So maybe my headline is a little misleading. After all, Lady Gaga’s Born This Way hangs on for a second week at the top of the Billboard album charts. However, after scoring a million + sales week, the pop star’s latest record suffers a steeper-than-normal 84% drop and scans a relatively pedestrian 174,000 units in week two. While the drop is slightly alarming, it was inevitable without the benefit of a promotion like Amazon’s 99 cent gambit. Regardless of anything, […]
Posts tagged "Born This Way"
Chart Stalker: Gaga Goes for a Mil
Pop star Lady Gaga leads this week’s Billboard album chart with her new album, Born This Way. It moves a jaw dropping 1.1 million units in it’s first week. It’s the biggest first week for any album since 50 Cent’s The Massacre dropped in 2005, and it’s the biggest first week for a female artist ever. Of course, Gaga’s achievement will come with an asterisk, as well over 400,000 copies of that were purchased from amazon.com during a promotion on […]
Spin Cycle: Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way”
My judgment occasionally gets clouded by hype. Only in most cases, the hype has an effect opposite to it’s intention. Instead of drawing me more toward something, hearing endless amounts of PR spin causes me to approach the item (whether it’s a CD, a book, a TV show or a movie) with significantly more skepticism. That’s been my issue with Lady Gaga almost since the moment she danced into stardom. It took me almost a year to give Gaga a […]
New Release Report 5/23/11: A Day Early for Gaga
It’s here, ladies and gentlemen. The anticipation has been building up since the beginning of the year, and now Lady Gaga’s Born This Way is available for you to take home. The music industry has been so hot to get this album out that they’ve pushed all releases for the week (which would normally be on Tuesday May 24th) to Monday the 23rd. Yup, folks, you can begin your work week with Stefani Germanotta and all of her dance-pop anthemry […]
The Viewfinder: GaGa Goes Gaga in “Born This Way” Video
I’ve said it here a few times before-I’d like Lady GaGa a lot more if not for her “image”. The woman is talented-powerful voice, she writes a mean song, and is quite musically talented. Of course, despite the fact that she possesses those talents, there’s no guarantee that she’d have gotten anywhere. Hell, I can make a list of 100 female singers who sing well, write good songs and are musically proficient, yet sell 10% of what Britney Spears (who […]
Chart Stalker 2/23/11: Love Those Grammys!
With the Grammy Awards achieving their highest ratings in a decade, it figures that this week’s Billboard Chart is one of the busiest in recent memory. Artists who performed on the show, won awards, and even artists that presented on the show have marked increases in sales. Of course, it helps when you not only perform on the show, but release a new album in the same week. Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never-Remixes bows on top of Billboard’s album chart […]
Chart Stalker 2/16/10: Now! A Ray of Sunshine
Lookie, lookie! Our first six-figure total of 2011 has arrived, and it only took two months for it to happen! (Sarcasm, folks). The 37th volume of the venerable “Now That’s What I Call Music” series takes the top spot on this week’s Billboard Album chart with 151,000 copies sold. It’s by far the best sales week of the year for any album, and it’s also the best sales week for the “Now” franchise in quite some time. This week’s chart […]
Hear Here!: Lady GaGa’s “Born This Way”
Before I heard this song, I was all set to write (or not write and apologize for not writing) a pseudo-intellectual piece explaining how I think Lady GaGa tries too hard to politicize her image and how she actually helps promote somewhat harmful stereotypes by virtue of her existence. I was also expecting “Born This Way”, the first single from GaGa’s upcoming sophomore album, to be some big, super-event weird record. After hearing the song, I’m left with a warm […]
Blerd Briefs 1/4/11: R.E.M., Lil Kim & Lady GaGa
In the news today: Gaga’s new album, the Nicki/Kim beef, and songs from R.E.M.’s upcoming album.