Chart Watch
  • Rihanna lands her 22nd top 10 hit as "Where Have You Been" jumps from #11 to #9 in its seventh week on the Hot 100. Only four female solo artists have amassed more top 10 hits in the history of the Hot 100 (which dates to 1958). Madonna leads the pack with 38, followed by Mariah Carey and Janet Jackson (27 each) and Whitney Houston (23).

    But Rihanna is just 24, far younger than these other women were when they landed their 22nd top 10 hits.

    Read More »from Week Ending June 3, 2012. Songs: 22 By 24
  • Nobody sets out to hit #2, much less set a record for the most weeks at #2, but that's what Adele's 21 does this week. The album logs its 24th week at #2 on The Billboard 200 album chart. This enables it to tie Bruce Springsteen's 1984 album Born In The U.S.A. for the most weeks at #2 since 1963, when Billboard combined its separate mono and stereo charts into one comprehensive chart.

    Both albums, of course, also hit #1. Born logged seven weeks at #1. 21 has spent 23 weeks on top.  Adele's still active album will doubtless add to its tallies of weeks at #1 and #2. (In fact, it's expected to return to #1 next week.) But for now at least, it has spent more time at #2 than it has at #1. For an album that has had been so charmed in every way, that's a surprise.

    Read More »from Chart Watch Extra: Singing The #2 Blues
  • onedirection-upallnightthelivetourOne Direction's Up All Night: The Live Tour sold 76,000 copies in its first week, enabling it to enter the Top Music Videos chart at #1. In the past four years, only one other DVD has sold this many copies in any one week. That's Adele's Live At The Royal Albert Hall, which topped 80K in each of its first four weeks of release in December.

    Up All Night even outsold Michael Jackson's videos in the wake of his death in June 2009. Jackson's top-seller in those weeks, Live In Bucharest: The Dangerous Tour, sold 74K in the week ending July 12.

    Read More »from Chart Watch Extra: Boy Band Video
  • This week, for the first time, the week's #1 music video outsold the week's #1 album. One Direction's Up All Night: The Live Tour DVD sold 76,000 copies in its first week, which is more than the week's #1 album, John Mayer's Born And Raised (65K).

    Up All Night: The Live Tour sold more copies this week than any other DVD has in any one week so far this year. The last DVD to sell this many copies in one week was Adele's Live At The Royal Albert Hall, which topped 80K in each of its first four weeks of release in December.

    Read More »from Week Ending June 3, 2012. Albums: One Direction’s Vid Record
  • Justin Bieber's "Boyfriend" tops the 2 million mark in digital sales in just its ninth week. It's by far Bieber's fastest-selling hit. "Baby" (featuring Ludacris) took 20 weeks to top the 2 million mark in June 2010. "One Time" took more than 13 months to top the 2 million mark in August 2010.

    "Boyfriend" has appeared in the top 10 on the Hot 100 for all nine of its weeks. It regains its bullet this week for the first time in four weeks.

    Even more impressive than the sales has been the well-executed stylistic shift from the bouncy bubblegum of "Baby" to the slinky and sexy "Boyfriend." Female singers can get away with sounding younger than their years (it's hard to believe that Carly Rae Jepsen is 26, given the giddy, breathless nature of "Call Me Maybe"), but guys in pop need to act their age.

    Read More »from Week Ending May 27, 2012. Songs: Bieber’s Transitional Hit
  • Phillip Phillips' "Home" sold 278K digital copies in its first week, more than any other coronation song (an official single celebrating the winner's victory) in American Idol history. The old record was held by David Cook's "The Time Of My Life," which sold 236K copies in its first week in 2008.

    "Home" enters Hot Digital Songs at #2, close behind Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe," which grows to 301K in its second week on top. "Home" enters the Hot 100 at #10. It's the first Idol coronation song to crack the top 10 since Cook's hit, which debuted and peaked at #3.

    Of the hundreds of songs that have been released by artists who rose to  fame on American Idol, only one has sold more digital copies in one week than "Home" did this week. That's Kelly Clarkson's "My Life Would Suck Without You," which opened with sales of 280K in January 2009.

    Read More »from Chart Watch Extra: Phillip Phillips’ Big Week
  • Kris Allen and Adam Lambert, who were the winner and runner-up, respectively, on American Idol three years ago, both take some lumps on this week's Billboard 200 album chart. Allen's sophomore album Thank You Camellia debuts at #26, with sales of just 16K copies. Allen is only the second Idol winner to fall short of the top 20 with his or her sophomore album. Taylor Hicks' The Distance stalled at #58 in 2009. (Note: the 2010 and 2011 winners, Lee DeWyze and Scotty McCreery, have yet to release their sophomore albums.) Allen's debut, Kris Allen, reached #11 in 2009.

