Rolling 2006 US Charts Thread

"Welcome To The Black Parade" takes a 56-13 jump, while "Irreplacable" rises 63 spots to number 24. And who the hell is Hannah Montana who debuted 7 songs (the Beatles were minor leagers) on the charts? I have a feeling Xhuxh/Kogan can answer that.

Considering that tykes and tweens are one of the only demos whose tendency to buy albums is unlikely to be diminished by filesharing/bootlegging/blogs, yeah, probably.

Which leads to my wondering about an artist like him and just how much he makes if, say, the core audience of 10 to 30 year olds just purchase his four hit singles from Itunes, etc. Can he make a career out of that? I mean, I would think 4 top 15 tunes in decades past would have album sales in the multi-platinum range and a situation where an artist could potentially live off of the success of one major album (see, say Hootie and the Blowfish or Alanis Morissette). Basically, will Chris Brown be able to start planning for his retirement at the age of 17 or whatever? Cause I think if this was 1996 he would be able to but in 2006 he's sold fewer than 2 million albums and I wanna know if the Itunes sales are gonna take care of him.

But I think the point of my question was missed by focusing on Chris Brown. The real question, I guess, is what does it mean to be a superstar in the era of downloads? Cause album sales clearly aren't a good indication of popularity, but can an artist make a "superstar's living" off of download success. I mean Nelly Furtado had a #1 for six straight weeks and has only gone gold. Fergie hasn't even gone gold yet. So album sales won't make you a monetary superstar anymore, so will musicians just make less money overall or is the money made from downloads commensurate?

Part of what lead to think about this stuff is that interview with Timbaland that was going around a couple months ago (I can't even remember where it was from) where he said he used to make up to $300,000 per track and he'd make a few tracks per week back when the music business was doing well in the late 90's, but that he can't charge nearly that now. So I guess less money is to be made in music, but I wonder just how much less given that the industry has now embraced paid downloads.

I think there's a big misunderstood distortion between artists who top the singles charts and artists who top the album charts, and it was there long before iTunes entered the picture. For every superstar who tops both charts, there's a ton who either have a #1 song but can barely get a plaque for their album, or sell millions without ever cracking the top 40. There are a lot of variables that depend on the genre and other factors, but there are also some pretty dependable patterns (i.e. it's a lot easier to sell an album with 2 or 3 hits than with 1, and artists may have dedicated fanbases who give them big numbers the first week, but they'll slip right off the charts in a month if there's no radio hit to keep momentum going). As for how much money is made off of album sales or download sales and how many units equal a "superstar's living," that kind of number crunching is way too involved for me to pretend I could predict or understand.

re: the Timbaland thing, a lot of hip hop producers went and priced themselves out of the game, to the point that only the top tier of artists can afford them. I think that's a big part of why a lot of producers are following Dre's lead and starting labels and/or taking artists under their wing, so they can make tracks without charging huge amounts per song because they'll be getting a big percentage of the profit on the back end (except, of course, Beat Club was an utter failure so Tim's sticking with pop singers that can afford his beats more easily than rookie rappers).

Doesn't have anything as funny as "face looks like you did a hundred-yard dash in a ninety-yard gym" or "get off, like a wedding gown." But it's a good song.

But at least Hinder got an entertaining review from AMG's Johnny Loftus (love the closing line):

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:llud6j6471l0

Released in September 2005, Hinder's Extreme Behavior revives the simpleton riffs and stupid misogyny of 2001 albums from Puddle of Mudd and Nickelback for a whole new batch of undergrads. This isn't even post-grunge -- it's straight-up dude rock. The artwork is a triggered response collage of boobs, lingerie, and Jäger, and the music is so obvious that it actually recedes from the ear. Like a stereo left on in the keg room, it's just a chatter of swear words and tuneless electric guitar blab. Austin Winkler sounds like a drunk shouting along with Chad Kroeger, and his lyrics? "Let's go home and get stoned/Cause the sex is so much better when you're mad," "She said she's sorry/With one finger/I said fuck that," "She said she loved the taste of my oh oh oh" -- Winkler doesn't even have enough class to fake sounding cool. When Hinder and producer Brian Howes (he co-wrote every song with the band; Nickelback producer Joey Moi also gets a credit) do try a little tenderness, they sound like a bludgeoned Wallflowers ("Nothin' Good About Goodbye"), thudding power ballad torchbearers ("Lips of an Angel"; cue the soaring solo stolen from hair metal), or bumbling Guns N' Roses thieves (the played-out "Sweet Child" rewrite "Homecoming Queen"). Extreme Behavior can't even make it as rote hard rock -- it's too insulting to women and your intelligence. That's why it's dude rock instead. Hinder are so egregiously dull they appeal not to fans of music, but fans of high fives.

What a weird band to be so popular at this point in time

All-American Rejected rise 18-11, "Before He Cheats" 25-16, Akon & Snoop doing teh Phil Collins crunk 20-17, "BAAALLLIN!" 29-19, Keith Urban 53-31, Sugarland 42-32, Brad Paisley 54-35, Gwen Stefani's "A Very Special Tribute to Goat Sex" 40-36.

Ciara places "Promise" at #45. Pussycat Dolls, Nelly Furtado, Lloyd, Bowling For fucking Soup, & Alejandro Sanz also debut.

Below, below: 'We Fly High' climbs to 16, 'Walk It Out' to 18. 'Waiting On The World To Change' has its habitual bit of inconsequential climbing - #22 from #27, if you're counting. Of larger consequence: 'Wind It Up' is up eleven to 25, 'Money In The Bank' is 29 from 37, Paula DeAnda's 'My Second Single Ever' is 30 from 43, 'Promise' is 34 from 45, and there's initial peeps into 50-land for KT Tunstall's 'Suddenly I See' (45 from 52 after nineteen weeks on), Fat Joe & Lil Wayne's 'Make It Rain' (47 from 55), and Cherish's 'Unappreciated' (50 from 57). Oh, and you know how the lead single off The Game's album was apparently 'It's Okay'? Apparently not - 'Let's Ride' shoots straight in at #46.

HOW the FUCK did Incubus's new album get to number one on the Billboard charts a couple weeks ago?? Seriously, how did this happen?? Did Sandbox ILM ever have a thread about this?? This is just insane!!

Incubus?? Fucking INCUBUS?!?!? All I know about Incubus is they had that one hit "Drive" LIKE TEN FUCKING YEARS AGO!!!! And then all of a sudden they release the number one album in the country???? Zuh???

Not that this explains why the fuck Incubus was number one, but I'm just sayin'

Totally forgot that this was once a rolling thread. Would love to resurrect it.

Funny how chart knowledge in 2006 was treated as this "wow, you're a real nerd" when like anyone now can just google "just timberlake discography."

i do find it charming that ilm used to do this (long before i came here)