Idolator

Two things that immediately leap to mind for me about this week's numbers:

1) That 547K for Rascal Flatts is damn good. As you point out, it's less than their last debut, but everyone's selling fewer albums now, including "proven" artists like Rascal Flatts. That number is top ten [or so] on this year's ranking of debut weeks.

2) In his third week on the chart, Kanye is still selling over 100K a week. His overall total for Graduation is now 1.3M+. When dennisobell checks in [I suspect he's having the same can't-log-in-to-comment problem I was having -- I found a window that auto-logged me in IE instead of Firefox], I'd love to hear his thoughts on whether/when Kanye will make it to 2M.

Wait, does that say Chaka Khan? Seriously?

@DHMBIB: Hey dude -- thanks for the tee-up, I'm back. (And yeah, what was up with that login problem? Anyway...)

Let's talk Kanye first -- he had a very good week, landing in a higher position than the country artist who beat him last week, and dropping by a respectable 41%. I'm guessing the label will certify Kanye at double-platinum out of the box, because they'll probably have shipped two million well before the end of October, and that's all the RIAA counts. As for actual sales, he'll probably cross two million scans before Thanksgiving - but the performance of "Good Life" at radio might accelerate that.

Comparing Kanye (once again) with his two fellow blockbuster acts of two weeks ago, Fitty had another slack week (down a full 50%), and Kenny Chesney did only a little better than West (down 39%). Again, I'll say it - the sales we've seen this past month belie all the received wisdom about hip-hop's tendency to fall fast and country's tendency to "hold" better.

Which brings me to Rascal Flatts -- I dunno, these numbers are neither shameful nor celebratory, in my book. Your (DHMBIB) point about everybody selling fewer albums now is valid, and if Kanye hadn't happened in the last three weeks, I'd be with you that the year-to-year falloff in their number was more than respectable. But two months ago, Billboard put RF on their cover with the tagline (I'm recalling from memory here), "Will they save Christmas?" No one expected Kanye to pop like he did, and after the dismal first eight months of the year, everyone was really counting on Flatts to rescue the end of the year. I doubt anyone's saying it publicly, but I think expectations were higher for them -- and Kanye just totally defied gravity two weeks ago, raising expectations for blockbuster acts in general. I dunno, I think they delievered but didn't excel, and I'll bet other retailer types feel the same way.

@extracrispy: It does, believe it or not. It's a collection of covers (talk to Rod Stewart and Barry Manilow how that's worked out for their careers). More important, her label did a great job setting up this release: during release week, she performed on the Today show (only Oprah is a better sales juicer than that program), and she announced on the show that she's joining the Broadway cast of The Color Purple.

I've been a fan for a long time, so however schlocky the album inevitably is, I'm sorta rooting for her.

@dennisobell:

No disrespect but Chaka's album is actually NOT solely a collection of covers: seven out of thirteen tracks are NEW, all of them co-written by Chaka. At least the covers she chose are inspired...the schlock factor is thankfully nonexistent so root away, dennisobell!

so i guess that jill scott album is bigger than that weird duets compilation thing that came out last year where the cover was her wearing a jamiroquai hat and slow-dancing with a grizzly bear?