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? […]
Posts tagged "Lil Wayne"
New Release Report 9/28/10: Walking Down “Lonely Avenue” with Ben Folds
When I saw Ben Folds in concert earlier this year, he noted that the album he’d been working on with British author Nick Hornby had been completed, and I was super intrigued. I’m a pretty major Folds fan, and “High Fidelity” has long been on the list of my favorite books and films (and I also picked up “Long Way Down” over the summer…it was a great read). The one song that Folds played from the collaboration that night was […]
After Ingesting the Hype, Thank Drake for Making a Solid Album
Hype is a hard thing to overcome-I’ve said it before. As someone who follows the goings-on of the music industry, I certainly fall victim to heightened expectations and wind up getting disappointed every once in a while. No one’s been the beneficiary of more hype over the course of the past year than Drake. His story seems unlikely in the world of hip-hop. He’s biracial. He’s Canadian. His first name is AUBREY, for Chrissakes. Even more damning, he was a […]
Erykah Badu's "Jump in the Air": I Have a Headache
My excitement about Erykah Badu’s “New Amerykah Part 2: Return of the Ankh” (which is due on March 30th) was tempered by the fact that Lil Wayne was gonna be appearing on the album’s first single. I was more than a little disappointed that someone who had such a strong stance about artistic integrity would pull a sellout move and align herself with the hot rapper of the moment, ostensibly just to have a hit single. Having heard “Jump in […]
"We Are the World 25": What Were They Thinking?
25 years ago, Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie and Quincy Jones created “We Are the World”. This song was written and performed to provide relief to famine-stricken Ethiopians. They assembled a group of 45 artists-most of whom were undeniable legends (Ray Charles, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Paul Simon, Tina Turner…even Steve Perry, Kenny Loggins and Hall & Oates), and people worldwide opened their hearts and wallets to donate to the cause. “We Are the World” became a #1 smash […]
Chartstalker!: 2/11/2010
This week’s Billboard album charts reflect what people went out and bought (or went into their living rooms and downloaded) during the 7 days that followed the Grammy Awards, and the results are hardly surprising. Just about every artist that performed on the show experienced a jump: Taylor Swift and Zac Brown Band return to the Top Ten, while Beyonce, Pink and Carrie Underwood jump back into the Top 20. There were even gains experienced by artists who appeared on […]
Hope I Die Before I…Hey, Wait a Sec…
Super Bowl 44 was exciting enough-at least until Manning got intercepted halfway through the 4th quarter. Although I put money on Indianapolis to win, I’m kinda glad it went to New Orleans. When the best things to come out of your city in the past twenty years are Lil Wayne and Harry Connick Jr., you deserve all that you get. Man, but did you check out that halftime show? Never mind the fact that Queen Latifah’s performance of “America the […]