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."

I'm sure that Jimmy Iovine tried to be fair and even-handed in selecting songs for the top three contestants on American Idol, but his choice for Joshua Ledet, the Mary J. Blige hit "No More Drama," put Ledet at a disadvantage. It's not that "No More Drama" isn't a great song. It's that it's not as well-known to a broad TV audience as the songs that Iovine chose for the other two contestants.

"I'll Be There," which Iovine selected for Jessica Sanchez, has been a #1 hit twice, for the Jackson 5 in 1970 and Mariah Carey in 1992. "We've Got Tonite," which he chose for Phillip Phillips, has been a top 15 hit twice, for Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band in 1979 (#13) and for Kenny Rogers & Sheena Easton in 1983 (#6). (That duet recording was also a #1 country hit.) By contrast, "No More Drama" has been a hit just once, for Blige in 2002. (It reached #15.) "No More Drama" is a signature song for Blige, but these other songs, by virtue of the covers they've received, are contemporary standards. If there was a modern-day "Great American Songbook," they'd be in it.

Adele's 21 tops the 9 million mark in U.S. sales this week. It's the first album to hit the 9 million plateau since Usher's Confessions hit the mark the week ending July 24, 2005. Remarkably, 21 reached the 9 million plateau faster than Confessions did, even though overall sales were much more brisk in 2004-2005. 21 has been out for 64 weeks. Confessions took 70 weeks to reach the magic number.

21 is the 29th album to sell 9 million copies since 1991, when Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales for Billboard. It's the 24th regular studio album to reach this level. Studio follow-ups to the first 23 have achieved varying degrees of success.