The top ten of the Billboard 200 this week:
1. Taylor Swift – Fearless – 63,000 (-11%)
2. Beyonce – I Am … Sasha Fierce – 49,000
3. Nickelback – Dark Horse – 46,000 (-12%)
4. Notorious soundtrack – 43,000 (debut)
5. Kanye West – 808s and Heartbreak – 40,000 (-22%)
6. Twilight soundtrack – 36,000 (-16%)
7. Britney Spears – Circus – 34,000 (-16%)
8. Jamie Foxx – Intuition – 34,000 (-7%)
9. Keyshia Cole – A Different Me – 31,000 (-15%)
10. David Cook – David Cook – 31,000 (+58%)
• Taylor Swift’s “Fearless” (Big Machine) begins a seventh week at No. 1 on The Billboard 200, a feat that hasn’t been accomplished since Usher’s “Confessions” spent nine at the top in 2004.
• At 5.89 million units, sales are down 5.7% compared to the same total last week and off by 15.4% compared to the same week in 2008.
The problem with Taylor Swift is that her balls are too close to her ass.
Barn Pheasant–he who begat Taylor Swift will seek you out and strke you with the jawbone of an ass until thou art the consistency of frankincense and myrrh!
The pop chart is just as bad today as it was 20 and 30 years ago.
Funny how so little good music made it into the top 40 in the 80s, but in retrospect today it seems like our collective pop memory is of a time when Bonzo was president and everybody listened to New Wave and post punk bands.
Today, as it was back in the day, all the good stuff is elsewhere. Sure, you’ll find an occasional valiant effort in the mainstream charts, but most of the good music is growing much more organically in an ever growing number of niche music scenes. The only difference is that today, they may be more “virtual” and less about a particular city or geography.
I wish I had the internet tubes back when I was copying mixed tapes from my friends. It wouldn’t have taken me so long to get my hands on all those Smiths albums. Just point and click.