A front-line act with a months-old album decides to push his most obvious hit-bound song to radio–a song heavily reliant on a prominent sample of a deathless pop hit. But, bucking the day’s prevalent trend, he decides not to release the song on the most popular singles medium, forcing most customers to buy his album.
It’s a risky move, because the Billboard Hot 100 is dominated by songs that scale the chart by amassing sales as well as airplay. But the song is so mindlessly catchy, the act’s people figure it’ll be a big chart hit anyway with radio alone.
I could be talking about M.C. Hammer’s 1990 smash “U Can’t Touch This,” the “Superfreak”-sampling hit that made the Top 10, even as Capitol refused to issue it as a cassingle.
But I could also be talking about Kid Rock’s “All Summer Long,” a mashup of Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London” and Lynyrd Skynrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” that debuts on the Hot 100 this week at No. 80 despite his lack of interest in releasing it digitally.
Can the erstwhile Robert Richie pull off in 2008 what one Stanley Kirk Burrell pulled 18 years ago? MORE »
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Can’t Touch This Werewolf: Kid Rock Brings Back The Sales-Free Chart Hit
Should Writers Tell Rappers About Girl Talk?: A “Post-Millennial” Dilemma
MTV’s James Montgomery recently found himself in a bit of a kwinky-dink when he realized he was listening to Girl Talk’s Feed The Animals on a plane while LL Cool J, whose “Mama Said Knock You Out” is sampled with impunity, sat in first class, oblivious to the lift. Should the writer leave coach and (if he doesn’t get tackled by a member of L’s entourage or an undercover agent) reveal this thievery to the superstar? “It’s an entirely post-millennial dilemma, one that’s right up there in the minds of today’s music journalists with ‘If you are talking to Paris Hilton on a red carpet, do you acknowledge the fact that you have seen her naked?’ and ‘Do you tell a band that you’ve downloaded their new album from LimeWire to prep for this interview?’” Yeah, what could be more “post-millennial” than using an uncleared sample? The idea of using someone else’s hook without permission would undoubtedly blow LL Cool J’s mind in its post-millennial audacity. What ’80s rapper wouldn’t be shocked to hear of such a thing? MORE »
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Pete Wentz Brings Music Back To MTV, Keeps Network’s Celebrity Glorification Quotient Intact
After a lot of buildup that stretched all the way to an Idolator reader poll, I watched Pete Wentz’s effort to bring videos back to MTV, FNMTV Premieres, on DVR-delay Saturday morning. And it was… OK. Friday night’s premiere didn’t result in ground-breaking TV by any stretch, but it wasn’t completely awful despite the musical presence of both will.i.am and the Pussycat Dolls. The biggest complaint I had, really, was that the show was full of filler; Anthony’s prediction last week that the hourlong show would air seven videos in toto was actually over the night’s tally by three. (A few older videos got a bit of screen time, but most of the music within was papered over by Wentz’s explaining the clips and the collective “whooooo”ing of the well-manicured crowd.) MORE »
100 and single
Lil Wayne Has The Hot 100 Locked Down
Ed. note: Chris “dennisobell” Molanphy, our resident chart guru, looks at the upward, downward, and lack of movement on this week’s Billboard charts:
Lil Wayne is expected to triumph on next week’s album chart, but this week, he has locked up a remarkable percentage of the Hot 100 singles chart: seven songs, starting with his five-week No. 1 champ “Lollipop.”
This is the second time in three weeks that a single artist has laid claim to nearly a tenth of the chart; the other recent chart dominator was American Idol winner David Cook, who scored a mind-blowing 11 Hot 100 hits at the end of May. But Cook’s feat was short-lived–he was down to three songs last week and is down to only one this week.
What makes Lil Wayne’s feat impressive is not only that he could keep most of these seven songs on the chart for several weeks yet. It’s that, a little bit like all-time record-holder the Beatles, he earned it. MORE »
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Coldplay Cries “Viva,” Rules iTunes’ World
Ed. note: Chris “dennisobell” Molanphy, our resident chart guru, looks at the upward, downward, and lack of movement on this week’s Billboard charts:
If only Chris Martin were holding an iPhone 3G: then his band would be atop the charts.
