Thursday, March 19, 2015
My Thoughts On The #2 Situation
I don't think I usually use this blog as a platform to express my complaints, but today I feel that I have to. This week royally sucks. Madonna has the best-selling album of the week, yet Billboard is not recognizing this on their official Top 200 Albums chart. If you have the best-selling album of the week, you should be #1. Period. Rebel Heart is #1 on Top Album Sales, #1 on Top Current Albums, #1 on Top Internet Albums, #1 on Tastemaker Albums AND #1 in Digital Albums and all of that equals as officially being the #2 album in the country? That's such bullshit. The more time that goes on, the more I'm losing respect for Billboard. Over the years, I've loved keeping up with Madonna's accomplishments on their charts, cheering her on when she wins, and accepting it when she fails, but when it's downright taken from her, that's where it's not enjoyable anymore. Streams and individual track sales should not count for an albums chart. When physical singles were sold in stores, those where never counted for the album chart, so why should individual track downloads? It's very unfortunate that Rebel Heart will be a #2 album with an asterisk at the end of it. It's not right.
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You are absolutely right. If I bought the single for Vogue back in 1990, that didn't count anything towards the I'm Breathless album's chart position. And yet because more people streamed or bought the individual songs for the Empire soundtrack, it lands at #1 on the Top 200. I think Billboard is losing quite a bit of credibility over the past 5-10 years and yet because they are the dominant force when it comes to choosing and promoting the hit songs, there isn't a viable alternative as far as a diffgerent set of charts, with different methodology. It sounds like sour grapes for a Madonna fan to be saying this right now, but as they become more corporation-like and alter the chart rules to suit their investments and profits, it's harder to consider them as neutral and objective.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments. I agree!
DeleteIt's also interesting to see Madonna's camp still considering the album a #1 album. On Madonna's instagram she's celebrating the fact that's Rebel Heart is the "No. 1 Selling Album" in the U.S. this week. I love that.
ReplyDeleteI saw that. Well, it's true, it was the best-selling album of the week! ;)
DeleteShe was also denied a hot 100 debut with LFL 17k with 500k in streams. With grammys apperance WTF... thought streams played into sales...
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