Michelle Obama just might be one of the hippest first ladies in recent memory. Obama was asked what her favorite music was at the White House "Take Your Child To Work Day".
"I like all kinds of music. I love Stevie Wonder...I've got some Michael Jackson," the First Lady told the children of White House staff members. "I've got some Rihanna, I've got some Beyonce - I love Beyonce. I've got some new Usher. I love to dance, I love a good beat."
Obama has also cited Sting, Mary J. Blige, Robin Thicke, and Herbie Hancock among her favorite artists last October during her interview on "The Jay Leno Show".
Michael Jackson ranks third on Forbes list of highest earning dead celebrities - or delebs as they call them. Jackson raked in $90 million thanks to a strong showing at the box office for This Is It as well as strong music sales. Jackson was listed right about last year's highest earning deleb, Elvis Presley, who made $55 million.
The top earner was fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent followed by Rogers & Hammerstein. Other musicians in the top 13 list (a Forbes tradition) include John Lennon at No. 7 with $15 million and Jimmy Hendrix at No. 12 with $8 million.
You can view the full list on the Forbes site by clicking here.
The earthquake in Haiti has generated a substantial amount of charity recordings, the likes of which were absent following recent disasters in the American south and South Asia. Debuting during the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver is "We Are The World 25", an update of the original "We Are The World" written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie in 1985 to raise money for famine in Africa.
Check the video below featuring artists including Celine Dion, Usher, Pink, Lil Wayne, Randy Jackson, Kanye West, Gladys Knight, the artist formerly known as Hannah Montana and of course, Michael Jackson.
The new "We Are The World" was produced by Quincy Jones, RedOne, and Wyclef Jean. Overall, its pretty good. The rap sections were a welcome surprise, especially Wayne and West's. The autotune though? It needs to go. Seriously. So does that weird yelping noise at 3:16 Sister Knight also needed more face time.
Neilsen Soundscan has released the sales figures for 2009's top selling albums, and Taylor Swift beat out Susan Boyle and Michael Jackson for the top spot. Swift's Fearless sold 3.2 million, just barley ahead of Boyle's I Dreamed A Dream which shifted 3.1 million copies. Jackson's Number Ones came in third selling 2.3 million. Check out 2009's top selling albums below.
1. Fearless
Taylor Swift
3.2 million copies sold
Released November 11, 2008
Swift's victory comes as no surprise. Fearless spent 11 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart. Eleven songs from the album charted on the Hot 100, including "Love Story" at No. 4 and "You Belong With Me" at No. 2. She became the first country artist to win a MTV Video Music Award (and she won over the hearts of Americans thanks to Kanye). Her cross-over appeal ensured both country and top 40 radio airplay. If that wasn't enough, the album was re-released with six new songs (and yes, all six landed somewhere on the Hot 100) spurring sales even more.
2. I Dreamed A Dream
Susan Boyle
3.1 million copies sold
Released November 23, 2009
Susan Boyle's second place finish is very impressive. Released the last week in November, I Dreamed A Dream managed to sell almost as much as Fearless did in an entire year. Thank you YouTube. Thanks to the Britian's Got Talent contestant's audition clip which went viral, the entire world fell in love with Boyle, the unlikley star. Her compelling story, powerful voice, and collection of ballads released right before Christmas was a recipe for success. Millions of consumers who usually don't buy CDs did (And the best thing about those kinds of consumers? They don't illegally download, nor do they know how).
3. Number Ones
Michael Jackson
2.3 million copies sold
Released November 18, 2003
Chart watchers predicted front runner Fearless would face stiff compitition from Number Ones after Jackson died this June. Although 2.3 million isn't bad for a compilation album released in 2003, sales of Number Ones were cannabalized by consumers buying other Jackson records. I'm sure the Jackson estate isn't too worried; the King of Pop ended up the top selling artist of the year with a total of 8.2 million albums sold. Other albums of his in the top 20 were This Is It landed at No. 12, Thriller at No. 14, and The Essential Michael Jackson at No. 20.
4. The Fame
Lady Gaga
2.2 million copies sold
Released August 19, 2008
I actually got The Fame the day it came out. Lady Gaga had lit the blogosphere on fire, but I had no idea that her debut even had the potential to be one of 2009's biggest selling albums. "Just Dance" took its time climbing up the Hot 100, and consumers responded. Gaga wasn't finished though, popping out hit after hit. After so many smash hit singles, consumers eventually decided that buying the full length album was worth their time. The Fame peaked at No. 4 on the album charts in March, but in December, following the release of The Fame Monster, it shot back into the top ten. As of this week, The Fame is ranked No. 2 on the album charts, a new peak.
