Post by Gary on Dec 22, 2014 1:06:03 GMT -5
There have been some big surprises on the pop charts this year. An Australian female rapper had one of the year's biggest hits. For the first time in more than 50 years, a comedy album reached No. 1. An a cappella group had the year's biggest Christmas album. Here's a recap of the Winners & Losers of 2014 in pop music
Winner: Taylor Swift
The megastar made the year's gutsiest move when she resisted pressure to put a few country tracks on her fifth studio album — to satisfy her original fans. Swift wanted to make an all-pop album and stuck to her guns. She knew what she was doing. That album, '1989,' has spent five weeks at No. 1 and has spawned two No. 1 singles
Loser: Robin Thicke
There are peaks and valleys in every career, but rarely has an artist gone from career-high to butt-of-jokes so quickly. Thicke's seventh studio album, 'Paula' (an album-length plea to his estranged wife), spent just one week in the top 40. His best hope is that it was such a bomb that his wife will feel sorry for him and take him back.
Winner: Ariana Grande
The petite 21-year old with the big voice rose to the top ranks of female pop singers this year. Her sophomore album, 'My Everything,' debuted at No. 1 in August and received a Grammy nom for Best Pop Vocal Album. Grande has had four top 10 hits this year, more than anyone else. She's the new Mariah Carey!
Loser: Mariah Carey
Carey's 11th regular studio album, 'Me. I Am Mariah…the Elusive Chanteuse,' sold just 58K copies in its first week. That was Carey's lowest first-week sales tally since Nielsen SoundScan started tracking music sales in 1991.
Winner: Beyoncé
Her fifth studio album spent its first three weeks at No. 1 in December 2013. The album's sudden, surprise release — in a hype-saturated world — earned Beyoncé goodwill. Beyoncé received six Grammy noms, a total matched this year only by Sam Smith and Pharrell Williams.
Loser: U2
It's not really a surprise that 'Songs of Innocence' didn't sell as well as past U2 albums. After all, Apple gave it away for free to all iTunes users. Even so, you'd expect it to sell better than it did (just 63K copies in its first seven weeks). 'Songs of Innocence' received a Grammy nom for Best Rock Album, but it was passed over for Album of the Year.
Winner: Pharrell Williams
Williams (and his collection of hats) had a great year. He wrote, produced and performed a song that made the whole world "Happy." The tune logged 10 weeks at No. 1 (longer than any other song this year) and earned Oscar and Grammy noms. His album 'GIRL' reached No. 2 and received a Grammy nom for Album of the Year.
Loser: Nickelback
The veteran band's current album, 'No Fixed Address,' has been out for just a month, so it may be too early to label it a bomb. But its chart progression (No. 4 to No. 12 to No. 30 to No. 38) is hardly what you would expect from one of the top-selling album acts of the past 15 years. Nickelback's previous album, 2011's 'Here and Now,' spent seven weeks in the top 10.
Winner: Iggy Azalea
The Aussie rapper's "Fancy" (featuring Charli XCX) was No. 1 for seven weeks and received a Grammy nom for Record of the Year. It was the first all-female collabo to be nominated in that category since "The Boy Is Mine," the 1998 smash by Brandy and Monica.
Loser: Jennifer Lopez
'A.K.A.' sold 33K copies in its first week. That's the lowest first-week sales tally for a Lopez studio album to date. It's even lower than her 2007 Spanish-language album, 'Como Ama Una Mujer.' Even so, the album spawned a top 20 hit, "Booty," that got a lot of attention (which probably matters more than sales in J.Lo's world).
Winner: 'Frozen'
The soundtrack logged 13 weeks at No. 1, longer than any other soundtrack since 'Titanic' in 1998. Idina Menzel's recording of the Oscar-winning "Let It Go" became a top five hit. (Before the year was out, Menzel had a top 10 album of her own with 'Holiday Wishes.')
Loser: 50 Cent
The rapper's ironically titled fifth album, 'Animal Ambition: An Untamed Desire to Win,' sold just 37K copies in its first week. That's a big drop not only from his smash early albums, but even from his previous studio album, 'Before I Self-Destruct' (which sold 160K in its first week).
Winner: Meghan Trainor
The charming, doo-wop-shaded "All About That Bass" topped the Hot 100 for eight weeks and received Grammy noms for Record and Song of the Year. Trainor's follow-up, "Lips Are Movin," is in the top five. A plus-size star is born! (We needed one to represent all the women who don't look like Beyoncé and Taylor.)
Loser: Jennifer Hudson
Hudson's third album, 'JHUD,' debuted and peaked at No. 10 in September. That's a big drop from her two previous albums, both of which reached No. 2. It's a good thing the multitalented performer has so many irons in the fire.
Winner: John Legend
Until this year, Legend had never cracked the top 20 on the Hot 100. "All of Me" changed that. The classy piano ballad topped the chart for three weeks in May.
Winners: Sam Smith and Ed Sheeran
These British pop stars have both had big years. Smith's debut album, 'In the Lonely Hour,' and Sheeran's sophomore album, 'x,' have both ranked high on the chart since they were released six months ago. Both are up for Grammys for Album of the Year. Smith is a cinch to sweep the awards on Feb. 8.
Loser: Colbie Caillat
The singer's fourth regular studio album, 'Gypsy Heart,' debuted and peaked at No. 17. It was her first non-holiday studio album to fall short of the top 10. What's more, it logged just three weeks in the top 100.
Winner: "Weird" Al Yankovic
In July, the satirist's 14th studio album, 'Mandatory Fun,' became the first comedy album to reach No. 1 since Allan Sherman's 'My Son, the Nut' in 1963. Nobody saw that coming.
Winner: Pentatonix
The a cappella group has the year's top-selling holiday release, 'That's Christmas to Me.' The album has climbed all the way to No. 2, making it the highest-charting Christmas title by a group or duo since 1962.
Loser: Rick Ross
The rapper's seventh studio album, 'Hood Billionaire,' just dropped from No. 42 to No. 64 in its third week on the Billboard 200. You don't become a billionaire with drops like that.
Winners: Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton
Country's answer to Beyoncé and Jay Z had their best year to date. Both Lambert and Shelton hit No. 1 on both the pop and country album charts. Moreover, they won Female and Male Vocalist of the Year at the CMA Awards for the fifth year in a row.
Loser: Jennifer Nettles
'That Girl' was Nettles's first solo album after four hit studio albums with the country duo Sugarland. It should have propelled her to the top tier of female country solo stars (along with
Winner: J. Cole
'2014 Forest Hills Drive.' The rapper's third studio album moved 375K in its first week on the chart in December. That's the biggest one-week sales tally of 2014 for an album by a male solo artist (from any genre).
