With 50.65% of reports in, we have a new leader on the top of the chart. Not because “Frozen” is selling any less (because it’s not – it remains as strong as ever), but because the new albums just have more juice. This is actually a pretty good album sales week with four albums predicted to sell in the 100K or more range. I like nice numbers. There are lots of debuts in the top 10 indicating that the music market is thawing.
The chart topper this week should be ScHoolboy Q. Yes, the “H” is supposed to be capitalized and you would be right if you guessed from the name that he is a rapper. “Oxymoron” is his major label debut and he will be debuting at the top of the chart. I wonder if he has a stronger grasp on what an “Oxymoron” is than Alanis had on the concept of “Irony”. Debuting right behind him is Kid Cudi who is hip-hop artist and actor. “Satellite Flight: The Journey to Mother Moon” (besides not making any sense as a title because satellites orbit things, they don’t journey to other satellites unless the plan is for this satellite to orbit the moon or maybe it is a flight to the satellite and that satellite is the moon. IDK. I guess I have to listen to the album, but I sense it still won’t make sense) is his fourth studio album. It is another one of those “surprise” releases and was only available on iTunes last week.
Romeo Santos is debuting in third and expected to stay there. His genre is listed on wiki as Bachata. Wiki goes on to tell me that it is an Afro Latin genre that originated in the Dominican Republic. The name and genre sound fun. He’s been releasing albums since 1995 as part of a band, but released his first solo album in 2011. If his predicted numbers hold, it will be his best sales week ever and he will have the best selling Latin album since 2006.
Country artist Dierks Bentley is 4th, Frozen (the highest album not debuting) is 5th, Beck (who was the musical guest on SNL) is debuting 6th, Eric Church (number one two weeks ago) is 7th, The Fray (they have a new album?) is debuting in 8th, Now 49 (featuring One Direction and Simone Battle) is 9th and Beyonce rounds out the top 10.
The top reality singing show contestant is Candice Glover in her second week. We’ll see if her Idol performance lessened her second week drop, but she is currently at 29th. Right behind her is X-Factors One Direction at 30th.
CHART DATE: 03/03/2014
LAST UPDATE: 03/03/2014 14:12:54
NOW IN: 50.65%
LW TW artist / album label sales index
— 1 SCHOOLBOY Q OXYMORON 99,705
— 2 KID CUDI SATELLITE FLIGHT: THE JOURNEY TO 78,550
— 3 ROMEO SANTOS FORMULA, VOL. 2 65,717
— 4 DIERKS BENTLEY RISER 53,141
1 5 FROZEN SOUNDTRACK 50,635
— 6 BECK MORNING PHASE 49,055
2 7 ERIC CHURCH THE OUTSIDERS 30,619
— 8 THE FRAY HELIOS 27,562
4 9 NOW 49 VARIOUS ARTISTS 23,342
5 10 BEYONCE BEYONCE 23,224
…
24 29 ONE DIRECTION MIDNIGHT MEMORIES 5,152
11 30 CANDICE GLOVER MUSIC SPEAKS 4,406
..
27 50 R. KELLY [“UGH!!!!”] 2,278
