All information contained herein courtesy of Billboard Magazine and Billboard.com:BIG CHART NEWS
Britney Spears' 7th studio album, "Femme Fatale" held off upstart hip-hopper Wiz Khalifa and scored her 6th #1 album on the Billboard 200. Featuring the #1 single, "Hold It Against Me" and Top 10 follow up, "Till The World Ends", Spears was expected to debut in the penthouse position. More on her achievement in a moment...
Katy Perry and Kanye West's "E.T." retains the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for a 2nd consecutive week. Perry released the "E.T." music video in the last few days and sales of the single surged to new heights. With airplay still increasing and sales now north of 300,000 downloads for the first time, Perry (and West) may kick back and relax atop the singles chart for a few weeks.
More analysis after the cut!
BILLBOARD HOT 100
The upper regions of the Hot 100 are largely the same as last week, with singles largely reconfiguring near the spot they occupied last week.
A couple of notable exceptions include Adele, who continues her huge 2011 by landing her first American Top 10 single with "Rolling In The Deep". After initially peaking at #13 and sliding back down the Hot 100, sales and radio have started to come together and Adele springboards 17-10 this week. Additionally, sales continue to push her sophomore album, "21" to near 1 million units sold. Although she is a previous winner of the Grammy for Best New Artist, her mainstream breakthrough stateside has arguably been the story in music thus far in 2011.
The biggest mover within the Hot 100 is "John", a collaboration between Lil' Wayne and Rick Ross, featured on Wayne's forthcoming "Tha Carter IV" release. Following up Wayne's Top 10 duet with Cory Gunz, "6 Foot 7 Foot", "John" surges 57-22 with featured promotion in the iTunes music store and a strong push at radio. "John" becomes Wayne's 43rd Top 40 single, comprised of tracks where he is credited as the lead or featured artist.
Incidentally, Wayne has a lot riding on "Tha Carter IV" and its May 16 release. His two previous albums, the critically panned rock/rap hybrid "Rebirth" and the better received "I Am Not A Human Being" both underperformed commercially. Wayne's "Tha Carter III" moved over 1 million copies when it was released in 2008, an extraordinary feat in an era where the music buyer is single or track driven and album sales have plummeted to record lows.
Wiz Khalifa nabs the highest debut on the Hot 100 as more tracks chart from his debut album, "Rolling Papers". While his #1 hit, "Black and Yellow" falls out of the Hot 100 this week, "No Sleep" tumbles 6-17, "Roll Up" rises 29-28, and "When I'm Gone" opens at #57.
Chris Brown's album track featuring Justin Bieber, "Next 2 You" is the week's biggest falling single, crashing 26-90 by virtue of no radio airplay and declining sales in its 2nd week of release.
BILLBOARD 200 ALBUM CHART
Britney Spears joins Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson as female artists who have scored six #1 albums on the Billboard 200. Spears, Carey, and Jackson are in a three-way tie for third place amongst all female artists for the most #1 albums in history. The only artists ahead of them? Barbara Streisand (9) and Madonna (7). Spears' only non-studio released #1 album was 2007's "Blackout" which opened at #2.
Spears earned the #1 spot moving 276,000 copies of her latest and Wiz Khalifa safely slid into #2 with 197,000 copies moved of his "Rolling Papers" release.
The persistent Brit-Soul singer Adele held her #3 spot, while last week's #1 album, Chris Brown's "F.A.M.E.", slid to #4 with a 66% decline from its opening week.
Despite being released a few weeks back through their website, Radiohead's "The King Of Limbs" was not eligible to chart as Radiohead reportedly did not report their sales figures. With a release available on iTunes, CD, and vinyl, the album tracked 69,000 units sold for a #6 opening.
Snoop Dogg landed the 11th Top 10 album with "Doggumentary" launching at #8. Moving just 50,000 copies, the opening was a bit of a disappointment as the response to the first two singles from the release, "Wet" and "Boom" have received a rather muted response.
Gospel duo Mary Mary scored a #10 debut with "Something Big", their third Top 10 charting album.
Elsewhere, other notable debuts on The Billboard 200 include the soundtrack to the musical episode of "Grey's Anatomy". Featuring a Hot 100 debuting cover of Brandi Carlile's "The Story" by show star Sara Ramirez, the album opens at #24.
Canadian pop-punkers Sum 41 debut at #31 with their first album in 4 years, "Screaming Bloody Murder". Death metal band Amon Amarth land at #34, while Pearl Jam see a combination release of their classic albums "Vs." and "Vitalogy" begin at #43. Whitesnake (yes, that Whitesnake and still featuring David Coverdale!!!) find a #49 debut for their latest effort.
I mean...Whitesnake? Wow.
Speaking of Ramirez, her self-titled EP opens at #37. Other debuts in the upper half of the Billboard 200 consist of goth-rockers Within Temptation (#50), smooth jazz bestseller Boney James (#53) and an EP by rapper Mac Miller (#55).
Alternative supergroup Broken Bells land an EP of their own at #62, while roots rockers Los Lonely Boys (#70), indie folksters The Mountain Goats (#73), Christian rockers Emery (#76), and popsters The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart (#92) all make their mark.
One final note...20-year old Mexican singer Gerardo Ortiz, a controversial Mexican folk singer who sings about the escalating violence in the Mexican drug trade, survived a shooting spree that sadly took the lives of his driver and a business associate recently. His new album, released after that incident, starts at #75 on the big chart but gives him the first #1 Latin Music Album of his young career.
Album sales were up 2% from the previous week, while the year-to-date sales for albums have remained down about 5% from 2010.
THE WEEK'S TOP 10 SINGLES AND ALBUMS (Courtesy of Billboard)
Singles (with preceding week in parentheses)
1 (1). Katy Perry Featuring Kanye West, "E.T." (Capitol)
2 (2). Rihanna, "S & M" (Def Jam)
3 (5). Black Eyed Peas, "Just Can't Get Enough" (Interscope)
4 (3). Cee-Lo Green, "F**k You (Forget You)" (Radiculture/Elektra)
5 (4). Lady Gaga, "Born This Way" (Streamline/KonLive/Interscope)
6 (7). Chris Brown Featuring Busta Rhymes & Lil' Wayne, "Look At Me Now" (Jive)
7 (9). Jeremih Featuring 50 Cent, "Down On Me" (Mick Shultz Productions/Def Jam)
8 (10). Jennifer Lopez Featuring Pitbull, "On The Floor" (Island)
9 (8). Pink, "F**kin' Perfect" (LaFace)
10 (17). Adele, "Rolling In The Deep" (Columbia)
Albums (with preceding week in parentheses)
1 (N). Britney Spears, "Femme Fatale" (Jive)
2 (N). Wiz Khalifa, "Rolling Papers" (Rostrum/Atlantic)
3 (3). Adele, "21" (Columbia)
4 (1). Chris Brown, "F.A.M.E." (Jive)
5 (6). "Songs For Japan" (EMI/Sony/Universal/Warner Bros.)
6 (N). Radiohead, "The King Of Limbs" (TBD)
7 (2). Jennifer Hudson, "I Remember Me" (Arista)
8 (N). Snoop Dogg, "Doggumentary: (Priority/Capitol)
9 (5). Kirk Franklin, "Hello Fear" (Verity)
10 (N). Mary Mary, "Something Big" (Columbia)
So...did I just miss Britney Spears' big comeback or...?
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to me how every time Britney releases an album it is a comeback for her. The first-week sales on "Femme..." are about half of what the first-week sales of 2008's "Circus". For any other artist, this would not be a comeback, just a new album. Who knows anymore!?!
ReplyDelete