Big in the UK: Cooking the Charts with They Might Be Giants
August 23, 2010
This is the sort of thing that probably wouldn’t happen here. I just don’t think Americans take their pop charts quite as personally or as democratically as they do in the U.K. Earlier this summer, a brand of kid’s shoes put out an ad featuring “Birdhouse in Your Soul”, the 1990 major label debut single by They Might Be Giants. The duo of John Linnell and John Flansburgh have, since they started recording original songs onto a standard answering machine in the early 80s, become the godfathers of nerd-rock, and now that their original fans (like me) are pushing middle age with mortgages and children, the band have found renewed success recording four albums of “children’s music”, and performing alternate shows for grown-ups and kids on tour. The idea of sticking TMBG’s loving ode to the nightlight into an ad for kids’ shoes might’ve been genius if it weren’t so self-evidently perfect.
I don’t know how it’s working out for Clark Shoes, but it seems to be doing well for They Might Be Giants. The song re-entered the British Top 100 pop songs late last month. Of course, songs featured in popular ads often get enjoy a run on the pop charts here as well – just as Sara Bareilles, Yael Naim, or Phoenix – but those successes seem more like happy accidents. In the case of “Birdhouse In Your Soul”, a strange populist cause – okay, a facebook group – has formed around keeping the song on the charts and trying to advance it to the top spot. That said, after four weeks, the song has only gone so far as #70 (on the chart dated 8/21; the song falls back to #72 on the 8/28 chart).
But that’s not to say it couldn’t eventually succeed. This isn’t the first instance of the Brits attempting to cook their pop charts. See also: Buckley v. Burke. In 2008, after Alexandra Burke won the TV talent show The X-Factor, a campaign by apostles of the tragic 90s singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley attempted to thwart Burke’s cover of the Leonard Cohen song “Hallelujah” from making its predicted number one debut over that year’s Christmas sales week by urging fans to download Buckley’s own version of the song.
It's a Brand New Record for 1990!
The campaign failed, but just barely. Buckley’s song charted at #2 behind Burke’s. Still, the TMBG song, while it may linger on the chart for as long as the ad airs, probably won’t reach those sorts of heights. For one thing, “Birdhouse In Your Soul” isn’t being pitted against another version of itself, or even another song. Moreover the Alexandra Burke debut was a one-off event sales week; it was also a holiday week, and it’s a holiday week that The X-Factor has annually co-opted for just this eventful purpose. So Buckley v. Burke was framed as the classic battle over artistic legitimacy between a tragic rock icon and a freshly minted “mass-produced” pop idol for the very soul of the pop chart.
As a fan of both Burke and Buckley (although, when it comes to “Hallelujah”, count me in with Team John Cale), I, frankly, prefer not having to choose sides. They Might Be Giants‘ Elektra debut record Flood was essentially the first record of 1990, and “Birdhouse In Your Soul” was instant classic that still makes me giddy and giggly every time I hear it – even more so now that I’ve got two kids singing along with me.
Here’s the original video from 1990:
Lost in “Mumbo Jumbo”: The Triumphant (?) Return of Air Supply
May 12, 2010
In what may be an indication that a critical mass of the “adult” radio listening audience now has no first-hand memory of the band’s creamy cheeseball ballad 80s heyday, Billboard.com today reported that “Dance With Me”, the latest single by the Australian duo Air Supply, has reached #28 on the Adult Contemporary chart. This is their first appearance on that chart since the summer of ’93, and their highest placing on the chart since 1986 (that is: the year Lady Gaga was born). Although I’ve always kept a soft spot for the Air Supply of my youth, namely their fantastic run on the pop charts between 1980 and 1986 which I unironically maintain produced some of the era’s most enduring love songs – “Lost in Love”, “All Out of Love”, “The One That You Love”, “The Power of Love”, and, of course, their Jim Steinman-penned and produced magnum opus “Making Love Out of Nothing At All” – I’d lost track of them after the relative flop of their last album for the Arista label, 1986′s Hearts In Motion. I own that last Arista album, and I have to say, it’s not all that bad, and in fact, it’s lead single – you know the one that gave Air Supply their last best showing on the Adult Contemporary chart – remains one of my favorites of theirs, despite the fact that it rarely turns up on any of the myriad Air Supply greatest hits comps out there:
I’ve been distantly aware that Air Supply have remained active both as a live touring act, especially in Asia and South America where their popularity has never waned, and as recording artists. They’ve put out 8 studio albums, a handful of live documents, and a Christmas record in the last 25 years, which makes them slightly more prolific than, say, U2. So my heart leapt a bit when I read that they were now enjoying an apparently renewed level of success in the U.S. It wasn’t just my 12-year-old self thrilling to see an old familiar face sharing space with Colbie Caillat and Kris Allen. But the sheer unlikelihood of this resurgence made me think that for any Air Supply song to recapture a larger American audience, it had to be friggin’ awesome.
