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Pop Rock Nation

Category: Charts

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  • Chart Chat 9/16/09: Jigga and the Fabs

    Jay-Z makes history on this week’s Billboard 200 Album Chart. “The Blueprint 3” crashes in at the #1 spot, scanning over 475,000 copies. This is Jay’s 11th chart topping album, giving him more #1 albums than any solo artist in history. More than Elvis. More than Michael Jackson. More than Billy Joel, Barbra Streisand or any artist in history than…

    …The Beatles, who make some chart noise of their own this week. Their recently reissued catalog sells a combined 650,000 copies, with 9 titles landing in the Top Twenty. Granted, none of these titles appear on the actual Billboard 200 because of their age, but they take up 9 of the Top 10 spots on Billboard’s catalog chart. “Abbey Road” is the top seller, followed by “Sgt. Pepper”, “The White Album” and “Rubber Soul”.

    Elsewhere on the chart, Raekwon and Brooks & Dunn also enter in the Top 10. It looks like Jay will hold at the #1 spot on next week’s album chart, with a battle forming for second place between British band Muse and Whitney Houston, who will see an uptick in sales thanks to her interviews on the season premiere of “Oprah”.

    …and here’s another interesting Jay fact…”Blueprint 3″ opens with 50,000 more copies than 2007’s “American Gangster” did. “Gangster” went on to sell over one million copies.

    This week’s Top 20 Albums, courtesy of Billboard & Soundscan

    1) Jay-Z “Blueprint 3”

    2) Miley Cyrus “Time of Our Lives EP”

    3) The Beatles “Abbey Road”

    4) Whitney Houston “I Look to You”

    5) The Beatles “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”

    6) Raekwon “Only Built 4 Cuban Linx 2”

    7) The Beatles “The Beatles (White Album)”

    8) The Beatles “Rubber Soul”

    9) Brooks & Dunn “#1s…and Then Some”

    10) The Beatles “Revolver”

    11) Trey Songz “Ready”

    12) Michael Jackson “Number Ones”

    13) Black Eyed Peas “The E.N.D.”

    14) Boys Like Girls “Love Drunk”

    15) Kings of Leon “Only by the Night”

    16) The Beatles “Help!”

    17) Taylor Swift “Fearless”

    18) The Beatles “Let it Be”

    19) The Beatles “Past Masters 1 & 2”

    20) The Beatles “Magical Mystery Tour”

  • Chart Chat 8/26/09: Gone Country

    Welcome to the dog days of summer in the music industry. Big name releases have slowed to a crawl, and besides, it’s too damn hot to go out and buy CDs anyhow. This week’s chart boasts a country 1-2 punch, as Reba McEntire enters at the top of the chart with “Keep on Loving You”, scanning 96,000 units in its’ first week, more than enough to unseat last week’s chart champ, George Strait. His Twang album has to settle for the runner-up spot with a relatively anemic 61,000 sold. The chart’s most eye-opening debut, however, has to come from Third Eye Blind, a band many considered to be at least a decade past their sell-by date. Their fourth studio effort (and first on an independent label), Ursa Major, blasts onto the chart at #3, scanning 49,000 copies. It’s the highest charting album ever for Stephan Jenkins and his crew.

    As has been custom for the past few weeks, the top of the chart isn’t exactly the top of the chart. In the wake of Michael Jackson’s death, his albums have taken up permanent residence in the upper reaches of the charts. However, they are not eligible for the Billboard 200 because of a rule which relegates all albums 18 months or older that are not currently being worked at radio to the Catalog chart. Thusly, “Number Ones” does not appear on the chart, despite the fact that it’s sold enough copies in the past week that it would rank at #2 on the chart-if it were allowed to chart.

    Actually, a quick look reveals that “Number Ones” is now THE BIGGEST-SELLING ALBUM OF 2009. With over 1.6 million copies scanned since January (much of that obviously occurring in the past two months), Jackson slides past Taylor Swift to stand alone as the year’s #1 album. Not bad for an album that Billboard won’t even allow to place on it’s chart, huh? How weird will it look if “Number Ones” is able to hold it’s position and ends the year as the 2009’s biggest-selling album despite not appearing on the Billboard 200 at all?

