Thursday, April 21, 2011

Billboard Hot 100, April 30, 2011


1. S&M - Rihanna (feat. Britney Spears)

Madonna. Whitney Houston. Mariah Carey. Janet Jackson. That's the list of the biggest female pop stars of all time. That circle widens today to admit a new member: Rihanna. With "S&M," Rihanna joins the elite club of 10 artists that have scored 10 or more #1 hits on the Hot 100. She is, of course, the 5th female artist to do so. The other five are groups or men: The Beatles, Elvis, Michael Jackson, The Supremes, and Stevie Wonder.

Rihanna amassed her 10 #1s in a pretty short period of time. The Beatles got theirs in a mere 20 months, but among the ladies, Rihanna wins the race. Janet: 15 years between "When I Think fo You" and "All for You." Madonna: 8 years between "Like a Virgin" and "This Used to Be My Playground." Whitney: 6 years between "Saving All My Love for You" and "I Will Always Love You." Mariah: 5 years and 6 months between "Vision of Love" and "One Sweet Day." Rihanna? She comes in at just under 5 years between "SOS" and "S&M"--how appropriately similar these songs are titled.

Britney Spears deserves some credit for giving Rihanna an assist. It was sales of the new remix with Spears that sent the single over the top this week (and made the song this week's Digital Gainer). Billboard is listing this track now as "Rihanna featuring Britney Spears," so I suppose we can also count this as Spears' fifth #1 hit.

2. E.T. - Katy Perry feat. Kanye West

Perry falls a notch to #2, but is still a strong gainer, earning this week's Airplay Gainer. The song has over 14,000 spins at top 40 radio. I don't think I've ever seen a song get so much airplay. It's possible she'll top 15,000. There must be more top 40 stations these days. That's really impressive airplay.

6. Rolling in the Deep - Adele

Adele climbs 4 spots to #6 with "Rolling in the Deep." Something I should mention about her that has nothing to do with the Hot 100....So much attention on 21 lately, but I think 19 deserves some mention too. That album debuted at #1 in Britain in 2008, yet it's sold more copies this year than it did 3 years ago and has spent twice as much time in the top 10 in 2011 than it did in 2008. Considering that is has no current singles--and hasn't for years--that's really impressive. For a new album to be so popular as to serve for very effective promotion of an old album is pretty impressive. 21 was #1 in the US last week, but falls to #2 this week because of Foo Fighters (who also took the #1 spot from Adele in Britain). 19 isn't nearly as popular in the US--it is #42 this week.

10. Judas - Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga debuts at #10 with "Judas," the follow-up single to her recent #1 "Born This Way," which falls out of the top 10 this week. "Judas" is the Lady's 9th top 10 hit. It's #10 debut isn't as impressive as the #1 debut of her last single, but it's still not bad. "Born This Way" had an unusual chart run--that doesn't mean "Judas" can't have a more normal but still impressive one.

24. Price Tag - Jessie J feat. B.o.B

Jessie J makes an impressive jump, up 16 notches to #24. It's top 40 airplay isn't growing so fast these days, but could turn around.

2 comments:

Myfizzypop said...

i read a really interesting article today about the Gaga backlash. Had to happen sometime i suppose, but it doesn't really seem to be affecting her record sales (though i believe Judas will go to between #5-7 with it's first full weeks sales in the UK)...

Adele's accomplishments with 19 are astonishing really. Well done her. I think the success of her, Bruno Mars and The Overtones in the UK show there is a massive market for pure melody, studio wizardry free music at the mo...

Cook In / Dine Out said...

I was really surprised that "Born This Way" only reached #3 in the UK. There was a bit of a backlash here, but it still spent 6 weeks at #1. "Judas" will probably be top 5 in the US, although I don't expect it will hit #1. We'll see.