Well, okay, going by Air Supply’s website, it appears that their latest album Mumbo Jumbo is a sort of concept album with high art pretentions, strangely religious undertones and an indecipherable Adam and Eve type storyline, for which “Dance With Me” serves as an establishing chapter. Setting aside the looney-tunes conceptual context (someone’s been listening to Prince’s The Rainbow Children), there’s nothing wrong with the song itself. “Dance With Me” is, at least theoretically, a lovely mid-tempo charmer. And in the few live performances of the song you might find on YouTube, it seems to go over well in concert. But the recording of the song is embarrassingly bad. While Graham Russell (the tall one) has never sounded more like Art Garfunkel (nice!), those who remember the diminutive Russell Hitchcock‘s skyscraping tenor will be struck immediately by just how haggard and depressing his voice sounds now. Furthermore, the raw, all-foreground production does nothing to flatter either song or singer. It’s unfathomable to me that any self-respecting radio programmer would give something this amateurish airplay, and I’ve rarely regretted a 99 cent download more. Again, I am not an Air Supply hater, and I find the idea of a re-energized, re-popularized Air Supply a very heartening development. If only the music were good.
Big In Europe: Stromae’s “Alors On Danse”
May 2, 2010
When I was a kid, most of the music I loved best was coming from Europe, and so I loved it when Casey Kasem would occasionally mention on his weekly American Top 40 broadcasts which songs were topping the charts in places like Belgium and Norway (and, yes, of course, the U.K.). Most of the time, this would be in the context of introducing a song that was a current hit in the U.S. Example, “Coming up on AT40, the hit by the Austrian native Falco that’s currently number one in Romania, Italy, Poland, The Netherlands, and Czechoslovakia.” I always thought it was fascinating not just that, you know, Romania could have a Top 40, but that songs I knew could be on it. And that Casey Kasem knew what was on the Romanian Top 40. In my head, I imagined Romanian 11-year-olds like myself sneaking out of church (did they have church in Romania too?) to sit in their parents’ cars and listen to Casey Kasem count down the Romanian Top 40.
The downside of this all was that sometimes, Casey would announce the number one hits in these far-flung locales, but you wouldn’t get to actually hear them. Later on, I realized I could go to the library in Kenosha and they would have a copy of the current Billboard, and Billboard actually published the top 10s, 20s and/or 40s of various international territories, which was all good fun to read. But it always ended up in the disappointment of unrequited curiosity. Even if I’d had the money to buy a Fra Lippo Lippi album out of sheer Billboard-chart-induced curiosity, where was a kid in small-town Wisconsin supposed to buy it? And certainly no radio station was going to be playing it. Sad. And it just wasn’t right, because as it turns out, the difference in radio air-playability between Fra Lippo Lippi (who never had an American hit), and, say, Johnny Hates Jazz (who had a couple) is pretty negligible. Perhaps, after a-ha, U.S. labels and radio stations had decided that they had met their quota of break-out Norwegian pop acts.
Today’s musically-obsessive, internationally-minded, geographically-stranded pre-teens no longer have this issue. You don’t have to go to Kenosha to read the latest copy of Billboard. You can go to Billboard.com. And once there, and once you’re curious about, say, the number one hit in Europe that isn’t a hit here (yet?), you can go to YouTube and watch the video for that hit. And so, with that, I’m introducing this occasional little column called “Big In…” where I spin- err, embed – the hits of exotic locations. (Sadly, Billboard.com does not publish the Romanian Top 40.) First up is the current number one hit on the pan-European chart. It’s by 25-year-old Rwandan-Belgian rapper Paul van Haver, better known as Stromae. It’s called “Alors on Danse”, and it’s accompanied by a very cinematic split-screen video that only magnifies the song’s message (in French) of dancing in the face of existential boredom. Oui, baby!
