With 52.57% of the reports in, Carrie Underwood is blowing away the competition at number 1. Idol’s Season 4 winner is expected to cruise to an easy victory with this album and top both the Country and BB200 charts. “Blown Away” is Carrie’s 4th studio album and the debut single is having success on both Country and Mainstream charts.
Carrie’s biggest challenge is from the ever-popular NOW franchise, NOW 42. These compilation albums of hits or hopefully soon to be hits are released every few months with the labels cooperatively working together to rake in the dough. NOW 42 features tracks by Idol’s Kelly Clarkson and X-Factor’s One Direction.
It would be rare to discuss the top 3 in the last year and not mention Adele, so Adele is currently in third.
Then, we have a whack of Country albums. Lionel Richie’s Country duet album is at 4th, Luke Bryan is 5th, Kip Moore is at 6th, Lee Brice at 8th and Eric Church at 10th. That makes 6 Country albums in the top 10. Looks like Country has put on its boots and is taking names.
Besides Adele and NOW, non-Country artists in the top 10 are One Direction (yep, there are two albums with the same name in the top 10…although it happens more often that repeat titles are used for songs, it does happen for albums as well. Both Kip and 1D have songs racing up their respective charts and consumers are smart enough to figure it all out) and Norah Jones.
The only other solo Idol on the chart this week is Kelly Clarkson. Her album “Stronger” is at 36th. She also appears on Jason Aldean’s album “My Kinda Party” at 12th. Other blog notable albums are Voice judge Blake Shelton’s album at 20th and the “Smash” cast album at 34th.
CHART DATE: 05/07/2012
LAST UPDATE: 05/07/2012 11:27:41
NOW IN: 52.57%
LW TW artist / album label power index
— 1 CARRIE UNDERWOOD BLOWN AWAY 60,647
— 2 NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL MUSIC 42 VARIOUS ARTISTS 51,184
2 3 ADELE 21 30,436
3 4 LIONEL RICHIE TUSKEGEE 26,561
12 5 LUKE BRYAN TAILGATES & TANLINES 15,047
6 6 KIP MOORE UP ALL NIGHT 14,064
4 7 ONE DIRECTION UP ALL NIGHT 12,928
5 8 LEE BRICE HARD 2 LOVE 11,928
— 9 NORAH JONES LITTLE BROKEN HEARTS 10,418
17 10 ERIC CHURCH CHIEF 9,865
…
27 12 JASON ALDEAN MY KINDA PARTY 8,554
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19 20 BLAKE SHELTON RED RIVER BLUE 4,756
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— 34 SMASH CAST MUSIC OF SMASH 3,103
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41 36 KELLY CLARKSON STRONGER 3,008
…
35 50 KATY PERRY TEENAGE DREAM 1,680