Relevant xkcd

Olivia Rodrigo becomes the first woman in history to debut her first ten top 10 Hot 100 hits in the top 10.
Ok. So if I’m reading this right, the word “debut” is the important word here.
“Hot 100” is the industry-standard chart of song popularity, published by Billboard. The “100” there is confusing the headline, so let’s call that “THE LIST.”
Olivia Rodrigo becomes the first woman in history to debut her first ten top 10 “THE LIST” hits in the top 10.
So it’s impressive to get a song on THE LIST. Having it anywhere on the list is genuinely impressive. But it’s more impressive to hit the Top Ten of THE LIST. We’ll call those songs “SUPERHITS.”
Olivia Rodrigo becomes the first woman in history to debut her first ten “SUPERHITS” on “THE LIST” as “SUPERHITS.”
As impressive as having a song that becomes a SUPERHIT is, it’s even more impressive for your song to start there, right as soon as it’s come out, without needing to work its way up from the bottom. Let’s call those “LIGHTNING BOLTS.” Also, everything we’re taking about is on THE LIST, we can collapse that repetitive term now.
Olivia Rodrigo becomes the first woman in history to have exclusively “LIGHTNING BOLTS” as her first ten “SUPERHITS.”
So, no SUPERHITS that weren’t LIGHTNING BOLTS. But a quick look at Wikipedia shows that she’s had 13 singles (which…wow, I thought she’d been around longer than that), which means she’s released three songs that were never SUPERHITS. Either they got on THE LIST but peaked at 11 or lower, or they never made THE LIST at all.
You make the world a better place. Thank you.
You’re very kind, thank you.
I concur, that was excellent.
I don’t understand how this woman is popular. All she does in her music is whine about greasy ex boyfriend with Gen Z broccoli hair. And yet it’s an extremely successful formula for her.
It’s like, why you gotta have such low standards, girl? You’re rich, famous, and pretty; you can do way better than him.
So what you are saying is she needs to find an attractive guy with a great personality with low enough standards or poor enough self esteem to date her for very vapid qualities despite her personality (I’m guessing)
I find a lot of celebrities also have terrible qualities
One of those rare times where more formal math notation is more understandable than plain English. Assuming that you’re not in a field where you use formal math notation all the time.
I guess it depends on your definition of plain English. I wouldn’t consider the English in that to be plain, particularly as they had a typo that seemed Deliberate.
All Olivia’s singles that made it into the Top 10 also debuted within the Top 10, a first for a female artist in the top Hot 100 chart.
Does the Hot 100 have any relevance here? If she’s in the Top 10, that would already imply Hot 100?
It’s important because the achievement requires that none of her other singles made the top 100 prior to climbing to the top 10.
It also feels like it’s not exactly an honor. It’s saying she’s popular, so the songs are instantly top 10 regardless of their quality, whereas songs that climbing to the top are more likely to be songs that catch on and become more popular because people listen to, enjoy, and share them.
I guess Hot 100 is the brand name of the charts here.
Right, I guess “Top 10” isn’t a thing just the top of the Hot 100.
Yeah, the headline is talking about the Billboard Hot 100, a chart of the 100 most popular songs of the week.
The news about her songs being in the “top 10” just means that all her charting singles appeared for the first time in one of the first 10 positions.
I just checked the chart on the Billboard website and it’s now at number 12, but it debuted last week at the first position.
While I absolutely love the math explanation, the ‘plain English’ one is not comprehensible because there’s a mistake or a typo:
Olivia Rodrigo becomes the first woman in history to debut her first ten
top 10Hot 100 hits in the top 10.So her first 10 songs that got into the hot 100 were in place 1-10? I’m still confused.
She’s had ten songs make it onto the Hot 100 list, and all ten of them were in the top ten. None debuted at #11 or below.
Sven said, “Ted, send ten tents.”
Ted said, “Sven, send ten cents.”
When Sven sent Ted ten cents,
then Ted sent Sven ten tents.
Sounds like fraud
Yes. Exactly.
Yes.
Song 1 debut spot: 10+ Song 2 debut spot: 10+ Etc etc
That’s incorrect. The criteria is that the records were in the top 10 at some time and started in the top 10 right away. Rodrigo is the first to achieve both with her first ten records that were ever in the top 10. In theory, she might’ve had other songs that were in the top 100 but not top 10.
Yeah that might be right. My correction assumes that Lynn’s definition is correct, which would not be if your interpretation is right. Also, in that case the use of the last ‘in the top 10’ would be redundant and the part that makes it confusing, and it should be ‘debut her first ten top 10 Hot 100 hits
in the top 10’.Lynn’s definition explicitly separates records that are ever in the top 10 and those that debut in the top 10, and says that Rodrigo’s are both.
“Debut her first ten top 10 Hot 100 hits in the top 10” translates to exactly that. If the last “in the top 10” were missing, that would mean only that the records were in the top 10 at some point, and “debuts” would be out of place.
Yes, I’ve read it with more attention, now well rested and after my morning coffee, and you are correct.
Yeah, the statement is all kinds of confusing, but the math translation is surprisingly accurate despite being more dense — which is kind of the joke. It’s quite impressive.
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To be honest, I didn’t understand either explanation until I saw yours.
Olivia Rodrigo becomes the first woman in history to debut her first ten
top 10 Hot 100hits in the top 10.As far as we know, going by Lynn’s definition, she could have had some hits prior to the tenth top ten one that didn’t made it to the top 100, and still be (10, 10)-Olivian.
Olivia Rodrigo Becomes the First Woman in History to Have Her First 10 Songs to Reach the Hot 100 Chart to Debut in the Top 10
How hard was that?
The hardest obstacle wasn’t logic, but the max. char limit /s
If I would’ve had more time I would written a shorter
letterheadline
I have two degrees and still need a chart to map out the translation. I guess it’s my own fault for choosing degrees in charts and making those full room size conspiracy maps with the yarn that you see in movies.
Her first 10 top-10 songs debuted there. This is notable because many top-10 songs don’t start there, they build up to that.
It helps if you stress the last in. I can’t tell if it’s a valid sentence.
10/10. Would Olivian again.
Who?
Olivia Rodrigo. She’s pretty popular these days.
Well I didn’t vote for her
You don’t vote for Olivians!
Well, how do they become (10, 10)-Olivian?
Did some watery tart throw a scimitar at her?
That’s no basis for a system of government!
I voted for Kodos
How many of them were also
k-pop
…I’ll see myself out.
The person who wrote the translation has had to break down concepts for undergrads before.
None of this makes any sense to me
I’m an old guy. I have no idea who she is.
“I used to be with ‘it’, but then they changed what ‘it’ was. Now what I’m with isn’t ‘it’ anymore and what’s ‘it’ seems weird and scary to me.”
Good marketing, or is it actually good music?
I feel like it literally has to be all marketing. I mean good music would certainly have a role in keeping it in the top 10 or moving it to a higher place in the top 10 but for it to DEBUT there, before anyone has even heard it yet, must be marketing
I suppose with succes like hers it has to be both.
Why the fancy n?
That is the standard LaTex maths notation n I think.
What does it do though
Being a n?
So it’s just a fancy n and not some kind of symbol like pi?
Yeah, just how “n” looks in that typeface.
Easier to read if it stands out











