Best Selling Albums Since 1991 (Soundscan Era): Adele Joins Elite Club

Best Selling Albums Since 1991 (Soundscan Era): Adele Joins Elite Club

Adele's
"21" joins a rare group of albums this week, as the XL/Columbia set
steps past the 10 million U.S. sales mark according to Nielsen
SoundScan. It becomes one of only 21 titles to reach that rare
threshold since SoundScan started tracking sales in 1991.


"21" ran to 10 million in only its 92nd week of release. The last
set to hit 10 million faster was 'N Sync's "No Strings Attached,"
which hit the number in its 43rd frame in January of 2001.


So, "21" is the 21st album to sell 10 million. And thus, it
becomes the 21st-biggest album of the SoundScan era. Clearly, 21 is a
very lucky number for the pop diva. In a statement released by
Columbia Records, Adele said, "What an incredible honour. A huge,
huge thank you to my American fans for embracing this record on such
a massive level."


"21" debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 dated March 12, 2011
and spent 24 non-consecutive weeks atop the tally -- the most in the
SoundScan era. It hasn't left the chart's top 40 since, earning 80
weeks in the top 10. This week, the set moves 31-35.


Since 1991, the highest selling album -- according to SoundScan
-- is Metallica's self-titled 1991 release, which has moved 15.8
million. Shania Twain's "Come On Over" is in second place with 15.5
million and Alanis Morissette's "Jagged Little Pill" is in third
with 14.8 million.


Below is a list of all the albums have have sold more than 10
million in the U.S. according to SoundScan (and thus, the top
selling albums since 1991).


Albums With 10 Million in U.S. Sales, 1991-Present*


Artist, Title (Year of Release), Sales to Date, Time to 10 Million


1. Metallica, Metallica (1991), 15.83 million, 337 weeks
2. Shania Twain, Come On Over (1997), 15.52 million, 96 weeks
3. Alanis Morissette, Jagged Little Pill (1995), 14.80 million, 66 weeks
4. Backstreet Boys, Millennium (1999), 12.20 million, 39 weeks
5. The Beatles, 1 (2000), 12.11 million, 227 weeks
6. Whitney Houston/Soundtrack, The Bodyguard (1992), 12.05 million, 72 weeks
7. Santana, Supernatural (1999), 11.73 million, 60 weeks
8. Creed, Human Clay (1999), 11.62 million, 93 weeks
9. Bob Marley & the Wailers, Legend (1984), 11.17 million**, 18 years
10. *NSYNC, No Strings Attached (2000), 11.13 million, 43 weeks
11. Norah Jones, Come Away With Me (2002), 10.88 million, 259 weeks
12. Celine Dion, Falling Into You (1996), 10.80 million, 160 weeks
13. Eminem, The Marshall Mathers LP (2000), 10.65 million, 343 weeks
14. Britney Spears, . . . Baby One More Time (1999), 10.57 million, 106 weeks
15. Hootie & the Blowfish, Cracked Rear View (1994), 10.28 million, 442 weeks
16. Soundtrack, Titanic (1997), 10.17 million, 263 weeks
17. Backstreet Boys, Backstreet Boys (1997), 10.13 million, 226 weeks
18. Eminem, The Eminem Show (2002), 10.12 million, 489 weeks
19. Usher, Confessions (2004), 10.04 million, 433 weeks
20. Linkin Park, Hybrid Theory (2000), 10.03 million, 617 weeks
21. Adele, 21 (2011), 10.02 million, 92 weeks


* through the week ending Nov. 25, 2012
** 11.17 million between 1991-present; earlier sales not included

 | Billboard

Adele, Barbra Streisand: Oscars Performers; Divas Rule Academy Awards

via people.com

It was a great night for music at the Academy Awards on Sunday – particularly for the ladies.

But who really knocked it out of the park?

Jennifer Hudson's performance of "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" brought the audience to its feet, while Barbra Streisand delivered a wonderful tribute to Marvin Hamlisch with her rendition of "The Way We Were."
Dame Shirley Bassey wowed the crowd with the James Bond classic "Goldfinger." Then Adele sang "Skyfall," which earned her the Oscar for best song this year.
Closing out the evening was Kristin Chenoweth, who got the better of host Seth MacFarlane in a salute to the evening's losers.

Adele, Barbra and Shirley: Oscars Divas Galore!

"Bassey to the right of them / Streisand to the left / Volley'd and thunder'd/Storm'd at with shot and shell/Boldly they rode and well /Into the jaws of Death."


I paraphrase. But only Tennyson's lines from Charge of the Light Brigade adequately capture the blast force of this photo from the Oscars, and that's before you even get to Adele in the middle.
Just look at Bassey, having the time of her life! How we cheered when she strode on stage like John Wayne and took the auditorium back from the mediocrities who had, for hours and hours, been tormenting us.
And Babs, diva emeritus, reminding us what a real star looks like: back-lit in sequins, swaying slightly to the opening strains of the Way We Were. OK she went too far with the straightening irons and let's not kid ourselves: there has been some augmentation since she told Omar Sharif that people who need people are the luckiest people in the world.
But in a room that also contains Renée Zellweger and the newly Billy Crystalized Jack Nicholson, she looks positively pre-surgical. Besides, the choker, the gold accessories, the finger nails; where it matters, she's still Babs and any wear and tear merely added to the poignancy of her misty water coloured memories. (Would we? Could we? Straw poll in my house: no).
It was one thing to see the three women perform separately in a show that had no other highlights. Bassey was the standout, reaching people in the cheap seats during Goldfinger as if her life depended on it and with no obvious tricks or wobbles (unless, of course, she was powered by a generator tucked discretely in the wings). Babs, at this stage a few degrees shy of Rex Harrison speak-singing, or in her case, whimsical-murmur-singing, hummed out the Way We Were for Marvin Hamlisch in a piece of understatement that reminded me of when Bassey does I Who Have Nothing dressed in diamonds and furs.
And Adele, who only gained from being a real woman in a room full of x-rays, had the youngest vocal cords by some 50 years and shattered the torpor that settled once we'd come down from Babs.
All of which was exciting enough. But to see the three of them pictured together is like that moment in Jurassic Park when Sam Neill, who has spent his life studying these creatures on the page and in fossil form, sees them exhibiting live, group behaviour in the wild. It seems to break some essential law of physics.
And, unlike the rictus on so many faces in the room, the three superstars look as if they're genuinely having fun – like it's diva night at bingo and Bassey just told a rude joke.
The real power of the photo, of course, is one of suggestion. Whisper it: ensemble performance. Streisand-Bassey-Adele, on stage together in Central Park, doing, say, the Jule Styne songbook? Imagine the harmony! Bassey at the baritone end, Adele as soprano and Babs whispering along in the middle?! It would make the Three Tenors look like the Jonas Brothers.
"When can their glory fade? / O the wild charge they made! / All the world wonder'd!"

