Thursday, June 09, 2005
New Segment: Billboard Chart Analysis
Here at the Factor we love twisting numbers in order to make points that agree with our positions.
So in this new weekly segment we will be analyzing the weekly Billboard charts.
In the first installment of this new segment we will be picking on the come-back diva, Mariah Carey. Mariah fans everywhere including Vwayner.com are delighted Mariah has managed this rare feat yet again: capturing the #1 in album sales and the Billboard Hot 100 singles in the same week. As Vwayner of Vwayner.com points out, the last time Mariah had both #1s in the same week was January 1996, with "DayDream" and "One Sweet Day". Believe it or not, that's nine years ago!
It is not uncommon for pop stars to get the #1 in the singles charts, however getting the #1 in the albums chart is not easy especially right after the initial release of the album and before it builds up a portfolio of "hit singles". Not only that but this CD has sold 172,000 units this week - a very healthy number indeed!
But here at the Factor we like to play devil's advocate: Conspiracy theorists will tell you this was an organized plan by Mariah fans to push the diva (now with a smaller booty since the embarassing "Loverboy" video), to the #1 spot of both charts since there wasn't a big album release this week. In other words, this was the best week to try and pull this. And they were successful!
The Factor would also like to congratulate Audioslave (not that they are reading this), for selling more than a quarter million CDs and becoming the #1 album in the previous album chart. As it is typical with metal bands, Out of Exile drops 62% to 99,000 units (I was one of them - or maybe it counts for this week; not sure how they count Amazon sales!).
The closest competitor to Mariah this week was System of a Down, but 60,000 Cds away. Mariah fan extraordinaire Vwayner.com would say: Not even close. Rumor has it that each System of a Down CD includes a piece of hair from the beards of band members ;-)
Quickies
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Other notable moves was the non-move by DMB at #7 with 76,000 (I wasn't one of them).
50cent made more than 50 cents this week when his album sold 75,000.
Oasis made a mini-comeback at #12, with 65,000 units (how many of those did the Gallagher brothers buy?). If you are a die-hard Oasis fan go out and buy a few more copies of the 1997 CD "Be Here now". It's just 9,000 CDs short of becoming platinum.
They may be Better than Ezra, but there are 83 albums better than them ;-)
So in this new weekly segment we will be analyzing the weekly Billboard charts.
In the first installment of this new segment we will be picking on the come-back diva, Mariah Carey. Mariah fans everywhere including Vwayner.com are delighted Mariah has managed this rare feat yet again: capturing the #1 in album sales and the Billboard Hot 100 singles in the same week. As Vwayner of Vwayner.com points out, the last time Mariah had both #1s in the same week was January 1996, with "DayDream" and "One Sweet Day". Believe it or not, that's nine years ago!
It is not uncommon for pop stars to get the #1 in the singles charts, however getting the #1 in the albums chart is not easy especially right after the initial release of the album and before it builds up a portfolio of "hit singles". Not only that but this CD has sold 172,000 units this week - a very healthy number indeed!
But here at the Factor we like to play devil's advocate: Conspiracy theorists will tell you this was an organized plan by Mariah fans to push the diva (now with a smaller booty since the embarassing "Loverboy" video), to the #1 spot of both charts since there wasn't a big album release this week. In other words, this was the best week to try and pull this. And they were successful!
The Factor would also like to congratulate Audioslave (not that they are reading this), for selling more than a quarter million CDs and becoming the #1 album in the previous album chart. As it is typical with metal bands, Out of Exile drops 62% to 99,000 units (I was one of them - or maybe it counts for this week; not sure how they count Amazon sales!).
The closest competitor to Mariah this week was System of a Down, but 60,000 Cds away. Mariah fan extraordinaire Vwayner.com would say: Not even close. Rumor has it that each System of a Down CD includes a piece of hair from the beards of band members ;-)
Quickies
========
