Friday, July 10, 2009

[WGO] It's A Thriller Night


Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past two weeks (kind of like yours truly – but all kidding aside), you are probably aware of the explosion of sales of Michael Jackson music.

Some “experts” are even going so far as to credit the late genius that is Jackson for helping jumpstart album sales (be them physical or digital). This isn’t the first time he was given that honor – back in the late 1980’s, when the device known as the compact disc was first introduced, the music industry saw a huge boom in sales as people re-bought their fave albums in the new CD format, and one of the biggest sellers was MJ’s classic, Thriller.

With that said, the rumor has gone round that Sony has already confirmed their ridiculously high demand of Jackson material, so much so that they have sent out over eight million physical copies of Jackson catalogue across the world since Jackson’s death two weeks ago. Complete insanity.

Just last week, Thriller hit #1 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart once again, and on this week’s chart, it sits at #3, selling over 165K this week alone. MJ’s Number Ones “greatest hits” package is the current #1 (which sat at #3 last week), selling almost 340K in a week, and MJ also sees his Essential package at #5 (with almost 120K sold), and his amazing Off the Wall album at #11 (almost 44K sold), Dangerous at #22 (almost 24K sold), and Bad at #28 (almost 20K sold). The craving for Mike’s hits won’t wane anytime soon either, as his Number Ones album is expected to also take the #1 position this upcoming week.

As endearing as it is for a Mike fan like myself to see MJ’s catalogue return to the top of the charts, it’s still a little painful that it took his unfortunate and unforeseen (although that is debatable) death to spawn such a revival of his music. I know there was words a few months back about the making of “Thriller” into a Broadway musical. I really hope it’s on the fast track now…

While I’m not so sure if I agree with the mindset of the Jackson sales spike lasting too much longer, there is no denying that a lot of records were sold last week. Jackson may have made up three of the top ten titles, the total sales from the Top 10 alone topped more than 1.3 million. We haven’t seen that in a very long time, so maybe Mike is having the last laugh from above…

The non-MJ top 10 was mostly new material. The new “Now...!” compilation had the biggest debut last week, landing at #2, just beating out Thriller by a measly two thousand copies. Brad Paisley’s new record, American Saturday Night, landed at #4, and the incredibly talented (and quite sexy…!) Rob Thomas sees his sophomore solo effort, Cradlesong, debut at #6. His debut, …Something To Be, had a #1 debut, but considering the current sales climate (and the world’s mourning of Jackson), #6 isn’t too shabby. Wilco also debuted at #7 with their selftitled release, and Jeremih saw his self-titled debut land at #9, while Killswitch Engage land at #10. The only return offender to the Top 10 was the Black Eyed Peas, as The End drops from #4 to #8.

Despite the onslaught of attention being payed to them (various magazine covers, the titter about Kevin’s recent engagement, Nick and Miley’s “reunion”, etc. etc.), the Jonas Brothers saw their new fourth album, Lines… drop like a brick out of the Top 10 to #12 with almost 41K sold. I’ll admit that I still have not listened to the record, and kind of feel like a heel for saying that…I will get to it soon. I swear…

Also, on a sidenote, the soundtrack to Transformers – Revenge of the Fallen, drops from #11 to #19 this week. I mention this because I recently got my hands on a copy. I don’t care for the majority of it (especially that Linkin Park track that everyone is raving about), but The Used covered the Talking Heads classic, “Burning Down the House”, and while it should be a sacrilege, I can’t stop listening to it. I’m not sure why. But it’s amazing.

Hits Daily Double is reporting expected numbers for next week’s Top 200 Chart, and in addition to MJ at #1, underrated R&B champ Maxwell is expected to debut at #2 with a potential of almost 300K sold. The latest set in the ‘Hannah Montana’ television soundtracks is also expected to debut Top 5, probably at the #5 spot with an expected 150K haul. All Time Low are also looking at a potential Top 10 debut with their new record…

Part two, complete with radio numbers is coming shortly. Stay tuned…

1 comment:

Myfizzypop said...

Michael Jackson is dead?!?!?!?!

I jest of course (well i don't jest about his death :/ ) - it's been mightily covered hasn't it. Still, i've totally fallen in love with Man in the mirror all over again and some of his more poignant songs like Keep The Faith and Will YOu Be There. Me and my 69 year old mom did rock out to Billie Jean the other day while she tried to do the moonwalk. Her hip will be aching for weeks now. Oh my.

Follow Me on Instagram via @melismaticdiva