail. He also topped the chart two years earlier in a featured credit on Justin Timberlake's "My Love". "Ball" is miles away from any of these mainstream-pop-friendly singles, and is more of a club-crunk jam meant to jam on the car stereo. Whatevs. (NSFW)

The first American Idol, Kelly Clarkson, is preparing to release her first greatest hits set after five successful albums, and you can't argue she's due one, after making the #1 spot in the US three times (the last time with "Stronger") and an additional seven more times in the top-10. The new track, "Catch My Breath", hops in to the Hot 100 at #54, and it resembles "Stronger" in many ways.

Country singer and one-time Clarkson duet partner Jason Aldean has the biggest-selling album this week, and the title track from this album, "Night Train", comes in at #92. Jason went into the Hot 100 top-10 last year with "Dirt Road Anthem" courtesy of the special remix with Ludacris.This song, like most of his work, blurs the line between country and rock, though this is a more emotional midtempo song that I like from him...

The song coming in at #96, "Sweet Nothing", pairs Scottish DJ/producer Calvin Harris with Londoner Florence Welch from Florence + The Machine. Harris has reached the chart three times before, and piggybacked to #1 last year on Rihanna's "We Found Love", while Florence's band has scored three hits on this list, with one, "Dog Days Are Over" reaching #21 after its appearance on Glee. This new one is his most epic tune yet, and her presence in both the song and the jarring video makes this by far the pick of the litter this week...

The final Hot 100 debut is by Disney teen actress/singer Bridgit Mendler, who's appeared in shows like Lemonade Mouth, Wizards Of Waverly Place, and Good Luck Charlie. "Ready Or Not" at #98 is her third chart hit; she took "Determinate" to #51 last year. It's obvious that she's being "graduated" from the tween fare as she's approaching her own 20th birthday, and this is a soundalike song to a number of pop-dance ditties like "Party In The USA", but it's nothing offensive and acceptable still for the younguns...

Meanwhile, over on the Adult-Top 40 radio format chart, "Some Nights" by fun. takes over the #1 spot for it's first week, making it their second chart topper in a row after their debut "We Are Young".

Kelly Clarkson is the big winner of the debuts on this chart, with the aforementioned "Catch My Breath" jumping in at #32. She's topped the Adult-Top 40 list four times, with "Behind These Hazel Eyes", "Already Gone", "Mr. Know It All", and "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)"...

Singer and Dancing With The Stars prop Gavin DeGraw's third single from his latest album, "Soldier", comes in at #38. The first, "Not Over You", was his first #1 on this chart last year. He's one of the few singer-songwriters that's still having success without succumbing to the dance-pop madness, and I commend him for it...

The last entry at #40 is Carrie Underwood, whose rabid fans rose such a stink over the Billboard chart changes benefiting Taylor Swift for the moment, without any irony that Underwood is just as much a beneficiary of crossover airplay as Swift is, though maybe not to the same degree with this particular song as yet. "Blown Away" is just as "non-traditional" country in the rock sense as Swift's is in the "pop" sense, which isn't the argument that should be made - it's that the primary (whether they admit it or not) chart for country takes airplay that has nothing to do with the country world and give it the same (more, considering the size) weight as the country stations that have always made up the chart. In fact, Underwood has placed six previous songs on the Adult-Top 40 list, with "Before He Cheats" going all the way to #5 in 2007...

Lastly, on the Adult-Contemporary radio chart, Gotye and Kimbra make it an even dozen weeks at #1 with "Somebody That I Used To Know"...

The single debut on this chart is by singer Jon Secada, who had ruled AC in the 90s with nine top-10 hits here, seven of them in that decade, with "Just Another Day" and "If You Go" making it to #2. His latest, "I'm Never Too Far Away" at #29, and it's in his Latin-styled soft-rock wheelhouse, and it's generically pleasant. I'll leave it there..

That's it for this sweep, stay tuned in 90 minutes for the latest on rock radio...

in the meantime you can check out my own top-100 chart by clicking here...