The Top 20 Albums This Week (the # you see in red at the end of each entry is the TOTAL amount of albums sold for that release):
1. LADY ANTEBELLUM - NEED YOU NOW - 480,922 units sold this week / 480,968
2. VARIOUS - HOPE FOR HAITI - 142,890 units sold this week / 313,916
3. LADY GAGA - FAME - 68,113 units sold this week / 2,646,942
4. SUSAN BOYLE - I DREAMED A DREAM - 58,761 units sold this week / 3,415,657
5. BARRY MANILOW - GREATEST LOVE SONGS OF ALL TIME - 57,211 units sold this week / 57,234
6. MICHAEL JACKSON - MICHAEL JACKSON'S THIS IS IT - 55,313units sold this week / 1,404,474
7. CORINNE BAILEY RAE - THE SEA - 53,321 units sold this week / 53,437
8. VARIOUS - 2010 GRAMMY NOMINEES - 45,419 units sold this week / 94,225
9. CELTIC WOMAN - SONGS FROM THE HEART - 41,717 units sold this week / 41,745
10. BLACK EYED PEAS- E.N.D. (ENERGY NEVER DIES) - 39,615units sold this week / 1,929,356
11. ALICIA KEYS - ELEMENT OF FREEDOM - 36,811 units sold this week / 965,234
12. KIDZ BOP KIDS- KIDZ BOP 17 - 35,786 units sold this week / 35,992
13. TAYLOR SWIFT - FEARLESS - 33,562 units sold this week / 5,466,046
14. LADY GAGA- FAME MONSTER (8 TRK) - 31,244 units sold this week / 699,669
15. LADY ANTEBELLUM - LADY ANTEBELLUM - 31,043 units sold this week / 1,453,734
16. KE$HA - ANIMAL - 30,425 units sold this week / 284,510
17. MARY J. BLIGE - STRONGER - 28,451 units sold this week / 532,516
18. JUSTIN BIEBER - MY WORLD - 26,225 units sold this week / 848,419
19. VAMPIRE WEEKEND - CONTRA - 24,873 units sold this week / 192,329
20. MICHAEL BUBLE - CRAZY LOVE - 24,408 units sold this week / 1,319,111
MISS TLC SAYS:
* Lady Antebellum is QUITE a success story. The country/soul/pop trio only began working together four short years ago, and have since gone on to release a platinum-selling debut album (which is still on the charts at #15 after selling almost 1.5 million copies)), and a #1 debut for their sophomore album (which was just released last Tuesday). After performing their hit single "Need You Now" at last Sunday's Grammy Awards, I can only see them going up from here. The single, from the group's second album which goes by the same name, is a monster hit, and one of our current faves.
* Lady Gaga and Susan Boyle are still going strong. When you combine the sales of Gaga's debut "Fame", with her 8-track bonus release "The Fame Monster", she has sold almost 3.5 million copies of her music in total. Susan Boyle has only released one album so far, but she has also sold almost 3.5 million copies in total. These two ladies are polar opposites but they definitely have one thing in common - they are HUGE successes and seem to be unstoppable.
* Michael Jackson's "This Is It" has shot up this week from #17 on the charts to #6 (a 136% increase). I believe this has WAY more to do with the release of the movie DVD last week, and not that god-awful Grammy tribute. ;)
* IN PLATINUM WATCH NEWS, Maxwell is currently only 25K copies away from reaching that million unit plateau with his "Blacksummers' Night". He has been steadily selling in the 6-7,000 units per week range for a while, so I imagine he'll "officially" reach platinum status in about a month (unless his sexy Grammy performance helps to propel him there quicker).
* Total Album Sales increased by 750K this week. Not bad. I imagine this has a lot to do with the fact that Grammys were last weekend. Hopefully we can hold on to upward trend!
That's all for now on the Chart Chat.
xoxo,
Keep music sales alive! Music can change your life!
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Chart Chat
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Celeb Comedians Take On This Year's God-Awful Grammys
MISS TLC SAYS: I've loved this man since "Steampipe Alley". You had it right on the money Mario. You go boy!!! ;)
MISS TLC SAYS: Chelsea Handler is one of our personal heroes at The Wonderful World of Miss TLC. She doesn't care who she insults in the celeb world, because (1) so much of what's reported is absolute lunacy, and (2) it's funny. Her take on Beyonce is hilariously true, and the rabid fan response that she received in defense of Beyonce the following day makes it even funnier.