via guardian.co.uk

Adele wins ‘Best Song’ & Taylor Swift made an ungracious loser-face: LOL?

via celebitchy.com

I know I’m a bitch for doing this, but here goes – a post devoted to the two big contenders for Best Song, Taylor Swift and Adele. I’ll admit that I laughed with pleasure when Adele won for “Skyfall” (because that’s a beautiful song and it’s going to win her an Oscar too), and then I laughed with schadenfreude when the cameras cut to Taylor Swift’s ungracious loser-face. Swifty was actually kind of pissed off that she didn’t win!! Hahaha. Instead, we were gifted with Adele’s magnificence and hilarity – she thought she might win, but she didn’t take the whole ordeal so seriously, you know? She got a high-five from Daniel Craig (and she gave him a shout-out during her speech!) and she just sounded like she was having a great time.
As for Swifty, the night got even worse when after she LOST (and she NEVER loses!!!), Amy and Tina made a joke at her expense. They told her not to go for Michael J. Fox’s son Sam (Sam was Mr. Golden Globe), and Tina was like “No, she needs some Me Time to learn about herself.” As for why they didn’t cut to Swifty at that exact moment – Swifty said it herself in an interview months ago – “They don’t cut to you if you aren’t laughing.” HA.

As for the fashion – Adele wore the same kind of dress she always wears, a black dress with sleeves by Burberry. Her hair looked great, fabulous makeup and everything. She just seemed to be having an excellent night, and even though the look was simple, she shined.

Swifty wore this eggplant Donna Karan Atelier dress… and it was one of my favorite looks of the night, actually. It was a beautiful color on her, and she styled it beautifully. I LOVED her earrings and her hair. My one quibble: I think the fit was slightly off on the bust. It wasn’t as bad as Jessica Chastain or anything, but there seemed to be something “off” around the sides.

Adele's '21' 2012's Best Selling Album; Gotye Has Top Song | Billboard

For the first time since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking music sales in 1991, the same album finishes as the United States' best-seller for a second year. Adele's "21" triumphed in 2011 and ruled again in 2012.

 

The XL/Columbia Records effort finishes 2012 with 4.41 million sold. In 2011, the set moved 5.82 million. Earlier in 2012, it became the 21st album in the SoundScan era to sell 10 million copies.

 

The 2012 sales tracking year began on Jan. 2, 2012 ended on Dec. 30.

 

"21" debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart way back on the list dated March, 21, 2011. It has yet to leave the tally and has never been absent from the weekly top 40.

 

The year's second-biggest selling album is Taylor Swift's "Red," with 3.11 million. It's the fourth time Swift has had an album ranked among a year's top three sellers. In 2010, "Speak Now" was the year's No. 3 set (2.99 million), in 2009 "Fearless" was No. 1 (3.22 million) and in 2008, "Fearless" was No. 3 (2.11 million).

 

One Direction's breakthrough debut album "Up All Night" is 2012's third-biggest set with 1.62 million sold. The vocal quintet's second album, "Take Me Home," is the year's No. 5 seller with 1.34 million. Both titles were released in 2012. It's the first time since SoundScan started tracking sales in 1991 that an act has had two of the year's top five sellers.

 

A couple acts have come close to the feat previously: Taylor Swift had the Nos. 3 and 6 albums of 2008 with "Fearless" and her self-titled debut, while Garth Brooks had the Nos. 2 and 6 sets of 1992 with "Ropin' the Wind" and "The Chase," respectively. (In 1992, Brooks also had the No. 7 title with "No Fences." He remains the only act to place three albums among any year's top 10 best sellers.)

 

Mumford & Sons' "Babel" is 2012's fourth-biggest album, with 1.46 million -- thus ranking as the year's biggest rock set. It's the only rock effort in the top 10 this year. It's familiar territory for the quartet, as they claimed the No. 6 album of 2011 with "Sigh No More" (1.42 million) and was the only rock title in that year's top 10.

 

For the first time since 2008, no Christmas albums rank among the year's top 10 sellers. 2012's biggest holiday set was Rod Stewart's "Merry Christmas, Baby," which finishes at No. 15 with 858,000 sold. In 2011, two Christmas releases were among the top 10: Michael Buble's "Christmas" (No. 2 with 2.45 million) and Justin Bieber's "Under the Mistletoe" (No. 8 with 1.25 million).

 

Speaking of Bieber, his latest album, "Believe," claims the No. 6 slot on the the 2012 year-end countdown. It moved 1.34 million last year. This is the third straight year the singer has made a year-end top 10 appearance. In 2011 his "Under the Mistletoe" ranked at No. 8 while in 2010, "My World 2.0" was No. 4 with 2.32 million.