As it stands, Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida,” fueled by Apple’s latest saturation-play TV commercial for iTunes, makes a bid for the top of Billboard’s Hot 100 and lands at No. 3. They storm Lil Wayne’s “Lollipop” fortress armed with blockbuster digital sales and sparse radio airplay. If Steve Jobs’ minions keep that sleek ad on the air a couple more weeks, Coldplay could yet see the summit.
And even if I were among the Coldplay-haters out there, I’d be rooting hard for Martin & co., because the next U.S. No. 1 single is either going to be theirs or Idolator’s early pick for worst single of 2008. MORE »
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John, Paul, George, Ringo, And Cookie: “Idol” Winner Sets (And Sells) Records
Ed. note: Chris “dennisobell” Molanphy, our resident chart guru, looks at the upward, downward, and lack of movement on this week’s Billboard charts:
As I look at this week’s charts, I recall a 1994 interview in which Paul McCartney assured the world that the highly anticipated, ultimately anticlimactic 1995 Beatles single “Free as a Bird” would have a “grungy” guitar sound.
As with so many things, Sir Paul was just ahead of his time–14 years later, one of the Fab Four’s most cherished chart records would be nearly equaled by a dude who can make anything, even “Eleanor Rigby,” sound like grunge.
That record is for most songs on the Billboard Hot 100 by a single act. It was set on April 11, 1964, by the Beatles, who were credited on 14 of that week’s 100 songs. The Fabs still hold this record, for now.
But thanks to a confluence of chart-tabulation quirks, this week a former bartender from Missouri–who until now had never appeared on any Billboard chart–comes close to tying it, placing 11 songs on the Hot 100 all at once. In so doing, David Cook sets a new, blowout record for most debuts, comes within spitting distance of the Fabs’ record, and generally makes the chart grungier than it’s been since Paul gave that interview. MORE »
100 and single
New Kids On The Block Have A Brand-New Hit
Ed. note: Chris “dennisobell” Molanphy, our resident chart guru, looks at the upward, downward, and lack of movement on this week’s Billboard charts:
Last week I poured cold water on the chart comeback of New Kids on the Block, who appeared on Billboard’s less-heralded Pop 100 chart but remained M.I.A. on the all-genre Hot 100.
But I snarked too soon. This week, Danny, Donny Joey, Jon and Jordan have the week’s highest Hot 100 debut with “Summertime,” their un-Jazzy Jeff-related bid for postmillennial Top 40 radio. By debuting at No. 57, “Summertime” breaks a 14-year drought for NKOTB, who last made the middle rungs on the big chart with 1994’s “Dirty Dawg.”
It’s poetic that the ur-boy band of the modern-pop era resurfaces the very same week boy-band impresario Lou Pearlman gets thrown in the clink. After all, 1994 was pretty much the moment when Pearlman began dreaming of rejiggering the five-boy New Kids template, launching the Backstreet-*N Sync era that entrenched the boy band in pop lore.
It’s like a passing-back of the baton, from one pop era to its forbear. Not that I’d accept anything baton-shaped from Lou Pearlman… MORE »
Seven Blog Post Topics That Never Got Past The “Draft” Stage In Movable Type (April 2008 Edition)
Our month-ending Rule Of Sevens column series continues with a series of post ideas that didn’t quite make it to the “publish” stage: 1. AC radio and how it’s become the province of young adults/teenagers (inspired by James Montgomery’s column on Robyn); 2. MORE »
videodrone
MTV News’ James Montgomery describes how soul-sucking and Google history-killing the life of a music journalist can be in 2008, the year that Miley Cyrus bra shots, High School Musical nude pictures, and Ashlee Simpson pregnancy rumors line the expressway that leads to the promised land of… MORE »
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Idolator Live-Blogs The CMA Awards: This Should Be Quite The Carnival Ride
Welcome to Idolator’s liveblog of the 41st Annual CMA Awards, coming to you live from Nashville and my couch in Astoria. Expected tonight: Carrie Underwood, Brad Paisley with a marching band, and this band called … Eagles Fly? Where Eagles Dare? Oh, right. The Eagles. I don’t know much about them, but apparently they have a new album out? MORE »
