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 […]
Posts tagged "Rihanna"
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 […]
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 […]
Am I The Only Guy Who Doesn’t Like Rihanna’s New Video?
I had to watch Rihanna’s new “Only Girl (in the World)” video before I finally got it. She’s supposed to be the only girl in the world! It all makes sense now!! I’m dumb sometimes. Anyway, the song’s OK for mindless pop, although nowhere near as good as “S.O.S.” or “Umbrella”. The video is kinda…I dunno. Just a little too much red and pink going on for me. It hurts my eyes. And this new “happy” direction for Rihanna just […]
Rihanna’s “Only Girl” Makes Her Sound Like Every OTHER Girl
Going to the dark side was only a modest win for Rihanna. “Rated R” got the Barbadian beauty more critical accolades than any other album she’s ever put out, but didn’t work out as well commercially. Granted, it’s sold just a hair under a million copies, but keep in mind that it’s only about 40% of what her previous album, “Good Girl Gone Bad”, sold. And since Rihanna’s much more of a pop star than an actual artist, record sales […]
Eminem’s Saving the Music Industry, But is “Recovery” His Best Work?
I have a love/hate relationship with Marshall Mathers. As a hip-hop head, I have to give the man respect for his talent. At a time when most now-school rappers can’t even freestyle properly, Eminem is almost a throwback emcee. The dude has skills that name-your-favorite-current-rapper can’t touch with a ten-foot pole. That said, there are also plenty of things that trouble me about Eminem. Like most people who were bullied as kids, he himself takes pleasure in bullying others less […]
“Love the Way You Lie”: Eminem and Rihanna Burn Down the House
The amazing success of Eminem’s “Recovery” (chasing Lady Antebellum for the title of biggest-selling album of 2010 after only six weeks out) proves that when all is said and done, it all comes down to quality. Well, mostly. Eminem stepped up his rhyme game, matured topically (slightly), and tempered that with his most commercial sounding production to date. The result has been two #1 singles (so far) and the leaving of little doubt as to who’s worthy of the “Best […]
Chart Stalker 7/21/10: The Singles Bar
There’s not a heck of a lot to report on the album chart this week-we are officially in the summer doldrums, although the first serious challenger to Eminem’s four weeks and counting run at the top of the chart arrived in the form of Rick Ross. If his “Teflon Don” can squeeze out 130,000 or so copies (not a stretch considering the rapper is inexplicably popular), he has a chance of sliding Slim Shady out of the perch he’s inhabited […]
America, Have You Heard?? The Time is Back!!
Those of you who watched the Prince tribute on the BET Awards last night would not be wrong for wondering what happened to his many proteges. To that, I ask one question: WHAT TIME IS IT??? As my man Jason Mewes would say (OK, he’s not really my man), “Morris Day and the Motherfuckin’ Time” are back and preparing a new album for release this year. All of the original members are along for the ride, including super-producas Jimmy Jam […]
Chartstalker 3/17/10: It's Ludacris!
(now say that in a Mike Tyson voice. That’s what I was going for.) This week’s Billboard album chart is led by a pair of new entries. Atlanta rapper Ludacris bows on top with his latest album, “Battle of the Sexes”. Bolstered by the hits “How Low” and “My Chick Bad”, Luda scans 137,000 units in his opening salvo. If that number sounds a little low, well, it is. Luda’s last album, “Theater of the Mind” opened with 213,000 units […]