Happy Sunday all. After skipping a week due to technical difficulties, we are back!! Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) the charts remain more or less the same. Read on, my friends…(all chart information courtesy of Billboard magazine)
Top 20 Singles
1) “Disturbia” Rihanna
2) “Forever” Chris Brown
3) “I Kissed a Girl” Katy Perry
4) “Take a Bow” Rihanna
5) “Paper Planes” M.I.A.
6) “Viva La Vida” Coldplay
7) “Dangerous” Kardinal Offishall feat. Akon
8) “A Milli” Li’l Wayne
9) “Burnin’ Up” Jonas Brothers
10) “Closer” Ne-Yo
11) “A Little Bit Longer” Jonas Brothers
12) “American Boy” Estelle feat. Kanye West
13) “When I Grow Up” Pussycat Dolls
14) “Leavin’” Jesse McCartney
15) “Bleeding Love” Leona Lewis
16) “Get Like Me” David Banner feat. Chris Brown
17) “Lollipop” Li’l Wayne feat. Static Major
18) “Put On” Young Jeezy feat. Kanye West
19) “Lolli Lolli (Pop That Body)” Three Six Mafia
20) “Pocketful of Sunshine” Natasha Bedingfield
Top 20 Albums:
1) Various Artists “Mamma Mia Soundtrack”
2) “Breakout” Miley Cyrus
3) “Love on the Inside” Sugarland
4) “Rock & Roll Jesus” Kid Rock
5) “Tha Carter III” Li’l Wayne
6) “Viva La Vida or Death & All His Friends” Coldplay
7) “Lessons in Love” Lloyd
8) “Camp Rock Soundtrack” Various Artists
9) “Good Girl Gone Bad” Rihanna
10) “What Am I Waiting For” Heidi Newfeld
11) “Jonas Brothers” Jonas Brothers
12) “C’mon” Keith Anderson
13) “Now That’s What I Call Music Vol. 28” Various Artists
14) “Kids Bop 14” Various Artists
15) “Conor Oberst” Conor Oberst
16) “Taylor Swift” Taylor Swift
17) “Untitled” Nas
18) “Only Through the Pain” Trapt
19) “Revelation” Third Day
20) “One of the Boys” Katy Perry (more…)
And…we’re off! Here are this week’s Top 20 Singles and Albums as provided by the lovely folks at Billboard Communications.
Top 20 Albums
1) “Untitled”-Nas
2) “Tha Carter III”-Li’l Wayne
3) “Mamma Mia Soundtrack”-Various Artists
4) “Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends”-Coldplay
5) “Camp Rock Soundtrack”-Various Artists
6) “Rock & Roll Jesus”-Kid Rock
7) “Life, Death, Love & Freedom”-John Mellencamp
8) “The Greatest Story Ever Told”-David Banner
9) “Beautiful Eyes EP”-Taylor Swift
10) “Good Girl Gone Bad”-Rihanna
11) “Now That’s What I Call Music Vol. 28”-Various Artists
12) “Taylor Swift”-Taylor Swift
13) “All Sides”-O.A.R.
14) “Around the Bend”-Randy Travis
15) “One of the Boys”-Katy Perry
16) “Modern Guilt”-Beck
17) “Indestructible”-Disturbed
18) “Revelation”-Journey
19) “Here I Stand”-Usher
20) “The Dark Knight”-Soundtrack
Top 20 Singles
1) “I Kissed a Girl”-Katy Perry
2) “Take a Bow”-Rihanna
3) “Forever”-Chris Brown
4) “Lollipop”-Li’l Wayne feat. Static Major
5) “Viva La Vida”-Coldplay
6) “Bleeding Love”-Leona Lewis
7) “Pocketful of Sunshine”-Natasha Bedingfield
8) “A Milli”-Li’l Wayne
9) “Dangerous”-Kardinal Offishal feat. Akon
10) “Leavin’”-Jesse McCartney
11) “Burnin’ Up”-The Jonas Brothers
12) “When I Grow Up”-Pussycat Dolls
13) “7 Things”-Miley Cyrus
14) “Bust it Baby Pt. 2”-Plies feat. Ne-Yo
15) “Disturbia”-Rihanna
16) “Pushin’ Me Away”-The Jonas Brothers
17) “Shake It”-Metro Station
18) “Get Like Me”-David Banner feat. Chris Brown
19) “Closer”-Ne-Yo
20) “Lolli Lolli (Pop That Body)”-Three 6 Mafia feat. Project Pat, Young D & Superpower
*Well, I’ll be damned. Not only did “Mamma Mia” do mighty fine business at the box office, but the soundtrack nearly doubled in sales this week (and promises to do the same next week). Considering this, as well as the fact that “Hairspray” was the soundtrack hit of last summer, is it safe to say that gay men comprise a quite large segment of the music buying audience?