5. My Christmas
Andrea Bocelli
2.2 million copies sold
Released November 3, 2009
There is something unfullfilling about a Christmas album selling well. At least it isn't 2007, when the best selling album was a Christmas album, Noel by Josh Groben. I guess that's all I have to say about that.
6. Hannah Montana Movie Soundtrack
The Artist Formerly Known As Hannah Montana
1.8 million copies sold
Released March 23, 2009
The artist formerly known as Hannah Montana had one of the same problems as Michael Jackson - too many releases to choose from. Busy soccer moms had three different 2009 Hannah albums to choose from to play for their girls as they drove their SUVs around. The soundtrack to the Disney star's movie was the best choice though, it had "The Climb" on it for crying out loud!
7. The E.N.D.
The Black Eyed Peas
1.7 million copies sold
Released June 9, 2009
You would think that six straight months with the No. 1 song in the country would ensure a little more than 1.7 million in sales, wouldn't you? And how much of these sales are from when the price for the digital album dramatically dropped to coincide with their DirectTV ad and the group's attempt to return to the top ten and make "Meet Me Halfway" their third No. 1 single?
8. Relapse
Eminem 1.7 million copies sold Released May 15, 2009
Eminem had the biggest opening sales week of the year, selling over 600,000 copies of Relapse. That is until Susan Boyle blew him out of the water. Despite a cover that looked like puke in the form of Slim Shady and a slew of under performing singles (except the No. 1 hit "Crack A Bottle"), Relapse was a hit, a comeback for one of the early 00s biggest rappers.
9. Blueprint 3
Jay-Z 1.5 million copies sold Released September 11, 2009
Jay-Z passed Elvis and became the solo artist with the most No. 1 albums when Blueprint 3 opened at the top spot, his 11th to do so. Anchored by high profile guest appearances like Rihanna, Kanye West, and Alicia Keys, Hova appealed to his rap base but had the hooks to cross over to pop. Even though the artist formerly known as Hannah Montana sang about the Jay-Z song being on, she reportedly never heard one. After Blueprint 3 singles impacted radio, I'm sure that changed.
10. Only By The Night
Kings of Leon 1.3 million copies sold Released September 19, 2009
Like The Fame, I bough Only By The Night the day it was released after I fell in love with "Sex On Fire". The Kings of Leon seemed destined for mediocrity when it came to sales of their latest album, but then "Use Somebody" happened. Its a cheap Nickleback-lite tune, but for some reason, Americans loved it. Not only did they buy the song, but they ended up buying the entire album. Only By The Night ended up being iTune's Album of the Year.
I can't tell you how many times a song has come on and I've heard the comment, "Oh, this is on Guitar Hero". The video game that took karaoke a step further by adding plastic instruments also seemed like a viable alternative to selling CDs for a record industry scrambling for a new business model. Guitar Hero became apart of pop culture, a Dance Dance Revolution for your fingers, so much so that the Beatles were on board by decade's end.
American Idol Runner-up David Archuleta Releases His Inner Rock Star in Guitar Hero Commercial
February 22, 2006 - Coldplay's "The Speed of Sound" Becomes One Billionth Song Downloaded on iTunes Only three years after the launch of iTunes, the one billionth song was downloaded from the site. The billionth song downloaded was Coldplay's "Speed of Sound" by Alex Ostrovsky of West Bloomfield, Michigan. “Over one billion songs have now been legally purchased and downloaded around the globe, representing a major force against music piracy and the future of music distribution as we move from CDs to the Internet," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO.
Coldplay performs "Speed of Sound" on the UK's Top of the Pops
March 11, 2006 - James Blunt Goes No. 1 on Billboard Hot 100 In March of 2006, British singer James Blunt shocked chart watchers when his song "You're Beautiful" went No. 1. It was the first non-hip-hop, non-American Idol coronation song to go No. 1 in America since Nickleback's "How You Remind Me" in 2001 ("Hollaback Girl" was produced by N.E.R.D., so its position as the milestone single has been disputed). "Beautiful" was a turning point for the Hot 100 because after it, the charts were once more diverse. For the remainder of 2006, pop acts like Rihanna, Shakira, and Fergie scored No. 1s alongside Ludacris and Akon. The advent of iTunes democratized the Hot 100, allowing consumers to influence the charts instead of just radio programmers.
