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 […]
Posts tagged "Justin Bieber"
Chart Stalker 12/2/10: Yay ‘Ye!!
award shows / Country Music / hip-hop / music / New Releases / news / Pop Music / rock music / soul music
A look at this week’s Billboard 200 album chart. Kanye West debuts at #1, while Nicki Minaj scores the best sales week for a female rapper ever.
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 […]
New Release Report 11/22/10: Well, Hello Kanye
hip-hop / music / New Release Report / New Releases / news / Pop Music / reissues / rock music / soul music
The week before Thanksgiving is typically the week that record companies bring out their big guns. There will be quite a few major records battling for chart supremacy this week, and most of them will have a 24-hour jump on the average music release, since many of the albums are being made available for sale on Monday instead of Tuesday. Here’s what you should be looking for: Kanye West “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy”– Kanye’s fifth album has been met […]
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 Stalker 10/7/10: The Yee-Haw Edition
Guess what type of music people are still buying? Ding Ding Ding!! Country music! Kenny Chesney becomes the second straight country act to debut at #1 on the national Billboard charts. His latest effort, “Hemingway’s Whiskey”, starts with 183,000 units. It replaces Zac Brown Band’s “You Get What You Give” at the top of the chart. The Grammy winning band’s sophomore effort slides two spots to #3 this week. Guess what other type of music people are apparently still buying? […]
Ushering in a New Era of Mediocrity with “Versus”
I stand corrected. When Usher’s “Raymond V. Raymond” came out earlier this year, I predicted that after a solid first week, it was going to flop hard. Well, I guess I have egg on my face. Thanks to the inexplicable success of the will.i.am-assisted hit “OMG”, “Raymond” has already outsold Usher’s (much better qualitatively but not as pop-friendly) previous record “Here I Stand”. In order to keep the momentum going (and maybe to hoodwink Usher’s fans into buying material that […]
Raekwon, Kanye & Bieber: It Shouldn’t Work, But…
I must admit that I cringed a little when I heard that Kanye West was teaming up with Raekwon and Justin Bieber for a song. Look, I have nothing against the Bieb-he’s a talented kid. I just wasn’t sure how the three were going to mesh, and I was also giving Kanye the side-eye for teaming up with the hot flavor of the moment and sacrificing his artistic integrity. But honestly? I’d rather Kanye do records with JB than do […]
Chart Stalker 5/20/10: We've Had Better Weeks
Dubious distinction time: the total that sends Justin Bieber back to #1 on this week’s Billboard album chart is the second lowest since Soundscan began collecting data in spring 1991. In a week especially light for new releases, the Bieb reclaims the top spot with only 60,000 units sold. The only #1 album to have sold less is the “Dreamgirls” soundtrack, which topped the charts with a slightly smaller number a little less than four years ago. Four albums debut […]
Um…How the Hell Does Justin Bieber Get Nominated for a BET Award??
Nothing gets my goat quicker than the announcement of award nominations. It seems like the older I get, the more I realize how much awards are based on political considerations and not based on actual talent or even common sense. To wit-the nominations for the BET Awards were announced this week. Most of the nominations go according to what you’d typically expect for a BET-endorsed award show-Alicia Keys, Jay-Z and Beyonce are among the key nominees-hell, it seems like they’re […]
"Thinking About Something": Don't Hate on Hanson
A note to Justin Bieber: you seem to be a fairly talented kid. Just know that unless you’re a very, very resourceful or very, very special musician, your shelf-life is limited. Not a lot of kid singers get to keep their spot in the limelight beyond their early twenties-guys like Michael Jackson and Justin Timberlake are the exceptions, not the rule. There’ll probably be a point when you have to decide for yourself whether you’re in it for the music […]