Posted by Andrew Unterberger on 10/11/2012 at 10:30 AM News

The Popdust Files: charts, gangnam style, Live While We're Young, maroon 5, one direction, One More Night, PSY

Four weeks for this stupid Maroon 5 song? Come on now. Not that it’s that bad a song, but it’s certainly not all that good a song, and you don’t see football players and TV hosts and other celebrities craving attention doing the “One More Night” in viral videos. Rather, the song that can claim that kind of media saturation is stuck at #2—and worse, “Gangnam Style” is seeing its sales numbers slipping, meaning if it doesn’t grab the #1 slot soon, it might not even get there. “Style” just doesn’t seem like a #2, does it? It’s wrong, and we here at Popdust will not stand for the injustice.

Also falling in the category of chart stats that might look a little weird some years down the line, the #3 spot on the Hot 100 this week belongs to One Direction, whose new single “Live While We’re Young” debuts at #3 in its first week of availability on iTunes—the best-ever debut for a British group. (It’s the highest of three top-ten debuts, joined by Taylor Swift’s “Red” at #6 and Adele’s “Skyfall” at #8.) That’s not the weird thing—the weird thing is that that’s already a higher placement than “What Makes You Beautiful,” the group’s breakthrough hit and the song they’ll likely always be known for, ever reached, “Beautiful” having peaked at #4.

Odd, but not unforgivable, unlike this Maroon 5 four-weeker, whose run we stubbornly refuse to recognize. Try harder, America.

[Billboard]