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Pop Rock Nation

Category: News

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  • Chart Chat 12/30/09: Prelude to the Year-End Wrap Up

    Hey folks, I’ve been out of pocket for just about a week. Not having internet service beyond a Blackberry isn’t fun. However, we’re back and 2010 promises even bigger and better things:

    This week’s chart is the 52nd of the chart year, so get your pads and pencils ready. We’ll be talking about the top sellers of the year very soon. In the meantime…

    Susan Boyle’s “I Dreamed a Dream” logs a fifth week at the #1 spot on the charts, with 510,000 units sold. This brings it’s total to a shade under three million units. It’s the longest running #1 album of 2009.

    Mary J. Blige pops in at the runner-up spot with “Stronger with Each Tear”. This album didn’t have the buzz that her previous two albums had, which explains the sharp dropoff in first week sales. “Stronger” checks in with 330,000 units scanned in its’ first week. 2007’s “Growing Pains” debuted with 629K and ’05’s “The Breakthrough” bowed with 727K. I’m giving the album its’ second listen now and while it’s not bad, it definitely sounds like Mary on autopilot.

    The chart’s only other debut comes from Lil Wayne’s Young Money collective. Despite the star power of Weezy as well as artists like Lloyd, Nicki Minaj and Drake, their “We Are Young Money” compilation debuts at a so-so #9 with 142,000 copies sold.

    Eminem’s “Relapse” gets a huge boost thanks to it’s “Refill” re-release with extra tracks. The album lands at #11 with 128,000 copies sold, bringing its’ total take to 1.7 million copies.

    Each of this week’s Top 16 albums sells over 100,000 copies. It’s worth noting how femme-centric the Top 10 is. In addition to Boyle and Blige, the top ten also hosts Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood and Lady GaGa, as well as female-targeted male artists like Justin Bieber and Michael Buble. Next week, expect a chart overhaul as the more adult-oriented artists take a tumble down the chart (Boyle might even cede her #1 chart perch to Blige or Alicia Keys) and more youth-oriented artists rise up.

    Here are this week’s Top 20 albums:

    1) Susan Boyle “I Dreamed a Dream”
    2) Mary J. Blige “Stronger with Each Tear”
    3) Andrea Bocelli “My Christmas”
    4) Alicia Keys “The Element of Freedom”
    5) Taylor Swift “Fearless”
    6) Lady GaGa “The Fame”
    7) Justin Bieber “My World (EP)”
    8) Carrie Underwood “Play On”
    9) Young Money “We Are Young Money”
    10) Michael Buble “Crazy Love”
    11) Eminem “Relapse”
    12) Lady GaGa “The Fame: Monster (EP)”
    13) Michael Jackson “This is It”
    14) Owl City “Ocean Eyes”
    15) The Black Eyed Peas “The E.N.D.”
    16) Glee Cast “Glee: The Music Vol. 2”
    17) Various Artists “Now 32”
    18) Rihanna “Rated R”
    19) John Mayer “Battle Studies”
    20) Soundtrack “Alvin & the Chipmunks 2: the Squeaquel”

  • Billboard Magazine Lists The Best of 2009

    Now that we’re in the last week of December, we’re being surrounded with all of these Best of Year or Best of Decade wrapups and lists. We’ll be taking a look at some of those over the next two weeks, and I figured the logical place to start would be with the fine folks at Billboard magazine.

    So, what were people buying and listening to on the radio in 2009? Pretty much the same thing they’ve been listening to for most of the decade:dance-oriented pop/R&B with a little country thrown in. Taylor Swift ranked as the year’s top artist and had 2009’s top album with “Fearless”. That particular album is closing in on the 5 million mark in sales and has truly been a crossover sensation. The next few spots on the artist list are pure pop: Beyonce, Lady GaGa (the year’s top new artist), The Black Eyed Peas and Miley Cyrus. Rapper Kanye West breaks up the monotony by placing at #6-he is also the year’s top-ranked male artist. Rock music doesn’t get representation until you get to Nickelback at #9, and after Beyonce, the highest ranked R&B artist is Ne-Yo at #17.

