Idolator
Kid Rock's Rock N' Roll Jesus sold 172,000 copies last week, and that total was enough for the oh-so-classy guy to wrest the top spot from Bruce Springsteen, whose Magic suffered a 60% sales decline and sank to No. 2. Jesus is Kid Rock's first career No. 1, and its success probably ensures that he'll be getting into scraps with minor celebrities at award shows before his next album drops too.
Biggest Debuts: Leann Rimes' 12th (!) album, Family, entered the chart at No. 4; a year after her abrupt departure from Dancing With The Stars, Sara Evans' Greatest Hits debuted at No. 8; and Josh Groban's Noel signaled the beginning of "Holiday Albums Taking Up Top-Ten Slots" season, bowing at No. 10. Also, eagle-eyed chart watcher Chris "dennisobell" Molanphy informed me that the No. 12 debut of Jennifer Lopez's Brave may be the first time that an album by the diva has missed the top 10—unless, of course, those ads for Chuck on NBC that use "Do It Well" spur a run to the record stores.
Notable Jumps: Colbie Caillat's Coco bubbled up to No. 16 on a 22% sales gain; the two editions of the Across The Universe soundtrack also experienced a bit of a bounce, with the deluxe edition up 47% and the plain version up 23%. The two albums are now at Nos. 45 and 46, respectively, and I can't help but wonder if the incessant TRL ads for the albums might actually be working. (The kids of today should defend themselves against the '60s, etc.) Further down the chart, Spoon's Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga also enjoyed a post-Saturday Night Live bounce of 26%, moving up from No. 195 to No. 147.
Dropping Off: Records that are currently outselling will.i.am's sinking-like-a-stone Songs About Girls, which is at No. 156 in its third week on the chart: My Chemical Romance's The Black Parade (No. 145, out 51 weeks); The Evolution Of Robin Thicke (No. 153, out 54 weeks); and Buckcherry's 15 (No. 155 with a bullet, out 79 weeks). Well, at least dude knows how to twist a Little Richard sample, right?
Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: Given that Nickelback's popularity is becoming more and more explicable by the day, we may need to revisit this category's name in an effort to stay current. Suggestions? Keep in mind that freaking Hinder is still selling enough records to be bobbing around the lower reaches of the top 200, although I'm thinking Rascal Flatts (two albums on the chart, one at No. 3, the other on the chart for 80 weeks and counting) may be a better choice. Then again, who doesn't love a "Life Is A Highway" cover?
The top 20, with sales totals in parentheses:
1. Kid Rock, Rock N' Roll Jesus (172,000)
2. Bruce Springsteen, Magic (133,000)
3. Rascal Flatts, Still Feels Good (96,000)
4. Leann Rimes, Family (74,000)
5. Matchbox Twenty, Exile On Mainstream (72,000)
6. Kanye West, Graduation (71,000)
7. Reba McEntire, Reba Duets (68,000)
8. Sara Evans, Greatest Hits (66,000)
9. High School Musical 2 Soundtrack (66,000)
10. Josh Groban, Noel (64,000)
11. Keyshia Cole, Just Like You (53,000)
12. Jennifer Lopez, Brave (53,000)
13. Alter Bridge, Blackbird (47,000)
14. Eric Clapton, Complete Clapton (45,000)
15. Soulja Boy Tell 'Em, souljaboytellem.com (42,000)
16. Colbie Caillat, Coco (41,000)
17. Foo Fighters, Echoes Silence Patience & Grace (41,000)
18. Jill Scott, The Real Thing: Words & Sounds, Vol. 3 (40,000)
19. 50 Cent, Curtis (38,000)
20. J. Holiday, Back Of My Lac' (37,000)
Comments
Could always go with the Fergie Award For Fergalicious Fergability.
When's the last time the top of the chart was this country? 4 of the top 10, or 5 if you want to count Kid's CMT-pandering.
In Rainbows makes this weird.
It was weird seeing Kid Rock at the top of the chart. I didn't think his last two albums did particularly well. Further research shows that his last album went platinum and peaked at #8, and Cocky went 5 times platinum, peaking at #3. I had no idea this many people listened to Kid Rock then, or still listened to Kid Rock now.
According to Wikipedia, his album "Kid Rock" was critically acclaimed. I find that hard to believe. It has a Metacritic score of 71, but there are only about 5 reviews referenced there.
Still, a number 1 debut for Rock is surprising to me, but kind of makes me happy. I mean, I'm not going to listen to it, but I'd rather the number 1 rock record be Kid Rock rather than Linkin Park.
How about a Linkin Park-related pun?
@Laurrel: I've been grumbling under my breath for some time that Soundscan/Billboard are going to have to make some serious adjustments in the way they tally "sales". In Rainbows, as what-I-believe-to-be the first available-as-a-download-only[-for-now] release by a "major artist", has probably already set the industry tallyers scrambling. With the advent of the iTMS and other digital stores, the tallyers have had to adapt to the concept that a consumer can purchase an "album" that does not exist in physical form, and they have adjusted accordingly. But the iTMS [presumably] is a "neutral" party whose sales figures can be trusted. How will the tallyers deal with artists who sell albums in the same manner as iTMS through their own websites? And then there's the pay-any-amount-you-like-even-nothing wrinkle. If I give you a free CD -- or a thumb drive with digital tracks -- I won't get credit for a "sale". But is it different if I leave a box of CDs outside my door with a sign that says "pay any amount you wish", and then all the CDs are gone, how many have I "sold"? Is there a minimum price I must charge and collect?
The RIAA, which tracks "unit shipments" and NOT sales, surely has also made some adjustments to deal with the digital marketplace -- I'm talking about for purposes of determining certifications, not suing file-sharers, so don't beat me up. What do they have to say about artists who sell their work from their own websites?
@GovernmentNames: I think Fleshbot has a "Fergie Award For Fergalicious Fergability".
High School Musical is the only act in the Top 10 that has more than two words in its name. Fuckin' over-literate little schmucks.
Man, those numbers really show how dead the record industry is-not even a million discs sold if you add up the top ten!
Wow, that Buckcherry album is still sticking around the bottom of the chart? That's really surprising, considering it came out 18 months ago and never got any higher than 40. I guess all those tours with Hinder are paying off.
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