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Tag: Carrie Underwood

  • Chart Chat 2009 Wrap Up: Susan Boyle Falls Just Short

    Soundscan’s 2009 officially ended at midnight on Monday morning, and Taylor Swift and Susan Boyle were racing for the prize for best-selling album of the year. Swift manages to win in a photo finish. “Fearless” sold 3.22 million copies in the calendar year, just a shade over Boyle’s 3.10 million. Boyle can take some consolation in the fact that “I Dreamed a Dream” tops the Billboard album chart for a sixth consecutive week, with sales of 137,000 copies as the industry winds down from the holiday boom.

    Actually, this week’s Top 5 is very kind to the fairer sex. Aside from Boyle at the top and Swift at #5, the chart is filled out by a resurgent Lady GaGa at #2, Alicia Keys at #3 and Mary J. Blige at #4. The post-Christmas lull and a lack of new releases makes for a pretty uneventful chart, but that may change next week as newcomer Ke$ha challenges for the #1 spot.

    Let’s re-direct our attention to the year-end charts. Swift and Boyle had the only albums to move over 3 million units in 2009. All told, 5 albums crossed the 2 million mark, 22 albums crossed the 1 million mark and 62 albums scanned over half a million copies, as though we needed any further proof that the industry is shrinking-nearly 100 albums crossed the Gold barrier as recently as 2005.

    A few trends that jump out as I peruse the year-end totals:

    *Country is one genre that is illegal-download and recession proof. 14 country albums sold over half a million copies this year, led by two Taylor Swift albums. In addition to “Fearless”, her self-titled debut was the 35th best-selling album of the year with 782,000 copies sold. Other major country successes included Rascal Flatts, Carrie Underwood, the Zac Brown Band and the country-flavored “Hannah Montana” movie soundtrack, all of which were million-sellers.

    *Hip-hop had a mixed bag of a year. Three rap albums land in the Top 10. The Black Eyed Peas had the year’s 7th biggest seller with “The E.N.D.”, followed by Eminem’s “Relapse” at #8 and Jay-Z’s “Blueprint 3” at #9. The only other rap album to sell more than half a million units this past year was T.I.’s “Paper Trail”, which pops in at #58 with 530,000 units scanned. You could also technically include Kanye West’s “808s and Heartbreak”, which scanned 597,000 units this year, although it’s not a rap album per se.

    *If you’re an “American Idol” fan, now might be a good time to start buying music. Carrie Underwood’s “Play On” was the only album from an “Idol” alum to crash the million-sold barrier this year. She’s followed by Daughtry (#31, 882K) and Kelly Clarkson (#33, 813K). If you’re looking for other former “Idol”s, you have to go much lower on the chart, where you’ll find David Cook (#73), Underwood’s “Carnival Ride” (#74, Adam Lambert (#81), the first Daughtry album (#144), Underwood’s debut (#158), Jennifer Hudson (#166), Kris Allen (#183) and Kellie Pickler (#191).

    *Good old dependable rock & roll? Not so much. The biggest-selling rock album of the year was Kings of Leon’s “Only by the Night”, which lands at #10, with 1.4 million copies sold. Nickelback’s “Dark Horse” trails right behind at #11. Along with the “Twilight” soundtrack (#13), they are the only rock albums in the Top 20.

    *Then, of course, there’s Michael Jackson. “Number Ones” finished as the year’s third biggest-seller, with 2.4 million copies sold. It was followed by “This is It” (#12), “Thriller” (#14), and “The Essential Michael Jackson” (#20).

