Loading ...
Yes, that’s right: It’s another week in December where the album charts are topped by Josh Groban’s Oprah-endorsed Noel. This week, the holiday-themed collection sold 581,000 copies, an 8% gain over last week’s sales total and more than double the tally of the week’s No. 2 record, Alicia Keys’ As I Am. (Which sold a not-shabby 234,000 copies itself.)
Biggest Debuts: Blake Lewis’ unfortunately art directed Audio Day Dream entered the chart at No. 10, with 98,000 copies sold; Scarface’s M.A.D.E. came in at No. 17, selling 63,000 copies. Further down the chart, DJ Drama’s legit release Gangsta Grillz entered at No. 26, selling 49,000 copies; Wyclef’s Carnival 2 came in at No. 28, selling 46,000 copies; and Ghostface’s The Big Doe Rehab entered at No. 41, selling 36,000 copies.
Notable Jumps: The holidays mean that it’s time to buy “safe” presents for the kids, and what could be safer than Hannah Montana, at least for those girls who are out of the “tantrum-throwing” stage after not getting tickets to Billy Ray Cyrus’ spawn’s sold-out tour? Both volumes of music from the Miley Cyrus/Disney Channel synergy are back in the top 20, with Hannah Montana 2 gaining 37% in sales to move up to No. 5 and the original moving up to No. 20 on a 33% sales jump.
Dropping Off: There wasn’t a lot of downward sales movement this week–hey, even a dead cat has to bounce when you drop it, right?–but the Eagles’ 35% sales drop only resulted in their Wal-Mart jugggernaut falling from No. 2 last week to No. 3 this week. And Jay-Z’s American Gangster saw its sales fall off by 13%, which resulted in the album dropping from No. 17 to No. 30.
Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: Who needs another Mannheim Steamroller album (especially when you’ve got Josh Groban for your Yuletide needs)? Apparently, 91,000 people did last week, as Christmas Song fell out of the top 10 but increased its sales by 17%.
This week’s top 20, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Josh Groban, Noel (581,000)
2. Alicia Keys, As I Am (234,000)
3. Eagles, Long Road Out Of Eden (204,000)
4. Now 26 (158,000)
5. Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus (132,000)
6. High School Musical 2 (128,000)
7. Carrie Underwood, Carnival Ride (107,000)
8. Garth Brooks, Ultimate Hits (105,000)
9. Taylor Swift (99,000)
10. Blake Lewis, Audio Day Dream (98,000)
11. Mannheim Steamroller, Christmas Song (91,000)
12. Celine Dion, Taking Chances (93,000)
13. Chris Brown, Exclusive (83,000)
14. Rascal Flatts, Still Feels Good (79,000)
15. Jonas Brothers (72,000)
16. Led Zeppelin, Mothership (65,000)
17. Scarface, M.A.D.E. (63,000)
18. Colbie Caillat, Coco (62,000)
19. Sugarland, Enjoy The Ride (59,000)
20. Hannah Montana (56,000)
Given all the hype about December 4th being a super Tuesday for mid-level hip hop stars (Saigon and Wu Tang were also originally on that date), the sales were pretty weak: Big Doe Rehab had almost exactly the same first week tally as More Fish, which itself was a third of Fishscale’s first week. Maybe Ghostface needs to rethink this whole rushing out albums in the 4th quarter thing. Also, Scarface’s sales were closer to that of his last two thrown-together compilations, My Homies Part 2 and Balls & My Word, than his last Def Jam album, The Fix, but I pretty much expected that, given how under the radar promotions for Made have been. Styles P. in at #52 is also lower than it deserves to be, but it’s actually higher than his major label album last year peaked (albeit with a lower sales total).
@GovernmentNames: I agree that the December hip-hop release pattern — pioneered in ‘98 when DMX dropped his second album less than a year after his first and sold nearly 700,000 discs to kids trading in the crap their relatives bought them — is dying out. Those same kids are all downloading now.
P.S. Billboard’s report on the week’s sales includes an interesting stat about how Blake fared compared with other Idol runners-up: “…lower than that of three [others'] debuts (Clay Aiken, Bo Bice and Katharine McPhee), but larger than two others (Justin Guarini and Diana DeGarmo).”
THE GROBE!
What in the world has happened to Bo Bice? Apparently, nobody’s buying the album, but the video is #1 on VH1 this week. Any explanations, besides the obvious “VH1 is really, really out of touch”?