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Pop Rock Nation

Tag: Madonna

  • Chart Chat 4/5/07: Day26, Madonna and More!

    Courtesy of the good folks at Billboard (wishing on a star for Joel Whitburn to send me all of his books), here are this week’s Top 20 Singles & Albums charts.
    Top 20 Albums:
    1)”Day26″-Day26
    2) “Pretty. Odd.” Panic at the Disco
    3) Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings” Counting Crows
    4) “Welcome To The Dollhouse” Danity Kane
    5)”Now 27″ Various Artists
    6) “Trilla” Rick Ross
    7) “Consolers of the Lonely” The Raconteurs
    8)”Sleep Through The Static” Jack Johnson
    9) “Mail on Sunday” Flo Rida
    10) “Little Voice” Sara Bareilles
    11) “Funplex” The B-52’s
    12) “The Odd Couple” Gnarls Barkley
    13) “Ego Trippin’” Snoop Dogg
    14) “Taylor Swift” Taylor Swift
    15) “Good Time” Alan Jackson
    16) “Alvin & The Chipmunks” Soundtrack
    17) “As I Am” Alicia Keys
    18) “95/08” Enrique Iglesias
    19) “Jonas Brothers” Jonas Brothers
    20) “Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: The Best of Both Worlds Tour” Taylor Swift
    Top 20 Singles:
    1) “Touch My Body” Mariah Carey
    2) “Love in This Club” Usher feat. Young Jeezy
    3) “4 Minutes” Madonna feat. Justin Timberlake
    4) “Bleeding Love” Leona Lewis
    5) “No Air” Jordin Sparks & Chris Brown
    6) “Sexy Can I” Ray J. feat. Yung Berg
    7) “Lollipop” Lil’ Wayne feat. Static Major
    8) “With You” Chris Brown
    9) “Love Song” Sara Bareilles
    10) “Low” Flo Rida feat. T-Pain
    11) “Don’t Stop the Music” Rihanna
    12) “You’re Gonna Miss This” Trace Adkins
    13) “Stop & Stare” OneRepublic
    14) “See You Again” Miley Cyrus
    15) “Apologize” Timbaland feat. OneRepublic
    16) “Superstar” Lupe Fiasco feat. Matthew Santos
    17) “Independent” Webbie, Lil Phat & Lil’ Boosie
    18) “No One” Alicia Keys
    19) “New Soul” Yael Naim
    20) “Sorry” Buckcherry
    First, a correction: a couple days ago, I mentioned that Madonna had moved into 2nd place on the list of artists with the most Top 10 hits, jumping ahead of Elvis and standing beside The Beatles. I made a boo-boo. Madonna is actually #1 all by herself with the ascension of “4 Minutes”. My bad, Madge. I checked out the video, and was gonna post it for y’all as a treat. But, alas, I can’t find it anywhere. You guys do the dirty work.
    Country star Trace Adkins parlays his 2nd place finish on “Celebrity Apprentice” to the #1 spot on the country charts and the highest pop placement of his career with “You’re Gonna Miss This”. No word about whether Omarosa saw this and decided she wanted a music career.
    Two of the albums in the Top 20 maintain relatively lofty positions despite a good amount of people not even knowing they’re out. The Gnarls Barkley album actually moves up 6 spots in it’s second release (it wasn’t supposed to be out until April 8th), while The Raconteurs album, which was supposed to be out on April 29th, debuts in the Top 10 despite it’s release date being moved up a full month. Pretty ballsy to see these moves taking place, especially at a time when shortsighted music executives seem to place all their chips on hitting a particular first week number.
    Holy crap! Can someone put “No One” by Alicia Keys out to pasture already?
    It’s a good time to be Ryan Tedder. Who the hell is Ryan Tedder, you ask? Well, not only is he the lead singer and songwriter for the band OneRepublic (represented with two singles in the Top 20), but he, along with former teen-popster Jesse McCartney, co-wrote Leona Lewis’s “Bleeding Love”, last week’s #1 single, which gets displaced this week by Hurricanes Mariah and Madonna.
    With those two albums arriving this month (and Usher being moved from mid-June to late-May), is it safe to say that the next few weeks in the music industry will actually be exciting?

  • The Randomizer: NKOTB, George Michael, Mariah and More!

