Hey everyone, do you finally want to know who won the year’s biggest non-issue, the battle royale between two overgrown rapping children for the all-but-devalued Billboard No. 1 spot? A hint: even if you’re a sourpussed crank who’s been talking shit about this media-circus-cum-sales-”beef” from jump, you’ll probably still be happy. Keep in mind, however, that these are strictly preliminary numbers until tomorrow:
Kanye: 960k
Fifty: 660k
K. Chesney: 400k
And yes, though I know I shouldn’t care about this sort of trivial marketing ploy by two objectionable millionaires who already enjoy fame and financial security beyond my wildest imaginings, especially in face of Iraq/the growing problem of third-world “megaslums”/the housing market imploding/the price of cigarettes in New Jersey, I’m still smiling.
West Is Best [Hits Daily Double]
[Sorry, Maura, I'm gonna repeat some stuff I said to your earlier.]
I’m picking my jaw up off the floor over that Kanye number — that blows out any forecast I’ve seen anywhere. Careful, his ego is about to become visible from distant galaxies.
Billboard/SoundScan’s final tally tomorrow might be revised downward, but those revisions rarely lop off more than 10K or 20K — which is what makes Fitty’s latest conspiracy theory such bullshit. Way back in ’91, when Billboard started using SoundScan data, they learned quickly how to identify and remove from the data pool weird-looking outliers. Chart columnist Geoff Mayfield often reveals in his weekly column in the magazine when they had to do something extraordinary with the numbers or revise someone’s total downward because of cheating. Bottom line, I seriously, seriously doubt “shenanigans” would account for ‘Ye’s 300K gap here.
Plus, one other thing Billboard does that HITS doesn’t is add in a few thousand in sales from mom-and-pop black-owned stores that never upgraded to SoundScan. So, especially with R&B and hip-hop albums, the sales tweaking up and down is often a wash. (Actually those shops will probably benefit Fitty’s total more than Kanye’s.)
The real underperformer here is Chesney: 400K is below his best perf (at least one of his albums in the last few years did 550K in week one), and he’s coming off two massive hit country singles.
Shocked about Chesney selling below Fiddy.
When was the last time an artist sold 960K in a week?
Color me shocked as well by all 3 of these numbers — that Kanye would have the best debut of the year by around 50% more than HSM2 and Minutes To Midnight; that in any other [?] week 50′s number would likely have put him in the best-of-the-year slot; and that Chesney would lose out to 50. I guess we must tip our hats to the marketing geniuses at UMG for the success of their laughably-fabricated “showdown” — it did, indeed, drive folks to the stores, both brick-and-mortar and virtual, to pick up these records. I hope the folks over at Sony BMG were paying attention — and that they have time to create a fake “I’m more authentic than you are, b!” feud over the next simultaneous releases from Carrie Underwood and Terri Clark.
@mackro: If I’m not mistaken, it was Fitty! The Massacre moved 1.14 million copies in its first four days of release back in March ’05.
Wow. To almost crack that million in a week line is crazy…I would have had money on West taking it, but not like this.
@Kurt’s Krap: See, I’m not sure if this has basis in fact. While Chesney’s a big draw and country fans do tend be loyal customers, he hasn’t exactly shown himself to be Garth Brooks of the new millennium. He’s already done his big tour, so unless he comes out with a monster single, I don’t expect enough of a surge to overtake Kanye.
If we’re thinking really long term, Kanye’s more likely to be a catalog seller than Kenny.
Just a heads up that the following very well might be the most presumptious waffly commentary you’ll have ever read on Idolator.
But I’m wondering if first-week sales for releases that expect to have a bigger audience in suburban or rural areas — i.e. 50 Cent and Chesney (Agh! See, I told you this was presumptious) — just can’t spark anymore.
There’s still plenty of time to see who does better in the long run — but it’s far more rare for an album coming out in The Oughts to creep up in sales and become a longevity monster than it is for one to explode upon release and have the resultant word-of-mouth keep the flames of hype stubborn.
So there are country rar blogs now.
I’d bet though that Chesney outsells both together in the long run. Kayne and 50 shot their wad in a week while Chesney will continue to sell and sell.
Objectionable he may be, but that new Kanye record is f-ing awesome. I will be shamelessly blasting it from my 97 Civic through the suburbs for weeks.