Thursday, January 20, 2011

Britney Debuts at #1, Cake Sets New Low

As expected, Britney Spears' new single "Hold It Against Me" bowed atop the Billboard Hot 100 with a huge first week sales of 411K but on the other hand Billboard 200 saw another new low as alternative band Cake debuted at #1 with just 44k.

"Hold It Against Me" is the 18th song to debut at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and Britney's second song to do it (the first one was "3" back in 2009). She is also the second artist to have multiple songs debut at #1 after Mariah Carey which had 3 songs that bowed atop the Hot 100 ( "Fantasy" in September 1995, "One Sweet Day" with Boyz II Men in December 1995, and "Honey" in September 1997). With a massive first week sales of 411K, Britney Spears surpasses Taylor Swift's "Today Was A Fairytale" for the biggest debut-week digital sales of a female artist. The Swift track sold 325K last year. "Hold It Against Me" is the fourth biggest first week sales tally overall trailing behind Flo Rida's "Right Round" (636K in February 2009), Black Eyed Peas' "Boom Boom Pow" (465K) and Eminem's "Crack A Bottle" (418K in February 2009). "Hold It Against Me" also had terrific start on airplay as it accumulated 45 million audience impressions that boosted song to debut at #23 on the Radio Songs chart that tracks airplay.

Two other new songs made waves on the chart Avril Lavigne's "What The Hell" which sold 163K this week, debuting at #6 on the Hot Digital Songs chart and #13 on the Billboard Hot 100. This is Avril Lavingne's first top 20 hit since 'Girlfriend" topped the Hot 100 four year ago.

Meanwhile "H.A.M." by Jay-Z and Kanye West debuts at #10 on the Hot Digital Songs chart selling 125K. The track also debuts at #23 on the Hot 100.

Here is this week's Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 courtesy of Yahoo! Chart Watch (full chart to be posted tomorrow):
  1. "Hold It Against Me" - Britney Spears
  2. "Grenade" - Bruno Mars
  3. "Firework" - Katy Perry feat Drake
  4. "What's My Name" - Rihanna
  5. "Black and Yellow" - Whiz Khalifa
  6. "Tonight (I'm Lovin' You)" - Enrique Iglesias feat Ludacris
  7. "We R Who We R" - Ke$ha
  8. "Raise Your Glass - Pink
  9. "The Time (Dirty Bit) - Black Eyed Peas
  10. "Just The Way You Are" - Bruno Mars
Here's the top 10 on the Hot Digital Songs Chart as posted at Yahoo! Chart Watch (the sales figure for the #8 song was not mentioned though)
  1. Britney Spears' "Hold It Against Me" (411K)
  2. Bruno Mars' "Grenade" (219K)
  3. Wiz Khalifa's "Black And Yellow" (190K)
  4. Katy Perry's "Firework" (184K)
  5. Enrique Iglesias featuring Ludacris & DJ Frank E's "Tonight (I'm F*ckin/Lovin' You)" (182K)
  6. Avril Lavigne "What The Hell" (163K)
  7. The Black Eyed Peas' "The Time (Dirty Bit)" (157K)
  8. Lil Wayne "6 foot 7 Foot"
  9. Ke$ha's "We R Who We R" (141K)
  10. Jay-Z and Kanye West "H.A.M" (125k)

***

Cake beats a record that was only set last week as its newest album "Showroom of Compassion" only sold 44k to debut atop the Billboard 200 albums chart, the lowest sum for a #1 album since Nielsen Soundscan started tracking sales in 1991. The previous record was set by Taylor Swift when "Speak Now" sold 52k just a week ago. Like what I said last week, having the lowest sum for #1 album is not really a taint to the artist who had it but its just a reflection on the dwindling album sales marlket. Alternative band Cake had been on the scene since the 90s but they never really had a mainstream hit but have a devoted fan base. "Showroom of Compassion" is actually the band's first top 10 album, their previous best was in 2001 when "Comfort Eagle" debuted and peaked at #13 but with much better sales of 72K but then again that was 10 years ago during the time album sales were on its peak.

Cage The Elephant second album "Thank You, Happy Birthday" debuts at #2 with first week sales of 39K. Their eponymous debut album entered the Hot 100 at #117 in May 2009 and actually reached a new peak this week at #59 fueled by the release of their new album. Paul Grein of Yahoo! Chart Watch notes that Cage The Elephant's debut album has sold 405K to date which is impressive for an album that never sold more than 12K in a week for its entire run which just shows how longevity matters.

Here is this week's Top 25 on the Billboard 200 first posted at Pulse Music Board:


1 CAKE SHOWROOM OF COMPASSION 44,333 999 179 44,517
2 CAGE THE ELEPHANT THANK YOU HAPPY BIRTHDAY 38,592 999 162 38,856
3 SWIFT*TAYLOR SPEAK NOW 35,381 -32 52,028 3,047,740
4 MARS*BRUNO DOO - WOPS & HOOLIGANS 32,409 -15 38,175 528,346
5 MINAJ*NICKI PINK FRIDAY 31,939 -17 38,642 922,422
6 VARIOUS ARTISTS COUNTRY STRONG (ORIGINAL MOTIO 28,606 1 28,450 100,005
7 STEEL MAGNOLIA STEEL MAGNOLIA 28,313 999 25 28,346
8 RIHANNA LOUD 28,096 -16 33,387 813,380
9 MUMFORD & SONS SIGH NO MORE 25,928 -16 31,005 683,398
10 WEST*KANYE MY BEAUTIFUL DARK TWISTED FANT 25,249 -24 33,240 940,640
11 ALDEAN*JASON MY KINDA PARTY 25,209 -14 29,362 741,848
12 BLACK KEYS BROTHERS 24,111 -3 24,957 530,105
13 PERRY*KATY TEENAGE DREAM 22,855 -18 28,028 1,047,435
14 EMINEM RECOVERY 21,376 -36 33,417 3,469,720
15 LECRAE REHAB: THE OVERDOSE 20,942 999 487 17,391
16 KID ROCK BORN FREE 18,478 -15 21,731 680,301
17 KELLY*R. LOVE LETTER 18,366 -28 25,612 329,493
18 SOUNDTRACK TRON LEGACY 18,291 -47 34,333 295,525
19 P!NK GREATEST HITS SO FAR 17,971 -5 18,832 321,071
20 GLEE CAST GLEE: THE MUSIC, V4 17,608 2 17,284 440,494
21 FOXX*JAMIE BEST NIGHT OF MY LIFE 16,792 -26 22,588 218,907
22 BLACK EYED PEAS THE BEGINNING 16,438 -27 22,652 426,112
23 VARIOUS COUNTRY STRONG (MORE MUSIC FRM 15,289 64 9,350 25,926
24 T.I. NO MERCY 14,785 -23 19,318 367,386
25 LADY ANTEBELLUM NEED YOU NOW 14,632 -25 19,465 3,123,400


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