*The Jonas Brothers (who are in the Top 20 twice this week) are on the cover of the latest issue of Rolling Stone. Don’t you think Jann Wenner would have caught more than a little shit if he’d put Hanson on the cover of RS 10 years ago or put the New Kids on the cover 20 years ago?
*I knew I could work an NKOTB reference into this column somewhere.
*Wasn’t Jesse McCartney trying to be Ryan Cabrera five years ago? Why is he trying to be Ne-Yo these days?
*Never thought a Canadian rapper would make his way into the Top 10 in America? Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Kardinal Offishall. I’ll spare you the video. You can thank me later.
*It should be fairly obvious, and I think I’ve mentioned it before, but isn’t it so easy to look at the top selling albums, then look at the most popular singles and realize who’s buying what these days?
*For a band that gets collectively rimmed by the rock press as much as The Hold Steady does, you’ve gotta imagine that the #30 start for their new album “Stay Positive” has gotta be something of a disappointment. When Randy Travis sells more records than you in his first week twenty years after his peak, you’ve got to be just a little embarrassed, no?
*This week’s “Catch a Falling Star” award is shared by Alanis Morissette and Weezer. Alanis’s record sales have been dropping ever since everyone and their momma bought “Jagged Little Pill” in ’95-’96. “Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie” sold 3 or 4 million off of fumes, the next album debuted at #1 and promptly sank like a stone, and outside of a brief resurgence due to the re-recorded version of “Pill”, Alanis has slowly sunk into marginalia. Her latest album, “Flavors of Entanglement”, shows some sign of life this week, bouncing up 18 spots to #40 this week, but for an album to be out of the Top 40 within a month and a half when one of your older albums spent twice that amount of time at #1 has got to sting a little bit. As for Rivers Cuomo and his boys, it seems like word of mouth is what sunk Weezer’s “Red Album”. With the general consensus being that this is by far the worst album of the band’s career, the album stands at #42 after 7 weeks. Ah, well. Rivers always has that degree to fall back on.
*Finally, “The Dark Knight” soundtrack debuts at #20 this week. It’s not near as successful as the soundtracks to some of the earlier “Batman” movies, but charts extremely well for an album of instrumental score music. And it’s a perfect way to end this week’s Chart Chat with…”Batdance”!! YAY!!!
Fuck. I forgot. Prince hates the internets these days. Oh well.I tried, y’all. Till next week.
After taking a break to look at the mid-year charts, we’re back on our weekly grind. Here are this week’s Top 20 singles and albums, as compiled by the good folks at Billboard magazine.