 

The rest of 2012's top 10 best selling albums are all country efforts. Carrie Underwood's "Blown Away" is No. 7 (1.20 million), Luke Bryan's "Tailgates & Tanlines" is No. 8 (1.10 million), Lionel Richie's "Tuskegee" is No. 9 (1.07 million) and Jason Aldean's "Night Train" is No. 10 (1.02 million).

 

Country albums account for five of the year's top 10 sellers (Nos. 2 and 7-10) -- a record share of the top 10 for the genre in SoundScan history. Previously, country sets claimed no more than four of the top 10 (in 2002 and 1992).

 

During the 52 weeks that ended Dec. 30, overall album sales in the U.S. fell by 4% to 315.96 million from 330.57 million in 2011. Physical CD sales were down 13% in 2012 while digital album downloads gained by 14% to a record 117.68 million. 37% of all albums sold in 2012 were downloads -- up from 31% in 2011. The top-selling digital album of 2012 was Adele's "21," with 1.04 million. "21" was also 2011's biggest-selling digital album, with 1.8 million. It was the only album to shift a million downloads in either year (or any year, for that matter).

 

VINYL BOOM CONTINUES: For the fifth consecutive year, more vinyl albums were sold than in any other year since SoundScan launched in 1991. In 2012, 4.55 million vinyl LPs were sold -- up 18% compared to 2011's then-record haul of 3.87 million. 67% of all vinyl albums sold in 2012 were purchased at an independent music store (the same share as in 2011). 76% of the vinyl LPs sold in 2012 were a rock album.

 

The year's top selling LP was Jack White's "Blunderbuss" with 34,000 vinyl sets sold. In second place was the Beatles' "Abbey Road" with 30,000. While overall LP sales were up, the top seller of 2012 sold less than the top seller of 2011. Last year, the biggest vinyl album was "Abbey Road" with 41,000.

 

DIGITAL DOMINATION: Moving on to digital song sales, 2012 was a banner year for song downloads. A record 1.336 billion tracks were sold last year, up 5% compared to the then-record total moved in 2011 (1.271 billion).

 

Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know" (featuring Kimbra) is 2012's top selling digital song, with 6.80 million sold while Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" finishes in second place with 6.47 million.

 

Fun.'s "We Are Young" (featuring Janelle Monae) is in third with 5.95 million.

 

Those three songs each sold more than any other song has sold in a previous calendar year. In 2011, Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" broke the record for the biggest-selling song of a year, moving 5.81 million. It and LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem" (5.47 million) were the first two songs to surpass 5 million sales in a calendar year.

 

Fun. has two of 2012's top 10 best-selling tunes -- "We Are Young" joins "Some Nights" (No. 7 with 3.84 million). Maroon 5 also has a pair of songs in the top 10 with "Payphone" (featuring Wiz Khalifa) at No. 4 with 4.76 million and "One More Night" at No. 10 with 3.46 million.

 

As for the rest of the year's top 10 selling songs: Nicki Minaj's "Starships" is No. 5 (3.98 million), One Direction's "What Makes You Beautiful" is No. 6 (3.89 million), Kelly Clarkson's "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" is No. 8 (3.82 million) and PSY's "Gangnam Style" is No. 9 (3.59 million).

 

A total of 108 songs sold more than 1 million downloads in 2012 -- down slightly from the 112 that did it in 2011. 41 moved 2 million in 2012 vs. 38 in 2011.

x

 

via billboard.com

 

Billboard: Adele dominates another year with '21'

NEW YORK (AP) - It's another year and another Adele domination on the music charts: The British singer is Billboard's top artist of 2012.

Billboard said Friday that Adele is the year's biggest artist and her diamond "21" album, released in February 2011, is this year's top album. Adele earned both prizes last year.

The year's top three songs are Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know," Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" and fun.'s "We Are Young," respectively.

Adele is also the top female artist. Drake is the top male artist, One Direction is the top new artist and Maroon 5 is the year's top group.

Billboard said Drake, Taylor Swift, fun. and Don Omar are the top acts in the R&B/hip-hop, country, rock and Latin fields, respectively.

 

Online:

http://www.billboard.com

via apnews.excite.com

 

Adele's 21 is top-selling U.S. iTunes album of 2012

Adele speaks as she holds her award for best British female solo artist during the BRIT Music Awards at the O2 Arena in London February 21, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Dylan Martinez

 

LOS ANGELES | Thu Dec 13, 2012 7:30pm EST

LOS ANGELES

(Reuters) - British singer Adele notched another accolade on Thursday as iTunes announced that her Grammy-winning album "21" was the top-selling record of 2012 in its U.S. store, extending the disc's successful run almost two years after it was released.  

Adele, 24, who last year became the first artist to secure three iTunes milestones with top-selling album, single and artist of the year, came in ahead of country-pop star Taylor Swift's "Red" and British folk band Mumford & Sons' "Babel."

ITunes did not reveal its sales or download figures.

British boy band One Direction's debut album "Up All Night" and current Grammy nominees fun.'s debut "Some Nights" rounded out the five top-selling albums on iTunes in the United States.

"21," released in February 2011, has performed strongly in the U.S. music charts this year following the singer's Grammy-sweeping win in six categories in February 2012.

Adele also landed Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe nominations for her sultry James Bond theme song "Skyfall" this week, becoming a strong contender in the best song category for Hollywood's awards season.

"Thank you so much for the honor of being included in something as brilliant as the Golden Globes! Never in a million years did I ever think I'd come close to such a thing! Truly wonderful ... thank you to the Bond family for giving me the opportunity," the singer said in a statement on Thursday.

ITunes U.S. compiled their Best of 2012 list by looking at the most downloaded items from the Apple iTunes store.

Canadian pop star Carly Rae Jepsen had the top-selling track for her infectious breakthrough summer single "Call Me Maybe."

