Surprising no one, Bob Dylan makes his second straight entry at the top of the Billboard charts with his latest album “Together Through Life”. The album scans just under 125,000 units in it’s first week. The remainder of the chart is pretty mellow, with a couple of baby bands (Playing for Change and Heaven & Hell) debuting at #10 and #8, respectively, and the remainder of the Top 10 remaining relatively static.
Lady GaGa continues her upward momentum, as “The Fame” rises to #5 this week with a 1% increase to 40K scanned. With 775,000 copies having crossed record store shelves (or the virtual equivalent), GaGa should be crossing Platinum territory very soon.
“American Idol” and “Dancing with the Stars” continue to drive sales, as three of the four biggest increases of the week are due to performances on those shows. Taylor Hicks’ “The Distance” re-enters the chart at #180, with a 148% increase over the previous week’s sales. Robin Thicke and Jamie Foxx also make big increases, and Foxx’s “Blame It” single reaches a new peak on the singles chart, landing at #2 behind The Black Eyed Peas’ “Boom Boom Pow”.
The biggest drop of the week comes from Depeche Mode, whose “Sounds of the Universe” falls from 3-18 on a 73% decrease to 22,000 units. However, this week’s epic fail has to go to Mike Jones (who??). The Texan rapper, who scored platinum sales several years ago with his debut, “Who is Mike Jones?” can only manage a #12 debut with his latest album, “The Voice”, which opens with a weak 25K.
Next week, expect Ciara and Chrisette Michele to challenge for the #1 spot. Ciara might have an edge due to the fact that she’s performing on “Saturday Night Live” this weekend. The week after that, the real fireworks start, as Green Day’s album will hit the charts, followed by Eminem a week after that.