Since January 29, the most popular song in the country has been Katy Perry’s “Dark Horse,” featuring Juicy J. Considering the amount of shake-up happening in the upper reaches of the Hot 100, it’s an impressive showing, but for such a successful song it seems strangely unloved. After being on the Hot 100 for 21 weeks it doesn’t even have an official video (although one is scheduled to drop Thursday), and despite having a time line full of devout poptimists, I can’t remember seeing a single tweet about it.
Unlike Beyonce’s “Partition,” which is being pushed up the charts thanks to choreographers who’ve created some really breathtaking DIY YouTube videos for it, “Dark Horse”‘s rise to the top seems like it was driven less by passionate fans than by the sheer momentum of the Katy Perry machine. After sending a record-setting five singles from Teenage Dream to the top of the Hot 100 and thoroughly trouncing Lady Gaga in their duel for chart control, Katy Perry singles have started to seem inevitable and unstoppable. You can complain about “Dark Horse,” but in terms of it actually doing anything it’s about as effective as complaining about the weather.
