In this week of financial horrors, created largely by formerly cocksure men, it’s perhaps apropos that a couple of ladies post the most gloat-worthy performances in the upper reaches of Billboard‘s Hot 100.
That starts at the top, where Pink, a nearly decade-long veteran of the chart wars, scores her first solo No. 1 (and second overall), “So What.” And she does it with the largest one-week digital sales total we’ve seen since the beginning of summer.
A few rungs down, U.K. chanteuse and Atlantic Records guinea pig Estelle stages a massive comeback. Her return to iTunes fuels a 44-space move by her Kanye West–supported single “American Boy,” to a new peak of No. 9. Not a moment too soon: one week before the official start of fall in the United States, and a month after it appeared to have peaked at No. 11, our runner-up in the Idolator 2008 Summer Jam competition is finally an official U.S. Top 10 hit. Revenge is sweet.
File under “scenarios that I kind of wished had played out in real time”: “Apple had reportedly been sufficiently annoyed by [Warner Music Group’s decision to pull Estelle’s Shine from the iTunes Store] that it threatened to retaliate by pulling all mentions of WMG product from the various splash… More »
In the wake of Kid Rock finding success by holding his album back from iTunes while having a fairly big radio hit, Kid’s label Atlantic Records decided to experiment with the Kid’s strategy, pulling the British singer Estelle’s album Shine from the iTunes Store two weeks ago. The move, which was ostensibly made in order to boost sales of the album after the success of its lead single, the Kanye West-assisted “American Boy,” resulted in sales of the album dropping 16%, then experiencing a 9% gain last week. Meanwhile, “Boy” plummeted to No. 57 on the Hot 100 last week; there, it suffered the indignity of being beat out by its own inferior insta-cover, which had the advantage of being available on the store. Perhaps that was just embarrassing enough for Atlantic to restore the album on iTunes; yesterday when I opened up the online-music destination, there was a huge ad for Shine in the middle of the store’s splash page.
Atlanta hip-hop king T.I. vaults 70 places into the No. 1 spot on Billboard‘s Hot 100 this week with “Whatever You Like,” a sing-songy, smudgy Xerox of his classic 2006 hit “What You Know.”
With this move, Clifford Joseph Harris Jr. scores his first No. 1 as a lead artist (he was credited two years ago on Justin Timberlake’s chart-topper “My Love”) and sets a new Hot 100 record for biggest leap to the top spot. T.I. takes the record away from Maroon 5, who set it just 16 months ago when “Makes Me Wonder” leapt from No. 64 to No. 1 in a single bound. They, in turn, had stolen the record from Kelly Clarkson, whose only No. 1 hit, “A Moment Like This,” held the record for about four years, after she leapt from No. 52 to the top in 2002.
Before Clarkson, this record was held for 28 years, by the Beatles’ “Can’t Buy Me Love” (No. 26-No. 1 in 1964). The fact that a record held for three decades has been broken thrice in the last six years says less about these songs’ popularity and more about the quirks of the modern charts and the sometimes dysfunctional relationship between sales and airplay.
And it means T.I. shouldn’t gloat for too long–this record’s likely to be broken again.
Last Friday, one of the regular commenters on my “100 and Single” column poured cold water all over my prediction that Estelle’s “American Boy” might finally creep into the U.S. Top 10. Noted regular reader ukidol, “Estelle’s song has been removed from iTunes since the start of the week, so she’ll drop sharply in the next chart. Think they’re hoping for a Kid Rock-style album boost.”
We won’t find out how Estelle fared until the new Hot 100 appears later today, but yesterday’s release of SoundScan figures bears out ukidol’s prediction. “American Boy,” which the prior week was the sixth-best selling digital song in the country, fell to 64th, as its sales took a 78% tumble from 86,700 copies to 19,100 copies. (Presumably, virtually all of those 19,100 copies sold in the first day or two of the tracking week before the song got pulled from iTunes.)
As of last week, “American Boy” was at No. 11 on the big chart. While the radio half of the Hot 100’s sales-plus-airplay formulation might keep the song from falling out of the Top 40, no amount of radio growth will keep it from dropping at least a double-digit number of slots–if not this week, then the next.
During the two weeks I was vacationing, Billboard reported changes atop all three of its flagship charts–including the blessed end of Katy Perry’s No. 1 reign on the Hot 100, which was displaced by a Rihanna song I like a lot. Even more amazingly, a song that may be the most left-field hit of the decade–“Paper Planes” by M.I.A.–soared into the Top Five.
Now that I’m back, the M.I.A. song is down a bit, and the biggest news on the charts is the post-American Idol debut by tween-and-grandma fave David Archuleta.
It’s a cruel business, this chart-column writing.
Nonetheless, the good news, for those of us who rooted against the stage-managed moppet during Idol‘s last season, is that Archie’s losing out on the Hot 100’s top slot–by a whisker–to Rihanna. Meanwhile, there’s change on top of two other charts, including the deadly static Modern Rock list. Let’s catch up, shall we?
ARTIST: Gym Class Heroes feat. Estelle
TITLE: “Guilty As Charged”
WEB DEBUT: Aug. 20, 2008
Hip-hop heavyweights the Roots are going on a co-headlining tour with the Gym Class Heroes, an announcement that made me say “huh” when I first heard it. After the whole outcry over the Roots’ track with Patrick Stump, I can’t help but wonder what the crowds at these shows will be like, and just how many people will wind up sticking around for both bands. (Yes, yes, to those of you who would say that people should open their minds, I agree, but this is in no way a perfect world–especially now, when people are encouraged to constantly customize their entire experiences to their exact liking.) Estelle is opening, so perhaps she’ll serve as the pre-show bridger of gaps/referee for a joint Lamb of God cover? Click ?uestlove’s pic for the full itinerary.
Fresh off last year’s coronation of the Klaxons as the best band in Britain, this year’s Mercury Prize nominations feature quite a range of popular music, from summer jam tournament runner-up Estelle to a few acts that will send you scurrying to Google.
Midnight tonight isn’t the exact midway point of this year, but hey, it’s the last day of its sixth month, which is close enough for roadwork. Or, er, listwork, that is: After the jump, I give you the seven songs that I would be more likely to put on a mix CD than any other, in YouTube/blurb form. Think of it as a post for me and my creaky, prone-to-forgetting-stuff brain to come back to when the year-end listmaking craze hits in a couple of months and an invitation for you to engage in similar Monday afternoon quantifying!
