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Pop Rock Nation

Tag: Billboard 200

  • Chart Chat 1/27/10: History Has Been Made

    This week’s Billboard albums chart brings a historic first. The “Hope for Haiti” benefit album, featuring selections from the telethon last Friday, debuts at #1 with over 171,000 units sold. It is the first completely digital release to debut at the top of the charts. I assume it won’t be the last.

    It’s also the fourth album to hold the #1 spot this month (following Vampire Weekend, Ke$ha and Susan Boyle), which is also a record. Also, it’s scan total means that this is the first January on record in which every #1 album has sold at least 100,000 copies-at least some good news for a hurting music biz.

    Indie rock favorites Spoon debut at #4 with their latest album, “Transference”, selling 53,000 copies. Right behind it is the compilation “Grammy Nominees 2010” with 49K. The other debuts in the Top 50 come from Motion City Soundtrack at #15, and an actual motion picture soundtrack (from the Jeff Bridges film “Crazy Heart”) at #38.

    SuBo’s hanging in a lot tougher than I thought she would. “I Dreamed a Dream” holds at #2 this week with a 12% increase over the previous week’s sales. An “Oprah” appearance was the reason for this increase, similar to the increase Lady Gaga (who is right behind Boyle at #3) enjoyed last week (when I didn’t publish a Chart Chat column. Boo, me).

    The biggest percentage increase on the chart went to another Oprah guest, Adam Lambert. His “For Your Entertainment” jumps fourteen spots to #21, with a 60% increase in sales. Lambert is now a week or two away from Gold status, and airplay picking up for the new single “Whataya Want from Me” should continue to keep sales steady.

    Next week, country trio Lady Antebellum is expected to debut at the top with the biggest first-week numbers of the still young year. A strong move is expected for Michael Jackson’s “This is It” soundtrack (with the DVD release yesterday), and we should also expect a few bumps from Grammy Award coverage, although the true increases won’t really come into play until the following week.

    Here’s this week’s Top 20:

    1) Various Artists “Hope for Haiti”
    2) Susan Boyle “I Dreamed a Dream”
    3) Lady Gaga “The Fame”
    4) Spoon “Transference”
    5) Various Artists “Grammy Nominees 2010”
    6) Vampire Weekend “Contra”
    7) Alicia Keys “The Element of Freedom”
    8) Ke$ha “Animal”
    9) The Black Eyed Peas “The E.N.D.”
    10) Taylor Swift “Fearless”
    11) Lady Gaga “The Fame: Monster (EP)”
    12) Soundtrack “Alvin & the Chipmunks 2: The Squeaquel”
    13) Justin Bieber “My World (EP)”
    14) Mary J. Blige “Stronger Witheach Tear”
    15) Motion City Soundtrack “My Dinosaur Life”
    16) Lady Antebellum “Lady Antebellum”
    17) Michael Jackson “This is It Soundtrack”
    18) Michael Buble “Crazy Love”
    19) Rihanna “Rated R”
    20) Owl City “Ocean Eyes”

  • Chart Chat 1/13/10: All About Ke$ha

    Susan Boyle has finally met her match.

    After a six-week run at the top, Boyle loses the #1 spot on the Billboard Albums Chart to another new female artist. Dance/pop singer Ke$ha opens at the top with her debut album “Animal”. The album scans 152,000 copies in its’ first week out-easily beating Boyle’s total of 93,000.

    As is customary for this time of the year, the chart is very quiet. The next highest debut comes all the way down at #27, where “American Idol” Katharine McPhee debuts with her latest, scanning 15,000 copies. Only a small handful of albums showed an increase over the previous weeks’ sales, with an iTunes promotion being responsible for the biggest increases-for Radiohead’s “Kid A” and Lenny Kravitz’ “Greatest Hits”. The two decade-old albums more than doubled in sales this week, and it’s not a stretch to think that Lenny’s involvement in the leaked Michael Jackson track that briefly lit up the internets last week was also a catalyst in his sales increase.

    Another increase this week occurs towards the bottom of the Top 200, where Vampire Weekend’s debut re-enters at #199, with an 11% increase in scans over the previous week. Look for VW’s sophomore release, “Contra”, to challenge for the top spot next week. However, with Ke$ha being a new artist and people just now finding out about her, she could maintain her stronghold on the top of the charts for a second week.

    Here’s this week’s Top 20:

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

  • 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”