Music Shuffle: January 30
Taylor Swift makes it 8 at #1, Clarkson sets records and the Grammys pull out all the stops this year
Top 5 Billboard Albums
Well I'll be damned: Taylor Swift moved 63,000 copies of Fearless in the US to land a staggering eighth week atop The Billboard 200. In her little country bumpkin shadow is Beyonce's I Am... Sasha Fierce, sticking at #2 with 51,000, while Nickelback's Dark Horse rides #3 with 45,000, Kanye West's 808s and Heartbreak moves up a spot to #4, and the Chop Shop/Atlantic soundtrack to Twilight climbs up a notch to #5. Hell of a top 5, America.
Billboard Hot 100 Update
Kelly Clarkson made history this week on the Billboard Hot 100, making the largest leap to #1 in the chart's 50-year history with her new single, "My Life Would Suck Without You." It blasted 97-1 after selling 280,000 digital downloads in its first week of availability. Believe it or not, it's actually the second time the "American Idol" winner has set the record for largest jump to No. 1. She took her "American Idol" victory song, "A Moment Like This," all the way from 52-1 on the charts, dated October 5, 2002.
Lady GaGa's "Just Dance" takes a step down to #2, while Beyonce's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" slides 2-3 and Kanye West's "Heartless" drops a spot to #4. Taylor Swift's "Love Story" holds at #5, the All-American Rejects' "Gives You Hell" sticks #6 and T.I.'s "Live Your Life" featuring Rihanna moves down three spots to #7. The Fray's comeback single "You Found Me" hops up to #8 as the top digital gainer on the Hot 100, while Britney Spears' "Circus" climbs up to #9 and Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours" drops to #10.
Organizers for the 51st Grammy Awards are doing their damnedest to bring the best show possible to the Feb. 8 event, to be held Feb. 8 at Los Angeles' Staples Center and broadcast live on CBS.
U2, Kid Rock, Rihanna, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss have joined the performance lineup for the show, which will include previously announced performers Paul McCartney (with Dave Grohl on drums), Katy Perry, Radiohead, T.I. and Justin Timberlake, Kenny Chesney, Coldplay, Jennifer Hudson, Jonas Brothers, Lil Wayne, Carrie Underwood, and Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, T.I. and Kanye West.
Looks like a hell of a lineup. I might just tune in after all this year.
Legendary Lynyrd Skynyrd keyboardist Billy Powell died Wednesday morning (Jan. 28) at his home in Orange Park, Fla. He was 56.
According to the Associated Press, Powell called 911 just before 1am, saying he was having trouble breathing. Rescue crews arrived at his home, but Powell was pronounced dead just before 2 a.m.
Powell's fingerwork on Skynyrd songs as "Freebird," "Call Me the Breeze" and "Sweet Home Alabama" is known to millions.
A new Smashing Pumpkins song was intended to be unveiled in a Super Bowl ad for the Hyundai Genesis, which cost roughly $30 trillion to secure. The ad was supposed to be aired during the big game, but tough times in the auto industry resulted in the spot getting moved to the pregame show. Selling out really has its drawbacks, it appears.
Every year a hysterical rumor-cauldron reaches full boil in the weeks prior to the Coachella lineup announcement, and this year is by no means any different. While the lineup is usually announced by the last week of January, there's no sign yet for this year's list. Coachella Paul Tollett had this to say on the matter: “I know everybody is going crazy, but we’re not stalling, we’re still working on the show. Everything we do is in service of the show, not in service of the announcement of the show. Believe me, we’re excited to tell everybody and we want to tell everybody, but the show is still being put together.”
In other words, hold your horses, hippies. It's coming. They're just trying to do better than Jack Fucking Johnson for a headliner this time around.
Jay-Z's upcoming album, rumored to be called Blueprint III, doesn't have a release date, but new songs continue to get "leaked" online. "Money Goes" spread like fire on the internet Tuesday, becoming the seventh new track to surface.
Last year, Jay-Z introduced the Kanye West-produced "Jockin' Jay-Z," followed by "Swagga Like Us" featuring West, Lil Wayne and T.I., DJ Khaled's "Go Hard (remix)" as well as Jay-Z's own tracks "History" and "Brooklyn Go Hard" featuring Santogold. Hova also appeared on a remix of Young Jeezy's "My President is Black," which leaked to radio and was performed at a Jan. 18 show at Club Love during President Barack Obama's inauguration festivities in Washington, D.C.
Because 50 Cent can't reignite his market-tactic beefs with any of the higher caliber hip-hop stars out there, his new album Before I Self Destruct is suddenly suffering from a case of the pushbacks - and as a result, he's shifting his attention to putting his "skills" into pimping dietary supplements.
“Right now, I’m interested in dietary supplements,” he said in a recent interview. “I’ll be coming up with something very soon.”
Yeah, we're holding our breath.
Marilyn Manson, Slayer and Bullet For My Valentine top the bill for the second annual Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival, which starts July 10 at the Sleep Train Amphitheater in Sacramento, CA, and concludes Aug. 18 at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in San Antonio, TX.
According to Billboard.com, Trivium, All That Remains, God Forbid and the Jagermeister's "battle of the bands" contest winner will perform. On the Hot Topic stage (yes, this is actually real), Cannibal Corpse, Job For A Cowboy, Behemoth, Black Dahlia Murder and Whitechapel will round out the bill.
"After last year's very successful package, we felt we needed to raise the bar higher and put together a package that hard music fans would love, and we feel like we have done that," Reese tells Billboard.com.
Tickets for the 27-date North American shed tour go on sale April 24 via mayhemfest.com and livenation.com.