Post-apocalyptic action film "The Hunger Games" was the best-selling movie while the second season of British aristocratic period drama "Downton Abbey," another Hollywood awards favorite, was iTunes' top-selling television series.

The iTunes Best of 2012 lists can be seen at www.itunes.com/AppStoreBestof2012

 

via reuters.com

 

Adele Deserves This Canine Cover More Than Anyone

via jezebel.com

In honor of Adele being enceinte, here is a bark-singing cover of "Rolling In The Deep" by Pawdele. No word on whether this was produced by the same auteur responsible for the Gotye : dog :: Kimbra : cat video. Either way, 'Delly, imitation is the highest form of flattery. NOW WHERE DO I SEND THOSE BABY SHOES.

Adele: One and Only - Vogue

via vogue.com

Every singer knows the List: citrus, vinegar, mint, dairy, spicy or fried foods, fizzy drinks, caffeine, cigarettes, and alcohol. These are the vocal cords’ enemies. And when one has a five-octave contralto as dynamic, award-winning, money­making, and record-breaking as Adele Laurie Blue Adkins does, one figures out how to avoid these things. Some require less effort than others. Mint? Vinegar? Feh. Cigarettes? Not so easy. Over the few days that I spend around Adele, I see her sneak a fag here and there. No one is perfect. But alcohol? For a once hard-drinking South London pub girl who has admitted that she has written some of her best songs after a few belts, I would have thought this might present something of a challenge. Not so much, it turns out. Adele hasn’t had a drink since last June. She gave it up cold turkey right around her birthday (May 5) last year. “Don’t like drinking anymore,” she says in an accent that falls somewhere between Eliza Doolittle and David Beckham. “I think I got it out of my system. D’yaknowhaImean?”

It is a chilly afternoon in mid-December, and we are sitting in a hotel bar in London’s Mayfair neighborhood. Despite the fact that it is perfectly warm inside, Adele is all bundled up. She is wearing a dramatic fake-fur hat that lends her head a cone shape, black jodhpurs, Chanel riding boots, and a great big fuzzy sweater-poncho contraption. Her plaid Sonia Rykiel bag sits on the banquette between us. When I order a glass of white wine, Adele doesn’t flinch. In fact, when the waitress asks what kind of white wine and I hesitate for a moment, Adele jumps in with a funny/charming/controlling burst of impatience and orders for me (she herself has a glass of cranberry juice). Within a span of five minutes, I am introduced to several of the explosive laughs in the Adele repertoire. There is the high-pitched hee! hee! hee! hee! hee!; the machine gun–fired ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!; the single, startling honk!; and the full-throated, rip-roaring cackle (it defies the alphabet) that she lets loose dozens of times a day. Adele likes volume, which might very well be her undoing in the vocal-cord department. Projecting one’s voice when one is not onstage is also on the List.

Get The Look: Adele's Old World Beauty

“I am quite loud and bolshie,” she says (British slang for unruly and clamorous). “I’m a big personality. I walk into a room, big and tall and loud.” Indeed. There is no doubt when Adele is in the building. The rule of thumb for protecting one’s vocal cords, she tells me, is: If people are more than an arm’s length away, you shouldn’t talk to them. “But I am like, Wah! Wah! Wah!,” she says, laughing. “It’s really bad.”

Adele, Bruno Mars, Civil Wars among Grammy sales winners

Pop & Hiss

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Adele, Bruno Mars, Civil Wars among Grammy sales winners

February 22, 2012 | 12:09 pm

1

Adele's latest album has only 304 million people left in the U.S to reach. One full year after its release, her "21" continues to find a new audience. In its 52 weeks in the top 10 of the U.S. pop charts, "21" has now sold more than 7.3 million copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan. 

In the first full sales week after her Grammy wins and performance, Adele's "21" has tallied its best week ever on the U.S. pop chart, selling another 730,000 copies to its total. This places it atop the pop charts for the 21st nonconsecutive week. The run, as reported earlier, sees Adele surpass the 20-week grip at the top of the pop charts by the Whitney Houston-led soundtrack to "The Bodyguard."

Adele, back in the news last night for flipping the bird at the Brit Awards, has two albums in the Top 5. Her 2008 debut, "19," sold 87,000 copies this week, and has sold just shy of 2 million since its release. The mighty increase by her "21," however, is the largest post-Grammy sales bump since SoundScan began providing the music industry with accurate sales data in 1991. The previous post-Grammy high was held by Norah Jones, whose "Come Away With Me" sold 621,000 copies after her multiple Grammy wins in 2003. 

The Feb. 12 Grammy telecast was kind to numerous other artists as well. Bruno Mars saw his genre-hopping, R&B-centered debut, "Doo-Wops & Hooligans," rocket back into the Top 10, up from No. 30 to No. 8 this week. Mars performed his vintage rocker "Runaway Baby" near the top of the Grammy telecast, and his album sold 38,000 copies this week compared with 16,000 the previous week. 

Likewise, folksy rock duo the Civil Wars, who performed a snippet of the title track to their debut, "Barton Hollow," on the Grammys, moved from No. 41 on the pop charts to No. 10. The act performed just before country star Taylor Swift, and manager Nate Yetton said the act's website was immediately flooded with traffic. Post-Grammys, "Barton Hollow" shot to the Top 5 of the iTunes charts, and the sudden interest in the duo even inspired this MTV headline: Who are the Civil Wars? The act are far from a secret, however, as "Barton Hollow" has now sold more than 330,000 copies. 

Fans also continue to gravitate toward the work of Whitney Houston after her sudden passing on Feb. 11. Her "Greatest Hits" is at No. 2 this week, having sold 176,000 copies. Slightly further down, her 1985 debut, "Whitney Houston," is at No. 37, and her soundtrack to "The Bodyguard" is at No. 38. They have each sold a little more than 17,000 copies. 

