I've seen so many payola claims in this thread, it's really extra.
What people fail realize is that radio stations don't use iTunes positions to spin songs. They actually go by audience feedback Gangnam Style was #1 on iTunes for weeks, but radios still refused to fully support it.
There are few songs out there that could have been partially fueled by payola. The country performance of "Begin Again" towards the end seemed to show evidence of it, as did the sheer drop that "Born This Way" experienced on pop right after it got to number one. More just how sudden and drastic it was, more than anything else.
But then again, those can only be inferred. I think in the case of BTW, the call-out scores just got dramatically worse so they dropped it altogether. And the country panel is also rather... weird about its songs a lot of the time.
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Either way, payola definitely isn't the case for Robin Thicke's song. It's too big of a hit for pop to ignore, and they're responding well to it.
PAYOLA cannot get you a hit. END.
Radio stations would never put in power a song that doesn't test well with their audience regardless of how much money a label gives. Radio stations make all their money from ads and they need high ratings to sell air time. They would never risk their ratings because of what a label wants. Payola can get you into the top15 on pop radio but that's it. If the audience does not respond, the song will never enter the top10 on pop.
Payola helps a song to get added, to explode and to hit top15 on pop. After that the song is on its own.
Same with hype. When a song charts high because of hype or payola it stalls as soon as it hits the mid teens on pop. The MID TEENS on pop is the most crucial point for a song. You either reach that and then fall or you pass it and you get a hit. Sometimes a song might hit top10 due to lack of competition but even then as soon as it hit the mid teens, problems with its updates are visible. Tons of examples. All our favs have examples.
PAYOLA cannot get you a hit. END.
Radio stations would never put in power a song that doesn't test well with their audience regardless of how much money a label gives. Radio stations make all their money from ads and they need high ratings to sell air time. They would never risk their ratings because of what a label wants. Payola can get you into the top15 on pop radio but that's it. If the audience does not respond, the song will never enter the top10 on pop.
Payola helps a song to get added, to explode and to hit top15 on pop. After that the song is on its own.
Same with hype. When a song charts high because of hype or payola it stalls as soon as it hits the mid teens on pop. The MID TEENS on pop is the most crucial point for a song. You either reach that and then fall or you pass it and you get a hit. Sometimes a song might hit top10 due to lack of competition but even then as soon as it hit the mid teens, problems with its updates are visible. Tons of examples. All our favs have examples.
Not everyone clocking the poor ignorant soul that mentioned the forbidden p-word in this thread. 
She deserves so much better!
go for that #1 guuurllll
