Check out DJ Earworm’s mash-up of the best in pop music this past year, featuring Taio Cruz, Katy Perry, Ke$ha, Usher and The Black Eyed Peas.
Chart Stalker! 12/23/10: Susan Bo…oh, Wait a Minute!
Taylor Swift leapfrogs past Susan Boyle to claim the #1 spot on this wee’s Billboard chart with “Speak Now”. The new Michael Jackson gets off to a so-so start at #3.
Chart Stalker!: Billboard Year-End Version
Welcome to the first of two year end editions of Chart Stalker! Why two, you ask? Simple answer-Billboard’s year-end issue comes out before the end of the actual calendar year (to allow for publication time and ad purchasing). Generally speaking, it covers the year from December 1st of the previous year to November 30th of the current year, or thereabouts. Additionally, Billboard calculates it’s rankings by using a formula based on chart position, so where an artist ends up on […]
Eminem, Lady Antebellum Lead Grammy Nominees
Eminem and Lady Antebellum lead the pack of Grammy nominees. The nominations were announced last night in Los Angeles.
The Grammy Crystal Ball: Who Gets Nominated?
Award season is in full swing, isn’t it? Coming less than two weeks after the American Music Awards and less than a week after the Soul Train Awards, and just a short time before the year-end best-of lists start raining down, the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences will announce the nominees for next January’s Grammy Awards. For the second consecutive year, there will be a prime time TV special announcing the nominees for the major categories, with scheduled […]
Chart Stalker 11/24/10: Just Like the Old Days!!
Thanks to a very healthy slate of new releases and the Beatles’ debut on iTunes, this week’s Billboard chart almost looks like one from 5 or 6 years ago when more people were buying records and also bodes well for a fairly successful holiday season. Nine albums scan over 100,000 copies this week (actually, eight of the nine scan over 150,000). This number includes seven debuts, but…this week’s chart-topper is actually a holdover. Susan Boyle actually INCREASES her first week […]
2010 American Music Awards: Live Blog
The American Music Awards may have fallen to third place on the importance list behind the Grammy Awards and the MTV Video Music Awards, but it’s still a pretty important show where it counts…at the cash register. It’s pretty well-watched, and lots of people that see performances or award winners end up going to their local store (or to iTunes) and picking up a single or album by someone they caught on the show. The AMAs began in 1974 as […]
The People Speak: Eminem & Antebellum Lead the American Music Awards
Well, folks, we’re in the thick of music award show season. The MTV Video Music awards kicked things off at the beginning of September, and the season concludes at the end of January with the Grammy Award ceremony. Smack dab in the middle, we have Dick Clark’s American Music Awards: an almost 40-year old institution that prides itself on being the people’s choice. Unlike the Grammy nominees, which are chosen by a “blue-ribbon” panel of music industry professionals, AMA nominees […]
Chart Chat 9/23/10: Linkin Park and Trey Songz In A Photo Finish!
1,005 units separate this week’s #1 and #2 albums in one of the closest races for the top spot in history. The eventual victor? Rock giants Linkin Park score the top spot with 241,000 units sold of their fourth studio album, “A Thousand Suns”. While that sum is healthy, it is cause for alarm considering that LP’s last album, “Minutes to Midnight”, debuted with triple that sum just three short years ago. Linkin Park’s sound has gradually evolved over the […]
Chart Stalker 8/26/10: There’s Life!!!
Eminem #1, yada yada yada blah blah blah. However, the remainder of the Top 10 on this week’s Billboard album chart gets an almost complete makeover, by virtue of six debuts and a reentry. The only albums in this week’s Top 10 that were also in last week’s Top 10 besides Eminem are Arcade Fire’s “The Suburbs” (#7) and Justin Bieber’s “My World 2.0” (#8). This week’s Top 10 debuts come from R&B singer Kem (#2), singer-songwriters Ray LaMontagne (#3) […]
Chart Stalker! 8/18/10: Change Soon Come
I’ll stand by for a sec and let you try to guess who has this week’s #1 album. Give up? It’s Eminem!! “Recovery” scans another 133,000 units this week and spends it’s 6th non-consecutive week at the top of Billboard’s album chart. “Recovery” also spends it’s 8th consecutive week at the top of Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Album chart. It’s the longest consecutive stay at the top for a rap album in 20 years. Last album to hang around that long? MC […]