Last week's top debut, Van Halen's "A Different Kind of Truth," drifts from No. 2 to No. 6, suffering a 69% sales dip. This week, the album sold 58,000 copies. Paul McCartney's "Kisses On the Bottom," which also debuted last week, had a slightly more consistent second week, with sales down just 22%. Only a couple dozen albums sold separate Van Halen and McCartney, and the latter no doubt benefited from his multiple Grammy appearances.

ALSO:

Adele's '21' sets record with 21st week at No. 1

'The Secret World of Arrietty' has a fairytale in its music

Brit Awards: Blur returns and Adele raises her middle finger

-- Todd Martens

Image: Adele at the 2012 Grammy Awards. Credit: Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times

Twitter: @PopHiss

Facebook: Los Angeles Times Pop Music

More in: Adele, Awards, Charts, Grammys, Todd Martens

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Adele Catches Up To ‘The Bodyguard’, Whitney Houston’s Music Sales Explode

Following her six wins at the Grammy Awards on Sunday, Adele has another feather to put in her cap: her sophomore LP 21, which sold another 237,000 last week, has tied the 20-week run at #1 by Whitney Houston’s The Bodyguard on Billboard’s Top 200 chart. The soundtrack to the 1992 film starring Houston and Kevin Costner had been the most recent LP with a stretch that long atop the chart. That said, the late Whitney’s sales also managed to surge in the short time after her tragic death on Saturday.

Adele and Whitney aren’t the only artists to spend 20 weeks at the top of the main album chart. Previously, Elvis Presley racked up the same amount of time at #1 between 1961 and 1962 with his 14th album Blue Hawaii. If 21 pulls off an appropriate 21st week at the peak of the chart — which seems a sure thing in the wake of the Grammys — Adele will be tied with MC Hammer’s stretch on top in 1990 with Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em.

After that, both Purple Rain by Prince (1984) and the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack (1978) spent 24 weeks at #1. But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves!

Back on this week’s Top 200, Van Halen’s first studio LP in 14 years, A Different Kind Of Truth, debuts at #2 (187,000). Meanwhile, Houston’s 2000 collection Whitney – The Greatest Hits re-enters at #6 on the strength of a whopping 64,000 sold by Sunday’s chart cut-off time. (Keep in mind that news of the singer’s death didn’t break until Saturday evening.) Other Whitney titles that received a posthumous bump over the weekend include Whitney Houston (in at #72 after roughly 8,000 copies were sold), The Bodyguard soundtrack (#80, 8,000), I Look To You (#118, 5,000), Whitney (#122, 5,000) and The Preacher’s Wife soundtrack (#183, 4,000).

As for Houston’s individual songs, 887,000 downloads were sold this past week. “I Will Always Love You” leads the pack with 195,000. (The 1992 chart-topper is currently #2 on iTunes, just behind Katy Perry’s new single “Part Of Me”.)

We’re in the middle of the first full chart week that will eventually reflect the full impact of Whitney’s posthumous sales, so expect many of her albums to rise up the Top 200 when Billboard’s chart data is released this time next Wednesday.

The Top 10 Of Billboard’s Top 200 Chart

1. Adele, 21 *20 weeks*
2. Van Halen, A Different Kind Of Truth *new*
3. Various, Now 41 *new*
4. The Fray, Scars & Stories *new*
5. Paul McCartney, Kisses On The Bottom *new*
6. Whitney Houston, Whitney – The Greatest Hits
7. Dierks Bentley, Home *new*
8. Various, 2012 Grammy Nominees
9. Adele, 19
10. Drake, Take Care

via idolator.com

After surgery, Adele to perform at the Grammys

NEW YORK (AP) - Adele is nominated for six Grammys, and she'll be on deck to collect anything she wins: The 23-year-old singer is set to perform at the awards show.

Adele had surgery on her vocal cords last year, and the Grammys will be the first time she has performed live in five months, The Recording Academy announced Tuesday.

Her sophomore album, "21," has sold more than 6 million copies in the U.S. It is nominated for album of the year and best pop vocal album. The CD has three singles that have hit the No. 1 spot on the Billboard chart, including "Rolling in the Deep," which is up for record and song of the year.

The Grammys will air live Feb. 12 on CBS from the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Adele will also perform at the BRIT Awards on Feb. 21.

---

Online:

http://www.grammys.com

http://www.adele.tv

via apnews.excite.com

 

Adele Spotted Smoking Again

via popcrush.com

Tsk tsk — someone has been a bad, bad girl! Adele has been spotted smoking even though she committed to quit after having a benign polyp removed from her vocal cords at the end of last year. Adele was not psyched at all about giving up her bad habit, since she expressed such joy over it, but she resigned herself to becoming a non-smoker as it was better for her voice. However, she’s fallen off the wagon on which she never wanted to be in the first place!

Fit Perez reports that the singer was seen smoking after dinner at Bobby Rubino’s in Pompano Beach, Fla. with her (married but separated) boyfriend Simon Konecki. A source said Adele was seen smoking post-dinner, and she was also caught lighting up across the pond while being transported in a car in her native England.

Smoking is quite a no-no after throat surgery. Adele’s throat is her money maker and it’s in a delicate condition, so smoking is certainly an irritant which could hamper healing and cause her to cancel more tour dates. Let’s hope Adele had a moment of weakness, suffered a nicotine fit and lapsed back into smoking only briefly and ultimately realized the error of her ways. We’re sure she’ll find her way back on the wagon — maybe she could grab some nicotine gum or a patch to make things easier on herself.

Holiday Hits: Michael Buble & Adele Heading for 400,000-Plus Sales Weeks

via billboard.com

As reported earlier (Dec. 21), Michael Buble's "Christmas" album should hold at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart for a fifth consecutive week -- the seven-day period that ends at the close of business on Christmas Day, Dec. 25.

