Music industry gadfly Bob Lefsetz pulls out some of the year’s top selling albums to date and gives his comments. Here are the albums he showcases:
1. Lil Wayne “Tha Carter III” 2,671,816
2. Coldplay “Viva La Vida” 1,905,679
3. Kid Rock “Rock N Roll Jesus” 1,712,661
4. Jack Johnson “Sleep Through The Static” 1,437,691
5. AC/DC “Black Ice” 1,319,914
6. Taylor Swift 1,316,801
8. Leona Lewis “Spirit” 1,249,522
9. Mariah Carey “E=MC2” 1,193,599
12. Jonas Brothers “A Little Bit Longer” 1,096,771
14. “Camp Rock” 1,083,351
15. Usher “Here I Stand” 1,070,771
18. Miley Cyrus “Breakout” 1,015,480
23. Disturbed “Indestructible” 796,223
28. Colbie Caillat “Coco” 713,786
29. Rick Ross “Trilla” 700,213
33. Madonna “Hard Candy” 673,475
37. Radiohead “In Rainbows” 633,638
42. 3 Doors Down 610,717
46. Alan Jackson “Good Time” 592,066
48. Duffy “Rockferry” 579,191
53. Slipknot “All Hope Is Gone” 541,044
54. Katy Perry “One Of The Boys” 537,160
66. Maroon 5 “It Won’t Be Soon Before Long” 457,126
86. Weezer (Red Album) 375,952
87. Sheryl Crow “Detours” 375,781
94. Panic At The Disco “Pretty Odd” 354,394
It’s not an exhaustive list, since Lefsetz probably doesn’t want to get in trouble with SoundScan. Then again, SoundScan requires subscribers to round to the nearest thousand when publishing its data, so maybe Bob doesn’t really care. Regardless, let’s fill in the blanks. Can anybody guess what #7 and #10 are?
Love the Lefsetz though seemed like he dashed off the commentary too fast, here.
Example:
87. Sheryl Crow “Detours” 375,781
Her audience aged out.
Really? First, I’m not sure what “aged out” means. Is he saying they’re too old to buy her records now? Some sort of demographic shift has taken place?
Or does she just not write good tunes anymore?
who is this guy, why is he so concerned with sales, and why is he so cranky?
Lefsetz is a moron constantly pontificating on the obvious and always from the view point of a middle-aged hipster comparing everything to the “way it used to be”. The exact thing he keeps blaming the music industry for doing.
He’s also a world class ass-kisser. After slagging Kid Rock in his rants, he met the guy and when he didn’t get his ass kicked he started praising Kid’s genius for ignoring iTunes and selling a bunch of music without Steve Jobs help.
Of course he fails to mention that Rock had to borrow heavily from two previous hit songs in order to to it but hey, once you favor Lefsetz by ackowledging his existence, you can enjoy genius status too!
The guy is the ultimate Monday morning quarterback, he knows exactly what’s wrong and how to fix yet all he can manage to do is sit on the sidelines and point fingers.
A waste of time.
thanks for clearing that up, i’m one step closer to being a genius now myself.
“Lefsetz is a moron constantly pontificating on the obvious and always from the view point of a middle-aged hipster comparing everything to the “way it used to be”. The exact thing he keeps blaming the music industry for doing.”
• D. Morris, Nov 25, 2008 10:41AM ∞
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What’s your point? That the music business is BETTER now? That the bands are BETTER? Whatever this guy’s age, if you can’t see that the environment is a lot shittier for music fans now than it was in past decades, you’re far more fucked up than he is. Any modestly hip 18 year old is likely to be listening to as many 30-40 year old albums as current ones. Maybe more. It’s not just middle-aged dudes living in the past who realize there’s something wrong here. Is that what you mean by “constantly pontificating on the obvious?” I would hope so, but then why the criticism about his “point of view?” It seems pretty realistic to me.