\n\t\t\tTrending on Billboard\t\t<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
\n\tA sentence that many would have had great difficulty computing a decade ago, but is now undeniably true: Tame Impala \u2014 with assistance from one of the ladies from BLACKPINK \u2014 has one of the biggest pop hits in the country.<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\t\tExplore\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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\t\t\t\t\tJENNIE\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\t\t\t\t\tTame Impala\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
See latest videos, charts and news<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n\tIn fact, the one-time psych-rocker born Kevin Parker has the<\/em> single most played song this week on the top 40 airwaves, as his \u201cDracula\u201d tops the Pop Airplay chart dated July 11. The song, given an extra boost by JENNIE\u2018s appearance on the official remix, also climbs to a new peak of No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100, easily the highest placement reached by either artist.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tRelated\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n \t\t\t\t\tDave Grohl Reveals the ‘Perfect Record’ He’s Listened to ‘10,000 Times’\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \t\t\t\t\tDuffy Performs Secret London Concert in First Full Show in 15 Years\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \t\t\t\t\tMissy Higgins, The Teskey Brothers and ICEHOUSE to Headline New Sydney Concert Series\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n\tHow surreal is it to be bracing Tame Impala, pop star? And who could be the next critically acclaimed indie fav to make the leap to crossover hitmaker status? Billboard<\/em> staffers discuss these questions and more below. <\/p>\n 1. \u201cDracula\u201d reaches No. 8 on the Hot 100 this week while topping the Pop Airplay chart for the first time. On a scale from 1-10, how surreal is it to see Tame Impala \u2014 artist behind several of the most psychedelic guitar-rock epics of the early 2010s \u2014 now as a late-2020s pop chart-topper?<\/strong><\/p>\n Katie Bain<\/strong>: 3. Given how big Tame Impala has been for a long time (they headlined Coachella back in 2019, after all), they\u2019re an act that just\u00a0seemed<\/em>\u00a0like they\u2019d already achieved this type of accomplishment. This chart position is a touch surreal in the long term,\u00a0given that they were being called the new Led Zeppelin when\u00a0Innerspeaker<\/em>\u00a0came out in 2010, but I think a lot of people would have assumed something like this had happened\u00a0given how globally popular they are. And I guess for people who\u2019ve been paying closer attention, given the evolution of the Tame Impala sound, something like this doesn\u2019t feel all that surprising.\u00a0<\/p>\n Eric Renner Brown<\/strong>: A 6. As a Tame Impala fan who has been on board since the heady days of its 2010 debut, Innerspeaker<\/em>, it\u2019s certainly surreal \u2014 albeit not as weird as some longtime Tame Impala fans might suggest. It\u2019s been a decade since Rihanna included her technically-a-cover-but-really-just-karaoke version of Tame Impala\u2019s \u201cNew Person, Same Old Mistakes\u201d on ANTI<\/em>, not just paving the way for Parker\u2019s crossover into the mainstream, but also for his aesthetic to become a defining flavor of contemporary pop music. He\u2019s been headlining major festivals for about as long; Tame Impala stopped being a niche indie-rock thing long ago.<\/p>\n Kyle Denis<\/strong>: About\u00a0an 8! At this point, it takes a lot to surprise me when it comes to the wonky trajectories of major pop players in the past decade \u2014 but Tame Impala\u2019s evolution is\u00a0definitely up\u00a0there. What a difference a decade (and a Rihanna co-sign) can make!\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Andrew Unterberger<\/strong>: Gotta be at least an 8. Even with the way Tame Impala\u2019s cult stardom had long been ballooning to the point where only the finest of lines were separating it from mainstream stardom, there\u2019s something so specifically dead-center about Parker having the most-played pop radio song in the country that it\u2019s still hard for me to square with the guy behind \u201cApocalypse Dreams\u201d and \u201cLet It Happen.