    *As far as sales disappointments go, albums by these superstar artists failed to even hit the 400,000 copies sold mark: Mariah Carey, Colbie Caillat, Creed, Fabolous, Rob Thomas and 50 Cent, while albums by Rick Ross and Bon Jovi have stalled under the 500,000 mark.
    Here are the year’s Top 40 sellers, according to Soundscan:

    1) Taylor Swift “Fearless”
    2) Susan Boyle “I Dreamed a Dream”
    3) Michael Jackson “Number Ones”
    4) Lady GaGa “The Fame”
    5) Andrea Bocelli “My Christmas”
    6) Soundtrack “Hannah Montana: The Movie”
    7) The Black Eyed Peas “The E.N.D.”
    8) Eminem “Relapse”
    9) Jay-Z “Blueprint 3”
    10) Kings of Leon “Only by the Night”
    11) Nickelback “Dark Horse”
    12) Michael Jackson “This is It”
    13) Soundtrack “Twilight”
    14) Michael Jackson “Thriller”
    15) Zac Brown Band “Foundation”
    16) Michael Buble “Crazy Love”
    17) Miley Cyrus “Time of Our Lives EP”
    18) Beyonce “I Am…Sasha Fierce”
    19) Carrie Underwood “Play On”
    20) Michael Jackson “The Essential Michael Jackson”
    21) Rascal Flatts “Unstoppable”
    22) U2 “No Line on the Horizon”
    23) Dave Matthews Band “Big Whiskey & the GrooGrux King”
    24) Lady Antebellum “Lady Antebellum”
    25) Soundtrack “Twilight: New Moon”
    26) Jason Aldean “Wide Open”
    27) Maxwell “BLACKsummersnight”
    28) Whitney Houston “I Look to You”
    29) Green Day “21st Century Breakdown”
    30) Darius Rucker “Learn to Live”
    31) Daughtry “Leave This Town”
    32) Various “Now That’s What I Call Music 32”
    33) Kelly Clarkson “All I Ever Wanted”
    34) P!nk “Funhouse”
    35) Taylor Swift “Taylor Swift”
    36) The Fray “The Fray”
    37) Alicia Keys “The Element of Freedom”
    38) Various “Now That’s What I Call Music 30”
    39) Justin Bieber “My World”
    40) Keith Urban “Defying Gravity”

  • 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”

  • 2009 American Music Awards Play By Play – West Coast Edition

    Since I’m on the West Coast, we’ll pretend this show is just starting.

    (By the way, Money Mike posted his own East Coast version up. It’s East Coast vs. West Coast all over again.)

    I remember as a kid when I used to count down the time until the AMAs were about to start. Now? Not so much. They don’t make award shows like they used to, but hopefully we’ll get some fun performances.

    I expect lots of Jay-Z love, lots of Michael Jackson love, lots of Taylor Swift love, and the opposite of lots of love for Kanye West.

    Like Arsenio used to say, “Let’s get busy!”

    Janet Jackson
    Janet Jackson
    – The show started with Janet already in mid-performance. She’s going through the old hits, though not wearing the old wardrobe. She’s wearing a brown outfit that makes her look like a baggy Pocahontas.

    – Who seated Mary J. Blige next to Carrie Underwood? I bet they could talk about old boyfriends.

    MJ: Girl, you think Tony Romo was bad? Man, I wanted to break K-Ci’s knee caps.
    CU: You dated KC from the Sunshine Band?
    MJ: Um, no. K-Ci from Jodeci. Forget it.

    – The only problem with Janet going through her old hits is that it just makes anything she’s done in the last 5 years look so bad in comparison.

    – Paula Abdul is the first presenter. No, she didn’t make any Ellen DeGeneres looks, acts, and sounds like a boy jokes, though you know she wanted to.

    – The Black Eyed Peas won the first award which was for favorite group in the pop/rock category. At least this time, Fergie’s face didn’t break the HD tuner on my TV like it did last week.

    (I DVRd Saturday Night Live last week and watched it after the fact. The picture was perfect until Fergie started to sing. The picture became pixelated and then was suddenly fixed when the performance was over. Coincidence? I think not.)

    – The only thing I can really say about Shakira’s performance is, “Oh my damn.”

    – Even though that long dress made her hips and legs look like a pair of parentheses ( ), Kelly Clarkson sung the hell out of We Were Never Meant To Say Goodbye.

    – Alex Rodriguez just introduced Jay-Z and Alicia Keys. I bet he and Timberland and Dr. Dre could talk PEDs for days.

    – Nope, not sick of Empire State Of Mind yet.

    – Kate Hudson is wearing a dress that shows off her 14-year old boyish chest. She could get away with going shirtless and I don’t think anyone would flip.