Monday, February 01, 2010
No Comment
*** For more "No Comment" pics, search for them by entering that title in quotes in the white search box at the top of this blog. Feel free to do the same with the name of any of our other recurring features. Believe me, it's worth it. Search is your friend. :) ***
The Miss TLC Grammy 2010 Wrap-Up
Miss TLC has received many email inquiries, and has also been pulled into many award-show arguments since last night's Grammys aired; and so I figured I'd post the most popular queries and responses below:
Did Taylor Swift really deserve to win Best Album of the Year???
Absolutely - "Fearless" was the biggest selling album of the year (currently having sold 5,432,484 copies), she writes her own songs (which is rare nowadays, especially for someone so young), she actually plays instruments, and she has stayed near the top of the charts for over 63 weeks!!! So yes, I think that definitely qualifies as "Album of the Year" for sure (and it's definitely way more than any of the other nominees can say). :) [It's personally not my favorite album of the year, but most of the Grammy 'Album of the Year' winners never really are. However, in many years, they pick obscure releases that NO ONE can back up as the best, which really annoys me. At least in this case, it's easily backed up with sales, radio play & sold out arenas. The girl's running it (and has been since her first album - this ain't got nothing to do with Kanye by the way). It just truly was the biggest of 2009. Interestingly enough, Kanye & her both released their latest albums in the same month - Nov 2008 - and he can't even SEE her anymore, she's so far ahead of him success-wise.]
For a clearer numbers breakdown, read through Miss TLC's "Swiftgate" posts from last September and October, here and here.
Was Lady Gaga "robbed"?
Not really. Had "Bad Romance" or "Speechless" been nominated, she would've (and should've) won for them, as they are Grammy-esque songs (and both equally deserving). However, it was too late to nominate those two, and so she was only nominated for things like "Just Dance" and "Poker Face", which are just fun, silly dance tracks (not much substance at all). She won Best Dance Recording AND Best Dance Album though, which makes perfect sense. Unfortunately those categories aren't awarded during the live telecast, but at least she didn't go home empty-handed.
Who the heck was that woman in black who jumped onstage during Jamie Foxx' performance to dance?
That's actually Jamie's half-sister Diondra Dixon, who suffers from Down Syndrome. She's a frequent companion of Jamie's during award shows, parties, and entertainment events. He has allowed her onstage to dance before, and so it seems that Jamie wants her to experience everything exciting she can about life, and I think that's really sweet.
What was up with that Michael Jackson tribute?
Well first off, if you weren't wearing 3-D glasses, you were probably mega-annoyed by the blurriness. There was a special promotion for this segment of the show, where viewers could pick up 3-D glasses from Target stores in order to enjoy the "magical 'Earth Song' MJ Grammy tribute". Unfortunately, as I expected, there were not enough glasses to go around (my Mom was turned away, as were others who inquired about the glasses during Grammy weekend). My sister actually brought up a great point and said the glasses should've been distributed with the Sunday paper like they used to be with other games and promotions in years past. Other than that, as a huge MJ fan, I thought this was a disaster. "Earth Song" was definitely a fantastic representation of who Michael was as a person, and what he believed in, but HE sings it amazingly with such emotion, and no one else can do it justice (I don't care how great of a singer you are). Truthfully, they should've just done a big involved graphic montage and video (perhaps with live dancers), and played Michael's words and lyrics from HIS mouth. The emotional breakdown at the end of that song is one of the best by MJ, and so it was awkward and embarrassing to see Usher and Carrie Underwood and Jennifer Hudson and Smokey Robinson and Celine Dion try to reenact it. In fact, for a really true tribute to Michael, they should've just aired the footage from "This Is It" where he rehearses "Earth Song" and talks about his feelings towards the planet and the environment. Even that raw footage is better than what we saw last night. To hear Michael's classic version, click below.
Who the heck makes Lady Gaga's dresses???
Gaga employs a plethora of designers for her edgy creations (which she considers more like art installments rather than simple fashion choices). Her orbital Grammy red carpet dress this year was actually (surprisingly) designed by Giorgio Armani.