    *So, the NKOTB reunion is in full-swing. The first photo of all the guys together since 1994 is making the rounds, and I gotta say time has been kind to The Kids. They’re on the “Today” show tomorrow, performing and announcing their tour, and I gotta say, I’m pretty stoked! More so to hear the new material than to go see them live, though.
    *Speaking of artists that haven’t performed live in forever, George Michael is touring the U.S. for the first time since 1991, promoting his new “Twenty-Five” hits compilation. I love George, and he remains a singular vocalist who really isn’t all that exciting live. However, considering the man tours so infrequently, it might be a good idea to catch him now.
    *Congrats are due to Mariah Carey and Madonna. “Touch My Body” became Mariah’s 18th #1 hit this week, pushing her into second place, behind The Beatles, when it comes to artists with #1 songs. Meanwhile, “4 Minutes” has become Madge’s 38th Top Ten hit, also bumping her into second place all-time, behind, you guessed it, The Beatles!!
    *Wow, all I have to do is throw a Hammer or Vanilla Ice reference, and the artists mentioned in this column so far could have just as easily been mentioned in 1990. How ’bout staying power, eh?
    *Bobby Brown is writing an autobiography, which promises to dish tons of dirt on Whitney Houston, including the fact that Whit introduced him to cocaine and that she married him to improve her image. Um, wasn’t *Whitney* America’s good girl when she and Bobby got married? What needed improvement? And who knew Bobby could write?
    *Finally, in my current guilty pleasures list, the guys from Fall Out Boy have recorded a pretty nifty cover of “Beat It”, featuring some serious shredding from John Mayer on guitar. I’m not quite sure why I like Fall Out Boy so much. Maybe I take pity on the overwhelming ugliness of Patrick Stump. Anyway, here’s their cover for you (best to ignore the video loop of Patrick Stump blowing kisses):
    It’s good and all, but still doesn’t beat this ridiculously awesome cover by Charlotte Church and a drunk off her tits Amy Winehouse:

  • Madonna, Mellencamp And The Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame

    Want to know about something people care about even less than the Grammy Awards?

    How about the Rock ‘N Roll Hall of Fame?

    Over the past couple of years, the HOF has been sort of excitement-deficient. Or more accurately, the excitement and attention has been given for the wrong reasons. Most of the attention centers on Jann Wenner’s political pull at the event (rumor has it that Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five did not meet the required votes to properly be inducted last year, but were grandfathered in by Wenner…which is nice from a politically correct standpoint but also turns the HOF into “Wenner’s Faves” rather than an actual listing of rock’s most important figures).

    More attention centers on who *isn’t* in the hall of fame, a list that includes Rush, Kiss, Genesis, Hall & Oates, Tina Turner (as a solo artist), Chaka Khan/Rufus and many other artists of deserving stature, and the MOST attention centers on what exactly is “rock & roll” and what kind of artists deserve placement in the somewhat hallowed halls.

    Of course, *I* understand that the term “rock & roll” is a fairly loose term, used to describe just about any popular music made over the past fifty years, but there are some folks out there who look at certain artists with the mindset that “rock & roll” means some dude with long hair and tattoos wielding an electric guitar. Of course, folks like that seem to forget about the guys who started rock ‘n roll, like Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Little Richard and guys who wouldn’t be considered “rock” by the mookheads that listen to Linkin Park nowadays (or the snobbish hipsters who are too busy wearing tight tee shirts and listening to Spoon).

    At any rate, this year’s class is fairly underwhelming, with acts like The Ventures and the Dave Clark Five (I’ll let you guys argue over whether they are deserving of their honors or not) getting inducted over passed-over artists like The Beastie Boys, Donna Summer and Chic (two of the three are absolutely deserving).

    In addition, this year sees the induction of heartland rocker John Mellencamp (who’s work is about even with fellow inductee Tom Petty and way above fellow inductee Bob Seger-who just might be the most overrated popular rock musician in history). Mellencamp’s albums have always been interesting, and the trio of albums that marked his most successful period (“American Fool”, “Uh-Huh” and “Scarecrow”) are all close to (if not) excellent. Not only has his music been steadfastly political, but he’s also championed many young (particularly black) artists over the course of his career, working with Tony Toni Tone’s Raphael Saadiq, india.arie, Meshell Ndegeocello and Junior Vasquez.

    Of course, the most boldface name on this year’s list is Madonna. Most folks would say that Madge’s music is not true rock ‘n roll, and it isn’t. Madonna has always been a pop/dance/R&B artist. However, she brings true rock ‘n roll attitude into everything she does, and as the most important and influential female artist of the past 25 years, she absolutely does belong here.

    (However, I would say that Pat Benatar and Joan Jett, at least, also belong here)

    Another question is who are the gimmes for the future? As we move further into the MTV generation, the list of must-haves grows much thinner. Of course, there’ll be room for Nirvana and Pearl Jam, Radiohead and Soundgarden, Guns ‘n Roses, The White Stripes…The Beasties, Run-DMC, LL Cool J, NWA, Public Enemy, Sonic Youth…but what about Janet Jackson (who is eligible, as her first record was released in 1982)? What about Motley Crue? Bon Jovi? Def Leppard? Biggie and Tupac? Jay-Z? It would seem like there’ll be more artists on the bubble as we move into the future and the selection becomes less immediately iconic…

    …The plot thickens…