The “Billboard” Year-End 200: 2007’s Biggest Trend? Albums From 2006

noah | December 14, 2007 3:30 am
daughtry.jpg

If only the Billboard Awards were still around! Then we’d get to find out that Daughtry had the trade magazine’s top album of 2007 via him covering “Live And Let Die” with Dizzy Reed and Paul McCartney or something. But there’s no time to mourn over that when there’s so much other stuff to gnash your teeth over on this week’s chart, like the fact that Billboard‘s December-to-November chart year–not to mention ever-declining album sales–means that the top of the chart is riddled with records that actually came out in calendar year 2006 (and were bought up in big bunches during last year’s holiday season):

1. Daughtry (RCA/RMG) (release date: 11/21/06) 2. Konvicted, Akon (Konvict/Upfront/SRC/Universal Motown/UMRG) (release date: 11/14/06) 3. The Dutchess, Fergie (will.i.am/A&M/Interscope/IGA) (release date: 9/19/06) 4. Hannah Montana soudntrack (Walt Disney) (release date: 10/24/06) 5. Some Hearts, Carrie Underwood (Arista/Arista Nashville/RMG) (release date: 11/15/05) 6. All The Right Reasons, Nickelback (Roadrunner) (release date: 10/5/05) 7. FutureSex/LoveSounds, Justin Timberlake (Jive/Zomba) (release date: 9/12/06) 8. High School Musical 2 soundtrack (Walt Disney) (release date: 8/14/07) 9. Now 23 (Sony BMG Strategic Marketing Group/EMI/Universal/Zomba/Sony Music) (release date: 11/7/06) 10. Minutes To Midnight, Linkin Park (Machine Shop/Warner Bros.) (release date: 5/15/07)

Yipes, right? And the top 20 isn’t much better, with a 7:3 ratio of 2006 releases to 2007 releases. As the chart progresses, more 2007 releases filter in, as do a few surprises (T.I. vs. T.I.P. besting Curtis, the Eagles getting all the way to No. 38 despite coming out so late in the year). But perhaps my favorite one-two punch comes right before the chart’s end:

189. Back To Bedlam, James Blunt (Custard/Atlantic/AG)

190. Neon Bible, Arcade Fire (Merge)

If anyone calls 2007 “the year of indie,” please point them to the above stat.

Year-end albums [Billboard.biz]