    Moving back to the regular chart, I’m sure there are tears being shed at the Sean Paul household. The formerly top-selling reggae superstar debuts at an anemic #12, selling only 28,000 copies of his latest album, “Imperial Blaze”. Coming off of two consecutive Platinum albums, that’s got to hurt.

    Colbie Caillat is scheduled to debut at #1 next week with a total that will approach 100K.

    Here are this week’s Top 20 comprehensive albums:

    1) Reba McEntire “Keep on Loving You”

    2) Michael Jackson “Number Ones”

    3) George Strait “Twang”

    4) Third Eye Blind “Ursa Major”

    5) Kings of Leon “Only by the Night”

    6) The Black Eyed Peas “The E.N.D. (The Energy Never Dies)”

    7) Neil Diamond “Hot August Night NYC”

    8) Various Artists “Hannah Montana Movie Soundtrack”

    9) Michael Jackson “The Essential Michael Jackson”

    10) Taylor Swift “Fearless”

    11) Daughtry “Leave This Town”

    12) Various “Now 31”

    13) Maxwell “BLACKsummersnight”

    14) Sean Paul “Imperial Blaze”

    15) Zac Brown Band “Foundation”

    16) Michael Jackson “Thriller”

    17) Ledisi “Turn Me Loose”

    18) Soundtrack “Hannah Montana 3”

    19) Jason Aldean “Wide Open”

    20) Lady GaGa “The Fame”

  • Chart Chat 6/10/09: The GrooGrux King is On the Throne

    dmb2 

    It’s a good week to be Dave Matthews. His band’s album “Big Whiskey & the GrooGrux King” makes a grand entrance at the top of the Billboard charts this week. DMB scores the 3rd biggest first week of the year (behind Eminem and U2), with over 424,000 folks picking the album up last week. It’s DMB’s fifth consecutive album to debut at #1 on the charts. Interesting to note that the three biggest sales weeks of the year have come from veterans, all with over 10 years in the industry. Are newer artists just not coming with good music, or is there just a different concept of fan loyalty with the newer generation?

    It’s a pretty big week for debuts, with 311’s new “Uplifter” coming in at #3, the supergroup Chickenfoot at #6, and the new one from Taking Back Sunday right behind at #7. Rancid’s return to the indie label world nets them a #11 debut, Elvis Costello pops in at #13, and Mitchel Musso (I don’t know who he is, but I guess I’ll find out) enters at #19.

    At this time last year, only one album had crossed the million-selling threshold (Jack Johnson’s “Sleep Through the Static”). In what must be good news for the ailing indistry, two albums have passed the million mark so far (Taylor Swift & the “Hannah Montana” movie soundtrack), and Eminem will jump past the million-sold mark next week.

    Speaking of Slim Shady, his much discussed incident with Sasha Baron Cohen wasn’t the only highlight of the MTV Movie Awards. Kings of Leon’s performance catapults them from #15 to #12 on a 50% increase in sales. This is the highest chart position yet for “Only by the Night”, which is already the band’s best selling album. Multiple award winner “Twilight”‘s soundtrack also shows some life, jumping two places to #15 on a 19% increase.

    Kings of Leon have the third biggest increase of the week, following singer-songwriter Matt Nathanson (with a 69% increase) and British soul singer James Morrison, whose sales jump a whopping 232% to send him back onto the chart for the first time in a couple of months.

    Is it too early to consider Green Day’s “21st Century Breakdown” a flop? I mean, in this day and age any album that crosses Gold territory in four weeks can’t be a total failure, but I think the general consensus is that better sales out of the gate were expected following the success of “American Idiot”. New single “21 Guns” is right in the pocket of pop and rock radio, so I wouldn’t count these guys out yet.