For the second time in a month, national album-sales figures released Wednesday morning by SoundScan — the firm that tracks and reports record sales in the U.S. — have been revised, making part of our report yesterday incorrect.

It seems that the Pussycat Dolls actually sold nearly 5,000 more copies of their latest LP, Doll Domination, than was originally reported by SoundScan. On Wednesday morning, the chart posted on the SoundScan site had PCD debuting at #5 on next week's albums chart with 74,000 copies sold, and the Kings of Leon's Only By the Night opening at #4, with 74,400 copies scanned.
Read more...

It's Wednesday, and you know what that means: We've got just two days to go before the start of another weekend, and the latest albums sales figures are in. Unfortunately, this week's SoundScan report's kind of a snoozer, but there is a new #1 album to laud.

After five weeks of slowly climbing up Billboard's top 200, the "Mamma Mia!" soundtrack has finally reached the top, bumping Sugarland's Love on the Inside from #1 to #3, on the strength of nearly 130,700 scans (the country duo sold 91,400 units). The soundtrack actually sold more copies last week (around 137,800), but thanks to generally sluggish sales, the set moves from #3 to #1 on next week's chart. Wedged in between "Mamma Mia!" and Sugarland, we find "Hannah Montana" star Miley Cyrus' LP Breakout, which, after three weeks in stores, continues to generate impressive scans, this week adding another 102,400 units to its tally; all told, that offering has sold exactly 636,800 copies.

Read more...

Someone has just bought Miley Cyrus for $16,800. Well, he actually bought the chance to meet the star at the November premiere of her animated flick "Bolt."

The winner is a dad from Connecticut, who secured the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for his 11-year-old daughter. The premiere is sure to be a star-studded event, as John Travolta and Malcolm McDowell also voice characters in the movie. Along with the meet-and-greet, several other items were auctioned off on eBay, raising a total of $58,100 by the time bidding closed on Tuesday. Don't worry, though: Miley's not pocketing the dough. It's going to the Pappy Cyrus Family Foundation, which supports underprivileged kids.

Read more...

For more than a month, there's been a heated battle happening on the weekly Billboard albums sales chart, waged between 2008's best-selling albums: rapper Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III and Coldplay's Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends. After Wayne's latest debuted at #1, selling more than a million copies, Coldplay's LP swooped in, knocking Tha Carter III from the top spot, where the rockers' record stayed for two weeks. Last week, Wayne made a comeback, reclaiming the peak position.

According to the latest figures released by Nielsen SoundScan, Wayne's newest will hold at #1 on next week's top 200, selling another 124,700 units and bringing total sales of the disc to 1.8 million. Coldplay's Viva la Vida clings to the #2 spot with sales reported at 112,600. Meanwhile, the soundtrack to the Disney Channel original movie "Camp Rock" follows at #3 — a position it's held since its release four weeks ago — with 88,500 scans.

Climbing two spots next week to #5, with 61,000 sold, is Kid Rock's Rock N Roll Jesus, which experienced a 35 percent sales boost on the strength of the LP's latest single, "All Summer Long." Now That's What I Call Music! Vol. 28 follows at #6 with 48,000 sold, while Rihanna's Good Girl Gone Bad moves one spot to #8 with 47,000 scans. G-Unit's T.O.S. (Terminate on Sight) follows at #9, selling another 36,400, while John Mayer's Where the Light Is rounds things out at #10 with 33,700 sold.

As far as new releases go, there are a total of 23 making their impact felt on next week's chart, with two opening in the top 10. Beck's latest, Modern Guilt, enters the chart at #4, having sold 84,300 copies, while the soundtrack to the big-screen adaptation of "Mamma Mia!" bows at #7 with 48,400 sold. Elsewhere on the chart, the Maine's Can't Stop Won't Stop debuts at #40, scanning 12,100 copies, while New York electronica outfit Ratatat's LP3 follows at #82, selling 7,800 units.