Top 20 Albums
1) “Tha Carter III” -Li’l Wayne
2) “Viva La Vida or Death & All His Friends” Coldplay
3) “Camp Rock Soundtrack” Various Artists
4) “Modern Guilt” Beck
5) “Rock & Roll Jesus” Kid Rock
6) “Now That’s What I Call Music Vol. 28” Various Artists
7) “Mamma Mia Soundtrack” Various Artists
8) “Good Girl Gone Bad” Rihanna
9) “T.O.S. (Terminate on Sight)” G-Unit
10) “Where the Light Is: John Mayer Live in Los Angeles” John Mayer
11) “Here I Stand” Usher
12) “One of the Boys” Katy Perry
13) “Indestructible” Disturbed
14) “Taylor Swift” Taylor Swift
15) “Spirit” Leona Lewis
16) “Last 2 Walk” Three Six Mafia
17) “Definition of Real” Plies
18) “Revelation” Journey
19) “3 Doors Down” 3 Doors Down
20) “Two Men with the Blues” Wynton Marsalis & Willie Nelson
Top 20 Singles:
1) “I Kissed a Girl” Katy Perry
2) “Take a Bow” Rihanna
3) “Lollipop” Li’l Wayne feat. Static Major
4) “Bleeding Love” Leona Lewis
5) “Forever” Chris Brown
6) “Pocketful of Sunshine” Natasha Bedingfield
7) “Viva La Vida” Coldplay
8) “A Milli” Lil’ Wayne
9) “7 Things” Miley Cyrus
10) “Bust it Baby Pt. 2” Plies feat. Ne-Yo
11) “Leavin’” Jesse McCartney
12) “When I Grow Up” The Pussycat Dolls
13) “Burnin’ Up” Jonas Brothers
14) “Dangerous” Kardinal Offishal feat. Akon
15) “Disturbia” Rihanna
16) “Shake It” Metro Station
17) “Closer” Ne-Yo
18) “Get Like Me” David Banner feat. Chris Brown
19) “Lolli Lolli (Pop That Body)” Three Six Mafia feat. Project Pat, Young D & Superpower
20) “I Luv Your Girl” The-Dream
*Geez, looking at hip-hop’s presence on this week’s singles chart almost makes me ashamed to be a fan of rap music!
*Speaking of the Top 20 singles, it’s obvious from looking at it that there are very clear ways to get yourself a hit single in summer 2008:
1) Be a hot chick (or a group of hot chicks, in the case of PCD).
2) Be Chris Brown or Date Chris Brown (the Brown/Rihanna axis is responsible for 1/5 of this week’s Top 20 singles chart)
3) Be a terrible rapper, be a mediocre rapper with a lot of hype and charisma (Lil’ Wayne) or be an articulate, political emcee and sell your ass for a hit single (David Banner)
4) Be Ne-Yo (who has two entries as an artist and also co-wrote Rihanna’s “Take a Bow” at #2.
5) Have a Disney channel tie-in (Miley Cyrus and The Jonas Brothers are joined by former teen titan Jesse McCartney).
*Geez, that top 20 singles chart makes you appreciate Coldplay all the more, huh? Is this really what radio plays these days? (I’ll admit that I haven’t listened to a Top 40 radio station in literally five years if not more).
*Wynton Marsalis scores his highest chart entry ever and Weeded Out Willie lands in the Top 20 for the first time since the Reagan administration. Let’s hear it for odd collaborations!!
*Who green-lit a movie based on a Broadway play featuring the music of ABBA? Seriously??!?! And Meryl Fucking Streep is in this movie!! If we do a Duran Duran musical, do you think we can get Dame Judi Dench?
*Hey, I don’t hate ABBA. After all, Swedes have a knack for great pop music. Plus, ABBA lend themselves well to covers, as this Erasure cover from my high school years will attest to.
*Think Fiddy has trashed his record company’s offices yet? I wonder what publicity stunt he’ll plan for his *next* album?
*Natasha Bedingfield has somehow finagled herself into a long-running Top 10 hit with “Pocketful of Sunshine” (a song I’m admittedly lukewarm about), and her album of the same name darts back into the Top 40 six months after it’s release, approaching Gold status. Hmm. Who’d have thunk?
*Also on the “he’s hanging in there better than I thought he would”, Jason Mraz. His third effort, “We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things” has hung around the Top 30 for 9 weeks now and is on pace to outsell his previous effort, “Aren’t I Just A Little Full of Myself” “Mr. A-Z”. “I’m Yours” is a cool little summer song, too.
*Finally, check out that Beck album. You won’t be disappointed.
