Pink Scores First Ever Solo Number One
In 2001, Pink was included in the all-star cast for the remake of Labelle's "Lady Marmalade" alongside Christina Aguilera, Lil Kim, and Mya. The track was #1 for five weeks. Seven years later, Pink finally gets a #1 all to herself. "So What" is about a pop star pretending to be a rock star and steals it's "na na na na na na na" from Barney. It sold 253,000 digital downloads.

"Swagga Like Us" is this week's hot shot debut at #5. "Swagga" featuring a superstar line-up of Jay-Z, T.I., Kanye West, and Lil Wayne and sold 139,000 digital downloads. "American Boy" jetted from a disappointing #53 placing to its new peak at #8 after Atlantic Records decided to put it back on iTunes.

1. Pink - "So What"
2. T.I. - "Whatever You Like"
3. Rihanna - "Disturbia"
4. M.I.A. - "Paper Planes"
5. Jay-Z & T.I. feat. Kanye West & Lil Wayne - "Swagga Like Us"
6. Chris Brown - "Forever"
7. Ne-Yo - "Closer"
8. Estelle feat. Kanye West - "American Boy"
9. Lil Wayne feat. T-Pain - "Got Money"

Kanye West Arrested
Rappers are routinely arrested for drug related incidents, but Kanye West is never content being like other rappers. The "Stronger" star was arrested yesterday after getting into a scuffle with a paparazzi in which he broke the photographer's camera. The incident occurred at 7:51 AM outside the security checkpoint at LAX. West was reportedly headed for Honolulu. "Flashing Lights" indeed.

Estelle Returns to iTunes
On August 31, it was reported that in an effort to boost album sales and revenues, Atlantic records pulled Estelle's "American Boy" from iTunes digital shelves. This move came after Kid Rock saw success with sales of his album Rock N Roll Jesus without letting the hit single "All Summer Long" be available on the digital music store. Apparently this didn't work for Estelle. Album sales of Shine actually dropped 16% before rising 9% last week. "American Boy" which peaked at #11 dropped to #57 without the help of digital downloads. You can now find Shine being advertised in the middle space of the iTunes store banner.

Girls Aloud Win 2008 Popjustice Twenty Quid Prize
In parody of the annual Mercury Music Prize, British pop blog Popjustice holds an "awards ceremony" of their own where readers and writers of the blog meet and argue about the best British single of the past 12 months. Girls Aloud have won three of the past five years and added another win to their belt with "Call The Shots". The Aloud single beat out the likes of "Bleeding Love" and "Dance Wiv Me" to claim the prize.

Past winners:
2003: Girls Aloud "No Good Advice"
2004: Rachel Stevens "Some Girls"
2005: Girls Aloud "Wake Me Up"
2006: Girls Aloud "Biology"
2007: Amy Winehouse "Rehab"
2008: Girls Aloud "Call The Shots"

A Love/Hate Relationship: iTunes And The Music Industry

Last week, Estelle's "American Boy" featuring Kanye West, already a UK #1, sat just outside the top 10 and was poised to make its entrance this week. That, however, did not happen. Instead, "American Boy" plummeted from #11 to #37. The reason for the sudden drop is digital download sales? "American Boy" was the eighth most downloaded song in the country before August 19th when Atlantic Records pulled its parent album, Shine, from iTune's virtual shelves.

The decision came after seeing the relative success of Kid Rock's Rock 'N Roll Jesus. The album has been kept off iTunes, yet has sold 1.6 million copies. If it had been made available digitally, how many of those 1.6 million albums would have been downloads of just one song, say, "All Summer Long", the album's biggest hit? It's impossible to know for sure, but what is certain is that both Atlantic Records and Kid Rock would rather sell a $14.00 album than a $.99 single.

The record industry is facing record lows year after year as online piracy continues, burned CD's and mixes flourish, and other forms of entertainment compete for people's time. Initially, iTunes seemed like the solution to this growing problem, giving consumers a legal alternative to Napster or Limewire. In five years, the Apple music store has sold more than five billion songs and since the beginning of the year has overtaken Wal-Mart's spot as the largest music retailer. Ken Levitan, Kid Rock's manager, sees things differently. In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, Levitan commented, "In so many ways it's turned our business back into a singles business," and that iTunes is "part of the death knell of the music business."

Atlantic's choice to keep albums of iTunes is a bold move designed to boost revenues and keep an album's artistic integrity intact, but it carries big risks. Will consumers who were willing to purchase "American Boy" off the Apple store turn to illegal means to get the track? Will consumers be willing to spend money on an entire album if they only know there is one song on it they like? Levitan is sure the risks are worth it. "Check some of these artists that have hit singles, versus their album sales, then compare it to what Kid Rock is doing." "I Kissed A Girl" by Katy Perry has sold 2.2 million downloads compared to her album, One Of The Boys, which has managed a mere 282,000 copies sold. M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" is up to 888,000 downloads while Kala has sold only 272,000 copies.

As a whole, iTunes sold 844 million songs last year and only 50 million digital albums. It's easy to see why keeping music off iTunes seems so attractive to a record industry in decline but not giving the consumer what they want is always dangerous. Maybe artists should just release a bunch of hit singles from an album and then release a bunch more hit singles and then put them all together on one album. Oh wait, they do. It's called Super Deluxe Ultra Platinum Reloaded Edition Rerelease.

Top Stories

How Well Do Gnarls Barkley know each other? http://music.guardian.co.uk/urban/story/0,,2267813,00.html

Sheryl Crow to join Fleetwood Mac?
http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSN2540584420080325?feedType=RSS&feedName=entertainmentNews&rpc=22&sp=true

Britney Spears boosts 'How I Met Your Mother' rating
http://uk.news.launch.yahoo.com/dyna/article.html?a=/25032008/344/tv-critics-applaud-britney-comeback.html&e=l_news_dm

Mariah Carey closes in on Elvis, Beatles record
http://uk.news.launch.yahoo.com/dyna/article.html?a=/18032008/364/carey-closes-elvis-beatles.html&e=l_news_dm

Estelle and Kanye West top British singles chart
http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003729471

Internet Killed The Video Star

Estelle featuring Kanye West - "American Boy"
Estelle is a British singer/rapper who wants an American boy so she sings a song about it with an American boy, Kanye West. The best part is when she sings "Don't like his baggy jeans but I'ma like whats undearneath it" and does that slight wink that old people do when they say something funny and after they do it you wonder if your eyes are decieving you. Now let's pray for a Rachel Stevens cover.



Daft Hands - "Harder Better Faster Stronger"
Some guy was bored and he wrote all over his hands and created this homemade music video for Daft Punk's "Harder Better Faster Stronger" which was sampled and made famous by Kanye West. This Daft Hands guy needs a job. Enjoyable nonetheless.



Chikizie - "She's A Woman"
For Lennon/McCartney night, Chikizie took "She's A Woman" and reinvinted it into a country rendition before exploding into a rocked out falsetto stuttering version that Simon called terrific. How do you argue with that?




Britney Spears - "Break The Ice"
I don't know wheather to believe that this is the real video or some fan made one using Dragon Ball Z clips. Is she serious?