This year, the dawning of spring is a little bit brighter than it has been in years past: Not only is Daylight Savings Time kicking in early and the weather getting a little nicer (at least in NYC), but Flo Rida's "Low" has
finally fallen from the top spot on the
Billboard 100, thanks to the insane digital sales of Usher's "Love In This Club," which moved 198,000 downloads in its first week on download stores' virtual shelves and rocketed from No. 51 to No. 1 on the big chart. Sure, "Low" only slipped to No. 2, but every journey begins with one step, right? [
Billboard]
A new(ish) destination for Idolator-reading R&B fans should be Andy Kellman's
R&B chart watch on the Allmusic blog, where he runs down the most recent debuts on the
Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop chart. Sometimes literally runs them down, as with with this double-zinged attack re. Usher's "Dat Girl Right There": "If Alicia Keys can score big with a three-drink-minimum karaoke bar Keyshia Cole impersonation, there's no reason why this can't go Top Ten." Also a hearty WTF? @ OneRepublic making the R&B chart. Perhaps inevitable given "Apologize"'s insane popularity, still sad thanks its to insane awfulness. [
Chart Watch]
The commercials for Usher's long-awaited fragrance: Slightly more coherent than
Diddy's perfume ads, although that's probably because each one is about 1/6 as long as that lengthy "banned" promo was. [
ConcreteLoop]
A week after their pricey wedding at L.A. Reid's Hamptons estate
went to the dogs, Usher and stylist Tameka Foster were married Friday in a low-key ceremony at his lawyer's office in Atlanta. [
USA Today]
Idolator
As the MTV Music Awards become clumsier with every passing year in a less-than-subtle expression of how much acknowledging musical accomplishments has become an annoyance for a network that would much rather chase teenagers around with cameras, the BET Awards stand as the only place where you'll see the biggest acts in pop music (Lil' Wayne, Usher, Mary J. Blige, Mariah Carey and Nelly are already scheduled to perform) presented with production value and professional competence, acknowledging elders (Al Green and Quincy Jones will respectively receive lifetime achievement and humanitarian awards) without turning into a hoary grandpa fest. "Best Group" seems a little duo heavy, and it's funny to see T-Pain lead the nominations solely on guest spots, but it's refreshing to see a "Best Female Hip-Hop Artist" category. A list of the awards and nominees below.
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