Idolator
Chris Daughtry, the American Idol runner-up with the shaved head and the Ed Kowalczyk obsession, rose to the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 this week. Daughtry's self-titled full-length beat out the No 2. album, the Dreamgirls soundtrack, by about 160 units; it sold an estimated 65,000 copies.
Biggest Debuts: Diana Ross' cash-in cover-song collection, I Love You, sold 21,000 copies and entered the chart at No. 32. And despite tons of press and blogger love, the America-meets-hipsters "comeback" record, Here & Now, entered at No. 52 (14,000 copies).
Biggest Slides: Even though Daughtry and Dreamgirls rode sales surges into the top two slots on the chart, overall, the sales picture looked pretty bleak; album sales this week totaled 8.09 million units, a whopping 14.7% decline from this time last year (9.48 million albums). Perhaps it can be chalked up in part to a weak roster of debuting albums—however, if the numbers are as grim in two weeks, which is when Norah Jones' sales totals will be tallied by the charts, expect a lot of panicking.
Nickelback Award For Inexplicable Durability: Sure, its staying power is attributable to the soft CD-sale market, but this week's chart recaps note that Daughtry's album has never left the top 11 of the Billboard 200 since its release in November. Take that, Chad Kroeger.
'Idol' Worship: Daughtry Takes No. 1 [Billboard.biz]
Comments
This is one of those interesting weeks where the Billboard/SoundScan chart and the HITS chart differ: HITS had Dreamgirls holding on to #1 by about 1,000 copies. But their store inventory doesn't cover the full SoundScan panel, so you have to go with Billboard.
That sound you just heard was Taylor Hicks (as of last week, down to #53) hitting the bottle.
"That sound you just heard was Taylor Hicks (as of last week, down to #53) hitting the bottle."
Is that the whiplash sound of a leg spastically kicking to the... sounds like... right?
By the way, by all accounts, Nickelback's in the top 10... again.
CRAP. Crap crap crap. So much for my prediction.
HITS has Pretty Ricky at number one next week with a six-figure debut, and Shins at #2 with a fairly staggering (for Sub Pop) 90K. That said, R&B/hip-hop sales have been soft and hard to predict recently, so I suppose PR could slip before next week's total is out - but HITS is calling for a 20K spread between PR and Shins, so...not bloody likely.
The moral for Sub Pop: Shoulda scheduled Wincing to drop last week. On this week's chart, 90K would've topped #1 Daughtry by almost 50%.
Comment on this post
Reply by EmailLogin with your username and password below. Or comment on this post via email.
Forgot your username or password? New User?