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Pop Rock Nation

Tag: Miley Cyrus

  • Chart Chat 6/10/09: The GrooGrux King is On the Throne

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    It’s a good week to be Dave Matthews. His band’s album “Big Whiskey & the GrooGrux King” makes a grand entrance at the top of the Billboard charts this week. DMB scores the 3rd biggest first week of the year (behind Eminem and U2), with over 424,000 folks picking the album up last week. It’s DMB’s fifth consecutive album to debut at #1 on the charts. Interesting to note that the three biggest sales weeks of the year have come from veterans, all with over 10 years in the industry. Are newer artists just not coming with good music, or is there just a different concept of fan loyalty with the newer generation?

    It’s a pretty big week for debuts, with 311’s new “Uplifter” coming in at #3, the supergroup Chickenfoot at #6, and the new one from Taking Back Sunday right behind at #7. Rancid’s return to the indie label world nets them a #11 debut, Elvis Costello pops in at #13, and Mitchel Musso (I don’t know who he is, but I guess I’ll find out) enters at #19.

    At this time last year, only one album had crossed the million-selling threshold (Jack Johnson’s “Sleep Through the Static”). In what must be good news for the ailing indistry, two albums have passed the million mark so far (Taylor Swift & the “Hannah Montana” movie soundtrack), and Eminem will jump past the million-sold mark next week.

    Speaking of Slim Shady, his much discussed incident with Sasha Baron Cohen wasn’t the only highlight of the MTV Movie Awards. Kings of Leon’s performance catapults them from #15 to #12 on a 50% increase in sales. This is the highest chart position yet for “Only by the Night”, which is already the band’s best selling album. Multiple award winner “Twilight”‘s soundtrack also shows some life, jumping two places to #15 on a 19% increase.

    Kings of Leon have the third biggest increase of the week, following singer-songwriter Matt Nathanson (with a 69% increase) and British soul singer James Morrison, whose sales jump a whopping 232% to send him back onto the chart for the first time in a couple of months.

    Is it too early to consider Green Day’s “21st Century Breakdown” a flop? I mean, in this day and age any album that crosses Gold territory in four weeks can’t be a total failure, but I think the general consensus is that better sales out of the gate were expected following the success of “American Idiot”. New single “21 Guns” is right in the pocket of pop and rock radio, so I wouldn’t count these guys out yet.

  • Chart Chat 4/22/09: The Ascension of Hannah Montana

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    It’s a good time to be Miley Cyrus. Not only is she achieving film success with “Hannah Montana”‘s soundtrack, but the movie’s soundtrack rises to #1 in its’ third week on the Billboard charts, scanning over 133,000 copies. This catapults the album past Gold status, with about 554,000 copies sold in four weeks.

    The chart’s light with debuts this week, as things relax a bit following the big Easter rush. Diddy’s Day26 settle for a #2 debut with their “Forever in a Day” album, scanning just over 113,000 units. The only other debut in the Top 50 comes from rock band Silversun Pickups, who are new at #7 with 43K.

    Most albums on this week’s chart nosedive in sales this week, but there are a select few that buck the trend. Kings of Leon’s American breakthrough, “Only by the Night”, moves up 31-18 on a 4% increase to 20K, while other albums that show staying power include Darius Rucker’s “Learn to Live” (+6%) and 3Oh!3’s “Want” (+10%). Jennifer Hudson’s performance on “American Idol” last week spurs a 36% jump in sales for her eponymous debut, which moves 103-42 on this week’s chart.

    On the singles side, the biggest news is a #3 debut for Eminem on Hot Digital Songs with “We Made You”. The Black Eyed Peas’ “Boom Boom Pow” and Miley Cyrus’ “The Climb” hold the top two positions.

    Next week, Rick Ross should lead the charts, with expected high debuts from the likes of Depeche Mode and Asher Roth.

    This week’s Top 20 albums (courtesy of Billboard Communications)

    1) Soundtrack “Hannah Montana: The Movie”

    2) Day26 “Forever in a Day”

    3) Rascal Flatts “Unstoppable”

    4) Soundtrack “Twilight”

    5) Various Artists “Now 30”

    6) Jadakiss “The Last Kiss”

    7) Silversun Pickups “Swoon”

    8) Lady GaGa “The Fame”

    9) Jason Aldean “Wide Open”

    10) Taylor Swift “Fearless”

    11) Diana Krall “Quiet Nights”

    12) Keith Urban “Defying Gravity”

    13) Keri Hilson “In a Perfect World…”

    14) Nickelback “Dark Horse”

    15) Prince “Lotusflow3r”

    16) U2 “No Line on the Horizon”

    17) Carrie Underwood “Carnival Ride”

    18) Kings of Leon “Only by the Night”

    19) Kelly Clarkson “All I Ever Wanted”

    20) The-Dream “Love vs. Money”

  • Chart Chat 4/16/09: We’re Country!!

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    How scary is it that we’ve completed almost four months of 2009 and NOT ONE album has hit the million mark in sales yet? Actually, only 7 albums have passed the 500,000 mark. If that’s not a sign that there’s some serious problems going on, I don’t know what is.

    However, this week we have reason to celebrate! For the first time in 2009, sales last week were higher than sales for the same week in 2008, due to the ACM Awards as well as the Easter holiday. That leads to some nice and robust numbers on this week’s chart (which would have been an ordinary Top 10 in 2003, but I’m just sayin’…).

    As expected, country trio Rascal Flatts debuts at the top spot with their new album “Unstoppable”. It’s their fourth #1 album, and it boasts the second biggest debut of the year, scanning 351,000 units, second only to U2’s first week total earlier this year. However, let’s put that into perspective. That total is less than half of what their “Me & My Gang” album did just three years ago.

    Elsewhere on the album chart, Jadakiss debuts at a surprising #3 with his third album, “Kiss of Death”. I thought people had forgotten about the guy, but his Roc-a-Fella debut proved that the former LOX member could still move units. The week’s final big debut comes from country star Jason Aldean. Aldean, who is easily the most popular indie label country artist around, enters at #4 with his third album “Wide Open”.

    The rest of the Top 10 includes the “Hannah Montana” soundtrack at #2 (expect this to make a run at #1 next week after Miley Cyrus’s “American Idol” appearance), the 30th installment of the “Now That’s What I Call Music” series is #5, Taylor Swift, who still has this year’s top selling album,  moves back up to #6, padding her total, while Keith Urban, who had last week’s #1 album, slides down to #7, while the “Twilight” soundtrack hangs around at #8, Prince’s Target exclusive set falls to #9 after entering at #2, and Lady GaGa holds the #10 spot down (can the music business really be in trouble if people are still buying tripe like this?).

    This week’s Epic Fail comes from Shad Moss, who you all know better as Bow Wow. After a run of five consecutive Gold or Platinum albums, his latest “New Jack City Part II”, falls to #43 in only it’s second week on the chart. This is despite the fact that his latest single, “You Can Have it All”, is currently rising up the charts. Ain’t no love left for a kid rapper, I guess. Especially when he doesn’t write his own lyrics.