If we've learned a lesson from the past few weeks it's that America will still buy soulful r&b from female artists in huge numbers, but aren't particularly interested in street rap. Alicia Key's beautiful soulful album "
The Element of Freedom" continues to do well, holding steady at number five, and she's joined in the top ten this week by Mary J. Blige's "Stronger", which comes in at number six. By contrast the Clipse's "
Till the Casket Drops", although dope, has largely struggled, barely hanging onto a top 200 spot (it sits at 197 right now). If only Pusha T and Malice had done more songs about the strength of their womanhood...
And now onto the tracks:
Top 10 Songs with units sold
1. Ke$ha - Tik Tok 244,480
2. Lady Gaga - Bad Romance 173,064
3. Train - Hey, Soul Sister 171,553
4.
Young Money ft. Lloyd - Bedrock 164,834
5. Ke$ha ft. 30H!3 - Blah Blah Blah 205,946
6.
Jay-Z ft. Alicia Keys - Empire State of Mind 127,603
7. Iyaz - Replay 127,090
8. Owl City - Fireflies 113,189
9. David Guetta ft. Akon - Sexy Chick 108,160
10.
Rihanna ft. Young Jeezy - Hard 105,697
The Refined Take:
1) It's an undeniably catchy track, but you'd think that after more than a month on the radio Young Money's "Bedrock" would be starting to slip. Nope. Instead the track's picking up steam, selling almost 20,000 more copies this week than it did the last. That's a lot of young money coming in, which they only have to split 47 ways. I'm just saying, if I was Lil Twista I wouldn't be buying a new house quite yet.
2) Well that was fast. Just one week after Weezy and Em's "
Drop the World" cracked the top ten it's gone just a quickly, plummeting to number 26. Last week I wrote that the track's success was "a clear indication that just purely good hip-hop can sell in big numbers." Oops. Never f*king mind.
3) I admittedly haven't listened to the song, but if my memory serves me correct, I'm really nervous about Train's "Hey, Soul Sister". Aren't they a bunch of light rock white guys? Any song they make with the term "soul sister" should be eyed with suspicion. I hope Jill Scott decides to start some beef over this.
4) It's worth noting that, despite relatively little marketing push, Omarion's "
Ollusion" album is performing respectably, coming in at the number 19 spot. Can O make successfully make the transition from teen heartthrob to widely respected grown man r&b singer? It's too early to tell, but early results look promising.
5) Last week I rolled out our first Mr. Irrelevant Award, given to the song that sits at the absolute bottom of the charts (the number 200 spot). Last week's winner, Lil Wayne's "Lollipop", has been knocked from its not-at-all coveted spot by Chris Brown's "Forever", a song whose title feels deeply ironic in this context. Don't worry Breezy, nothing lasts....you know the rest.