James Blunt performs his big hit "You're Beautiful" in Italy.
April 8, 2006 - Gnarls Barkley's Download Only "Crazy" Goes No. 1 in UK
The British singles charts have been more sales oriented than its American counterpart. While the physical single died a painful death in the States, they were still an important part of the British music industry and the weekly charts. With the growing popularity of digital downloads, it was inevitable that a song would come along and top the charts without a physical single release. "Crazy" was that song. On downloads alone, the track went No. 1 for an astounding 9 weeks, an incredibly rare feat in that country.
Gnarls Barkley, dressed in airline uniforms, takes to Top of the Pops to perform a re imagined version of "Crazy"
September 9, 2007 - Britney Spears Performs "Gimme More" at Video Music Awards By 2007, Britney Spears had come a long way from her ubiquitous squeaky clean sex symbol days at the turn of the century. She had her quickie Las Vegas marriage and canceled her World Tour. She married Kevin Federline, made a reality show and two children with him, and divorced him. She attacked the paparazzi with an umbrella, shaved her hair, and went in and out of rehab for the whole world to see. It was a sickening tabloid fueled reality show that kept the world on the edge of their collective seats. No moment encapsulates Spears' public downward spiral like her VMA performance where she lip sync and half-dances to "Gimme More", a song that both lyrically and sonically describes the state Spears was in at the time.
Britney Spears in what some have called the worst VMA performance of all time
October 1, 2007 - Radiohead Releases Choose Your Price "In Rainbows" Online
Radiohead blew up the Internet and what was left of the record industry when they released their seventh studio album, In Rainbows. Having fulfilled their contractual obligation to EMI, the band could do whatever the hell they wanted with their new material. "Every record for the last four—including my solo record—has been leaked. So the idea was like, we'll leak it, then," said lead singer Thom Yorke. The album was put online for fans to download at allowed them to name their own price. You could be a cheapskate and get it for free, or you could drop $50 right then and there if you thought it was worth it. Some speculated that Radiohead ended up making more money this way then they would have with a normal physical release. For the rest of the decade, the phrase "Radiohead model" was knocked around anytime a band thought out of the box to distribute their music.
The winning fan made video for the "Reckoner" music video contest.
May 27, 2008 - Weezer Releases Video for "Pork and Beans" The 2000s was a decade where anyone could broadcast a message, and if it was interesting enough, millions of people would tune in and watch it. YouTube was the perfect medium for wannabe entertainers seeking an outlet. In the latter half of the decade, it seemed like new viral videos popped up on a weekly basis. Some videos had people who intentionally wanted their 15 minutes of fame, while the fame was probably unwanted for those starring in embarrassing clips. While everyone was nostalgically poking fun at the 80s, Weezer was doing the same thing to the 00s before they were even over. The band packed every YouTube star into their ironic "Pork and Beans". How many viral video stars can you spot?
June 17, 2008 - Lil Wayne Sells 1 Million Copies of "Tha Carter III" in a Week As album sales continued to spiral south, 50 Cent's 2005 albumThe Massacre seemed destined to be the last to post a million plus sales the first week of its release. Three years later, Lil Wayne proved everyone wrong when Tha Carter III stormed the charts with similar numbers. Wayne's route to impressive first week sales seemed counter-intuitive, he flooded the Internet with free music. Offering free mixtapes, demand for his full length album built and buzz on the blogosphere reached dizzying levels. When he dropped Tha Carter III, the buying public responded. Maybe free music is the way to go.
Lil Wayne's first No. 1 hit, "Lollipop".
November 24, 2008 - Kanye West Releases "808s & Heartbreak" Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreaks was a game changer. It was one of the most controversial records of the decade with many embracing Ye's transition from rapper to pop star and his heavy unashamed used of auto-tune, while many thought it was trash. The record was such a landmark because it was one of the few records of the decade that showed an artist using their music to tell their story. Sure, everyone from Christiana to Ashlee Simpson has promised that they would show you the "real me", but each attempt fell flat on its face. Unfortunately, Jay-Z's announcement that auto-tune was dead along with West's VMA outburst minimized the record's importance as time wore on. The artsy music video for "Heartless", 808s & Heartbreak's most successful single.