[Update: So, okay, Universal Music France is mean. Click the link below to actually see the video]
Stromae \"Alors on Danse\"
Zac Brown Band Shreds All-Stars – Grammys 2010
January 31, 2010
CBS shills The Big Bang Theory during Best Comedy Album. Six nominees and Colbert wins for a cute skit that turned into a record. And for this we’ve given up a Kings of Leon or a jazz or a blues performance? Or maybe even that, whaddya call it? Classical.
Off of commercial, Norah Jones and Ringo Starr. Remember, Norah’s dad and Ringo go way back. Bobby Darin gets a Lifetime Achievement Award as Mack The Knife plays. Ringo pumps up the audience for Norah.
Beyonce’s Halo, I Gotta Feeling by the Peas, Use Somebody by Kings of Leon, Gaga’s Poker Face and Taylor Swift’s You Belong With Me are the nominees. Kings of Leon pull off another huge upset. Peas and Swift were safe here. Good for the Academy voters.
Robert Downey, Jr. is introduced as the most self-important actor of his generation which is a joke gone bad or a horrible intro. He is Sue’s at Movie Rewind’s main dude. Gotta give it to Jamie Foxx who can make an intro. Autotune at The Grammys is a big no-no in my book especially when we all know Jamie can sing. Some weirdness when Jamie’s mic seemed to cut in and a different timbre was heard. I’m just saying… T-Pain who is never losing AutoTune regardless of venue prances a bit. The whole thing is a bit muddy for stars this talented.
It’s the big jam as Slash enters with hat and blazing guitar.
Katy Perry, kind of looking like his daughter, shows up with Alice Cooper. They give Florence Greenberg a posthumous Trustee Award and start naming Best Rock Album nominees.
Best Rock (Kid Rock? Rock of Ages?) whatever that means anymore, goes to Green Day. That’s a strange choice with Dave Matthews and the album I thought had won, AC/DC’s Black Ice. Insiders Butch Vig and Chris Lord-Alge get name checked by Billie Joe Armstrong who doesn’t let anyone else talk. He writes great hooks, but I’m getting bored with Billie Joe again. This happened after Dookie too.
Chris O’Donnell shills one of the NCIS shows. He throws a lifetime award to Harold Bradley. He then gives way for Zac Brown Band and Leon Russell. I would say Leon looks great, but between the shades, big white hat and beard, I couldn’t say.
He sounded great though as did the protracted acapella version of America that opened the segment. Brilliant, brilliant band. Harmony. Lyrics. America. Shredding acoustic guitar solo. These guys will be around on a decade.
Chart Chat 1/27/10: History Has Been Made
January 27, 2010
This week’s Billboard albums chart brings a historic first. The “Hope for Haiti” benefit album, featuring selections from the telethon last Friday, debuts at #1 with over 171,000 units sold. It is the first completely digital release to debut at the top of the charts. I assume it won’t be the last.
It’s also the fourth album to hold the #1 spot this month (following Vampire Weekend, Ke$ha and Susan Boyle), which is also a record. Also, it’s scan total means that this is the first January on record in which every #1 album has sold at least 100,000 copies-at least some good news for a hurting music biz.
Indie rock favorites Spoon debut at #4 with their latest album, “Transference”, selling 53,000 copies. Right behind it is the compilation “Grammy Nominees 2010″ with 49K. The other debuts in the Top 50 come from Motion City Soundtrack at #15, and an actual motion picture soundtrack (from the Jeff Bridges film “Crazy Heart”) at #38.
SuBo’s hanging in a lot tougher than I thought she would. “I Dreamed a Dream” holds at #2 this week with a 12% increase over the previous week’s sales. An “Oprah” appearance was the reason for this increase, similar to the increase Lady Gaga (who is right behind Boyle at #3) enjoyed last week (when I didn’t publish a Chart Chat column. Boo, me).
The biggest percentage increase on the chart went to another Oprah guest, Adam Lambert. His “For Your Entertainment” jumps fourteen spots to #21, with a 60% increase in sales. Lambert is now a week or two away from Gold status, and airplay picking up for the new single “Whataya Want from Me” should continue to keep sales steady.
