Other US big names such as Taylor Swift and LeAnn Rimes have been bringing country-style music into the pop charts, while Dolly Parton's appearance on last year's Glastonbury Pyramid stage was a success that took even the organisers by surprise.
Jeremy Clarkson's Top Gear toppled Doctor Who from the top of the BBC's iPlayer Christmas charts as on-demand viewing continued to boom, up 25% year on year.
Doctor Who, which topped the festive iPlayer charts for the last two years, slipped to ninth spot with 1m requests during a nine-day period over Christmas, according to figures published by the BBC on Wednesday.
A look at the boat's charts confirmed the region's historical links to piracy, with such ominous sounding names as Dead Chest, Devil's Bay and Smugglers Cove.
But for all of his clear insights about what makes pop music pop on the charts, DJ Earworm's most remarkable ability may be his keen understanding of the lyrical themes that drive the genre.
After they renamed themselves IOU their break came when one member's mother brought them to the attention of Walsh, who was managing Boyzone, the Irish five-piece who signed to Polydor Records and conquered the charts after an A&R man at RCA passed up the chance to sign them.
The coming-of-age Russian drama charts the life and survival of three young teenage girls living a brutalist Moscow suburb.
Speak to most teenagers about how they consume music and they'll tell you it's via YouTube, which means the charts – traditionally the barometer of teen taste – don't completely take account of the people who listen to the most new music.
Backstage at the Bowery Ballroom, in New York's Lower East Side, beside a table containing a hacked-into roast chicken, carrot batons, hummus, bottles of wine and vodka, "but wraps, no bread, it makes me fat", John Newman is also digesting the news that his single Love Me Again is at No 20 and first album, Tribute, at No 2 in the American iTunes charts.
"We get Gangnam Style and Crazy Frog at the top of our charts and they get Jay-Z," Newman says, comparing the UK and America.
Credit also goes to composer Leonard Bernstein, who gave up a quarter-percentage of his royalties so Nixon could be compensated for what turned out to be the best-selling album of the 1960s, and the one with the longest run at No 1 on the Billboard album charts – 54 weeks.