February 7, 2009 - Kelly Clarkson Breaks Record Again
The Hot 100 during the late 2000s became a battleground for breaking and re-breaking the record for largest jump to No. 1. The initial record was set by the Beatles in 1964 when "Can't Buy Me Love" leaped 27-1 in a single week. That record stood until 2002 when Kelly Clarkson laid waste to it with a 52-1 jump of "A Moment Like This". Each record happened for its own quirky reason. The Beatles had released dozens of songs on a handful of American labels without much success and then their television exposure on The Ed Sullivan Show shot them from obscurity to massive success overnight. Similarly, Clarkson received huge exposure after winning American Idol and her debut single was released the week following her win which made for a lot of pent up demand. When Billboard began incorporating digital sales into the singles charts, the whole game changed. To break the record, an artist would need to release a song to the radio only for a few days so it would barley make the Hot 100, and then release the song digitally and sell bus loads of it. Maroon 5 broke Clarkson's record in 2007 with "Makes Me Wonder" followed by T.I. breaking it in 2008 with "Whatever You Like" and breaking it once again with "Live Your Life" featuring Rihanna. His new record lasted a week until Britney Spears re-set it with "Womanizer". Kelly Clarkson finally retook the position for biggest leap to No. 1 in 2009 when "My Life Would Suck Without You" pole vaulted 97-1.
Kelly Clarkson performs her second record breaking hit "My Life Would Suck Without You".
April 18, 2009 - Black Eyed Peas Begin 24-week Run at No. 1 on Billboard Hot 100 As music continued to fragment and the task of getting the whole world to pay attention to one artist for even more than a few days became harder and harder, a few things happened in 2009 to show that it was still possible. Of these three events, two involved some of the greatest artists of all time from decade's past. Only one involved a current act. The Black Eyed Peas shattered the record for most consecutive time at No. 1 when "Boom Boom Pow" topped the charts for 12 weeks and was immediately followed by "I've Gotta Feelin'" which stayed in the penthouse for 14 weeks. That's six months. Half a year. I'm sure the Peas would love to interpret that as meaning they are among the greatest musical acts of all time, but it really came down to Americans not getting tired of these two songs for a very long time as well as no other songs being able to garner enough digital downloads and radio airplay to take them down.
The Black Eyed Peas go Boom Boom Pow at the Much Music Awards.
June 25, 2009 - Michael Jackson Dies On the eve of his highly anticipated This Is It show, Michael Jackson was rushed to a hospital and declared dead shortly thereafter. News of the singers death blew up the Internet, and soon radio stations switched to an all Michael format. The self proclaimed King of Pop's catalog of music stormed the iTunes store, and in the following weeks, Michael Jackson albums outsold the Black Eyed Peas The E.N.D., the first time an older album had outsold a newer release since Soundscan began tracking album sales in 1992. Michael Jackson's death brought together the world for a single musical force in a way that few artists could have ever done and even fewer will be able to do in the future.
Footage from Michael Jackson's concert rehearsal was turned into a movie and a cash cow called This Is It.
September 9, 2009 - The Beatles' Remastered Catalog, Rockband Game Released On the prophetic 9/9/09, the Beatles released their entire body of work digitally remastered as well as their very own version of the successful Rockband video game. Only a few months after the death renewed interest in Michael Jackson and his music, many saw this as the Beatles opportunity to do the same. Although the Beatles failed to garner the sales that Jackson did, they did manage to outsell many new releases and by the end of the year, Billboard decided to count older albums in its flagship album chart, the Billboard 2000.
The Beatles' Rockband commercial.
September 13, 2009 - Kanye West Interrupts Taylor Swift During Acceptance Speech Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me" beat out the superior and more culturally significant "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)" by Beyonce for Best Female Video at the 2009 Video Music Awards. A drunk Kanye West took to the stage, as he often does, but instead of wanting an award for himself, he stood up for Beyonce (who later won the Moonman for Video of the Year). The word "jackass" was thrown around quite liberally, including by Barack Obama, Taylor Swift became America's sweetheart, and Beyonce, who gave up her mike time to Swift came out a hero.
Kanye West gives his PR team the biggest headache of their careers.
