Billboard Hot 100 - 03/20/2010

[sghosal22]

DRAKE - Over:12.760 (+ 2.095)

[kingofpain]

I wonder when NYN will manage to be # 1

Unfortunately it's not. This week probably would have been its one chance. Its sales aren't strong enough and while it's airplay is probably about to peak, it was proven this week that all you need is one strong single seller to claim the number one position. Again it's just bad timing for them - if another window does open up, you also have "Rude Boy" barking at their heels which has pretty strong sales and is also flying up the airplay chart.

NYN just never had a chance really.. it would have been wonderful to see a country song top the hot 100 but no.. week after week it's a freakin' urban or pop single. Yeah, they should be happy with a #2 peak, but come on, why couldn't Taio Cruz have experienced the same climb as them and make that peak instead of flying out of the gates with a huge digital seller??

Another poster was right in saying that he'll probably just be another Jay Sean/Jason Derulo/Iyaz, etc.. big digital single and lousy album sales.

[HolidayGuy]

kingofpain, you may have seen past discussions about the chars being ALL about timing. :) But, again, Lady A's single will have a pretty darn great overall chart performance.

[kingofpain]

Yeah I have, that's why I just put it in one sentence. I'm not saying I'm a big fan of Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, etc... but Need You Now fell into the same exact "bad timing" cycle they did, "Bad Romance" and "Party In The USA" never had their sales/airplay peaks match. Even if they scored a big number like Taio Cruz this week in digital sales, there was one other single selling just as strongly or with mega airplay that blocked them from the spot.

Imagine if the Taio single had been released during the Tik Tok hype, it would probably have been jammed at number two. It's just disappointing when I see a country single like NYN really making an impact sales/airplay wise and it still gets blocked by generic stuff like Taio. I like to see EVERY GENRE experience success at the peak of the Hot 100 - I just don't understand why it's always the same type of songs that get that success. NYN has put in a pretty strong effort but it's time is running out... with Taio continuing to sell strongly and Rude Boy flying up the airplay chart, I feel its chances have been zapped.

[overboard]

Would be nice if Idol had them on for a performance. That would seal up a #1 for them.

[wallace]

It's pretty clear that hip-hop acts have an advantage on the Hot 100 because it's more of a singles-sales market even than pop or dance tracks. Look at how well Lady A's album is selling; some of those people have the digital single but a lot of them probably don't, and they're not gonna buy it now. Also, this will be Need You Now's 30th week on the Hot 100. Hard to sustain continuous sales for that long compared to something that just came out.

It's also logistically easier to market just-released music to a predominantly urban fan-base in a short period of time. You need to work with a much smaller number of radio stations and other outlets to reach the same number of people. Whereas country fans tend disproportionately to live in the country.

[HolidayGuy]

^But those hip-hop/urban tracks also need an audience at pop and rhythmic radio. tracks only big at urban radio usually don't see sustained gangbuster digital sales. Is the Taio Cruz track doing well at rhythmic and/or pop?

[badrobot]

Mar 10, 2010 15:08:45 GMT -5 wallace said:

It's pretty clear that hip-hop acts have an advantage on the Hot 100 because it's more of a singles-sales market even than pop or dance tracks. Look at how well Lady A's album is selling; some of those people have the digital single but a lot of them probably don't, and they're not gonna buy it now. Also, this will be Need You Now's 30th week on the Hot 100. Hard to sustain continuous sales for that long compared to something that just came out.

It's also logistically easier to market just-released music to a predominantly urban fan-base in a short period of time. You need to work with a much smaller number of radio stations and other outlets to reach the same number of people. Whereas country fans tend disproportionately to live in the country.

It's kind of the opposite. Hip-hop tracks tend to perform better in airplay. Pop/dance do better in sales.

Lady Gaga is a perfect example of a pop/dance artist, and depending on where "Telephone" ultimately peaks in sales, "Paparazzi" is the only one of her singles to peak higher in airplay than sales.

See also Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, etc.

[renfield75]

Mar 10, 2010 15:30:37 GMT -5 badrobot said:

Mar 10, 2010 15:08:45 GMT -5 wallace said:

It's pretty clear that hip-hop acts have an advantage on the Hot 100 because it's more of a singles-sales market even than pop or dance tracks. Look at how well Lady A's album is selling; some of those people have the digital single but a lot of them probably don't, and they're not gonna buy it now. Also, this will be Need You Now's 30th week on the Hot 100. Hard to sustain continuous sales for that long compared to something that just came out.

It's also logistically easier to market just-released music to a predominantly urban fan-base in a short period of time. You need to work with a much smaller number of radio stations and other outlets to reach the same number of people. Whereas country fans tend disproportionately to live in the country.

