Chart Buzz: Kanye West & Jay Z, Katy Perry
In this week’s CHART BUZZ, Kanye West & Jay-Z and Katy Perry steals all the attention
On the music charts this week, all eyes are glued to two particular events. And HiFi will cover them right here.
Kanye West and Jay-Z are the kings on the throne once again after delivering an amazing debut on the Billboard 200 with their dual collaborative album Watch The Throne. It pushes last week’s No. 1, Adele‘s 21, to number four, selling 436,000 copies.
Much of the album’s success surrounds the fact that the highly-anticipated album wasn’t leaked to the public. It also broke the iTunes chart record for all-time highest first week sales with nearly 290,000 copies sold. That number alone accounts over half of the units sold globally, proving that digital sales exceeded physical copies.
But all isn’t golden for the kings of rap. The New York Post reported that Jay-Z spent $95,000 on a single bottle of champagne at a Miami party while celebrating the album’s official launch last week. Chris Willman at The Wrap/Reuters stated “until next week’s results offer a better picture of the album’s legs, he may want to switch to sparkling cider for a few days.”
For an album that was so mightily exalted and pairing two rap giants like Kanye West and Jay-Z, many analysts thought the album would’ve performed far better than what it did. Maybe a strong single would’ve done the trick.
Country sensation Luke Bryan landed at number two with his latest disc Tailgates and Tanlines, while the latest installment in the Now series (Now 39) sits at number three.
Katy Perry also deserves her share of the spotlight after beating Michael Jackson‘s record of holding down the most No.1’s from a single album. Perry’s latest No. 1 hit, “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)” finally pushed LMFAO‘s “Party Rock Anthem” out of the hot seat after weeks of attempts. A last-minute effort to release a remix featuring a cameo slot with Missy Elliot, along with iTunes and Amazon discounts (.69 cents) on both the original version and remix, pushed the song over the edge. It also so happened that the previous long-time No. 1, LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem,” finally shed a little momentum last week, leaving Perry a slight advantage to finish first at the finishing line.
It was a pretty positive week for country acts, with six country statesman claiming the top 20 spots. Eric Church (Chief) moved down three positions to No. 5, still ahead of Jason Aldean (My Kinda Party) at No.6. Blake Shelton (Red River Blue) sits at No. 14 while The Zac Brown Band (You Get What You Give)sits comfortably at No. 19. Trace Adkins’ Proud To Be Here took a seventeen-spot tumble to No. 20 in his second week.
Maroon 5‘s “Moves Like Jagger” continues to impress, beating Katy Perry on the Digital Songs’ survey. It sold 219,000 downloads, becoming this week’s No. 1 on that survey. Much of the credit behind the sales spike goes to increasing radio airplay and the new music video, which was released last week.
On the Billboard Hot 100 (Week of Aug. 27, 2011):
#1 “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)” – Katy Perry
#2 “Party Rock Anthem” – LMFAO feat. Lauren Bennett & GoonRock
#3 “Moves Like Jagger” – Maroon 5 feat. Christina Aguilera
#4 “Super Bass” – Nicki Minaj
#5 “Lighters” – Bad Meets Evil feat. Bruno Mars
#6 “How to Love” – Lil Wayne
#7 “Give Me Everything” – Pitbull feat. Ne-Yo, AfroJack & Nayer
#8 “Pumped Up Kicks” – Foster The People
#9 “I Wanna Go” – Britney Spears
#10 “Good Life” – OneRepublic
CHART BUZZ is a bi-monthly series tracing the latest airplay, radio impressions and unit sales numbers governed by Billboard and measured by Nielsen Soundscan. For more chart information and additional chart data, go to www.billboard.com or www.billboard.biz. Visit our abbreviated Billboard and iTunes charts at: www.hifimagazine.net/blog/charts