    – Oh man, I hope my TV can take it. The Black Eyed Peas are back on stage. Fergie Ferg ’bout to break my TV again.

    – Thankfully, my TV was fine. The performance was actually fine too. And she didn’t piss herself on stage, which is always a plus.

    – Your boy Michael Jackson won the award for favorite male artist in the Soul/R&B and you know who accepted it for him. If you answered greasy Jermaine, you were right. Also, you got to see his son Jermajesty, which was a treat in that of itself. I was almost sure that child didn’t really exist. But he did!

    – I know nothing about the Zack Brown band. But what I learned today is that some of those dudes have some manly beards.

    – Beyonce won an award and then it was announced that she wasn’t there. My heart rate has never been so up and down in a five second period ever in my life.

    – Hat makers thank Ne-Yo for keeping them in business.

    – Rihanna has the same haircut that David Silver rocked in the first season of Beverly Hills, 90210.

    – Carrie Underwood looks good and sounds good, but needs to stay off the salad. Yes, you can be too thin. She and Kate Hudson are trying to out-skinny each other.

    – Lady GaGa was carrying something in both of her back pockets, but she doesn’t have any pockets. Hmmm.

    – That Lady GaGa performance was just, um, it was just, um, hmm. If I tried to describe it, you wouldn’t understand and I’d just give myself nightmares. This is why YouTube was invented.

    – Not sure about you, but I can really do without these Perez Hilton audience shots.

    – Some country group called Gloriana just beat Lady GaGa for the Breakthrough Award. I think I saw GaGa walk off in a huff and fly away in her spaceship.

    – Ok, I think they edited this show for us on the West Coast. There’s supposed to be a part during J-Lo’s performance and she falls while performing. All I saw is that she jumped, all of a sudden it went into slow motion, and then jump cut city. Again, why YouTube was created.

    – You go Whitty. Do your thing. Somewhere, Bobby Brown gently weeps while shaving those lines into the side of his head.

    – I’m not sure Whitney did this on purpose or not, but she screamed, “I love YOU,” like Michael Jackson used to do it where you emphasize the “you”. I think that was a shout out to Mike.

    – Taylor just won award number two and she’s not even there. I think that if you don’t attend the show and you’re not in jail like TI, or you didn’t pass away before it was given out, you have to automatically give it to Kanye.

    – And just as I say that, MJ won for favorite male artist in Pop/Rock. Greasy is back on the scene to accept the award, but this time, sans Jermajesty.

    – Lady GaGa was breaking fake glass on her piano that was on fire. Alicia Keys just did her one better by playing her piano in mid air while it was spinning. Supposely GaGa saw that from her space ship and just went into hyper speed.

    – It’s pretty telling that Eminem decided to do his verse from Drake’s Forever since nearly everything on his album was garbage.

    – Timbo is now on stage and the back of his neck looks like a pack of hot dogs. But I’m not mad because he just let Nelly Furtado join him and she’s still looking foine.

    – There’s been a Toni Braxton sighting. Good to see her back and I hope she’s healthy. Jimmy Jackson and Jason Kidd just remembered why they hate each other.

    – My main man Ryan Seacrest is out to give out the Artist Of The Year.

    Let me run down the candidates quickly:

    Eminem – Relapse may be the worst album of the year.
    Michael Jackson – Dude sold more records dead than anyone alive is selling this year, except probably Taylor Swift. Also took all the buzz away from the Beatles re-releases.
    Kings Of Leon – My friend Christal had to show me their video the other day. I’d never seen it before. Enough said.
    Lady GaGa – She’s too far ahead of her time. Like by maybe 500 years.
    Taylor Swift – I don’t have a Taylor Swift song in my music library, but she was pretty fun on Saturday Night Live.

    And Taylor Swift beats MJ. Ok, maybe she wasn’t that fun on Saturday Night Live. And she talks like Drew Barrymore.

    – Adam Lambert is closing the show. However, I don’t think he’s closing it out Mariano Rivera style.

    – I wonder if I can get my hair as high as Adam’s. That might be a 2010 goal for me.

    – Wait, is Adam Lambert gay?


    Photo of Janet from Wikipedia and shared through creative commons