Report: Virtual Unknowns Driving Top 40

If you feel as if you don't recognize any of the acts getting played on your local Top 40 station these days, you're not alone.

A year ago, the artists who have the five singles at the top of USA Today's current Top 40 airplay chart were virtual unknowns in the U.S. All of them are just now having their first U.S. hits as lead artists.

Canadian band Magic! tops the chart with its multiplatinum single Rude, followed by British soul singer Sam Smith and Stay With Me; Norwegian duo Nico & Vinz's Am I Wrong;English electronic act Disclosure, whose Latch features vocals from Smith; and Boom Clap from British singer Charli XCX, who first got American audiences' attention by singing the hook on Fancy, the breakout single from Australia-born rapper Iggy Azalea.

"The beautiful thing about Top 40 is it's different every day," says Tom Poleman, Clear Channel Communications' head of programming. "You never know what music is going to come out. The format never constricts itself to one genre. It's just whatever's hot."

"A lot of times, the fourth quarter is when the big superstars come out with their music," says Sharon Dastur, program director at New York's WHTZ-FM. Dastur also says Top 40 playlists tend to be cyclical. "Certain sounds go away for a while; then they come back. We haven't had that Magic! sound in a while. We haven't really had many rappers on Top 40 for a while, so when Iggy came out, it was a unique sound."

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