Next week, country trio Lady Antebellum is expected to debut at the top with the biggest first-week numbers of the still young year. A strong move is expected for Michael Jackson’s “This is It” soundtrack (with the DVD release yesterday), and we should also expect a few bumps from Grammy Award coverage, although the true increases won’t really come into play until the following week.
Here’s this week’s Top 20:
1) Various Artists “Hope for Haiti”
2) Susan Boyle “I Dreamed a Dream”
3) Lady Gaga “The Fame”
4) Spoon “Transference”
5) Various Artists “Grammy Nominees 2010″
6) Vampire Weekend “Contra”
7) Alicia Keys “The Element of Freedom”
Ke$ha “Animal”
9) The Black Eyed Peas “The E.N.D.”
10) Taylor Swift “Fearless”
11) Lady Gaga “The Fame: Monster (EP)”
12) Soundtrack “Alvin & the Chipmunks 2: The Squeaquel”
13) Justin Bieber “My World (EP)”
14) Mary J. Blige “Stronger Witheach Tear”
15) Motion City Soundtrack “My Dinosaur Life”
16) Lady Antebellum “Lady Antebellum”
17) Michael Jackson “This is It Soundtrack”
18) Michael Buble “Crazy Love”
19) Rihanna “Rated R”
20) Owl City “Ocean Eyes”
Chart Chat 1/13/10: All About Ke$ha
January 13, 2010
Susan Boyle has finally met her match.
After a six-week run at the top, Boyle loses the #1 spot on the Billboard Albums Chart to another new female artist. Dance/pop singer Ke$ha opens at the top with her debut album “Animal”. The album scans 152,000 copies in its’ first week out-easily beating Boyle’s total of 93,000.
As is customary for this time of the year, the chart is very quiet. The next highest debut comes all the way down at #27, where “American Idol” Katharine McPhee debuts with her latest, scanning 15,000 copies. Only a small handful of albums showed an increase over the previous weeks’ sales, with an iTunes promotion being responsible for the biggest increases-for Radiohead’s “Kid A” and Lenny Kravitz’ “Greatest Hits”. The two decade-old albums more than doubled in sales this week, and it’s not a stretch to think that Lenny’s involvement in the leaked Michael Jackson track that briefly lit up the internets last week was also a catalyst in his sales increase.
Another increase this week occurs towards the bottom of the Top 200, where Vampire Weekend’s debut re-enters at #199, with an 11% increase in scans over the previous week. Look for VW’s sophomore release, “Contra”, to challenge for the top spot next week. However, with Ke$ha being a new artist and people just now finding out about her, she could maintain her stronghold on the top of the charts for a second week.
Here’s this week’s Top 20:
1) Ke$ha “Animal”
2) Susan Boyle “I Dreamed a Dream”
3) Lady GaGa “The Fame”
4) Alicia Keys “The Element of Freedom”
5) Mary J. Blige “Stronger with Each Tear”
6) Soundtrack “Alvin & the Chipmunks 2-The Squeaquel”
7) Taylor Swift “Fearless”
The Black Eyed Peas “The E.N.D.”
9) Justin Bieber “My World”
10) Lady GaGa “The Fame: Monster”
11) Rihanna “Rated R”
12) Michael Buble “Crazy Love”
13) Young Money “We Are Young Money”
14) Owl City “Ocean Eyes”
15) Glee Cast “Glee: The Music Vol. 2″
16) Eminem “Relapse”
17) Lady Antebellum “Lady Antebellum”
18) Carrie Underwood “Play On”
19) John Mayer “Battle Studies”
20) Glee Cast “Glee: The Music Vol. 1″
Chart Chat 2009 Wrap Up: Susan Boyle Falls Just Short
January 6, 2010
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.”
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”
Billboard Presents The Top Music Moments of the Decade
December 30, 2009
In my haste to start covering year-end Soundscan stuff, I didn’t realize that there were actually 53 weeks in this chart year!! So we’ll take a look at some of those year end numbers NEXT week. This, of course, also means that Susan Boyle still has a chance to overtake Taylor Swift for the honor of having the year’s best selling album, although I would say that chance is rather slim, considering both the fact that sales are going to drop sharply in the coming week as well as the fact that the kids who will be cashing in gift cards and exchanging their uncool Christmas gifts will be more apt to pick up Taylor Swift and RETURN copies of the Susan Boyle album.