"Last nights AMAs seems to have met all 3 award show requirements: a staged controversy, a gaffe and a triumph." said John Mayer on his Twitter following Sunday's American Music Awards in Los Angeles. He was right.
The show attracted 14.2 million viewers, the most since 2002. Let's take a look at all the ingredients that made the show such a smash.
Staged controversy: Adam Lambert's entire performance
The American Idol runner-up promised a performance you wouldn't forget, and he delivered. Wailing "For Your Entertainment", Lambert dragged a female dancer by her legs across the stage, rammed a male dancer's head into his crotch, and made out with an androgynous keyboard player all within three minutes and thirty seconds. The cameras switched to a view of the audience as soon as possible after Lambert had his dancer simulate oral sex, which would make you think ABC had no idea this would happen...but really? I'm skeptical.
Gaffe: Jennifer Lopez Falls I still have no idea what "Louboutins" are, or why Jennifer Lopez thinks she has any right to walk around in a boxing robe and proclaim herself a champion, but I do know that girlfriend should not try to dance in high heels. Lopez wasn't even wearing high heels, but she managed to fall on stage during her performance. Although Lambert would take a tumble while climbing up stairs in his number, Lopez's fall over shadowed his. It was kind of like that duck flying into the plane the last week of George W. Bush's administration, but sexier. *I wish I could get a clip up for you all to see just in case you missed the broadcast, but unfortunately, Dick Clark productions got the video yanked from YouTube :(
Triumph: The return of Whitney Houston Whitney Houston put the finishing touches on her comeback by winning the seldom awarded International Artist of the Year Award. She performed "I Didn't Know My Own Strength" which worked perfectly lyrically, but was lacking on every other level. Lousy song Whitney, you should have done "Million Dollar Bill". But still, you're back on your feet.
Other highlights of the show:
Jermaine Jackson picking up awards for his late brother (I know we miss him and all, but should we really be handing out awards for Best Soul/R&B artist for someone who hasn't released new material in eight years?). He brought his kids along with him. There was Jermajesty, Jermama, Jerbama, and Jermanji
Taylor Swift dominating. The girl won 5 AMAs including Artist of the Year. She tweeted, "It's 5:30 AM in London, where I still haven't slept and my feet haven't touched the ground. Thank you for the AMA's. Thank you."
Jay-Z and Alicia Keys belting out "Empire State of Mind". I love this song. It deserves to be No. 1
Lady Gaga's monsterific performance of "Bad Romance" complete with electric glowing monster skeleton outfits and a burning piano. I would have been more surprised though if she came out in a parka.
Beginning December 5, Billboard will include all albums sold nationally in its Billboard 200 album chart.
This was how albums were originally tracked, but in 1991, Billboard excluded albums that had been out longer than 18 months and dropped below the No. 100 position. This was done so the record industry could see how their albums were doing without having Pink Floyd'sThe Dark Side of the Moon in the way. In 2003, the Top Comprehensive chart was created to reflect the sale of both old and new albums.
Earlier this year, Michael Jackson became the first artist to ever outsell a new release with an older catalog album. His Number Ones, Essential, and Thriller all outsold the Black Eyed Peas'The E.N.D. for several weeks following his death in June. Without having a precedent for such a feat, Billboard just reported the Top Comprehensive chart, made things up as they went along, but didn't budge on the rules.
In September, the Beatles released their entire body of work digitally remastered. Once again, these titles were excluded from the flagship Billboard 200 album chart, but they dominated the Comprehensive chart.
Nothing like this has ever happened before, or at least happened with the ability to track it. Several Elvis Presley albums probably outsold Fleetwood Mac'sRumors in 1977 following his death, but until the advent of Soundscan in 1991, album sales couldn't be tracked as precisely. With two high profile instances of catalog albums outselling new releases, both dealing with two of the biggest artists in popular musical history, Billboard has decided to tweak their chart.
For an industry in decline, reporting album sales this way makes sense. Sure, Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga will be big sellers this Christmas, but so will Michael Jackson and the Beatles. My big question is will Dark Side of the Moon rocket up the chart out of nowhere, and, if it does, who is still buying it?
Michael Jackson'sThis Is It hit theaters this week to mixed reviews.
The film is pieced together from endless hours of rehearsal footage and portrays Jackson on the verge of one of the greatest concerts of all time. The fact that it never saw the light of day only adds magic and mystique to the production.
