Save Mariah: Mimi's Memoirs Flop

Last week was a big week for record industry, with 6.87 million albums sold. That's 16% more than the week before (although it's down 8% from the same week last year). Most of the press was given to Mariah Carey and Paramore as they battled for the No. 1 spot on the album chart, but singer Barbra Streisand ended up surprising both artists for a first place finish.

Streisand's Love Is The Answer sold 207,000 copies, enough to give her her ninth No. 1 album, the record for female singers. Chart watchers didn't see Streisand coming as she sold extremely well in non-traditional outlets such as QVC and Starbucks.

Paramore's Brand New Eyes managed to reach No. 2 with 175,000 copies sold. Mariah Carey's Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel lived up to its title by debuting at a less than perfect No. 3. That makes it Carey's lowest charting album since 2001's Glitter.

Poor Mimi. The drama surrounding her albums lead single, "Obsessed" made her and her fans the laughing stock of the blogosphere and things still aren't looking up. "Obsessed" managed to crack the top ten of the Hot 100 where it has bumbled around for a few weeks, but her cover of Foreigner's "I Want To Know What Love Is" is languishing at No. 60.

New Music Set to Clog Blogs, Hopefully Sell Some CDs

September 9 was hailed as the last gasp of the dying record industry with the Beatles remastered albums and Rockband game as well as Jay-Z's The Blueprint 3 dropping, but September 28 might end up trumping it.

Tomorrow a slew of albums will hit stores that might send people to music aisle at Wal-Mart who don't usually visit. Madonna's hits compilation, Celebration will get dance aficionados and gays there, Mariah Carey's Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel will get all her "lambs" and aspiring American Idols, while Barbra Streisand's Love Is The Answer will be able to get your mom and Hillary Clinton to drop $12.99.

Other new releases include Brand New Eyes by Paramore, Revolution by Miranda Lambert, and Black Gives Way To Blue by Alice and Chains. Jay's aforementioned The Blueprint 3, Whitney Houston's I Look To You, and Taylor Swift's Fearless, all currently in Billboard's top ten, are expected to continue to sell (moderately) well.

Also newsworthy, tomorrow will see the debut of new songs. Britney Spears will release the should-be-spelled-out-because-its-less-than-ten "3", Chris Brown takes his next step towards a comeback with "Transformer", and the Foo Fighters will drop "Wheels".

Make no doubt about it, after 9/28, you'll forget 9/9 even happened.