\u201d Pretty cool though.<\/p>\n Christine Werthman<\/strong>: Call me jaded, but I think it\u2019s only a 3, maybe a 4 for me. Groovy dude Kevin Parker is a perennial favorite among many (see: two sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden in 2019 and four sold-out shows at Barclays in 2025), and TikTok trends explode the most random songs all the time (as one did with the \u201cDracula\u201d remix earlier this year), so it\u2019s not super shocking to see \u201cDracula\u201d popping off.<\/p>\n 2. Obviously Tame Impala\u2019s profile has grown considerably over the last 15 years \u2014 does it make sense that \u201cDracula\u201d was the song to really put Kevin Parker over the top as a pop star? Is it more about the song itself for about him just getting too big as an artist not to have at least one proportionally sized hit?<\/strong><\/p>\n Katie Bain<\/strong>: I think to a certain extent the popularity of \u201cDracula\u201d is drafting off the popularity of \u201cNeverender,\u201d Parker\u2019s 2024 collaboration with Justice. They\u2019re in the same sort of sonic wheelhouse, and given how huge that song was (and how it in fact opened up a new audience for Justice and\u00a0gave them\u00a0the first number one in their own long, celebrated and relatively underground career), I think the scene was very much set for Parker to score a hit with a song that sounds like its predecessor\u2019s DNA cousin.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n Eric Renner Brown<\/strong>: It mostly makes sense. Parker has been dancing around pop\u2019s A-list for years now \u2014 the main stumbling block to him having a pop hit has been his own starpower and name recognition, which still pale in comparison to many of his pop contemporaries. He surmounted that here by linking up with JENNIE. (Dua Lipa\u2019s Radical Optimism<\/em>, which Parker produced, didn\u2019t spawn any major hits; while he wasn\u2019t credited as a featured artist, this conversation would be fascinating to have had a song like \u201cHoudini\u201d or \u201cTraining Season\u201d had significant chart success.)<\/p>\n Kyle Denis<\/strong>: I think\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0a combination of the two. Tame Impala\u2019s most recent tour in support of\u00a0Deadbeat<\/em>, the LP that houses \u201cDracula,\u201d\u00a0commenced\u00a0with four back-to-back nights at Brooklyn\u2019s Barclays Center,\u00a0leading into an arena-headlining world tour that will play 80 shows across three continents through October 25. Those kinds of touring stats for a trek\u00a0promoting a 2025 LP\u00a0signal\u00a0that a true pop hit was\u00a0a matter of \u201cwhen,\u201d not \u201cif.\u201d And\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0not even getting into his 2020 album\u00a0The Slow Rush<\/em>, hitting a career high of No. 3 on the Billboard 200, or the 250+ weeks his 2015\u00a0Currents\u00a0<\/em>LP has spent on the ranking.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tAnd while I enjoy most of\u00a0Deadbeat\u00a0<\/em>\u2014\u00a0including lead single \u201cEnd of Summer\u201d\u00a0\u2014\u00a0\u201cDracula\u201d\u00a0arguably has\u00a0the album\u2019s strongest melody and catchiest hook. You\u00a0add\u00a0Parker\u2019s playful, falsetto-anchored vocal\u00a0performance,\u00a0and the song simply lodges itself\u00a0in your head.\u00a0There\u2019s\u00a0also something to be said about the 2020s being the decade of dance (and country); Tame Impala and the mainstream have been inching towards each other for the past few years \u2014 and \u201cDracula\u201d feels like a natural convergence.\u00a0<\/p>\n Andrew Unterberger<\/strong>: I think it\u2019s probably not a huge coincidence that \u201cDracula\u201d started popping off not long after the greatest vampiric pop star of the past 15 years released his unofficial goodbye album. The Weeknd used to be a steadily reliable source for these kind of bleary-eyed, nocturnal, electro-pop quasi-love songs on top 40 radio, and \u201cDracula\u201d posits Tame Impala as a solid temporary substitute, if not an outright long-term successor. (Tough to be the latter when Parker is already a solid half-decade older than Abel Tesfaye.) <\/p>\n Christine Werthman<\/strong>: I need to bring back the ranking scale for a moment to\u00a0say I am registering at a 9\u00a0to see anyone call Kevin Parker a pop star.