Why did the sound keep going out during the "Forever" performance at the end of the show?
That's "The Curse of the Super Bowl Wardrobe Malfunction". As you recall the infamous Janet Jackson nipple reveal was broadcast on CBS, and the network was subsequently required to pay a hefty fine after a lengthy FCC investigation. Since then, many networks have employed strict delay techniques during any live broadcasts, in order to "catch" inappropriate language or behavior before it gets across the airwaves. In many rap songs, there are so many different things being spewed within a short time frame (being that much of the genre is done in a quick staccato poetic form), that the network execs get a bit "trigger happy" in bleeping out more than the one or two words or phrases that contain obscene or questionable language. So instead of hearing a quick 1 second mute, you hear something more like a 5-10 second long pause each and every time the producers get nervous. Of course the rappers themselves can swear up and down that they will perform a cleaner version of the song, and may even do so, but the network doesn't want to take any chances and sometimes hits the mute button on "potential" infractions as opposed to ones where they can clearly hear a curse word being yelled.
Who was the adorable little boy that Jay-Z brought onstage when him and Rihanna accepted the award for "Run This Town"?
That's Beyonce's sister Solange's son, Daniel Julez Smith, Jr., who turns 6 later this year. Considering Jay and Beyonce are married, he can also technically (and more easily) be referred to as "Jay-Z's nephew".
Hope that answered your questions!
Another Celeb Lookalike
"The Real Housewives of Orange County" reality star Lynne Curtain, and Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler...
** To view past posts of "Celeb Lookalike", search for it by entering the title in quotes in the white search box at the top of this blog. Feel free to do the same with the name of any of our other recurring features. Believe me, it's worth it. Search is your friend. :) ***
Thursday, January 28, 2010
A Miss TLC New Trailer Alert: "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps"
"Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" arrives in theaters on April 23, 2010. Say what you will about Oliver Stone, greed, Gordon Gekko, Shia LeBeouf, and/or Wall Street... regardless of your opinion of it all, this movie's gonna be good. :)
You can watch the full trailer here.
MISS TLC SAYS: It's pretty amazing when you can release a sequel 23 years later with the same lead actor and it's still relevant.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Chart Chat
The Top 20 Albums This Week (the # you see in red at the end of each entry is the TOTAL amount of albums sold for that release):
1. VARIOUS - HOPE FOR HAITI - 171,026 units sold this week / 171,026
2. SUSAN BOYLE - I DREAMED A DREAM - 85,759 units sold this week / 3,357,403
3. LADY GAGA - FAME - 61,712 units sold this week / 2,578,829
4. SPOON - TRANSFERENCE - 53,277 units sold this week / 53,696
5. VARIOUS - 2010 GRAMMY NOMINEES - 48,766 units sold this week / 48,806
6. VAMPIRE WEEKEND - CONTRA - 43,264 units sold this week / 167,456
7. ALICIA KEYS - ELEMENT OF FREEDOM - 39,902 units sold this week / 928,423
8. KE$HA - ANIMAL - 35,303 units sold this week / 254,085
9. BLACK EYED PEAS - E.N.D. (ENERGY NEVER DIES) - 34,634units sold this week / 1,889,741
10. TAYLOR SWIFT- FEARLESS - 31,836 units sold this week / 5,432,484
11. LADY GAGA - FAME MONSTER (8 TRK) - 31,243 units sold this week / 668,425
12. ALVIN & THE CHIPMUNKS: THE SQUEAKQUEL- SOUNDTRACK - 29,897 units sold this week / 380,658
13. JUSTIN BIEBER - MY WORLD - 29,279 units sold this week / 822,194
14. MARY J. BLIGE- STRONGER - 28,570 units sold this week / 504,065
15. MOTION CITY SOUNDTRACK - MY DINOSAUR LIFE - 26,899units sold this week / 27,103
16. LADY ANTEBELLUM - LADY ANTEBELLUM - 23,537 units sold this week / 1,422,691
17. MICHAEL JACKSON - MICHAEL JACKSON'S THIS IS IT - 23,457 units sold this week / 1,349,161
18. MICHAEL BUBLE - CRAZY LOVE - 22,425 units sold this week / 1,294,703
19. RIHANNA - RATED R - 21,999 units sold this week / 571,733
20. OWL CITY - OCEAN EYES - 21,208 units sold this week / 720,986
MISS TLC SAYS:
* I'm not surprised that the Hope For Haiti album debuted at #1 this week. There were a lot of really great performances in that telethon. This is nice to see.
