In a sleepy week for Billboard's Hot 100, Atlanta rap king T.I. maintains his grip on the No. 1 spot, his fifth nonconsecutive week there, with “Whatever You Like.”
The “jump ball” I expected to break within the Top Three turned out to be a dead ball, as the three hits hold their positions. T.I. actually outsold both Pink and Kanye West at buck-a-song retailers, blunting those two challengers’ previous digital-sales advantages and padding his already huge lead at radio. West, in particular, will probably muddle along for a while now, as his sales two weeks later have fallen off, and his airplay is emerging, steadily but slowly.
Besides, T.I. appears be settling into a long run atop the chart, and within a week or two it might be with a different song. His newest hit, previewed three weeks ago with Rihanna at the MTV Video Music Awards, leads a parade of fall contenders that will likely explode on next week’s chart. So in effect, this week feels like the calm before the pre-holiday storm.
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Idolator
Good evening, friends! Tonight is the American Music Awards, the annual event where the American public is allowed to pretend like it cares about the music industry as the biz's most important releases either get pushed out to retail ahead of their street dates or get shoved into a dusty corner of the retailers with which they've struck exclusive distribution deals. And as if to underscore the whole "why people don't care about the music business" ideal," I'm watching the red carpet show, which apparently has contracted at least partial hostship duties to Nicole "You Know, I'm In The Pussycat Dolls" Scherzinger, who is apparently contractually obligated to flaunt her ass as she conducts awkward interviews with the likes of Steven Tyler and Ne-Yo in hopes that people actually care about her existence and maybe buy a copy of Doll Domination so as to easily conjure up further posterior-related fantasies in the comfort of their own home. Full coverage after the jump!
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First-week sales of Christina Aguilera's Target-exclusive greatest-hits package Keeps Getting Better, which contains two new songs and two reworkings of old tracks: 73,000. Single-week sales of the title track, which also happens to be one of the two fresh entries on the album: 63,000 (it's sold 479,000 copies to date). You have to wonder: At what point do these cash-in greatest-hits packages get to be, well, not worth the effort, even with the one-big-box-only deals? [