It's kind of the opposite. Hip-hop tracks tend to perform better in airplay. Pop/dance do better in sales.

Lady Gaga is a perfect example of a pop/dance artist, and depending on where "Telephone" ultimately peaks in sales, "Paparazzi" is the only one of her singles to peak higher in airplay than sales.

See also Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, etc.

Exactly, Lady Gaga has multiple quadruple platinum singles. Urban singles just tend to appeal to more radio formats, so they can cross-over to more stations and get bigger audience impressions.

[Creme de la Creme]

Frm Paul Grein's blog on Yahoo:
"Break Your Heart" by Taio Cruz featuring Ludacris vaults from #53 to #1 in its second week on Billboard's Hot 100, which sets a new record for the biggest move to #1 by an act with its first chart single. The old record was held by Kelly Clarkson's "A Moment Like This," which shot from #52 to #1 in October 2002..

Cruz is a British singer-songwriter-producer who has worked with such acts as Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, the Pussycat Dolls and Ke$ha. "Break Your Heart" logged three weeks at #1 in the U.K. in September and October. It's the second transatlantic #1 by a new act in the past few months, following Owl City's "Fireflies.".

This is the third time that Ludacris has been featured on a #1 Hot 100 hit. He was also featured on Usher's "Yeah!" (which also featured Lil Jon) and Fergie's "Glamorous." The rap superstar and movie actor has also had two #1 hits as a lead artist. He scored in 2003 with "Stand Up" (featuring Shawnna) and in 2006 with "Money Maker" (featuring Pharrell)..

"Break Your Heart" also vaults from #50 to #1 on this week's Hot Digital Songs chart. It sold 273,000 copies in its first full week of availability. It sold 31,000 copies last week, in approximately three days on the market, reports Silvio Pietroluongo, Billboard's Director of Charts.

Song Scorecard: "Empire State Of Mind" this week tops "No One" as Alicia Keys' biggest hit to date. The soulful valentine to the Big Apple, a collaboration with Jay-Z, has sold 3,297,000 digital copies. "No One" has sold 3,283,000. The success of "Empire State Of Mind" seems to have blunted the impact of Keys' songs from her album, The Element Of Freedom. "Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart," the biggest hit from Keys' album, has sold 471,000 copies. But Keys will likely be rewarded at the Grammys next year. I expect "Empire State Of Mind" to be in the running for Record and Song of the Year. It would be perfect timing if the show was back in New York next year, though it will probably remain in Los Angeles..

Train's "Hey, Soul Sister" tops the 2 million mark in paid downloads this week. The song was featured in a TV spot for Samsung 3-D TVs that aired repeatedly on Oscar night. This is Train's biggest digital seller to date. Its 2001 smash "Drops Of Jupiter (Tell Me)" has sold 1,193,000 copies..

Nickelback's 2006 hit "Far Away" and Sean Kingston's 2007 smash "Beautiful Girls" also top the 2 million mark. This is Nickelback's fourth song to reach 2 million, following "Rockstar," "Photograph" and "Gotta Be Somebody." It's Kingston's second, following "Fire Burning.".

Lynyrd Skynyrd's 1974 smash "Sweet Home Alabama" this week becomes the fifth pre-1990 song to reach the 2 million mark in paid downloads. The song was given a big boost when it was featured in the 2002 Reese Witherspoon movie of the same name and another when it was sampled in Kid Rock's 2008 smash "All Summer Long."

[wallace]

Mar 10, 2010 16:16:36 GMT -5 renfield75 said:

Mar 10, 2010 15:30:37 GMT -5 badrobot said:

It's kind of the opposite. Hip-hop tracks tend to perform better in airplay. Pop/dance do better in sales.

Lady Gaga is a perfect example of a pop/dance artist, and depending on where "Telephone" ultimately peaks in sales, "Paparazzi" is the only one of her singles to peak higher in airplay than sales.

See also Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, etc.

Exactly, Lady Gaga has multiple quadruple platinum singles. Urban singles just tend to appeal to more radio formats, so they can cross-over to more stations and get bigger audience impressions.

Oh, I agree that the bigger advantage for hip-hop vs pop/dance is a larger radio platform, and that the singles-selling vs album-selling advantage is more of a hip-hop vs country thing.

Miley and Beiber and other teen acts are sort of their own sub-genre relative to other pop acts.

[Oprah]

Mar 10, 2010 15:08:45 GMT -5 wallace said:

It's pretty clear that hip-hop acts have an advantage on the Hot 100 because it's more of a singles-sales market even than pop or dance tracks.