    Lambert's sophomore album Trespassing drops from #1 to #12 in its second week (22K). It's the first #1 album to drop out of the top 10 after spending just one week in the top 10 since Mac Miller's Blue Slide Park in November. The difference, of course, is that Lambert is a household name, while Miller isn't all that well-known outside of the hip-hop world. Lambert's drop wasn't unexpected: His 2009 debut album, For Your Entertainment, also spent just one week in the top 10.

    Read More »from Week Ending May 27, 2012. Albums: Idols’ Ups & Downs
  • If music is the soundtrack of our lives, that's especially true in the summer. The radio is a constant companion at backyard barbeques, pool parties and road trips. You'll probably always associate "Umbrella" by Rihanna featuring Jay-Z with the summer of 2007, just as, if you're old enough, you'll link the Emotions' "Best Of My Love" with the summer of 1977.

    Now that summer is upon us, it's a good time to scroll back through the biggest songs of summers past. These are the songs that logged the most weeks at #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 during the summer months of every year since 1955. These are the songs that you heard over and over at the beach or on vacation or on that endless ride to Grandma's house.

    Read More »from Chart Watch Extra: The Biggest Songs Of Summer
  • This isn't what Jennifer Lopez wants to hear as she comes down from the high of the two-hour season finale of American Idol (and as she weighs the decision of whether to re-sign for a third season with the hit show), but her current single seems to be running out of gas on the Hot 100. "Dance Again," featuring Pitbull, drops from #17 to #19 in its seventh week. Singles often move up and down, but since J.Lo's twice-weekly Idol visibility is coming to an end, at least for this season, it's starting to look like #17 will be this record's peak.

    By contrast, "On The Floor," J.Lo's 2011 collaboration with Pitbull, logged 15 weeks in the top 10, peaking at #3. I don't think "Dance Again" is as striking as "On The Floor." As Randy Jackson might say, "This one was just OK for me."

    Read More »from Week Ending May 20, 2012. Songs: J.Lo’s Song Sputters
  • Adam Lambert's Trespassing enters The Billboard 200 at #1, displacing Carrie Underwood's Blown Away. This marks the first time that artists who rose to fame on American Idol have had back-to-back #1 albums. Lambert was the runner-up on Season 8. Underwood was the winner on Season 4.

    Lambert is the second Idol runner-up to land a #1 album, following Clay Aiken. One other Idol "loser" has topped the chart: Chris Daughtry, who finished fourth in Season 4. (more...)

    Read More »from Week Ending May 20, 2012. Albums: Back-To-Back Idols

Pagination

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News for You

  • NYers furious over photos taken through windows

    NEW YORK (AP) — In one photo, a woman is on all fours, presumably picking something up, her posterior pressed against a glass window. Another photo shows a couple in bathrobes, their feet touching beneath a table. And there is one of a man, in jeans and a T-shirt, lying on his side as he takes a nap.

  • Denmark's de Forest wins Eurovision song contest

    MALMO, Sweden (AP) — Denmark's Emmelie de Forest has won this year's Eurovision Song Contest with her ethno-inspired flute and drum tune "Only Teardrops," despite tough competition from spectacular stage shows by performers from Azerbaijan and Ukraine.

  • Denmark favorite to win Eurovision Song Contest

    MALMO, Sweden (AP) — An ethno-inspired flute and drum tune from Denmark is the bookmakers' favorite to win this year's Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday, which also features a bizarre opera pop number from Romania and an Armenian rock song written by the guitarist of Black Sabbath.

  • Native American actress proud to walk Cannes red carpet

    By Belinda Goldsmith CANNES (Reuters) - Native American actress Misty Upham never dreamt she would be walking the red carpet at Cannes to showcase a film shot on her reservation. Upham features in "Jimmy P. Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian", focused on the relationship between World War Two veteran Jimmy Picard, a Native American Blackfoot, and Georges Devereux, his psychoanalyst. Upham said like Picard, played by Puerto Rican actor Benicio Del Toro, she is Blackfeet, the largest tribe in Montana state. ...

  • NYC artist's secret photos raise privacy issues

    NEW YORK (AP) — In one photo, a woman is on all fours, presumably picking something up, her posterior pressed against a glass window. Another photo shows a couple in bathrobes, their feet touching beneath a table. And there is one of a man, in jeans and a T-shirt, lying on his side as he takes a nap.

  • 'American Idol' finale draws record low ratings

    NEW YORK (AP) — Ratings for the "American Idol" finale plunged to a record low for the 12-year-old show.

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