3Oh!3's Want enters at #89, having scanned 7,500 copies, with Hit the Lights' Skip School, Start Fights trailing at #97 on sales of 7,000 and change. Maroon 5 and Whitechapel are tied at #117, as Live from Le Cabaret and This Is Exile both scanned exactly 5,907 copies. Kerli's Love Is Dead bows at #126 with 5,500 sold, while Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond, Jr.'s sophomore solo offering, ¿Como Te Llama? debuts at #145, after selling 4,500 copies. The Melvins' Nude With Boots follows at #148 with 4,400 sold, while Me First and the Gimme Gimmes' Have Another Ball claims the #164 slot with 4,000 scans.

It’s hard to imagine an artist as accomplished and beloved as Neil Diamond (trust us -- your mom digs him) has never, over the course of his more than forty-year career, known the feeling of having an album hit the chart at #1. Hard to imagine, but true.

That's why this week is so sweet for the Solitary Man, because according to the latest SoundScan figures, Diamond’s Rick Rubin-produced Home Before Dark has broken that bad-luck streak, selling close to 146,000 copies to top next week’s chart. This was no doubt made possible by the tremendous boost of having some of his classic tunes featured (and, you know, mostly murdered) on that popular singing contest "American Idol."

Check out some other twists and turns in the chart, after the jump. Read more...

The latest SoundScan figures are in, and, for a second straight week, the nation’s best-selling LP – by a long shot -- belongs to Miss Mariah. The hilariously named E=MC2, sold nearly 182,000 copies. But, let’s face it -- La Diva’s run at the top will almost certainly be cut short next week, when Madonna’s Hard Candy enters the Top 200. Madge could take on Mariah on the shelves and on the mat.

But the most interesting thing about next week’s chart, though, has to be Atmosphere, whose latest set, When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That S--- Gold, enters the chart at #5. Considering the Minneapolis hip-hop duo’s still on the fringe, it was surprising to see that their record sold 36,400 copies in its first week -- not shabby at all for MC Slug (above) and producer Ant, who’ve thrived on their underground cred since getting together back in the mid-90’s.

Maybe their hipster cred has finally reached a boiling point? Or maybe it’s the guest-vocal props from Tom Waits and TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe? Then again, Atmosphere’s long been a slow burn -- they’re one of the best-selling indie hip-hop acts of the last decade, rebuffing a few major-label offers in their day. Or maybe it’s Slug’s completely tripped-out lyrics.

What do you think helped Atmosphere break through?

Check out Slug talking about the making of the album, after the jump. Read more...

Most of the 29th floor (that's MTV News HQ) is seriously in denial of the country genre -- except when co-opted ironically by Jack White, or tweaked into hipster Americana by Conor Oberst. You know, Pitchfork country! That's why it's particularly painful to deal with this industry touchstone called "SoundScan" week in and week out: it's just hard evidence of how much the rest of the USA disagrees with us.

This is a wordy setup for the news that country has yet again kicked rock to the curb in sales, with that punk George Strait (who?) selling 166,300 copies to beat out R.E.M. The alt-rock legends' latest, Accelerate, comes in at #2 with 115,500 scans.

To salute R.E.M. -- and, basically, to put up a SoundScan fight -- we've posted this excellent interview with the band shot just before the new album's release. And if you're a believer in numbers, check out the rest of this week's chart writeup after the jump.

Read more...

The voice, it always comes down to the voice. Especially when discussing Mariah Carey. She’s made plenty of headlines for whom she’s dated (Derek Jeter), divorced (Tommy Mottola), and denied having a relationship with (Eminem). But the New York native is a modern day Diana Ross, full of flair and able-bodied talent. She's up, and then she's down. And now she's up again. Waaay up.

The songstress netted her 18th number one single with “Touch My Body,” moving past Elvis Presley as the most dominant solo performer of all time.

"I really can never put myself in the category of people who have not only revolutionized music but also changed the world," Carey told The Associated Press from London on Tuesday. "That's a completely different era and time. I'm just feeling really happy and grateful."

She also fielded what must have been a very tactful question about how the feat relates to her gender and ethnicity. "For me, in my mind the accomplishment is just that much sweeter," she said. "In terms of my ethnicity, always feeling like an outsider, always feeling different. For me it's about saying, 'Thank you Lord, for giving me the faith to believe in myself when other people had written me off.' I want to encourage anyone else out there who feels like maybe they can't overcome an obstacle, I feel like I'm living proof, never lose your faith. I'm seriously a grateful individual right now."