This isn't true in the slightest. How do you explain the various big urban hits from artists like Maxwell, Mary J Blige, and Alicia Keys that have sold very little digitally? Hip Hop & R&B songs only sell well if they crossover to pop; that's the format which fuels digital sales.

[wallace]

Mar 10, 2010 16:35:58 GMT -5 Oprah said:

Mar 10, 2010 15:08:45 GMT -5 wallace said:

It's pretty clear that hip-hop acts have an advantage on the Hot 100 because it's more of a singles-sales market even than pop or dance tracks.

This isn't true in the slightest. How do you explain the various big urban hits from artists like Maxwell, Mary J Blige, and Alicia Keys that have sold very little digitally? Hip Hop & R&B songs only sell well if they crossover to pop; that's the format which fuels digital sales.

Fair enough. I suppose I'm looking at the people who come barrelling out of the gate before they have much in the way of Pop airplay, and trying to make sense of how that happens.

[ingrownhairdyke]

Mar 10, 2010 12:39:07 GMT -5 @2m said:

Mar 10, 2010 12:28:40 GMT -5 Taylor. said:

Is bks ever coming back?

This could be more of a case of being caught by the "Soundscan police" rather than just a busy work schedule.

do u really think so? that could explain it.. Damn it sucks because bks provided us sales week after week. I know there are others in other forums who do the same but its very scarce to get sales it seems now. DAMN

[popstop]

Mar 10, 2010 16:22:58 GMT -5 Creme de la Creme said:

Lynyrd Skynyrd's 1974 smash "Sweet Home Alabama" this week becomes the fifth pre-1990 song to reach the 2 million mark in paid downloads. The song was given a big boost when it was featured in the 2002 Reese Witherspoon movie of the same name and another when it was sampled in Kid Rock's 2008 smash "All Summer Long."

I wonder what the other four are? Don't Stop Believing is definitely one.

[wallace]

Mar 10, 2010 17:41:25 GMT -5 popstop said:

Mar 10, 2010 16:22:58 GMT -5 Creme de la Creme said:

Lynyrd Skynyrd's 1974 smash "Sweet Home Alabama" this week becomes the fifth pre-1990 song to reach the 2 million mark in paid downloads. The song was given a big boost when it was featured in the 2002 Reese Witherspoon movie of the same name and another when it was sampled in Kid Rock's 2008 smash "All Summer Long."

I wonder what the other four are? Don't Stop Believing is definitely one.

Off the top of my head, I'm betting there's at least one Michael Jackson song and one Christmas song.

Great for Skynyrd. It helps that All Summer Long itself isn't available on iTunes.

[Enyasurvivor]

Livin' On a Prayer is probably one of them too

[HolidayGuy]

^Paul Grein reported on the tracks a few weeks ago. Taking the new info into account:

Top Pre-1990 Digital Songs

1. Don't Stop Believin': 3.512 million (through 2/21/10)
2. Thriller: 2.249 million (through 2/21/10)
3. Eye of the Tiger: 2.118 million (through 2/21/10)
4. Livin' on a Prayer: 2m+
5. Sweet Home Alabama: 2m+

Creeping up: Bohemian Rhapsody (1.991 million through 2/21/10)

[kingofpain]

I'm not sure if it's sometimes the labels fault as well.. I felt "Paparazzi" could have had a higher peak than #6 had they not released it so soon after "Love Game" (which was still being promoted at radio), and then "Bad Romance" came out while "Paparazzi" was still being promoted, and now "Telephone" has been out for some time too.

It's like her label doesn't know how to market her singles properly - but apparently they don't care about chart positions. They should have held Telephone off until Bad Romance was on the decline, and then released it digitally after a few weeks of airplay. The single has been selling for several months now, I hardly think a video debut will make people who don't already have the single run out and buy it. Again, when the airplay for this peaks, the sales won't match.

What about the week when Taylor Swift released "If Today Were A Fairytale" THIS week? 300,00 in sales, it would have definitely gone #1. However her label chose to release it with the release of "Valentines Day", but she was up against the monster that was Tik Tok.

Taio Cruz debuts with 270K+ digital sales and small airplay and still manages to take the number one spot - now that's EXCELLENT planning by the label. It was only released mid-week last week - they knew when to release it.

Look at Train's "Hey Soul Sister" - the song has been selling in the top 5 digital singles for the past month or so (hell, it even just passed 2 million paid downloads according to one of the above reports), yet the airplay is just CRAWLING for some bizarre reason?? WTF is up with that? You have a song like "Rude Boy" shooting up like a star in weeks and a song that has been selling for months really well can't even get decent airplay? Whose fault is this?? Radio?