* I can't wait til the "Susan Boyle does Lady Gaga" album comes out next year. (Just kidding - there isn't one in the works just yet, but imagine if there was??? The cash registers would surely explode while trying to keep up with THOSE sales. These two are unstoppable apart, together they would take over the world. ;))
* Here's an interesting "American Idol" comparison, last season's winner: Kris Allen, released his self-titled debut album 10 weeks ago and has since sold 244,825 copies of it. However, the runner-up: Adam Lambert, released his debut album "For Your Entertainment" 9 weeks ago and has since sold 476,938 copies of his. Kris sold a little over 5K units this week and Adam sold almost 20K. Considering Adam's been out for one LESS week, we can surmise that he would have sold almost 500K by this week, had he had that one extra week of sales that Kris had. Therefore, it's as if Adam has already sold DOUBLE the albums that Kris has. There was a huge backlash when Adam (somewhat surprisingly) lost to Kris last season, and so I'm not exactly shocked by this sales turnout. Kris' single "Live Like We're Dying" is actually a great song, but Adam has WAY more exposure, a bigger personality, and several different songs floating around on the airwaves already. Not to mention the old adage "no press is bad press", which can be applied to the whole Adam Lambert/"American Music Awards" scandal coverage from last year. Plenty of folks complained and/or were disgusted by his antics, but it got him TONS of media coverage nonetheless.
* Not only has the show "Glee" won tons of critical acclaim and a handful of awards in its freshman season (including the prestigious Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild trophies for 'Best Television Series - Musical or Comedy', and 'Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series',
respectively), but it has also spawned the release of two soundtracks (so far). In combined sales, those two volumes have already sold over 1.1 million copies. Needless to say, this show is a BIG moneymaker and successful household brand name already. Good for them.
* Sales increased by 200K this week. Not bad. As much as sales in general are faltering, music has been holding its own (to an extent). There have been a lot of very successful releases this year. Hopefully we can keep it up!
That's all for now on the Chart Chat.
xoxo,
Keep music sales alive! Music can change your life!
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
No Comment
*** For more "No Comment" pics, search for them by entering that title in quotes in the white search box at the top of this blog. Feel free to do the same with the name of any of our other recurring features. Believe me, it's worth it. Search is your friend. :) ***
Monday, January 25, 2010
Rapid Fire
Friday, January 22, 2010
Where Have I Seen You Before? - THE FACE on "Ugly Betty"
As I was flipping through the channels a couple weeks ago, I came across an episode of "Ugly Betty" which made me do a doubletake on a new character, Denise Ludwig. 
IT WAS NINA KATZ! (That was "the face" from the "Sex and The City" episode Critical Condition in Season 5. You know the one... Carrie doesn't like the face she makes when she says she dated Aiden after Carrie...)
Anyhoo, her real name is Nadia Dajani, and she's been in everything from "Law & Order" to "Curb Your Enthusiasm", but she'll always be THE FACE to me. :)
[PS - I so wanted to smack her in that episode. I don't care that she was "the talent booker for SNL", she was NO Carrie Bradshaw.]
*** To view past editions of "Where Have I Seen You Before?" search for it by entering the title in quotes in the white search box at the top of this blog. Feel free to do the same with the name of any of our other recurring features. Search is your friend. :) ***
Thursday, January 21, 2010
I'm With Coco
MISS TLC SAYS: As a music industry insider, this is CRAZY funny to me. I'm sure the car itself costs the most, but to play an original master on the air definitely racks up the $$$ (especially when it's someone like The Rolling Stones). Go Conan. Team Coco 4eva.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
A Miss TLC New Trailer Alert: "MacGruber"
MISS TLC SAYS: I'm not sure this SNL skit can keep your attention for longer than a half hour, but there are some funny lines in the trailer (and Kristen Wiig is usually great). Hopefully they didn't use up all of their best stuff in this clip. (It's definitely promising that they got Val Kilmer and Ryan Phillipe though! Then again... what were they really working on before this anyway... ;))