The Beatles stand as number one overall with 20 Billboard Top 100 number one hits. (The Beatles are a group, Mariah solo, etc).

After the jump, a list of Carey’s collaborators and colleagues. See just how far she is from the rest of the pack:

Read more...

Two albums, two #1 debuts. That’s just what Danity Kane can claim, now that their sophomore LP, Welcome to the Dollhouse, will enter next week’s Billboard albums chart on top. The set sold more than 236,000 copies, which is a slight improvement on sales of the band’s first, self-titled release; that record also bowed at #1, but sold 234,300 units.

But DK weren’t the chart’s sole newcomers, as 18 releases in all crack next week’s top 200. Opening at #4, with sales reported at 85,900, its Flo Rida’s debut disc, Mail on Sunday. Surprisingly, and perhaps due to the band’s bumping up the album’s release, Gnarls Barkley’s The Odd Couple debuts at #18, selling a mere 31,000 copies, while rapper Rocko’s Self-Made follows at #21, with 27,700 scans. (Must've been that successful street-marketing campaign).

Newsroom homeboy, Sheek Louch, and his Silverback Gorilla album, enters the chart at #41, with 17,500 sold, while young metallers Black Tide’s Light from Above sold 11,400 units, to bow at #73. Right behind the Tide at #75, it’s the Hush Sound’s Goodbye Blues, which sold to the tune of 11,200, and opening at #81 with 10,200 sold, is She & Him’s Volume One. The Buzzcuts’ self-titled LP sold 9,500 copies, which lands the album at #87, and Jason Mraz’s We Sing EP enters at #101 with 8,500 snatched up.

The Kills’ Midnight Boom follows at #133, selling 6,500 units (awesome record, btw), while PlayRadioPlay!’s Texas sold 5,300, for a #157 opening. New Found Glory’s Hits collection enters at #167 with 5,000 sold, and Bury Your Dead’s self-titled LP enters at #176 with sales of 4,600. The Matches’ Band In Hope debuts at #179, with 4,600 scans, and lastly, coming in at #182 with 4,500, its Addison Road’s self-titled latest.

What’s remarkable about next week’s hip-hop dominated Billboard albums sales chart – at least to those of us who keep an eye on such things – is that somehow, another Now That’s What I Call Music compilation hit stores last week, and failed to open as the chart’s #1. Typically, Now sets almost always enter on top, but that distinction, instead, belongs to Miami rapper Rick Ross (Raaaaaawwwws!), who earns his second-straight #1 debut with his latest, Trilla. The LP sold more than 198,000 copies, according to the latest SoundScan totals, while his 2006 effort Port of Miami sold 187,000 units.

Surprisingly, Ross bested Snoop Dogg, in a battle of hip-hop heavies (literally). Snoop's Ego Trippin’ opens at #3, 137,000 sold; it marks the lowest first-week sales total for any of his previous studio efforts. Sandwiched in between is the 27th installment of the Now series, which shifted 169,000 copies, thanks to the contributions of big name acts like Rihanna, Fergie, Chris Brown, Kanye West, and Paramore.

Meanwhile, Fat Joe’s Elephant in the Room makes its debut at #6, scanning more than 46,000 copies (crazy low!). Only one other new release breached the chart’s top 10 and that album is Hannah Montana’s Best of Both Worlds Concert LP, which bows at #10 with 34,200 sold.

Other notable newcomers include “American Idol” judge Randy Jackson’s Randy Jackson’s Music Club, Vol. 1, which enters at #50 with nearly 13,000 snatched up, and opening at #59 with 11,400 sold, its Meshuggah’s obZzen. As for the rest of the top 10, Jack Johnson’s Sleep Through the Static finishes at #4 (selling another 55,300 copies) while Alan Jackson’s Good Time follows at #5 (53,000 sold). Sara Bareilles’ Little Voice holds at #7 (with 40,000 scans), and Janet Jackson’s Discipline comes in at #8 (37,500). Last but not least, Erykah Badu’s New Amerykah Part One (4th World War) -- and a Newsroom favorite -- falls three spots to #9, having sold a reported 34,800 units.