Rolling 2006 US Charts Thread

So what do folks think - Taylor Hicks #1 next week? HITS says he'll sell 150K singles based on first day, but I don't think that includes online... can he top Shakira with virtually no airplay? And wouldn't he have to sell at least 200K to do it?

(Then 2 weeks later there's McPhee's single, but I think she's more likely top 5 than #1.)

BOOM! is also the sound that is made by Gnarls Barkley and Rascal Flatts, as 'Crazy' and 'Life Is A Highway' make their first incursions upon the top 10 at 6 and 7 respectively.

Elsewhere: 'It Is Not The Case That There Is Any Other Man' climbs to #13 in its second week, as Pants! At The Disco make the top 20 for the first time at #19. Beyonce and Jay-Z debut at #44 with 'Deja Vu', E-40's 'U and Dat' and Brad Paisley's 'The World' say hello to the top 50 a bit below that.

Blimey, but Taylor Hicks is a slightly scary lookin' dude. Who bears a weird resemblance to Billboard's Chart Beat column man. Hmm.

Is it wrong of me to be a bit confused by this?

Huh.

http://www.chartattack.com/pics/2006/05/25-taylor.jpg http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/images/pic_interact_1.jpg

Incidentally, it's being changed to 'I Love My Chick' for its UK release, meaning if Buckcherry were to do the same thing, then people would think they were covering Charlotte Church. This would lead to a few surprised faces, possibly.

So Outkast's "Mighty 'O'" loses its bullet and slides 30-32 on the R&B singles chart, not a good sign. But at least "Crazy" made it far higher than I expected.

Does Shakira return to #1 next week, or is an AI runner-up single coming out?

'Cause that's how Busta's label (Aftermath, interestingly) wussed out and released it. The radio/video version is actually titled "I Love My Chick." Alternately known as "Big pussy song that blows, frankly, and wastes Kelis."

Katherine McPhee's single comes out next week, which means we have a one-week interim. (Though I still don't think hers is a sure-shot #1 - top 5, yes, but as for the top, we'll see.) Considering "Hips Don't Lie" lost its bullet - both airplay and, crucially, sales, are dropping - I think Furtado could slip in there, and since she's just gaining strength, then return in 3 weeks' time, post-McPhee. But watch for Christina and Beyoncé, whose contenders for "summer jam '06" could rise real fast. ("Deja Vu," in fact, is already up to #12 at R&B.)

So Outkast's "Mighty 'O'" loses its bullet and slides 30-32 on the R&B singles chart, not a good sign.
Remember, this is basically on R&B radio as a leak - I think it was just officially serviced a week or so ago. Once there's a video, and once there's a digital download, expect it to do better. (Assuming it's any good; I've not heard it yet.) We're still 2 months off from any attendant hysteria/press over the Idlewild movie/soundtrack, too.

As for the Panic! at the Disco single, if you heard "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" (the current video), you're not hallucinating; it's pretty damned great. If you heard "The Only Difference Between Suicide...," well, it's good but maybe not great.

Not to say that I don't watch it whnever it's on TV, though.

"Pretty good"? Really? How do you get around the terribleness?

This is praise, of a sort.

http://www.milliganbooks.com/images/bigmama.gif

Indeed it is--anything that confuses and fascinates me enough to make me always watch to the end must be doing something right (or something so wrong that the difference is fairly negligible). I call it the Carrot Top factor.

Still, it's these mildly positive reactions to IWSNT that I find so bizarre. Nobody says "Hey, I saw Gigli yesterday, pretty good movie." If for some reason someone was to find artistic merit in Gigli, they'd say something like "wow, Gigli, what a glorious trainwreck of a movie" or at least "wow, Gigli, I'm shocked to say, but I actually really liked that movie." These "Panic = pretty good" comments somehow manage to exist in a world where there is no unspoken base assumption that IWSNT is going to be awful. And that I can't comprehend.

Still, I suppoose it's better to listen to music for the first time with a sense of poise and rationality.

Seriously, watch the videos for "Helena" and IWSNT back to back and witness wit, style and pathos be transformed ever so subtly into immaturity, garishness and camp.

Ha, so the funny thing is, the easiest way to hear a pop song these days without downloading anything is just by going to YouTube and watching the video. So that's how I've been listening to IWSNT -- except I'm at work, so I've not actually been watching the video, just minimizing the window and keeping my headphones on. Also, the few glimpses I've seen do look pretty stupid.

uh, maybe I'm biased because of I have a cable system with MTV Hits and all those other all-video channels, but seriously, what the fuck is wrong with that sentence, nevermind the matter of listening to the radio.

for a few confused seconds I thought you were saying that "Over & Over" had jumped back up the charts a year later.

Both were 2004, actually.

All three of these songs are brilliant! (and Lumidee is 2003) What's this talk about empty vacuums?

Pussycat Dolls score their fourth Top 20 hit from their debut, which I'm not sure anyone has done since Exposé (any chart fiends want to weigh in on this?).

Wanksta, In Da Club, 21 Questions, P.I.M.P.

Al's also right about Cassie being the odd woman out in that trio. To me, "Me & U" sounds more like Teairra Mari's "Make Her Feel Good" or the original Tori Alamaze version of "Don' Cha."

Nope. No word yet on a digital release date. She's already top 10, however, at R&B (up 12-9).