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Pop Rock Nation

Tag: Billboard Charts

  • Chart Check: 3/15/2008: Usher, Sara Bareilles, Ray J and More!!

    Courtesy of the good folks at Billboard, here are this week’s Top 10 singles and albums:
    Top 10 Singles:
    1) “Love In This Club” Usher feat. Young Jeezy
    2) “With You” Chris Brown
    3) “Low” Flo-Rida feat. T-Pain
    4) “Love Song” Sara Bareilles
    5) “Don’t Stop The Music” Rihanna
    6) “No Air” Jordin Sparks feat. Chris Brown
    7) “Sexy Can I” Ray J. feat. Yung Berg
    8) “Apologize” Timbaland feat. One Republic
    9) “Independent” Webbie, Li’l Phat & Li’l Boosie
    10) “Superstar” Lupe Fiasco feat. Matthew Santos
    Top 10 Albums:
    1) “Good Time” Alan Jackson
    2) “Sleep Through The Static” Jack Johnson
    3) “Discipline” Janet Jackson
    4) “Float” Flogging Molly
    5) “Warpaint” The Black Crowes
    6) “Thriller 25” Michael Jackson
    7) “New Amerykah: 4th World War” Erykah Badu
    8) “Little Voice” Sara Bareilles
    9) “As I Am” Alicia Keys
    10) “Taylor Swift” Taylor Swift
    And now some observations:
    *Anyone notice that among the Top 10 albums, there are 3 Jacksons (and a Jack Johnson)? Now might be a good time for La Toya or Rebbie to start working on those comeback albums.
    *Sara Bareilles, with appearances on the singles and albums chart, is officially the first breakthrough album of 2008. With Alicia Keys and Erykah Badu joining her in the Top 10 (and Amy Winehouse just behind at #11), it’s a good time to be a female singer-songwriter.
    Video for Sara Bareilles’ “Love Song” here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=MR5xv3pt7KI (explicit lyrics)
    *Proof that the gap between major labels and non-major labels is lessening, the two top debuts of the week (at #4 and #5) are both distributed independently. This is Flogging Molly’s first Top 10 album ever, and the Crowes’ first in well over a decade.
    *Usher spends a second week at #1 despite the fact that the video for “Love In This Club” hasn’t even been *shot* yet!! Who needs MTV??
    *And is Ush coming back to snatch the crown Justin Timberlake stole from him?
    *Jordin Sparks is the first “American Idol” champ to score two Top 10 pop hits from one album since…our very first “Idol”, Kelly Clarkson.
    *Backpack rapper Lupe Fiasco scores his first ever Top 10. His second album, “The Cool”, has already outsold his 2006 debut (in only 3 1/2 months of release).
    *Formerly known as Brandy’s little brother, singer/actor/adult film star Ray J. scores the first Top 10 pop hit of his decade-long career with “Sexy Can I”. The last time his big sister hit the Top 10 was back in 1999.

  • Chart Recap: The January Dregs

    January has typically been no-man’s land when it comes to the music business. That’s never made much sense to me. I mean, wouldn’t you feel a bit more compulsion to release new music when there are folks running around with gift certificates and gift cards? It’s not like there’s not a precedent for music taking off at the beginning of a year. Way back in 1999, a young girl named Britney Spears released her first album right at the beginning of January, and that album went on to sell some 14 million copies. Not bad, huh?
    Hmmm..whatever happened to her, anyway??
    Moving right along, here we are in the first week of February, and the past couple of weeks of charts have looked like a hot mess. Not only are sales already behind those in 2007 by something like 10%, but there has not been one major release by a new artist through the whole month. While the chart figures have not reached the level of futility reached last year by the “Dreamgirls” soundtrack, they have come close, with only Radiohead’s 1/1 release marching over the 100,000 scanned mark over the course of January. Alicia Keys and the “Juno” soundtrack have traded places at the top with sales figures between 62,000 and 70,000. Numbers which, back in the heyday of the music industry, would have barely placed in the Top Ten.
    Thankfully, the triumverate of Jack Johnson, Sheryl Crow and Lenny Kravitz should give a healthy(er) glow to the first week of charts, with sales kicks also expected later in the month from Valentine’s Day and the Grammy awards.

  • Chart Action: Better Late Than Never

    Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving.

    This week’s chart is all about Alicia Keys, who tops the singles and albums charts in both the pop & R&B categories with her third studio album “As I Am”, and it’s first single “No One”. All of Keys’ four albums (including her 2005 “Unplugged” set) have topped the Billboard Albums chart, while “No One” marks her third #1 single, following 2001’s “Fallin’” and 2004’s duet with Usher, “My Boo”. Expect “As I Am” to have a fairly lengthy chart life, especially since Grammy darling Keys will not be eligible to take home any trophies from this album until 2009.

    And yes, you don’t have to rub your eyes. It is 2007, not 1977, and yes, Led Zeppelin and The Eagles are both in the Top Ten.

    While T-Pain continues to make waves on the singles chart by virtue of his sheer presence, the 12-8 move of Fergie’s “Clumsy” gives the singer her fifth Top 10 single from her album “The Dutchess”. As it has become harder for artists to repeatedly crack the Top 10 on the singles chart, Fergie’s achievement is noteworthy because she is the first female artist to draw 5 Top 10 singles from one album since Janet Jackson did it in 1993-1994. She is also the first debut artist to accomplish this feat since Paula Abdul and Milli Vanilli did it in 1989-1990

    This Week’s Top 10 Albums (all chart info courtesy of Nielsen Soundscan & Billboard communications)

    1) “As I Am” Alicia Keys
    2) “Noel” Josh Groban
    3) “Taking Chances” Celine Dion
    4) “Now 26” Various Artists
    5) “The Ultimate Hits” Garth Brooks
    6) “Long Road Out of Eden” The Eagles
    7) “Mothership” Led Zeppelin
    8) “American Gangster” Jay-Z
    9) “Carnival Ride” Carrie Underwood
    10) “Exclusive” Chris Brown

    This Week’s Top 10 Singles:

    1) “No One” Alicia Keys
    2) “Kiss Kiss” Chris Brown feat. T-Pain
    3) “Apologize” Timbaland feat. OneRepublic
    4) “Low” Flo-rida feat. T-Pain
    5) “Bubbly” Colbie Caillat
    6) “Crank That (Soulja Boy)” Soulja Boy Tellem
    7) “Good Life” Kanye West feat. T-Pain
    8) “Clumsy” Fergie
    9) “Cyclone” Baby Bash feat. T-Pain
    10) “Stronger” Kanye West