“Okay, it's official,” I wrote to Maura midday on Thursday, when Billboard released the new Hot 100. “I have seriously underestimated ‘Whatever You Like.’”
That durable smash by Atlanta rap deity T.I. moves into the penthouse for the third time since late August. Directly behind it is T.I.’s simultaneous hit, the Rihanna duet “Live Your Life,” which moves up to No. 2 two weeks after it spent a sole week in the top spot.
After I bravely predicted a few weeks ago that the irresistible “Life” would dominate the fall and make “Whatever” a distant memory, the T-and-Ri pairing has had a hard time holding onto the top spot. Last week’s coup by Britney Spears’s well-hyped “Womanizer” was pretty predictable. But the idea that T.I.’s new hit would also have to fight off his older one—a loping, sluggish song that’s neither a ballad nor a club jam—was a development few saw coming, least of all me.
If there’s one thing it shows, it’s that for all our talk here in recent weeks about the dominance of digital sales on the charts these days, airplay still matters. “Whatever” wouldn’t still be competing for the top slot without radio’s fervent support.
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Idolator
The first big festival announcement for the 2009 season has come down now that Stagecoach—the country counterpart to Coachella, which next year will take place April 25-26 at the Empire Polo Grounds in Indio, Calif.—has released its first slew of performers: Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley, the last-name-less "Reba," and Kid Rock will headline, and for what I'm pretty sure is the first time ever, Darius "Hootie" Rucker and the Reverend Horton Heat will share a bill. And Poco is playing, too! Yes, really! Full lineup via the show's official poster after the jump.
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Kenny Chesney is creating a "high-quality rum product" that will no doubt be rapidly quaffed by concertgoers who lap up the "Jimmy Buffett, but twangier" atmosphere that he fosters at his shows. (Recall that he even encouraged his fans on his tour last year to 