The question remains, if Jackson did live to put on The Is It, would it have lived up to its lofty expectations, or would it have been a massive flop?
Director Kenny Ortega argues for the first option, and does so by showing only the best clips available. It makes you wonder how bad some of the footage was if Jackson's half dancing, half singing during some songs is the best they had. Still, this footage was never meant to be shown to the public, it was only put together after the star's death as a money making venture.
Some Jackson fans are upset over the film's portrayal of the star and have put together a campaign called This Is Not It. Their website states, "In the weeks leading up to Michael Jackson’s death, while this footage was being shot, people around him knew that he looked like he might have died. Those who stood to make a profit chose to ignore it." The group calls the film, "movie magic at its best," saying that it does not portray what was really going on at the time.
But come on, people don't necessarily want to watch a movie about a stressed Jackson coping with drugs, weight loss, and wondering if he could even complete the 50 show run. At least not right now. That will work well for sweeps on 20/20 at some point in the future, but people still want to remember Michael Jackson for his musical accomplishments and celebrate his body of work, which is exactly what This Is It does...along with making Kenny Ortega a boatload of money.
The American Music Awards have announced the nominees for the 2010 show which will air Nov. 22.
Taylor Swift leads the pack with six including Favorite Female Artist where she's up against Lady Gaga and Beyonce (uh oh) and Favorite Album where Fearless contends with Gaga's The Fame and, get this, Michael Jackson's2003 greatest hits compilation, Number Ones.
I know that Ones is currently the top selling album of 2009 (look out though, the No. 2, Fearless, is getting a re-release which means this is anyone's race), but doesn't it seem a bit odd to award a six year old greatest hits package 2009's favorite album award? Jackson is also up for Favorite Male Artist in the pop/rock category and Artist of the Year. Hm...
The artist formerly known as Hannah Montana has two nominations under Favorite Soundtrack. That should be exciting.
Britney Spears racks up her third No. 1 hit with the trashy "3" and became the first artist in over three years to debut at No. 1.
"3", written by Max Martin, the one man responsible for what's wrong with pop today, is the sole new track to be included on Spears' forthcoming greatest hits album, The Singles Collection. In debuting at No. 1, Spears joins an elite group of artists to do so.
Changes in the way Billboard tabulated the Hot 100 in 1995 made a physical single mandatory to chart. Michael Jackson and his label became the first to take advantage of this with a greatest hits single of his own, "You Are Not Alone". The song was sent to radio without a physical single being released. The label allowed airplay and demand for the song to build for weeks until they knew they could sell a boatload of singles right out of the gate. The physical copy of "You Are Not Alone" was then released in September of that year and sold enough that the track materialized at No.1. Before the month was over, Mariah Carey did the same thing with "Fantasy".
From 1995 to 1998, nine more songs achieved this feat until Billboard reversed the rule that made a physical single a requirement for charting, allowing airplay only songs to appear on the Hot 100. Without this eccentricity, debuting at No. 1 became nearly impossible. In 2003, Clay Aiken made a No. 1 debut thanks to his exposure on American Idol and the pent up demand for his quickly release single "This Is The Night". The following three years saw three more American Idol stars repeated Aiken's feat and debuting on top became almost an American Idol rite of passage. These chart toppers stopped in 2007 when American Idol changed they way in which they released the coronation songs.
Spears' No. 1 debut will no doubt set off a string of other artists seeking to do the same thing. It's all about bragging rights. "3" also becomes the record holder for shortest chart topper, ending the five-way tie between Frankie Avalon's "Why", the Jackson 5's "ABC", Edwin Starr's "War", and two Michael Jackson hits, "Ben" and "Bad".
"3" is Max Martin's fourth No. 1 hit in a year and a half (Katy Perry's "I Kissed A Girl", Pink's "So What", and Kelly Clarkson's "My Life Would Suck Without You", a classy string of hits, I know). A few weeks ago I wrote about how Britney needed to fire him for writing such tasteless pieces of s***, but seeing as how he delivers the hits, however bad they might be, I don't see that happening. Oh well.
