Blogcritics The critical lens on today's culture & entertainment
I got ripped a bit last week for suggesting Michael Jackson's sales tsunami was coming to a close. Maybe I was a week too quick on that particular draw. Anyone want to argue with me this week? From the lone perspective of the iTunes Music Store — which is, after all, the chart we're discussing here — Michael Jackson is becoming an afterthought of music buyers. I'm not celebrating or bemoaning it, merely observing it. Actually, as I look at some of the songs on the singles chart this week I wish we could get a couple MJ cuts back on the list.
The Black Eyed Peas are once again in the top spot and again hold two songs in the Top 5. We're twice afflicted with Disney Channel contrivances as Demi Lovato joins Miley "Hannah Montana" Cyrus in the this week's Top 10 singles. Kings of Leon had been selling a lot of albums but hadn't made a big impact on the singles chart. This week that changes as they place "Use Somebody" in the Top 10. Lady GaGa had fallen out of the Top 10 but returns, barely, with "LoveGame."
One of these weeks, when I'm having a good blood pressure week, I'm going to have to actually listen to an entire Top 10 so I can comment more directly. It's not that I don't see the limitations of this approach. It's that I have a wife and two cats to support and the doctor is on me to drop a few pounds. Until that happens, I'll have to stick with animus absentia.
Singles:
1. "I Gotta Feeling," Black Eyed Peas
2. "Fire Burning," Sean Kingston
3. "You Belong With Me," Taylor Swift
4. "Boom Boom Pow," Black Eyed Peas
5. "Best I Ever Had," Drake
6. "Good Girlks Go Bad (feat, Leighton Meester)," Cobra Starship
7. "He Could Be the One," Hannah Montana
8. "Here We Go Again," Demi Lovato
9. "Use Somebody," Kings of Leon
10. "LoveGame," Lady GaGa
Michael Jackson's lone chart presence this week is #4 with his Essential retrospective. The only story bigger than Michael's decline in the charts is the debut of Owl City's Ocean Eyes. The album doesn't actually release until next week, so this is a #2 pre-order debut.
Former American Idol contestant Chris Daughtry debuts at #1 with his second album, the followup to his self-titled release. He seems an amiable enough guy, not nearly as offputting as Nickelback's legally retarded hodgepodge of misogyny and social consciousness for dummies, but he's pretty bland. On the other end of that spectrum is the mighty Jack White, whose 19th sideproject, The Dead Weather, is in the charts at #3 this week. I've listened to it a couple times and I'm not sure what I make of it but the inimitable El Bicho has weighed in on it.
Maxwell has stayed in the Top 10 as have the Black Eyed Peas. The soundtrack to Harry Potter and His Special New Feeling is still in the Top 10 as well. I kid, I kid. I actually quite like the Harry Potter books and movies, just not enough to collect all the soundtracks.
Albums:
1. Leave This Town – Daughtry
2. Ocean Eyes – Owl City
3. Horehound – The Dead Weather
4. The Essential Michael Jackson – Michael Jackson
5. The E.N.D. (The Energy Never Dies) – Black Eyed Peas|
6. High Hopes & Heartbreak – Brooke White
7. BLACKsummers'night – Maxwell
8. Only By the Night – Kings of Leon
9. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) – Nicholas Hooper
10. Signature – Joe
