Charts - Idolator

Posts Tagged “Charts”

jukebox heroes redux

This Just In: Americans Enjoy Listening To Lil Wayne While Possibly Getting Inebriated

We love charts here at Idolator, but sometimes they can be so elitist. Who cares what critics think, or what the program directors of America feel like shoving down peoples' throats? We want to know: What are the people demanding to hear? What songs inspire people to vote with their wallets, making them insert a dollar into a machine with one hand while holding a longneck in the other? More »

4:00 PM on Tue Jul 15 2008
By Dan Gibson
768 views, 7 comments

100 and single

Can't Touch This Werewolf: Kid Rock Brings Back The Sales-Free Chart Hit

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?

1:00 PM on Fri Jul 11 2008
By Chris Molanphy
1,003 views, 7 comments

the biz

The Recorded-Music Business Stems The Bleeding Just A Bit

Sure, the past few weeks have been good for the recorded-music industry, what with Lil Wayne and Coldplay breaking through the 500,000-sales-in-a-week barrier that even heavyweights like Madonna and Usher couldn't surpass. Overall, though, 2008 has been another dismal year for the biz, with this year's 204.6 million units sold through June 29 representing an 11% year-to-year decline. (Last year's tally at this time was 229.8 million units.) But take heart, everyone: At this point last year, album sales were on a 15.6% year-to-year slump. See? Numbers can make any semi-depressing reality look good! More stats from the reports after the jump. More »

1:00 PM on Thu Jul 3 2008
By Maura Johnston
284 views, Comment

happy canada day

Celebrating Our Northern Neighbors' Contributions To This Country's List Of No. 1 Hits

The number of No. 1 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 by Canadians who aren't Céline Dion, Bryan Adams, or Nelly Furtado is smaller than you might think, especially since some of the aforementioned artists' songs had such deathless runs on the pop charts. (Those successes even overshadowed their own work; for example, I forgot that Adams' Sting/Rod Stewart collaboration was also a chart-topping hit.) So let's take a second to celebrate chart-topping Canadian content like Alannah Myles' "Black Velvet," which hit the Hot 100's top spot in March 1990 and was followed by, um, nothing else. (Myles' previous single, the Alanis-prototype "Love Is," actually hit No. 36 on the chart. Speaking of the former You Can't Do That On Television star, "You Oughta Know" only peaked at No. 6 on the Hot 100, although it did top the Modern Rock charts from July 22 to Aug. 19, 1995.) More »

3:45 PM on Tue Jul 1 2008
By Maura Johnston
295 views, 4 comments

Latest by n/a: Hosers. more »

While Coldplay's Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends remains the biggest full-length in the United Kingdom, the band's term limit/iPod anthem of the same name has been knocked from the top of the singles chart by Ne-Yo's "Closer," a disco doozy so sweet we couldn't stop posting it in April. "Closer" has yet to even reach the top 20 in America, so its European success is more than welcome. [Billboard]

1 comment

Viva La Album Sales

"Coldplay has already shattered Jack Johnson's previous one-week iTunes sales record of 140k in a single day." [Hits]

9 comments

charts

"Tha Carter III" Breaks The Million Mark, Headline Writers Rush To Make "A Milli"-Related Puns

Lil Wayne's long-awaited Tha Carter III sold more than a million copies in its first official week on store shelves, according to Soundscan—a tally that's more than four times his previous biggest-sales-week total of 238,000, which was reached by Tha Carter II in 2005. Tha Carter III is the industry's first platinum-in-a-week album since March of that year, when 50 Cent's The Massacre moved 1.14 million copies in a truncated sales week. In "cognitive dissonance" news, today also welcomed an IFPI survey claiming that worldwide music sales have reached a 20-year low, which leads me to think that the majors are going to start their global hunt for Lil Wayne clones, oh, right about now. [Billboard]

8:53 AM on Wed Jun 18 2008
By Maura Johnston
301 views, 3 comments

Latest by n/a: The album's amazing, but most importantly, whoever dreamed up that cover deserves a raise. Shit kills me every time. more »

As predicted, Coldplay's Viva La Vida only needed three days to go platinum in the UK, guaranteeing the band a No. 1 spot on the country's next album chart. While the staggering of release dates means that 2005's X&Y will still be responsible for the band's best opening-week sales, Viva La Vida is actually selling faster than its predecessor. At No. 2 on this week's British chart? Neil Diamond, which is really the more remarkable achievement. [Billboard]

2 comments

By The Numbers

Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III will, barring any unforeseen disasters, be next week's No. 1 album, but it won't debut in the top spot: Enough record stores broke street date on the album to result in it scanning 3,900 copies and entering this week's SoundScan charts at No. 167, where it's tied with the Santogold album and just ahead of Soulja Boy. There is something so sweetly old-school about both the street-date violations and the maybe-seven-figure first-week tallies that it's making me choke up a bit!

