What’s the only surefire way to make the “Mutt Lange plus a pep rally” songs of High School Musical even more over the top? Bollywood covers! Plus Swedish, French, Cantonese…it’s like an international buffet of mallrat showtunes. More »
So what did you all do with your Saturday evening? Well why you were all drinking in grownup bars or taking in art house movies or watching indie bands in intimate clubs or re-alphabetizing your Modern Library collection, Maura and I were braving disapproving looks from concerned parents eyeballing us like potential kidnappers as we tried to brave a wriggling army of screeching rugrats, all while resisting the urge to spend $15 on cotton candy because it came with a sweet purple plastic fedora. We were front row–well, as front row as I could afford, which wasn’t very–at Madison Square Garden for “the one and only live fusion of songs, dance and team-spirited fun inspired by the smash hit Disney Channel Original Movie.” Yes, this weekend Idolator took in High School Musical: The Ice Tour:
So yesterday, a picture that was rumored to be of High School Musical star/Zac Efron paramour Vanessa Hudgens in the buff made its way around the Internet, with various people (including the celebrity-nude forensic investigators at the NSFW Fleshbot) figuring that the picture was faked somehow. Well, surprise surprise: Hudgens’ reps confirmed the picture as real late last night, thus setting off freak-outs all over the Web’s gossip sites. But there’s another issue at hand: How will this mini-scandal affect the sales of the High School Musical 2 soundtrack, which has had a vise-like grip over the Billboard 200’s summit since it hit stores last month? We asked our resident chart guru Chris “dennisobell” Molanphy for his take on how this shot might affect the fate of one of the few albums that’s actually shifting units these days. His analysis follows:
The High School Musical 2 soundtrack has six songs in this week’s Billboard Hot 100–including the No. 33 song, “What Time Is It,” which leaked all the way back in May but still sold 63,000 copies to Zac Efron-loving-tweens around the country. More »
As expected by, well, pretty much everyone, the soundtrack to High School Musical 2 topped this week’s album charts, with 615,000 people ponying up to hear the latest songs by Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, and company. HSM2 was one of four Radio Disney-friendly albums in the top 20; Hannah Montana 2 was No. 2, the Jonas’ Brothers self-titled album on Hollywood slipped to No. 8, and the original High School Musical Soundtrack vaulted all the way up from No. 28 to No. 16. The only catch about HSM2‘s debut? Its first-week total was about 8,000 shy of Linkin Park’s first-week total for Minutes to Midnight. (Guess some of those kids grew up.)
Friday night’s High School Musical 2 debut attracted 17.24 million viewers, making it the most-watched basic cable telecast ever. Also, having a post that mentioned Zac Efron really buoyed our traffic over the weekend a lot, so in an effort to keep that train rolling: Zac Efron Zac Efron Zac Efron. More »
Every week, we round up the all-important, all-summarizing last sentences of the biggest new-music reviews. Today’s entry is the soundtrack to High School Musical 2, which we tackled after its leak last week and will probably sell eight bazillion copies by next Monday:
ARTIST: Various Artists
TITLE: High School Musical 2
WEB DEBUT: Aug. 8, 2007
RELEASE DATE: Aug. 14, 2007 More »
The teenpop juggernaut High School Musical spawned a soundtrack that ruled the album-sales charts last year, and its summer vacation-themed sequel hits the Disney Channel in August. (A movie about summer break that comes out just as kids are picking out their new bookbags? That’s sort of mean, no?) More »