1. "3" - Britney Spears 2. "Down" - Jay Sean feat. Lil Wayne 3. "Party In The U.S.A." - Miley Cyrus 4. "Whatcha Say" - Jason Derulo 5. "Run This Town" - Jay-Z feat. Kanye West & Rihanna 6. "I've Gotta Feelin'" - Black Eyed Peas 7. "Paparazzi" - Lady Gaga 8. "You Belong With Me" - Taylor Swift 9. "Fireflies" - Owl City 10. "Use Somebody" - Kings of Leon
In the wake of Michael Jackson's death, millions of Americans who have grown accustomed to obtaining their music illegally have gone out and gotten it the "old fashioned" way; they've paid for it. The disc that has benefited the most is his 2003 compilation Number Ones which spent over a month outselling the Black Eyed Peas.
Billboard has released sales figures and in 2009, Number Oneshas shifted an incredible 1,619,000 copies. That puts the album right ahead of what seemed to be 2009's inevitable top seller, Taylor Swift's Fearless. Swift's sophomore effort is right behind at 1,608,000 copies sold. Imagine that, a year where the No. 1 and No. 2 best selling albums sold over 1.5 million copies. It feels like 2005 or something.
2009 still has four months left filled with Jackson's 51st birthday and his concert film set to hit theaters and Swift still flexing her muscles dominating both pop and country radio (and over half the songs on her album have charted on the Hot 100 at some point in the past year), these last few months are going to be like the final stretch of the most exciting 400 meter race music has seen all decade.
A new category MTV will introduce at this year's VMAs is the Best Video (That Should Have Won A Moonman) for videos that didn't get the credit they deserved. The nominees are:
Beastie Boys: “Sabotage” Bjork: “Human Behavior” Dr Dre: “Nuthin’ But A ‘G’ Thang” Foo Fighters: “Everlong” George Michael: “Freedom ‘90″ OK Go: “Here It Goes Again” Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers: “Into The Great Wide Open” Radiohead: “Karma Police” David Lee Roth: “California Girls” U2: “Where The Streets Have No Name”
I'm voting for "Freedom '90" or "Karma Police". Thinking of this category made me wonder what other videos didn't take home the moonman and how stupid MTV looks in retrospect. Probably the most glaring loss came during the inaugural show when "Billie Jean" lost out to the Cars "You Might Think".
It was 4:00PM on Thursday, June 25, 2009. I was reading an article on the Drudge Report about Michael Jackson being rushed to the hospital. Then the page refreshed. The King of Pop had died. I went to Facebook and watched as the news exploded across everyone's status updates. Some people were sad. Other people were pretentious and snickered about how everyone else posted something about it. Regardless of what was said, the news of his death blew up the blogs, Facebook, and Twitter.
The effects could be seen on iTunes as well where Jackson dominated every list possible. At one point he held No. 1-9 of the top ten albums with an additional 11 albums further down the list. On the songs chart, Michael Jackson or Jackson 5 songs took up a whopping 40% of the list with "Man In The Mirror" (oddly enough) the top seller. It currently sits at No. 2. Of course, its no surprise that the video "Thriller" has had a firm hold on the top spot for music videos and only Taylor Swift has broken his dominance over the entire top ten.
There are very few people on planet Earth whose death could have caused such a commotion the way Michael Jackson's did. I commented on the star's 50th birthday that no amount of scandal or overdone plastic surgery could seem to tarnish his legacy. He might have been the weirdest man alive but, his body of work spoke for itself and was louder than his detractors. He was the last great universal pop star, the last artist who united people across generations, races, and nations in a way that is impossible now due to the fragmentation of pop culture. There will never be another Elvis. There will never be another Beatles. There will never be another Michael Jackson.
This is a natural and understandable biographical thread for Jackson encomia to pursue: after the sordid details of his personal life are burned off, Jackson’s music-business achievements are enormous. That said, as you head into this weekend, you’re going to hear and read a lot of superlatives about Jackson’s body of work, and the sheer length of the list might obscure which sales statistics and career kudos really matter.
But let me be clear: I come to praise Jacko, not bury him. The fact is, even a quarter-century after Thriller’s last hit fell off the Hot 100, the Gloved One’s industry achievements are stunning. More important, Jackson is one of very few acts for whom chart achievements serve as a fairly accurate barometer for artistic and cultural impact. This is one case where the commentators’ assessments are correct: We won’t see his like again.