2 comments

Yesterday we mentioned that Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III was on track to have this year's best first-week sales total, topping Mariah Carey's 463,000-copy debut week for E=MC². Turns out that total is estimated to be between 850,000 and 950,000 copies, according to EW—an astonishing number in a year that's seen nothing but doldrums sales-wise , and a big hint as to why "carter iii lyrics" is such a hot item on Google Trends right now. Meanwhile, 2007 sales champ Kanye West is egging on his blog readers to push Wayne over the million mark. If it works, I'm sure every other blogger out there will claim credit. [Hollywood Insider / kanYe West: Blog]

7 comments

friday chart preview

Tough Break, Nerds: The Jocks Win Again

HITS Daily Double's chart predictions for the coming week are slightly good news for the music industry, with five albums selling in the six-digit range, and bad news for humanity, what with Disturbed taking the top spot with around a quarter of a million copies sold of their latest album, Indestructible. The last Disturbed disc had a similar first-week sales tally (239,000), so either Warner Brothers' strategy of keeping the band from playing new material live is paying off or the band's fans haven't made a lot of progress in figuring out the Internet. Likely filling out the top five are Weezer (150,000-160,000), the 28th volume of the unsinkable Now series (145,000-155,000), Usher's Here I Stand (140,000-150,000), and the Wal-Mart-only Journey disc (100,000-110,000). Ashanti seems to have been hit the hardest by time, with her nearly 250,000-copy first-week sales total for 2004's Concrete Rose dipping to a meager 75,000-85,000 for The Declaration. She should really consider recording a country record. [HITS Daily Double]

2:00 PM on Fri Jun 6 2008
By Dan Gibson
295 views, 8 comments

Latest by Lax Danja House: The Disturbed album ain't too bad actually. It's kind of strange that the major publications have shunned the album since it's a major ratings-winner online. more »

pork and bean counters

Weezer's "Embrace The Internet" Strategy Probably Won't Lead It To The No. 1 Spot

Based on first-day sales, Hits is predicting that Weezer's red self-titled album will move about 150,000 copies in the coming week, a total that's good enough to give Rivers Cuomo and Co. the No. 2 spot on the coming week's album chart. What's the predicted No. 1, you might ask? Why, the posers in Disturbed, whose album Indestructible is predicted to sell between 230,000 and 250,000 copies. Other predicted debuts: Ashanti and the now-Pineda'd Journey will each sell within the 80,000-copy range, while Jewel's attempt to cash in on the fact that country fans still buy albums may fool as many as 50,000 people. [Hits]

4:30 PM on Wed Jun 4 2008
By Maura Johnston
417 views, 13 comments

Latest by loudersoft: Which resurrects the Jonas Brothers career momentarily more »

idolator's american idolatry

"American Idol" Inspires America To Give Back To 19 Entertainment

This week's Digital Tracks chart represents the first week that iTunes released American Idol sales data to SoundScan, and as a result it has an Idol quotient of 17.5%; season-seven winner David Cook placed 17 of his songs on last week's chart (all in the top 100, with three in the top ten and the coronation song "The Time Of My Life" at No. 1 with 236,000 paid downloads), second-place finisher David Archuleta got 14 songs on the big board (his highest-placing song, at No. 23: "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me," which was downloaded 51,000 times), and third-place runner-up Syesha Mercado didn't sell enough of any tracks to crack the 200-song list. (So much for the strength-in-numbers of the Fanesha 300.) Jason Castro, Brooke White, and Michael Johns also cracked the digital-tracks top 200, and White's pre-Idol album, the Billy Joel-cover-free Songs From The Attic, even managed to make the digital-albums chart, selling 1,900 copies. Chris Molanphy will have more on these numbers, and their impact on the big board, in tomorrow's 100 & Single, but for now we've got sales totals after the jump. More »

9:00 AM on Thu May 29 2008
By Maura Johnston
732 views, 5 comments

Latest by n/a: I have no doubt if the other contestants songs had been allowed to stay on itunes along with the 'top 3' that Jason Castros chart #s would be much higher. Possibly equaling or besting Cooks. more »

So, How Many Albums Will Usher Actually Sell?