 

Industry sources project the album will sell around 400,000 to 450,000 copies by the end of the week, which should easily bump the title into second-place among 2011's best-sellers.

 

As the present, it is the year's third-biggest album, with 1.96 million sold according to Nielsen SoundScan, behind Adele's "21" (5.3 million) and Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" (2.03 million).

 

On SoundScan's Building chart below -- a precursor to the final Billboard 200 ranking -- reflecting the first four days (Monday through Thursday) of SoundScan's tracking week (ending Sunday), as reported by six major merchants, Buble's "Christmas" is at No. 1.

 

Right behind him is, unsurprisingly, Adele's "21." Sources say that the album may have its best sales week yet, moving somewhere between 375,000 to 400,000. Its highest sales frame came during its debut week way back in February, when it started with 352,000 at No. 1.

 

"21" is already the best-selling album of any year since 2004, when Usher's "Confessions" sold 8 million.

 

Below Adele on the Building tally at No. 3 is Young Jeezy's new "TM:103 Hustlerz Ambition," which may bow with 200,000 to 250,000.

 

Justin Bieber's "Under the Mistletoe" is in fourth place on the Building list, followed by Lady Antebellum's "Own the Night" (No. 5), Drake's "Take Care" (No. 6), Nickelback's "Here and Now" (No. 7), Scotty McCreery's "Clear As Day" (No. 8), Common's just-released "The Dreamer, the Believer" (No. 9) and the "Now 40" album (No. 10).

 

Nielsen SoundScan Building Chart
Rank	LW BB 200	Artist	Title
1	1	Michael Buble	"Christmas"
2	2	Adele	"21"
3	NEW	Young Jeezy	"TM:103 Hustlerz Ambition"
4	3	Justin Bieber	"Under the Mistletoe"
5	5	Lady Antebellum	"Own the Night"
6	7	Drake	"Take Care"
7	6	Nickelback	"Here and Now"
8	9	Scotty McCreery	"Clear As Day"
9	NEW	Common	"The Dreamer, the Believer"
10	11	Various	"Now 40"
The Building Chart reflects the first four days (Monday through Thursday) of SoundScan's tracking week (which ends Sunday) as reported by six major merchants: iTunes, Trans World Entertainment, Best Buy, Starbucks, Target and Anderson Merchandisers. Billboard estimates that they make up about 85% of all U.S. album sales.

via billboard.com

Adele, 21 - The Top Album of 2011 - TIME

via time.com

Named for the age Adele was when she recorded the album, 21 marks the moment the perpetually brokenhearted singer reached the top of Britain's soul-revival scene. Full of gospel-tinged pain, remorse and longing, 21 is a nuanced breakup album that is steeped in sadness but never veers into cornball territory (a balance struck with particular grace on the album's biggest tearjerker, "Someone like You"). These are songs of solace for the lovelorn, whether you're the dumper or the dumpee.

Rep: Adele Does Not Have Throat Cancer

via usmagazine.com

"Rumor Has It" indeed.
Adele rumors got seriously out of control over the weekend after the British soul singer, 23, announced surgery plans -- and subsequent cancellation of all remaining 2011 concerts and promotional appearances.
On Twitter, fans speculated wildly that the chart-topping "Rumor Has It" chanteuse was actually diagnosed with throat cancer.

Thankfully, that's not true at all, her rep told Us Weekly on Monday. "We would like to reiterate that Adele is to undergo surgery for a hemorrhaged vocal chord. All reports regarding any other condition are 100 percent false."

As announced Friday, Adele (who has battled throat problems throughout the year as her beloved album 21 soared the charts worldwide) will undergo surgery soon, but "a full recovery is expected," her website read. "As a result, doctors have ordered her to rest her voice and completely recuperate before looking to schedule any work commitments."

Weekly Chart Notes: Adele, Foster the People, Richard Marx

via billboard.com

As Adele's "Someone Like You" logs a third week atop the Billboard Hot 100, the ballad ascends 2-1 on the Adult Pop Songs radio airplay chart. With her previous single "Rolling in the Deep" at No. 1 on Adult Contemporary for a 17th week, Adele is just the second artist to top the adult airplay tallies simultaneously with different titles.
On the Sept. 18 and 25, 2010, Adult Pop Songs charts, fellow Columbia Records act Train reigned with "If It's Love." The song's command coincided with the group's 22-week stay atop Adult Contemporary with prior single "Hey, Soul Sister."
How have Train and Adele earned their double dominations?
Both "Sister" and "Rolling" topped Adult Pop Songs before crossing to adult contemporary radio, as Columbia promoted the songs to adult pop stations before servicing them to AC. Why? The former format more quickly accepts new music, while the latter is more selective about its current music choices, as it's more reliant on a library stretching decades deeper.
Once "Sister" and "Rolling" had become established adult pop hits, the songs crossed to AC radio and scaled the Adult Contemporary chart. Columbia kept Train and Adele's momentum going by releasing follow-ups that led Adult Pop Songs while their predecessor singles had yet to abdicate the AC throne.
Columbia's strategy has helped each act methodically swell its fanbase a song, and radio format, at a time.
"We are extremely proud of Adele and Train's achievements at adult radio," says Columbia senior VP promotion/adult formats Pete Cosenza.
"We have always believed in the power of the adult audience and the long-term relationship that it has with our artists," Cosenza says. Dating to the Adult Contemporary chart's 1961 inception, iconic adult Columbia acts include Tony Bennett, Neil Diamond, Billy Joel, Barbra Streisand and James Taylor.
"Our team constantly builds and maintains relationships with adult programmers, which helps keep our artists on top."

