Glued to Our XBoxes: Hot 100 Sleeps While “Guitar Hero” Tracks Sell

dangibs | January 10, 2008 3:00 am
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Ed. note: Chris “dennisobell” Molanphy, our resident chart guru, looks at the upward, downward, and lack of movement on the Billboard Hot 100 in the latest installment of “100 And Single”:

“[A]s I type, playlists are returning to normal, and that plus the inevitable comedown in digital sales will make next week’s chart rather topsy-turvy.” So said I, with hope in my heart, last week in this space.

What the hell was I thinking?! One week later, Billboard‘s Hot 100 couldn’t be any snoozier, with a virtually static Top 10 and only marginal movement farther down the chart. Chalk it up to early-winter doldrums, distraction from the presidential primaries, or some kind of Jedi mind-trick Flo Rida’s “Low” is performing on this great nation’s populace, but right now, it feels like no one’s buying or listening to any new music. Or maybe folks are just too busy playing with their little plastic guitars…

The Comedown: While radio playlists have largely returned to normal, after last week’s post-holiday bonanza, digital sales had nowhere to go but down, and down they go. On Billboard‘s Digital Tracks chart, 97 of the top 100 songs sold fewer copies than the week before. (The three exceptions are all emerging hits: Janet’s new single; “Start All Over,” the first track by Disney star Miley Cyrus to get the promo-musicvideo treatment; and a song from the Juno soundtrack by actors Michael Cera and Ellen Page.)

However, looking at the glass as more than half-full, sales volume at iTunes and other digital-song retailers is still considerably larger than usual, even two full weeks after Santa day. For example, in the digital Top 10 (identical to the Top 10 on the Hot 100 shown below, but with songs in a different order), each song sold more than 100,000 copies; in a typical week this past fall, usually no more than four or five tracks would hit that mark.

With digital-track sales softening, it’s interesting to see which holdovers experienced the smallest decreases. And we think we’ve spotted a pattern…

Downloading Like a Hero: A few hours ago, Maura and I were IMing while sifting through the digital sales charts, trying to figure out why certain old-ass songs were listed there at all…

mauraatidolator: i can’t believe how few songs experienced sales gains mauraatidolator: also, why is ‘when you were young’ moving up?? dennisobell: The Killers song? mauraatidolator: yeah! dennisobell: Damned if i know! dennisobell: Must’ve been featured in a TV ad or sumpin’ mauraatidolator: also, drowning pool’s ‘bodies’ reappeared on the chart dennisobell: I feel like I saw that in a trailer for something… dennisobell: Let me think… mauraatidolator: is it guitar hero? dennisobell: No way… mauraatidolator: ‘my name is jonas’ is back too dennisobell: Oh wait! dennisobell: That’s it!

As you see, here at Idolator labs, the process for determining pop trends is très scientifique.

Anyway: sure enough, on closer inspection of the Digital Tracks list, we find anything associated with the biggest video-game hit of Christmas ’07, Activision’s Guitar Hero III–and, to a lesser extent, Electronic Arts’ Rock Band–holding up very well. Among the songs attributable to one or both games and experiencing smaller sales declines, thereby rising in position on the Digital Tracks list, are: • The Killers’ “When You Were Young” (No. 50) • Dragonforce’s “Through the Fire and Flames” (No. 59) • Guns N’ Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle” (No. 72) • The Rolling Stones’ “Paint It, Black” (No. 81) • Metallica’s “One” (No. 101) • Drowning Pool’s “Bodies” (No. 110) • AFI’s “Miss Murder” (No. 117) • Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Dani California” (No. 123) • Weezer’s “My Name Is Jonas” (No. 126) • Bon Jovi’s “Wanted Dead or Alive” (No. 125) • Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” (No. 128) • Disturbed’s “Stricken” (No. 133) • Rage Against the Machine’s “Bulls on Parade” (No. 153) • Slipknot’s “Before I Forget” (No. 172) • Scorpions’ “Rock You Like a Hurricane” (No. 173) • Foo Fighters’ “Learn to Fly” (No. 177) • Kiss’s “Rock and Roll All Nite” (No. 184) • Weezer’s “Say It Ain’t So” (No. 192) • Rise Against’s “Prayer of the Refugee” (No. 194) • Foghat’s “Slow Ride” (No. 196)

In general, GH3 songs performed better than RB songs–unsurprising, given the former’s stronger brand name and sales. Witness the Weezer tracks: GH3‘s “Jonas” outsells RB‘s “Say” by about 2,500 copies, or roughly 20%. Also, songs on the games’ easier levels tend to sell better, but not always: the Foghat track, GH3‘s easiest first-level song, is selling unimpressively, probably due to the fact that the song is three times the age of the average game-player.

Before anyone asks: No matter how well these tracks sell, none of them have reappeared, or will reappear, on the Hot 100. Billboard rules clearly eliminate old tracks from the big chart unless they are, according to the magazine, “actively re-promoted to radio” (think Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which was allowed to re-chart in 1992). That said, maybe the Killers should poke someone at their label and persuade them to resubmit the lead hit from the ill-fated Sam’s Town to Top 40 programmers…

‘MunkWatch: As a followup to the horror show that was yesterday’s post about Alvin & the Chipmunks, I am happy to report that there is one fewer rodent tune on the Hot 100 this week, as “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)” drops off after two weeks on the list. The vermin’s three other charted tracks–covers of “Bad Day” and “Funkytown,” and a remake of Chipmunk-mastermind David Seville’s “Witch Doctor”–all drop a few notches on the chart. Oh, and let me reassure the public that none of these so-called “hits” will be assaulting us in the drugstore or the car anytime soon: none appear on the Hot 100 Airplay list.

As you were.

The top 20, with last week’s position and total weeks charted in parentheses: 1. Flo Rida feat. T-Pain, “Low” (LW No. 1, 11 weeks) 2. Alicia Keys, “No One” (LW No. 2, 18 weeks) 3. Timbaland feat. OneRepublic, “Apologize” (LW No. 3, 23 weeks) 4. Chris Brown feat. T-Pain, “Kiss Kiss” (LW No. 4, 17 weeks) 5. Fergie, “Clumsy” (LW No. 6, 13 weeks) 6. Colbie Caillat, “Bubbly” (LW No. 7, 28 weeks) 7. Finger Eleven, “Paralyzer” (LW No. 8, 31 weeks) 8. Jordin Sparks, “Tattoo” (LW No. 10, 15 weeks) 9. Sara Bareilles, “Love Song” (LW No. 9, 10 weeks) 10. Soulja Boy, “Crank That (Soulja Boy), Soulja Boy Tell’em” (LW No. 5, 26 weeks) 11. Rihanna feat. Ne-Yo, “Hate That I Love You” (LW No. 15, 19 weeks) 12. Chris Brown, “With You” (LW No. 18, 6 weeks) 13. Sean Kingston, “Take You There” (LW No. 13, 10 weeks) 14. Baby Bash feat. T-Pain, “Cyclone” (LW No. 11, 24 weeks) 15. Wyclef Jean Featuring Akon, Lil Wayne & Niia, ” Sweetest Girl (Dollar Bill)” (LW No. 12, 17 weeks) 16. Taylor Swift, “Our Song” (LW No. 17, 15 weeks) 17. Natasha Bedingfield feat. Sean Kingston, “Love Like This” (LW No. 20, 12 weeks) 18. Taylor Swift, “Teardrops on My Guitar” (LW No. 19, 31 weeks) 19. Kanye West feat. T-Pain, “Good Life” (LW No. 16, 17 weeks) 20. Fergie, “Big Girls Don’t Cry” (LW No. 21, 38 weeks)