With decent reviews and interesting public appearances, Usher is virtually assured of next week's number one spot on the album chart. The question is, however, how many copies will he actually sell?

1 comment

apparently, the obama videos haven't hit over there yet

Will.I.Am Has A Hit In England? How Did This Happen?

I was cleaning the upstairs bathroom and listening to BBC Radio One's Chart Show on Sunday, and throughout the program the hosts were speculating where "Heartbreaker" would end up. "Heartbreaker," I thought? By whom? Turns out it was will.i.am, who while redeeming himself slightly with the "American Boy" beat hasn't done much with his solo disc (should've taken my advice, pal). Thankfully, the track was held to No. 4 for the second week, although whether justice was served might depend on your opinion of the Ting Tings. [Radio 1] More »

2:30 PM on Tue May 27 2008
By Dan Gibson
157 views, 5 comments

Latest by bess marvin, girl detective: i like this song and i love chezza cole. win win more »

vengaboys, where are you now?

Scooter Turns Assault On Ears Into British No. 1

It's been a tough chart week for Madonna. First, it looks like Neil Diamond's new full-length is going to knock Hard Candy out of the top spot on the U.S. album chart. Then Scooter shoots past her new album on the British charts. Scooter? The German techno band that seemed to be on every lousy compilation for awhile? Yep. More »

10:15 AM on Tue May 13 2008
By Dan Gibson
494 views, 6 comments

chart preview, or 'depressing dan gibson'

Neil Diamond To Top The Increasingly Relevant Album Chart

The results of this week's round of album sales are trickling in, and it looks like Neil Diamond will take the top spot, selling in the neighborhood of 125,000 copies. Diamond's previous album, 12 Songs, debuted at No. 4, which may be a sign that Matt Sweeney's acclaimed guitar work on Home Before Dark is responsible for its success. Projections have all non-Neil Diamond albums selling below the six figure benchmark; Clay Aiken slides into second place with less than half of the first-week sales of 2006's A Thousand Different Ways. What happened, Claymates? You've let your red-haired angel down. Madonna and Mariah Carey hang on desperately to the three and four spots, while Gavin DeGraw, Toby Keith, Leona Lewis, Josh Groban, Dierks Bentley, and Michael Buble round out the most depressing top ten in recent memory. [HITS]

1:30 PM on Fri May 9 2008
By Dan Gibson
237 views, 7 comments

Latest by Big Gray.: Jonny Polonsky also plays on that record. Mid-90s college radio music director types might remember having that dude shoved down their throats. Wait, that doesn't read so right... more »

career counseling

50 Cent To Lil Wayne: Too Many Bad Sexual Metaphors Drive Listeners Away

50 Cent thinks that the path Lil Wayne is currently traveling down—while it may have led him to his first career No. 1 single—is a dangerous one, because it's one that Curtis sees as similar to the path he traveled down in recent years. You may remember that era, when he released "Candy Shop" and "Amusement Park" back to back, only to see the latter greeted by yawns that were so loud, they pushed Curtis' release date back by months. So is 50 saying that "Lollipop" is a crummy song propped up by a persona that's as calculated as the supplement list in a bottle of Vitamin Water, and that No. 1 lightning doesn't strike twice on those sorts of combinations? As if! He's under the impression that the masses rejected "Amusement Park" because it just gave the audience too much sexy after the lick-heavy metaphors of "Candy Shop"... and that people will do the same to Weezy's next track from Tha Carter III if he isn't careful. More »

1:30 PM on Mon May 5 2008
By Maura Johnston
2,474 views, 1 comment

Latest by Empire: I thought the release of Curtis was pushed back in a failed effort to make it not suck so much? No? I listened to half of that album once. Then I decided I was taking my masochism too far. more »

Glimmers Of Light: Other Formats' Top 10s Juice Up Sleepy Summer Charts

Posts Tagged “Charts”