Adele records new James Bond track

She's warming up her pipes ready to start recording the next James Bond theme.

After her nasty chest infection, Adele used a week off from touring to begin writing the track, which will then be a strong contender to feature in the next spy movie.

She will record the Bond song with her very own Q — trusted right-hand man Paul Epworth.

He's got a track record co-writing and producing songs with epic Bond-like orchestrations, having worked on Plan B's Strickland Banks album and tracks for Florence And The Machine and Cee Lo Green.

A source said: "Adele is the obvious choice to record the next Bond theme. The last few songs for the spy movies have hardly set the charts alight. After her success this year film-makers know the song is almost guaranteed to be a huge hit."

The singer will have to live up to classics by Shirley, Louis Armstrong, Paul McCartney and Tom Jones. But it won't be hard topping Madonna's dodgy Die Another Day effort.

Daniel Craig ... stars in new Bond film due out next year

The film, starring Daniel Craig, is going by the name Bond 23. It is due out in October next year. Asking Adele to submit a song is a great move.

The team have also hired American Beauty director Sam Mendes to helm the project.

They just need to sort Adele a cameo in a bar scene asking for her favourite drink, "full-fat Coke", to be shaken, not stirred while Bond has a martini.

She'd easily shoot down one of Bond's smooth chat-up lines with her trademark cackle.

via thesun.co.uk

Adele Brings A Ballad Back To The Hot 100 Summit

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Adele's "Someone Like You" leaps 19-1 on the Billboard Hot 100, a lengthy drought ends for ballads atop the chart. The song, which bounds to the top spot following her buzzworthy performance at the MTV Video Music Awards Aug. 28, marks the first unquestionably slow song to crown the Hot 100 since Rihanna's "Take a Bow" blasted 53-1 the week of May 24, 2008.

How long ago was that?

Three years, three months and three weeks ago.

Or, 49 No. 1s ago.

That week, in fact, the Hot 100 welcomed two now well-worn eventual No. 1s: Coldplay's "Viva La Vida," the Hot Shot Debut at No. 15, and Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl," a new entry at No. 76.

As you point out, in the May 27 "Ask Billboard" weekly mailbag, reader José Carlos Santos of Mexicali, Baja, México, wrote that "this time of electro/dance and Europop-influenced songs" had helped prevent a ballad from perching atop the Hot 100 for three years that week.

In my banter back, I wondered if Rihanna herself could end the streak of solely-uptempo Hot 100 toppers with "California King Bed." The song, however, stopped at No. 37 last month.

But, before any reader or girlfriend taunts me too badly, I also wrote, "Perhaps Adele or Lady Gaga's latest singles can bring ballads back to the top of the Hot 100."

(Please remind me to play Powerball this weekend).

As for Gaga, "Another potential No. 1 candidate?," I added, "Should it be released to radio, a rock-tinged midtempo ballad already familiar to many following its on-tour previews and Haley Reinhart's 'American Idol' cover: Lady Gaga's 'You and I'." I may yet be proven correct twice over, as the song, since released a single, roars 16-6 this week, also aided by her VMAs appearance.

So, what took so long for a ballad to return to the Hot 100's summit?

Why such a slow ride back to No. 1 for slow songs?

In that "Ask Billboard" column, I agreed that dance/pop, dubbed "turbo-pop" by Radio-info.com's Sean Ross (formerly of Billboard's editorial department), has clearly entrenched itself as the dominant sound at pop radio. From Taio Cruz, David Guetta and Usher to Ke$ha, Katy Perry and Britney Spears, mainstream top 40 now almost exclusively serves up songs that have a good beat and that you can dance to.

"Historically, when pop finds a style that works, it sticks with it, hence the heavy reliance on faster songs at the format in recent months," I theorized. "And, maybe the Facebook/Twitter/cell phone era has made life so fast-paced that we've become conditioned to expect speediness even in our music?"

(The seeming demise of the ballad could also help demystify the widespread shock that followed Pia Toscano's departure from "American Idol" this season far earlier than had been expected; the belter had largely ignored "Idol" judges Steven Tyler, Jennifer Lopez and Randy Jackson's calls to mix in tempo in the weeks preceding her ousting).

Ballads had commonly topped Billboard charts for much of the rock era, from the Five Satins' "In the Still of the Nite" in 1956 to Boyz II Men's cover of the classic love song in 1993. From the mid-'90s on, however, as grunge, hip-hop and rap took greater holds in contemporary hit music, ballads' journeys to the Hot 100's summit became less frequent.

Such a trend is not lost on radio programmers.

"A ballad is always a touchy area for me," admits Sirius XM VP/music programming and Hits 1 program director Kid Kelly, "especially during the summer months, when school is out and tempo matters even more.

"A song has to be an absolute killer of epic proportions to get my attention," he says, adding that "there is no shortage of great R&B and 'adult hip-hop' crossover songs" that are essentially "used as 'today's ballads'."

Technology also appears to be an accomplice in squashing ballads' potential impact. Kelly additionally attributes the recent dearth of Hot 100-topping slow songs to the advent of Arbitron's Portable People Meter (PPM). Whereas Arbitron for decades compiled radio station ratings from diaries filled out by selected listeners (a process that left room for inaccuracy), the PPM device electronically records what Arbitron-assignees hear in real time.

Worried that pop fans want to dance, not slow dance, programmers, now backed by more exact science, favor tempo almost exclusively even more, Kelly says.

"I'd speculate that in a PPM world, the potential punch-out of an unknown ballad is probably far greater than the potential benefit."

WFLZ (93.3 FLZ)/Tampa, Fla., PD Tommy Chuck reinforces Kelly's assertion that pop radio could die a slow death, literally, if it overdoses on ballads.