    Beyonce also captures the #2 spot when it comes to the top album of the year, and she’s followed by Nickelback’s “Dark Horse” and a pair of soundtracks-“Twilight” and “Hannah Montana-The Movie”. These positions are based on chart rankings and not actual sales. Soundscan will publish it’s year end rankings…uh, when the year ends in a week and a half.

    Here’s a list of this year’s Top 20 artists and Top 20 albums, according to Billboard.

    Top Artists:

    1) Taylor Swift
    2) Beyonce
    3) Lady GaGa
    4) The Black Eyed Peas
    5) Miley Cyrus
    6) Kanye West
    7) Britney Spears
    8) T.I.
    9) Nickelback
    10) Pink
    11) Kings of Leon
    12) Katy Perry
    13) Flo Rida
    14) Kelly Clarkson
    15) Jason Mraz
    16) The Fray
    17) Ne Yo
    18) Lil Wayne
    19) Rascal Flatts
    20) Zac Brown Band

    …and here are the year’s Top 20 albums:

    1) “Fearless” Taylor Swift
    2) “I Am…Sasha Fierce” Beyonce
    3) “Dark Horse” Nickelback
    4) “Twilight Soundtrack” Various Artists
    5) “Hannah Montana: The Movie Soundtrack” Various Artists
    6) “Circus” Britney Spears
    7) “808s & Heartbreak” Kanye West
    8) “The Fame” Lady GaGa
    9) “Relapse” Eminem
    10) “The E.N.D.” The Black Eyed Peas
    11) “Only by the Night” Kings of Leon
    12) “The Blueprint 3” Jay-Z
    13) “David Cook” David Cook
    14) “The Foundation” Zac Brown Band
    15) “Now That’s What I Call Music 29” Various Artists
    16) “Funhouse” Pink
    17) “Intuition” Jamie Foxx
    18) “No Line on the Horizon” U2
    19) “Unstoppable” Rascal Flatts
    20) “A Different Me” Keyshia Cole

    Interesting personal factoid is that I own 12 of the Top 20 albums of the year, but I actually paid for only 7 of them (Kanye, Jay-Z, U2, Beyonce, Pink, Zac Brown and Kings of Leon).

  • New Releases 12/21-22/09: Mary J. & More!!!

    I’m pushing this out a little earlier than usual for one reason:

    Mary J. Blige’s “Stronger with Each Tear” is available on amazon Mp3 for $3.99 for today only! Four bucks for a Mary J. album-ANY Mary J. album-is a pretty good deal. I broke my longstanding embargo on buying digital for this, figuring you couldn’t beat the price. Although “Stronger” appears to be on the average side of Mary albums, hell…it’s only four bucks!!

    Also out today (or tomorrow):

    Didn’t buy Eminem’s “Relapse” yet? Want to embarrass yourself by buying the work of a past-his-prime rapper and giving it to your kid, whose probably already moved on to someone else? Well, knock yourself out. “Relapse: Refill” hits stores this week, and if what I’ve heard of the unreleased material is any indication of what the entire album sounds like, stay the hell away. When you haven’t had anything new to say in almost a decade, it’s probably time to hang it up, and the fact that Eminem is in his mid thirties and still slinging poop rhymes and gay-baiting means that, despite his considerable skill, it looks quite unlikely that I will ever pick up another Eminem album for the rest of his career.

    The only other notable release is the “We Are Young Money” compilation from the Lil Wayne-led campaign. Weezy has already done his part for promotion by getting arrested late last week for marijuana possession. Artists appearing on this compilation include Drake, Nicki Minaj, Pleasure P, and Lloyd. In other words, yawn…

    With that, we close up shop on new releases for 2009. January 2010 will bring new music from the likes of Peter Gabriel, Vampire Weekend and Ke$ha, as well as reissues from The Jackson 5 and Maxwell. As always, you can get a full list of this week’s releases here!