To hear some of the breathless analysis over the last 24 hours, you’d think that Jackson had set every pop-music record, ever. The fact is, some of Michael’s stats aren’t all that staggering. His 13 Grammys are less than half of those of his mentor/producer Quincy Jones, and they don’t even place him among the awards’ Top 10 recipients. His total U.S. album certifications of 61.5 million — nearly half for Thriller alone — place him below everyone from Garth Brooks to AC/DC to Billy Joel and are just barely above one-third of the Beatles’ lifetime total. His 13 U.S. No. 1 singles land him fourth on the all-time list, below the Beatles-Mariah-Elvis trifecta. None of his singles has ever been the No. 1 hit of the year, and bizarrely, none of his videos ever won MTV’s Video of the Year award. (Oh, and by the way, “King of Pop”? That was a marketing term coined by Jackson’s own people in 1991 in an attempt to hype the overblown album Dangerous.)
A secret library of over a hundred songs recorded by Michael Jackson could be released following his death.
One of the singer's biographers, Ian Halperin, claimed that the unheard songs had been made for his children.
Mr Halperin, author of Unmasked, The Michael Jackson Story, said before his death: “He wants to leave them for his kids, a very personal legacy to them. I was told he will not let them come out now.”
The daughter of the King of Rock n' Roll and ex-wife of King of Pop wrote about Jackson's death in her blog:
"Years ago Michael and I were having a deep conversation about life in general. I can't recall the exact subject matter but he may have been questioning me about the circumstances of my Fathers Death.
At some point he paused, he stared at me very intensely and he stated with an almost calm certainty, "I am afraid that I am going to end up like him, the way he did."
I promptly tried to deter him from the idea, at which point he just shrugged his shoulders and nodded almost matter of fact as if to let me know, he knew what he knew and that was kind of that.
14 years later I am sitting here watching on the news an ambulance leaves the driveway of his home, the big gates, the crowds outside the gates, the coverage, the crowds outside the hospital, the Cause of death and what may have led up to it and the memory of this conversation hit me, as did the unstoppable tears.
A predicted ending by him, by loved ones and by me, but what I didn't predict was how much it was going to hurt when it finally happened."
Michael Jackson's planned 50-show run at the O2 Arena in London would have been the highest-grossing single concert engagement. Now it's a major problem for the promoter AEG Live.
More than $85 million worth of tickets have already been sold for the series of performances, which have the now sadly ironic title "This Is It." As much as $30 million has already been spent on production, according to sources close to the situation. So what's at stake for AEG, the world's second-largest concert promoter, can't be overstated.
Michael Jackson, 50, the self proclaimed King of Pop, died today after being rushed to the hospital. The singer was less than a month away from his first major concert event in twelve years, his 'This Is It' 50 show run at the O2 Arena in London. Jackson's 1982 album Thriller remains the best selling album of all time with 28 million copies sold in the US alone. The birth of Napster ensured that he'll keep that record forever. Jackson amassed 13 No. 1 hits in his career. Mark Sanford is breathing a sigh of relief.
Neilsen Soundscan has released the sales figures for 2009's top selling albums, and Taylor Swift beat out Susan Boyle and Michael Jackson for the top spot. 
1. Fearless
2. I Dreamed A Dream
3. Number Ones
4. The Fame
5. My Christmas
6. Hannah Montana Movie Soundtrack
7. The E.N.D.
8. Relapse
9. Blueprint 3
10. Only By The Night
Happy Halloween. Here's some Halloween classics plus other frightening music videos
Michael Jackson's This Is It hit theaters this week to mixed reviews.
The American Music Awards have announced the nominees for the 2010 show which will air Nov. 22.
Britney Spears racks up her third No. 1 hit with the trashy "3" and became the first artist in over three years to debut at No. 1.
A new category MTV will introduce at this year's VMAs is the Best Video (That Should Have Won A Moonman) for videos that didn't get the credit they deserved. The nominees are:
It was 4:00PM on Thursday, June 25, 2009. I was reading an article on the Drudge Report about Michael Jackson being rushed to the hospital. Then the page refreshed. The King of Pop had died. I went to Facebook and watched as the news exploded across everyone's status updates. Some people were sad. Other people were pretentious and snickered about how everyone else posted something about it. Regardless of what was said, the news of his death blew up the blogs, Facebook, and Twitter.
The daughter of the King of Rock n' Roll and ex-wife of King of Pop wrote about Jackson's death in her blog:
Michael Jackson's planned 50-show run at the O2 Arena in London would have been the highest-grossing single concert engagement. Now it's a major problem for the promoter AEG Live.