\u00a0He\u2019s\u00a0big, no doubt, and I was informed that this song went\u00a0top\u00a040 even before the remix, but\u00a0pop star<\/em>?\u00a0Slow your\u00a0roll.\u00a0Back to the\u00a0question\u00a0at hand:\u00a0His stature certainly matters, but I\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0think his name alone pulls this into the top 40, let alone the top\u00a010. Credit that\u00a0extra push\u00a0to\u00a0the song itself:\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0a breezy,\u00a0quirky,\u00a0mildly spooky bop\u2026with a TikTok trend\u2026and a JENNIE remix. Lots going for it beyond just being a Tame Impala song.\u00a0<\/p>\n 3. How important do you think the JENNIE remix is to the song becoming a top 10 Hot 100 hit? Do you think it improves on or adds anything significant to the original?<\/strong><\/p>\n Katie Bain<\/strong>: I don\u2019t think the JENNIE remix adds anything all that significant, besides, obviously, the presence of one of the world\u2019s biggest pop stars. That, I\u2019m sure, did some serious heavy lifting in terms of broadening the song\u2019s appeal and elevating it to top 10.<\/p>\n Eric Renner Brown<\/strong>: This song isn\u2019t a Hot 100 top 10 without JENNIE on it. Her starpower is what lifted this beyond his normal alternative wheelhouse \u2014 and why a song like \u201cNeverender,\u201d also an Alternative Airplay No. 1, didn\u2019t cross over. As for what JENNIE brings to the song? The remix is good. So was the original. I can\u2019t imagine ever putting on the remix instead of the original, personally, but it\u2019s a fine single, and it\u2019s clear how the remix has broadened the song\u2019s audience and made it more of a radio slam-dunk.<\/p>\n Kyle Denis<\/strong>: Very important. JENNIE is a huge star who brings \u201cDracula\u201d to an audience that may have never clicked play on a Tame Impala track. Personally, I\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0really care\u00a0for\u00a0her remix, but the viral TikTok trend it spawned helped the song bounce into the top 10 of the Hot 100, so\u00a0I\u2019ll\u00a0take it!\u00a0<\/p>\n Andrew Unterberger<\/strong>: Undeniably important, in the sense that the viral trend associated with the JENNIE vocal (\u201cMy friends are saying, \u2018Shut up, Jenny\u2026.’\u201d) was what first helped the song get a second wind on the Hot 100 a few months back. As for actually improving the song: It gives it a fun new element, for sure, but the original was already plenty fun to me \u2014\u00a0and I liked it a little better when Kevin\u2019s friends were the ones telling him to shut up and just get in the car. <\/p>\n Christine Werthman<\/strong>: Hearing JENNIE sing, \u201cMy friends are saying, \u2018Shut up, Jennie\/ Just get in the car,\u2019\u201d is more fun than hearing Kevin say it, but her guest appearance doesn\u2019t reinvent the original. But I do appreciate that her vocal part is sprinkled throughout the song, rather than slapped on with a standalone verse at the end.\u00a0<\/p>\n 4. \u201cDracula\u201d has proven divisive within the Tame Impala fanbase, with some seeing it as a natural extension of the electro-pop-drifitng work he\u2019s been doing for the last decade, and others seeing it as more of a compromise for the charts. Where do you fall on the discussion?<\/strong><\/p>\n Katie Bain<\/strong>: I had no philosophical issue with the original \u201cDracula,\u201d especially given how it fit into Parker\u2019s trajectory given the aforementioned \u201cNeverender\u201d and what he did generally on\u00a0Deadbeat<\/em>. The remix feels like a chart play.\u00a0<\/p>\n Eric Renner Brown<\/strong>: As a psych-rock-loving Tame Impala Day One, I can say this: My fellow longtime Tame Impala heads, give it up. Parker has now been making spacey electro-pop for longer than he was making lava-lamp-coded guitar rock. I miss that flavor too, sometimes! But this is a path he has been on for a while now, and it only seems like an oddity or a compromise if you continue to insist that working with Lady Gaga (2016) or Travis Scott (2018) or Dua Lipa (2024) are aberrations rather than the direction he chose to take \u2014 exactly what many of the fans who started following Tame Impala after Innerspeaker<\/em> or 2012\u2019s Lonerism<\/em> continue to do.