It's hard to know where to point the finger sometimes... radio has no problem jumping on Rude Boy even if the single sales aren't astronomical... but songs that are selling big aren't getting airplay? Rude Boy has just about caught up (if not already overtaken) Hey Soul Sister in airplay. That's just mind boggling and I think screams favoritism. The public obviously likes HSS a lot (the sales speak for themselves) yet radio is slow adding it?

[accra84]

why would anyone say gaga's label doesn't know how to market her singles? all 6 of her singles have gone number 1 in the U.S........................................................................................

[kingofpain]

Not on the Hot 100 they haven't, which is the chart that really matters. She's only had two number ones on the Hot 100, Just Dance and Poker Face.

[ΣGØ.©[/IMG]]

Mar 10, 2010 19:44:36 GMT -5 accra84 said:

why would anyone say gaga's label doesn't know how to market her singles? all 6 of her singles have gone number 1 in the U.S........................................................................................

cool first post, bro!!

[areyoureadytojump]

Mar 10, 2010 19:48:53 GMT -5 kingofpain said:

Not on the Hot 100 they haven't, which is the chart that really matters. She's only had two number ones on the Hot 100, Just Dance and Poker Face.

The Hot 100 is not the only chart that matters.

[kingofpain]

I think it is the most relevant one that is often referred to when discussing an artist's chart history? Who says, "Oh yeah, she was very successful on the Hot AC chart?"

[HolidayGuy]

^That is correct. Just look at some acts regarded as the best in history, who have few #1s or none at all. I don't think Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin and Bruce Springsteen are losing sleep over their lack of #1s. And to bring it back to a commercial success point of view, likely nor are acts who enjoy impressive album sales/chart showings, but don't fare as well on the Hot 100. Ya think SuBo is upset that she hasn't scored a U.S. top 40 hit from her debut?

[wallace]

The Hot 100 is the biggest chart, but it's hardly the only one that matters. Lady Gaga's Pop #1s matter. For somebody like Carrie Underwood, having had a bunch of Country #1s matters quite a lot. Personally, while the Hot 100 is interesting, I put more stock in the pure airplay charts and in cumulative album and singles sales; the apples-plus-oranges nature of a chart that tries to combine airplay, sales and streaming is kind of artificial and tends to favor some genres over others.

And yeah, singles charts aren't everything, either. I was looking up some stuff on the White Stripes the other day and was reminded that Seven Nation Army peaked at #76 on the Hot 100, and that's easily one of the 5 or so most iconic songs of the past decade, won a Grammy, and will be remembered long after a lot of Hot 100 #1s are forgotten.

ETA: Bruce had seven top-10 singles, including a #1 with Dancing in the Dark, off Born in the USA; that's maybe the famous chart fact about that album, but those were Pop chart figures, not Hot 100s.

[shaq91]

I'm so happy for Taio!! He deserved that #1!!

[HolidayGuy]

Yes- "Dancing in the Dark" just missed thetop spot on the Hot 100. Again, I don't think the Boss is troubled too much by it.

Gaga's run at mainstream top 40 is fantastic- I mean, look how long it took one of the format's most successful acts in the last 11 years, Britney Spears, to score five.

[Tea-why]

Mar 10, 2010 19:33:23 GMT -5 kingofpain said:

I'm not sure if it's sometimes the labels fault as well.. I felt "Paparazzi" could have had a higher peak than #6 had they not released it so soon after "Love Game" (which was still being promoted at radio), and then "Bad Romance" came out while "Paparazzi" was still being promoted, and now "Telephone" has been out for some time too.

It's like her label doesn't know how to market her singles properly - but apparently they don't care about chart positions. They should have held Telephone off until Bad Romance was on the decline, and then released it digitally after a few weeks of airplay. The single has been selling for several months now, I hardly think a video debut will make people who don't already have the single run out and buy it. Again, when the airplay for this peaks, the sales won't match.

It seems like her label was trying to get her singles in the US to catch up with most of the international markets so by the time "Bad Romance" was released, they could release that single everywhere at the same time, which they did. That's why "Paparazzi" was released while "Love Game" was still doing well at radio and "Bad Romance" while "Paparazzi" was. Because in Canada for example, "Paparazzi" (which was released here in June, as opposed to September in the States) was already fizzling by the time "Bad Romance" came out since, like all of her singles from "The Fame", it was released here before it was in the US, so they were all spaced out and "Bad Romance" came at the right time to release another single and not too early. I hope that makes sense lol.

[ΣGØ.©[/IMG]]

Mar 10, 2010 21:32:00 GMT -5 Tanisha Thomas. said:

^ Too desperate.

Pretty sure Street date Violation would appreciate those personal attacks...anyways

While we wait for the Hot100.....let's take this time out to vote for EGO for Poster of The Week (check the link in my signature)