"Uptempo songs have helped top 40 stations land some incredible ratings over the last few years," he says. Prior to Adele's new leader, "We'd seen some downtempo songs peek their head up but none had been so mass-appeal that they made it all the way to the top," says Chuck, citing Christina Perri's "Jar of Hearts" as an example. (The song reached No. 17 on the Hot 100 in March and has sold 2.6 million downloads, according to Nielsen SoundScan).

"Top 40 is at its best when we have a variety of hit songs to choose from. Great slow songs will always get a look. However, the audience has the final say," Chuck says.

"Whatever listeners are most into, that's what you'll hear most."

KHOP (@95-1)/Modesto, Calif., PD MoJoe Roberts adds Shontelle's "Impossible" (No. 13 peak) and Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now" (No. 2) as "very successful ballads in recent years that stopped short of the No. 1 position." He points to Lil Wayne's "How to Love" (No. 5) and the Band Perry's "If I Die Young" (No. 14) as more recent such examples.

"I'd like to think that pop radio hasn't blacklisted ballads as a rule," says Roberts. "But, it's no secret that the format has a love affair with tempo."

Zapoleon Media Strategies founder Guy Zapoleon concurs that PPM is "making it tougher for ballads to have the success they had in previous years," postulating that the methodology is one of two main factors for ballads' chart roadblock.

The other? "More rhythm and R&B-based radio stations have joined the ('turbo-pop'-charged) mainstream top 40 format.

"These stations play their top hits many more times a week than more conservative, mainstream-focused top 40 stations," the consultant and former pop PD explains. "The top 40s that play a variety of genres in addition to pop and rhythm/R&B, including rock/alternative, AC and country crossovers, play their top titles much less.

"As several ballad hits in the past have come from that deep menu of genres, they don't often receive enough collective spins from the stations playing them to become No. 1 hits like the more widely-played uptempo pop and rhythm/R&B songs do," Zapoleon has found.

In turn, record labels have reacted accordingly when releasing singles.

Three weeks ago, with the coronation of "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)," Katy Perry joined Michael Jackson as the only artists to plate five Hot 100 No. 1s from a single album. While Jackson's quintet of leaders included two ballads ("I Just Can't Stop Loving You" and "Man in the Mirror"), Perry never missed a dance beat, matching the historic milestone with five uptempo or, at least, midtempo, smashes from "Teenage Dream."

Whereas, as noted in "Ask Billboard" May 27, Perry "performed a stirring version of ballad 'Not Like the Movies' at the Grammy Awards in February, Capitol Records decided to instead release 'E.T.' as the next track from 'Teenage Dream,' even after three uptempo singles" from the set.

Of course, it's hard to argue with that strategy. Of Perry's nine singles as a lead artist, all except her one ballad release have reached the Hot 100's top 10. Only the intimate "Thinking of You" fell shy, peaking at No. 29 in 2009.

"I think PPM has helped make it tough to get ballads through the pipe," says Greg Thompson, EMI Music EVP/marketing and promotion.

While Perry and the majority of acts now promoted to pop radio rely on fuller production and dance-tinged sonic elements, Adele is clearly a different breed of artist. Top 40 radio helped fuel the singer/songwriter's pop culture boom when it adopted and quickly sent "Rolling in the Deep" to No. 1 on Billboard's Nielsen BDS-based Pop Songs radio airplay chart. (It crowned the Hot 100 for seven weeks).

As Adele's star rose, parent album "21" has become a mainstay in the Billboard 200's top five dating to its February arrival. The set has moved 3.3 million copies in the U.S. to-date, according to SoundScan, making it the year's best-selling album. At 5.1 million downloads, "Deep" is likewise 2011's best-selling song.

By the time "Someone Like You" was released as a pop radio single, then, it boasted perhaps the best ammunition in recent memory to enable the return of a downtempo song to the Hot 100's uppermost rank. Add in the impact of the VMAs, which scored the highest ratings of their 27-year history, and perhaps Adele's takeover of the Hot 100 with a ballad isn't quite so shocking after all.

"We're always going to have party records, but 'Someone Like You' defies genre and speaks to everyone. That's the beauty of the song," says Columbia Records senior VP/promotion Lee Leipsner.

"Adele doesn't make that many promotional appearances; she lets the music do the talking. Thankfully, that strategy has worked."

Leipsner credits Pop Songs panelists WXXL (XL1067)/Orlando, Fla., and KHKS (106.1 Kiss FM)/Dallas for starting the format's support of 'Like,' seemingly the unlikeliest of top 40 hits.

"(WXXL PD) Michael Bryan had seen Adele singing 'Like' on the BRIT Awards in February. In June, once I confirmed that it was the next single, he immediately texted the station's music director, Jana Sutter, instructing her to add it that day.

"In Dallas, (KHKS PD) Patrick Davis couldn't wait to add the song, either. Despite one of the hottest summers in the city's history, he wasn't afraid to slow down the tempo for this song.

"Kiss is a consistently top-rated station. What a huge statement he made in adding it so quickly."

Having followed Adele's development from the release of her debut album "19" in 2008, Leipsner is gratified to see radio, and the public, appreciate her music on such a wide level. "She will be up with the Columbia greats like Bruce Springsteen, Barbra Streisand, Billy Joel and Bob Dylan. She'll have a box set someday. She's in that class."

Having taken a ballad to the top of the Hot 100 at long last, Adele's ascent to the chart's highest spot serves to support Leipsner's high praise.

"There's a purity and honesty to Adele's music that creates an emotional connection," he says. "At the VMAs, it was her, a spotlight and a piano. That's all she needed.

"People need that realness in music, and she provides that.

"She's changed the musical landscape."

MTV VMAs 2011: Beyonce Baby Bump, Lady Gaga, and More Best Moments

via thedailybeast.com

One of the most stirring performances of the night. She may not have won the highest moonman award but come grammy she would be the One to Beat! For Sure!