Tag: Billboard

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Katy Perry on cusp of Billboard history

With current smash single, Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.) about to secure the top spot on Billboard’s pop chart, Katy Perry will become the first artist in 15 years to have five singles on the Adult Top 40.

The data, according to the Nielsen BDS-based pop radio-airplay ranking, makes the singer’s sophomore album Teenage Dream a certified historic accomplishment, tying her with the late Michael Jackson’s record of five singles from his 1987 release, Bad.

Perry’s impending milestone also one-betters previous record-holders Justin Timberlake and Lady Gaga, who were tied with four No. 1 singles on the Adult Top 40, with FutureSex/LoveSounds and The Fame respectively.

The 26-year-old, Grammy-nominated singer has generated many attention-grabbing headlines in her personal life as well, including her marriage to celebrity comedian, Russell Brand, in a traditional Hindu ceremony in Rajasthan, India last October.

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Musique

Michael Jackson the king of video?

The late King of Pop has just been named the King of Video, according to a poll conducted by Billboard readers, reports Music-News.com.

To celebrate 30 years of the world famous music video channel, Billboard asked its readers to pick their ten favorite videos from each decade that MTV has been broadcasting.

For the eighties (1981-1991), Michael Jackson took the lead with one of the most ambitious and avant-garde videos at the time, Thriller. This cinematic, 14-minute long video marked a major turning point in the approach to shooting music videos, and led the way for hosts of artists after him to create mini, filmic masterpieces.

In the nineties, (1991-2001), Jackson’s high-energy, stark video for Scream – a duet with sister Janet – was the landslide favorite, while his You Rock My World reigned during the years 2001-2011.

Other notables on the list included Janet Jackson, Britney Spears, Eminem, Madonna and Missy Elliott – each having two videos named as reader’s picks.

MTV launched on August 1, 1981, changing the landscape of television and popular culture with its debut music video broadcast, Video Killed The Radio Star by Buggles.

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Musique

Rihanna an early favorite for Billboard Music Awards

Barbadian R&B artist Rihanna is sitting pretty with a whopping 18 nominations for the 2011 Billboard Music Awards in May, more than any other artist, reports Teen Music.

Eminem follows closely with 16 nominations; their Rihanna-Eminem collaboration, Love the Way You Lie, gave them both a boost, with a showing in six different categories.

Lady Gaga trails in third, a finalist in 12 categories, while Bruno Mars and Justin Bieber each scored 11 nominations.

Unlike traditional awards shows that rely on a panel of judges to select winners, the Billboard Music Awards are based on chart position from February 28, 2010 to March 1, 2011. After a four-year hiatus, the awards show returns with a live broadcast on ABC. 

As well as tracking album, single and digital sales, Billboard rankings also take into account other factors like social networking presence, touring success, radio play and online streaming.

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Musique

Glee breaks Elvis Presley’s record

Musical-comedy television show Glee breaks a 52-year record this week, toppling Elvis Presley’s record for having the most songs on the Billboard Hot 100.

With six new songs hitting the chart tomorrow (February 18), Glee will have 113 songs in the top 100 since the show’s debut in May 2009. This trumps Presley’s previous record of 108 chart entries, which he earned between 1958 and 2003.

Executives at 20th Century Fox and Columbia Records have capitalized on the instant nature of digital downloads, allowing the Glee singers to fast-track their way through the charts as each new episode’s broadcast is quickly followed with several matching digital tracks.

Thanks to technology, Glee managed this impressive accomplishment in record time – the show debuted less than two years ago – while Elvis amassed his hits over a 45-year time period.

With a total of nine songs on the chart, this week marks the most successful for the members of the fictional glee club, surpassing the eight songs they charted the week of December 18, 2010.

The first Glee song to hit the charts remains its most successful. Their cover of Journey’s classic Don’t Stop Believin’ climbed to number four on June 6, 2009 following the show’s premiere.

 

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Musique

Fans ‘Gaga’ over record-breaking single

In less than a week, theatrical performer Lady Gaga breaks a 10-year record held by Janet Jackson for most-played radio debut of her new single Born This Way, as well as Britney Spears record for highest debuting female artist – Gaga fans have already downloaded 448,000 copies.

"It is a tremendous honor. To be the 1,000th number one on Billboard… I would be silly not to say this is the greatest honor of my career," said Gaga in an interview with Billboard. "I couldn’t be more blessed to have the fans that I have."

The track, the first official single off of Gaga’s album of the same name, was released last Friday (February 11). Later that same weekend, Gaga performed the song live at Sunday’s Grammy Award ceremony, after making quite the entrance when she arrived inside a large, semi-transparent egg, carried by several assistants.

The new single has also become the 1,000th song to reach number one on Billboard Hot 100 – the 19th song to do so in the last 52 years.

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Musique

Lady Gaga top money maker says Billboard

Pop star Lady Gaga has landed at the top of Billboard magazine’s recently published list of artists based on 2010 U.S. earnings from touring and music sales. As CD sales continue to fall, notes the magazine, and the industry is in turmoil as it struggles to come up with the best way to market music in this brave new digital world. 