<\/p>\n Kyle Denis<\/strong>: I\u2026 don\u2019t think it\u2019s worth a discussion? What\u2019s important to me is that \u201cDracula\u201d doesn\u2019t sound like a concession, nor does it sound like an obvious outlier on Deadbeat<\/em>. It\u2019s both a natural extension of his sonic evolution and the most natural meeting place between his current output and the state of top 40.<\/p>\n Andrew Unterberger<\/strong>: It was bound to happen. I can understand the folks who see it as being a step too goofy \u2014\u00a0especially those chorus lyrics \u2014\u00a0but sonically, we\u2019ve been heading in this direction for a while now. And Parker\u2019s good at this stuff! He must be, or \u201cDracula\u201d wouldn\u2019t have been stuck in my head for the entirety of late 2025 as it was.<\/p>\n Christine Werthman<\/strong>: Look, I\u2019m not a fan of the original or the remix, but I don\u2019t think this is a monumental departure from the usual Tame Impala songs. A little more upbeat, I guess? Let the man dance.<\/p>\n 5. Who\u2019s another critically acclaimed veteran artist who you could see scoring a big pop breakthrough hit in the next year or two?<\/strong><\/p>\n Katie Bain<\/strong>: I\u2019d love to see an artist like Kaytranada or Bonobo, who\u2019ve both been making really sophisticated electronic music for a long time, link with the right vocalist and clock a crossover. (Although I\u2019m not sure that\u2019s what either really want!)<\/p>\n Eric Renner Brown<\/strong>: On the Hot 100, country is bigger than it has been in years. Alt-country critical darlings Wednesday feature on the new Weezer single, and the band\u2019s MJ Lenderman was booked to support Zach Bryan on tour this summer (he dropped out of the dates). It feels supremely weird to suggest that either of those artists might have a pop breakthrough \u2014 but it 2014, it felt weird to say that about Tame Impala, too.<\/p>\n Kyle Denis<\/strong>: Maybe the\u00a0next 2-3 years\u2026 but\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0going with Kelela here. Between her forthcoming PinkPantheress duet (\u201cThe Bridge\u201d) and the way her upcoming\u00a0New Avatar<\/em>\u00a0album is previewing what I\u2019m expecting to be a larger resurgence of rock sensibilities amongst pop-facing acts, I think we can swing her a legitimate pop breakthrough soon.<\/p>\n Andrew Unterberger<\/strong>: Mk.gee seems to be following a good deal of the Kevin Parker playbook over his first few years in the spotlight \u2014\u00a0with a bit of an accelerated timeline, even \u2014\u00a0so I could see him dipping his toes into pop radio sooner than most of us would probably guess. <\/p>\n Christine Werthman<\/strong>: Does Tame Impala count as a veteran\u00a0artist? I suppose\u00a02007, the year of\u00a0conception,\u00a0was<\/em>\u00a019 years ago, so\u00a0let\u2019s\u00a0go with\u00a0a band close in age: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, formed around 2010.\u00a0Keep that psych-rock\u00a0vibe\u00a0going!\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/music\/chart-beat\/tame-impala-jennie-dracula-pop-charts-five-buring-questions-1236289152\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.billboard.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/tame-impala-jennie-2025-press-sony-hannah-friedland-billboard-1800-e1777476281602.jpg?w=1024″] Trending on Billboard A sentence that many would have had great difficulty computing a decade ago, but is now undeniably true: Tame Impala \u2014 with assistance from one of the ladies from BLACKPINK \u2014 has one of the biggest pop hits in the country. Explore JENNIE Tame Impala See latest videos, charts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,226],"class_list":["post-2031663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-billboard-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2031663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2031663\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2031663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2031663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2031663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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