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 […]
Country Music
Who The Hell Is…Cadillac Sky?
If you’d asked me this question two weeks ago, I wouldn’t have had an answer for you! However, I was fortunate enough to catch the Mumford and Sons show at the House of Blues here in Boston. There are times when I skip opening acts, but this time I got to the venue early, knowing damn well the place was gonna fill up quick. Definitely a good call on my part. To call Cadillac Sky yet another alt-country or neo-bluegrass […]
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 […]
Chart Stalker 11/18/10: SuBo FTW!
Big things happen when you drag pops and grandpa out to the record store. Check out this week’s Billboard album chart, and you’ll find Susan Boyle scoring another big debut. The owner of 2009’s biggest selling album looks to score a huge seller in 2010 with “The Gift”. The collection of new material and holiday classics scans 318,000 units, easily taking the top spot away from Taylor Swift . Not that Taylor’s doing too shabby. “Speak Now” adds another 212,000 copies to […]
New Release Report 11/16/10: The Reissue Theory
It’s mid-November, just a week and change until Thanksgiving, so of course there are a ton of albums coming out today. Most of them, however, are either compilations or repackagings. Some of them are worth it. Some of them, not so much. Anyway, here’s a sampling of the new old stuff you’re gonna see in stores and online this week. Easily, the biggest news is a massive reissue of Bruce Springsteen’s “Darkness on the Edge of Town”. The Boss’s fourth […]
Chart Stalker 11/11/10: Yee Haw Once Again
award shows / Country Music / hip-hop / Indie Rock / Lists! / music / New Releases / news / Pop Music / rock music / soul music
Country music has officially taken over, it seems. On this week’s Billboard album charts, the genre boasts the Top Three albums, four of the top ten, and eight of the top twenty (nine if you count the country/folk-influenced Mumford and Sons). As far as the other genres in the Top 20 go: two albums qualify as hip-hop, five fall under the pop umbrella (a wide spectrum that goes from Rod Stewart’s standards to Katy Perry’s dance-pop), there’s one legit rock […]
Taylor Swift Said “Speak Now”! (and the Masses Obeyed)
It’s safe to say that Taylor Swift has officially made the jump from country chick with a guitar to cultural phenomenon. No matter where you live or what you do, she’s as inescapable a pop star as there is these days. In an era when female singer and oversexualized images are almost synonymous, Taylor’s a throwback to a simpler time, sort of an Olivia Newton-John (kids, look her up) for the new millennium. Unlike ONJ, Taylor plays guitar and writes […]
Chart Stalker 11/3/10: Taylor to the Rescue!!
So much for me and my prognostication skills. When Taylor Swift’s “Speak Now” album came out last week, I initially pegged the album to do a WAY more than respectable 750,000 copies in it’s first week-coming into close contention with Eminem’s “Recovery” as the biggest debut week in 2010. Well, reports immediately started flying around suggesting that Taylor would come close to the coveted million mark, and now the dust has settled for the week, and Swift scores the biggest […]
Blerd Briefs: Hammer vs. Jay-Z, R. Kelly vs. Jay-Z…and Taylor Swift
Is it me, or has Shawn Carter become hip-hop’s #1 whipping boy? I guess that’s par for the course when you’re on top of the game, but bitterness seems to surround this cat like no other rap artist before or since. The latest person to step to Jay-Z with beef is…Hammer. No, that is not a typo. 48 year old Stanley Kirk Burrell, the genie-pants dancing, KFC shilling rapper who dropped the “MC” from his name back in the early […]
New Release Report 11/2/10: What’s Out Today? Nothing.
Album Reviews / Country Music / hip-hop / Indie Rock / music / New Releases / news / Pop Music / rock music
No, not NOTHING nothing! “Nothing”! It’s the new album from N.E.R.D.! Good Lord, I’m corny. Anyway, this week’s list of new releases is headed up by the fourth effort from Pharrell, Chad and that other dude that doesn’t do shit. To my mild shock, it turned out to actually be a decent album. Probably my favorite Pharrell-related effort other than “In Search Of…”, the first N.E.R.D. album. It sounds fun, Pharrell’s voice and lyrics are less annoying than usual, and […]
Chart Chat 10/27/10: There’s Something Sweet at the Top of the Chart This Week
The country onslaught continues! Sugarland scores this week’s #1 album with their latest effort, “The Incredible Machine”. The duo’s sound, which mixes traditional country with a more streamlined, arena pop-rock sound, was enough to impress 203,000 folks. Not bad, huh? The top four positions on this week’s Billboard chart are all new entries. Kings of Leon score the biggest debut in their history with “Come Around Sundown”. The band’s fifth effort scores a total of 184,000 units-more than double the […]
New Release Report 10/25-26/10: Taylor Saves the Music Industry??
Probably not, but there are a lot of people hoping that Taylor Swift’s third studio album turns out to be a blockbuster. “Fearless”, the young singer’s sophomore effort, was a certified phenomenon, selling over 6 million copies (“Thriller” numbers in today’s environment) and making Taylor the first country artist to win an MTV Video Music Award. It also won her an Album of the Year Grammy. This means that expectations are sky-high. Those sky-high expectations probably won’t be met, but […]