Here’s your weekly wrap-up on the interesting happenings on the Billboard charts.
Top 200 Albums: Adele bounces back to the #1 spot on the Billboard 200 with 21. It’s spent three of it’s first four weeks at the top spot and has easily cruised over 750,000 albums sold. The British songstress adds another 98K to her total this week.
Hardcore band Rise Against scores the biggest first week of their career, arriving at #2 with their latest effort, Endgame. It scans just under 85,000 units and is easily the highest new entry in a fairly weak week for new releases. It’s also the #1 album on the Rock charts this week.
Only one other album debuts in the Top Ten: Travis Barker’s debut solo effort, Give the Drummer Some. The hip-hop-centric effort from the blink-182 drummer lands at #9 with 28,000 units sold and pops onto the R&B/hip-hop album chart at #2, behind Lupe Fiasco’s Lasers.
While Lasers manages a second week at the top of the R&B charts, it’s hard not to think that bad word of mouth has contributed to a pretty sharp decline from it’s first week. It only drops 1-3 on the over Billboard chart, but declines 77% in sales, finishing with a total just under 47K.
With a light new release schedule, sales were pretty blah overall. One event that certainly impacted this week’s chart was St. Patrick’s Day. The biggest chart increases came from bands like Flogging Molly and Celtic Woman. Those two acts combine to take up five spots on the Billboard 200, with Celtic Woman’s latest, Heritage, vaulting from #93-#11.
It was a good week/bad week for American Idol. The Black Eyed Peas, who performed on the show last week, jump from #44-#28 with their latest album, The Beginning. However, another one of last week’s performers, Season 9 champ Lee DeWyze, still stands at a middling #96 with his debut major-label effort, Live it Up. Despite an increase of over 300% this week, DeWyze’s album, which has been out since November, has yet to even scan 150,000 units. Time was, an “American Idol” winner’s album would have no issues scanning 150,000 units in it’s first week. To add insult to injury, a much ballyhooed 10th anniversary compilation celebrating the best of the show starts off at a lowly #136. People might still be watching, but it doesn’t really appear to be translating into album sales.
An Idol alum has a narrow chance at the #1 spot next week, as Jennifer Hudson’s new album, I Remember Me, will be one of several efforts vying for the top spot. My guess would be that J-Hud will be thwarted by the latest effort from singer/dancer/massive head case Chris Brown. Proving that the only bad publicity is no publicity, I’m anticipating his F.A.M.E. to debut at the top easily with a sales figure that might cause you to do a double take. The long-awaited new album by The Strokes will most likely slide into the runner-up spot, with J. Hud appearing somewhere in the Top Ten.
Top 200 Singles (Digital Download Sales)
So why in the hell did I name the column “Positively Glee-ful” when I haven’t said a damn thing about “Glee” yet?. Well, the first original songs from the hit TV show make big waves on the digital download chart. The crew darts from #119-#2 this week with “Loser Like Me” and also appear in the top ten with “Get it Right”, which jumps from #164-#6. The “Glee” kids already hold the record for most appearances on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in history (and they broke the record in just two years), so this is certain to add to their total.
Katy Perry’s “E.T.” (featuring Kanye West) holds on for a second week at the top of the chart and might wind up taking the #1 spot on the Top 100 (which combines sales and airplay) away from the reigning champ, Lady GaGa’s “Born This Way” (which slides a notch to #4 on the digital download chart despite going up in sales this week). “E.T.” is Perry’s fourth consecutive chart topper on the digital download chart, and stands to become her fourth consecutive chart topper on the Hot 100, which would put her in pretty illustrious company amid the likes of The Jackson 5 (four consecutive #1s), Mariah Carey (five consecutive #1s), Michael Jackson solo (five consecutive #1s) and Whitney Houston (who scored seven consecutive #1s between 1985 and 1988).
The aforementioned Black Eyed Peas score a 143% increase on their latest single, “Just Can’t Get Enough”, and land at #3 on this week’s chart.
Finally, after all the internet hype about teen singer Rebecca Black’s “Friday” (a song I still haven’t heard), it only manages a #57 debut, one spot above “Regulate”, the song that introduced Nate Dogg (who passed away last week) to a pop audience.
Here’s this week’s Top 20 digital downloads:
1) “E.T.” Katy Perry feat. Kanye West
2) “Loser Like Me” Glee Cast
3) “Just Can’t Get Enough” The Black Eyed Peas
4) “Born This Way” Lady GaGa
5) “S&M” Rihanna
6) “Get it Right” Glee Cast
7) “Look at Me Now” Chris Brown feat. Lil Wayne & Busta Rhymes
8) “On the Floor” Jennifer Lopez feat. Pitbull
9) “The Song Otherwise Known as Forget You” Cee-Lo Green
10) “Blow” Ke$ha
11) “Who Says” Selena Gomez & the Scene
12) “I Need a Doctor” Dr. Dre feat. Eminem & Skylar Grey
13) “Coming Home” Diddy-Dirty Money feat. Skylar Grey
14) “Fuckin’ Perfect” P!nk
15) “Down On Me” Jeremih feat. 50 Cent
16) “Jar of Hearts” Christina Perri
17) “Raise Your Glass” Glee Cast
18) “Blackbird” Glee Cast
19) “Rolling in the Deep” Adele
20) “Till the World Ends” Britney Spears