While touring is one of the biggest revenue earners, the magazine makes it clear that the rankings are only based on U.S. earnings – which might explain the absence of U2 from the top ten, among others. Touring income varied greatly, since Bon Jovi, for example earned 90 percent of their income on the road, while Susan Boyle, earned most of her income from music sales and didn’t tour the U.S. last year.

At $30.5 million in estimated U.S. earnings, Lady Gaga almost tied Bon Jovi, who earned $30.4 million. In a surprising third place, Roger Waters, former Pink Floyd frontman, amassed $24.4 million.

In fourth place, the Dave Matthews Band earned $23.9 million, surpassing the $22.4 million banked by the first Canadian in the group, Justin Bieber. Another Canadian, Michael Bublé managed to sneak into the top ten at seventh place with $19.8 million, just a million shy of Taylor Swift’s $20.7 million sixth place position.

Rounding out the top ten, The Eagles are eighth with $18.3 million, Black Eyed Peas in ninth with $16.8 million, and Sir Paul McCartney, earning $14.1 million is in tenth place.

 

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Musique

Slow sales week for Taylor Swift’s number one album

Country singer Taylor Swift has earned the dubious distinction of having one of the lowest-selling records on top of the Billboard music charts.

This past week has been a bad one for the market overall, with the lowest music sales since Nielsen SoundScan first began tracking the data in 1991. Despite making it to number one for the sixth non-consecutive week, Speak Now, Swift’s new album, sold only 52,000 copies.

The previous record low was set by the Dreamgirls soundtrack in January 2007, when it racked up only 60,000 sales despite sitting at the top of the U.S. charts.

Number two on the countdown this week was Pink Friday by Nicki Minaj, which sold only 39,000 copies. Rounding out the top three was Doo-Wops & Hooligans from Bruno Mars, with 38,000 sales.

In the past, Swift’s releases have performed well in sales. Speak Now was released on October 25, 2010, and sold over 1 million copies in its first week – the second-largest sales week for a country album, following Garth Brooks’ Double Live (1998). It was also the biggest sales week for an album from a female recording artist since Britney Spears released Oops! I Did It Again in 2000.

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Musique

Eminem Recovery top-selling album of 2010

Compared to a pre-Internet era without illegal downloads, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for artists to sell their work. Recorded sales figures may be just a shadow of their former amounts, but fortunately, according to Billboard, some albums are still selling millions.

As is the case with Recovery, an album by Eminem, launched last June, which has managed to find 3,415,000 buyers to push it the top of the sales charts in 2010.

The trio Lady Antebellum is in second position having also managed to cross the 3 million mark with 3.089 million copies of Need You Now. Unlike Eminem, the early release in January has allowed them to accumulate this number over a longer period.

The real feat of 2010, however, comes from Taylor Swift who, in just two months, sold 2.96 million copies of Speak Now to capture the third place.

Ever present in top sellers of the year, Justin Bieber takes fourth place with My World 2.0 having sold 2.319 million copies. It would be interesting to know the ratio of female-male buyers for this particular disc.

Launched in November and skyrocketing to fifth place with 1,852,000 copies sold, Susan Boyle’s album The Gift is doing extremely well around the world. Her older fan base is accustomed to paying for music, and therefore much less likely to download music illegally – helping to rapidly propel her album to the top of the sales charts.

 

 

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Musique

Katy Perry’s record-breaking run

If it feels like you can’t turn on the radio without hearing a Katy Perry song, you could be right. The American pop star has become the first female artist in 11 years to have three No. 1 singles from the same album on Billboard’s Hot 100 in the same year.

This week, as her third single Firework from the Grammy-nominated album, Teenage Dream, claims Billboard’s top spot, Perry breaks a decade-old record.

The pop star’s two previous No. 1 singles were California Gurls and Teenage Dream. She also had two hits from her 2008 album, One of the Boys: Kissed a Girl and Hot N Cold.

The last artist to have achieved this feat was Monica with her 1998 album The Boy is Mine with chart-topping hits The First Night, Angel of Mine, and The Boy is Mine, which featured a duet with Brandy.

Another female artist, Rihanna had three top singles in 2010, but one of them, Love The Way You Lie, was a collaboration with Eminem and appears on the rapper’s Recovery album, not hers. In her case, the songs Rude Boy and Only Girl (In The World) were also No. 1 this year, but from two different albums.

 

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Musique

Old-school classic rock nets more money on 2010 tour

Classic rock band Bon Jovi has won the top spot in Billboard’s touring chart for the second time in three years. Grossing $146,507,388 and playing to 1,591,154 fans, the New Jersey group was ranked number one by Billboard for the November 2009-2010 period.

The hard rock performers also won the top spot in 2008 when they amassed a staggering $210,000,00. As 2010 has been a hard year for music promoters, the significantly lower take this year is no surprise to those in the industry.

Following in second place is Irish rock band U2, with AC/DC taking third, making Bon Jovi the youngest act in the top three, with a modest 27 years of performing. U2 formed in Dublin in 1976, while the Australian band AC/DC formed in 1973.

New music finally managed to break into the charts at fourth place with Lady Gaga and the Black Eyed Peas taking fifth. At 24 years old, Lady Gaga was not yet even born when the top three bands first started playing. And even with 15 years of performing together, the Black Eyed Peas are still seen as newcomers compared to the veterans who managed to medal.