Anyhoo, while we’re waiting for the year-end charts to be tabulated, let’s take a look at Billboard’s list of the Top 50 Music Moments of the past decade. This list is a pretty accurate compilation of the past ten years’ most earthshaking popular music moments. From ‘Nsync and Eminem’s massive sales at the decade’s outset to the popularity of the iPod, the device that changed the way we listen to music forever, a lot has happened, good and bad, in music.
That said, some of the moments listed here made me raise my eyebrow. Was the Spice Girls’ reunion tour important to ANYONE? Did Noreaga’s “Oye Mi Canto” really kick off the reggaeton movement (and which was a bigger flash in the pan, reggaeton or Texas rap?)? Couldn’t they have used a more sensitive headline to describe Elliott Smith’s death? If Kanye West was unknown outside of hip-hop circles when he had his little Hurricane Katrina telethon outburst, then who were the three million people who bought “The College Dropout” BEFORE that incident? Who edited and proofed this thing? It’s one thing to see numerous spelling and grammatical errors in a blog like this (which is normally composed on the fly and has an audience of 30), but when Billboard magazine is making more spelling errors than me (and I assume they pay someone to ensure that those errors don’t happen), we definitely have a problem.
Chart Chat 12/30/09: Prelude to the Year-End Wrap Up
December 30, 2009
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)”
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”
Billboard Magazine Lists The Best of 2009
December 22, 2009
Now that we’re in the last week of December, we’re being surrounded with all of these Best of Year or Best of Decade wrapups and lists. We’ll be taking a look at some of those over the next two weeks, and I figured the logical place to start would be with the fine folks at Billboard magazine.
So, what were people buying and listening to on the radio in 2009? Pretty much the same thing they’ve been listening to for most of the decade:dance-oriented pop/R&B with a little country thrown in. Taylor Swift ranked as the year’s top artist and had 2009′s top album with “Fearless”. That particular album is closing in on the 5 million mark in sales and has truly been a crossover sensation. The next few spots on the artist list are pure pop: Beyonce, Lady GaGa (the year’s top new artist), The Black Eyed Peas and Miley Cyrus. Rapper Kanye West breaks up the monotony by placing at #6-he is also the year’s top-ranked male artist. Rock music doesn’t get representation until you get to Nickelback at #9, and after Beyonce, the highest ranked R&B artist is Ne-Yo at #17.
Beyonce also captures the #2 spot when it comes to the top album of the year, and she’s followed by Nickelback’s “Dark Horse” and a pair of soundtracks-”Twilight” and “Hannah Montana-The Movie”. These positions are based on chart rankings and not actual sales. Soundscan will publish it’s year end rankings…uh, when the year ends in a week and a half.
Here’s a list of this year’s Top 20 artists and Top 20 albums, according to Billboard.
Top Artists:
1) Taylor Swift
2) Beyonce
3) Lady GaGa
4) The Black Eyed Peas
5) Miley Cyrus
6) Kanye West
7) Britney Spears
T.I.
9) Nickelback
10) Pink
11) Kings of Leon
12) Katy Perry
13) Flo Rida
14) Kelly Clarkson
15) Jason Mraz
16) The Fray
17) Ne Yo
18) Lil Wayne
19) Rascal Flatts
20) Zac Brown Band
…and here are the year’s Top 20 albums:
1) “Fearless” Taylor Swift
2) “I Am…Sasha Fierce” Beyonce
3) “Dark Horse” Nickelback
4) “Twilight Soundtrack” Various Artists
5) “Hannah Montana: The Movie Soundtrack” Various Artists
6) “Circus” Britney Spears
7) “808s & Heartbreak” Kanye West
“The Fame” Lady GaGa
9) “Relapse” Eminem
10) “The E.N.D.” The Black Eyed Peas
11) “Only by the Night” Kings of Leon
12) “The Blueprint 3″ Jay-Z
13) “David Cook” David Cook
14) “The Foundation” Zac Brown Band
15) “Now That’s What I Call Music 29″ Various Artists
16) “Funhouse” Pink
17) “Intuition” Jamie Foxx
18) “No Line on the Horizon” U2
19) “Unstoppable” Rascal Flatts
20) “A Different Me” Keyshia Cole
Interesting personal factoid is that I own 12 of the Top 20 albums of the year, but I actually paid for only 7 of them (Kanye, Jay-Z, U2, Beyonce, Pink, Zac Brown and Kings of Leon).
