In it's first seven seasons, the show American Idol has discoved A LOT of talent. Kelly Clarkson got the show off and running in the show's first season as the champion and scored a huge #4 pop hit with "A Moment Like This" at the end of 2002. Clarkson, Carrie Underwood and Chris Daughtry have had some huge success with multi-platinum albums and #1 hit singles at their respective core formats. To date, more than thirty songs from Idol alumni have cracked the top 10 at either Pop, Hot AC, Adult Contemporary or the Country formats. Pretty amazing stuff. As a fan of the show, I do wonder if anyone from season 8 will be able to match the numbers of any of the aforementioned artists.
With the above in mind, I decided to compile a list of my all-time top 25 singles to date from "Idol alumni"... here goes... feel free to post me your list.
1. "Jesus, Take The Wheel" - Carrie Underwood
2. "Home" - Daughtry
3. "Wasted" - Carrie Underwood
4. "Just A Dream" - Carrie Underwood
5. "Breakaway" - Kelly Clarkson
6. "I Wonder" - Kellie Pickler
7. "Before He Cheats" - Carrie Underwood
8. "Behind These Hazel Eyes" - Kelly Clarkson
9. "Last Name" - Carrie Underwood
10. "All-American Girl" - Carrie Underwood
11. "Since U Been Gone" - Kelly Clarkson
12. "So Small" - Carrie Underwood
13. "Don't Forget To Remember Me" - Carrie Underwood
14. "No Air" - Jordin Sparks/Chris Brown
15. "It's Not Over" - Daughtry
16. "Because Of You" - Kelly Clarkson
17. "A Different World" - Bucky Covington
18. "Walk Away" - Kelly Clarkson
19. "Some Hearts" - Carrie Underwood
20. "Miss Independent" - Kelly Clarkson
21. "Wait For You" - Elliott Yamin
22. "I Told You So" - Carrie Underwood
23. "Tattoo" - Jordin Sparks
24. "8th World Wonder" - Kimberly Locke
25. "Over You" - Daughtry
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Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Saturday, November 1, 2008
What does Billboard's Hot 100 measure?
In it's current form, just what does Billboard's Hot 100 truly measure?
While it does sometimes happen to coincide with what song is truly the most popular in the nation at a given time, more often than not, it doesn't. Songs such as Leona Lewis' "Bleeding Love" were multi-format #1's and sold lots of singles and albums over a long period of time and obviously were worthy of the peak position...
Other songs have only reached the #1 position on that chart thanks to the repression of downloads (i.e: Rihanna, Mariah Carey), while still others have peaked at #1 there thanks to lots of downloads/sales by a fanbase (i.e: multiple American Idol artists).
Other artists, such as Taylor Swift and the Jonas Brothers have had new songs sell a lot of units the first week and then drop off dramatically in the following weeks, often resulting in a top 10 debut and a drop outside of the top 40 within a week or two. Was it a song's popularity that made these songs sell a lot, or was it fanbases?
Still other artists such as Kid Rock are victims of the chart's methodology thanks to the chart having a bias against songs that aren't available for individual sale. Kid Rock's recent hit "All Summer Long" peaked at #23 on the chart despite being top 5 at three different formats. Since there was no single available for download it received ZERO Hot 100 sales points. The latter despite the fact that people were flocking to stores to buy his Rock N Roll Jesus album to the tune of over 100,000 units a week at the song's peak.
We also have a special case with Estelle's recent hit, "American Boy." This song was at #11 on the Hot 100 when the label decided to pull the single in an effort to move albums. The song dropped to #37 on the Hot 100 the next week. Did the song suddenly lose popularity? I think not. Shortly thereafter, "American Boy" became available again and voila, it ended up "rebounding" into the top 10 of the Hot 100.
The above said, what does the chart actually measure? If you know, please respond with a comment!
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While it does sometimes happen to coincide with what song is truly the most popular in the nation at a given time, more often than not, it doesn't. Songs such as Leona Lewis' "Bleeding Love" were multi-format #1's and sold lots of singles and albums over a long period of time and obviously were worthy of the peak position...
Other songs have only reached the #1 position on that chart thanks to the repression of downloads (i.e: Rihanna, Mariah Carey), while still others have peaked at #1 there thanks to lots of downloads/sales by a fanbase (i.e: multiple American Idol artists).
Other artists, such as Taylor Swift and the Jonas Brothers have had new songs sell a lot of units the first week and then drop off dramatically in the following weeks, often resulting in a top 10 debut and a drop outside of the top 40 within a week or two. Was it a song's popularity that made these songs sell a lot, or was it fanbases?
Still other artists such as Kid Rock are victims of the chart's methodology thanks to the chart having a bias against songs that aren't available for individual sale. Kid Rock's recent hit "All Summer Long" peaked at #23 on the chart despite being top 5 at three different formats. Since there was no single available for download it received ZERO Hot 100 sales points. The latter despite the fact that people were flocking to stores to buy his Rock N Roll Jesus album to the tune of over 100,000 units a week at the song's peak.
We also have a special case with Estelle's recent hit, "American Boy." This song was at #11 on the Hot 100 when the label decided to pull the single in an effort to move albums. The song dropped to #37 on the Hot 100 the next week. Did the song suddenly lose popularity? I think not. Shortly thereafter, "American Boy" became available again and voila, it ended up "rebounding" into the top 10 of the Hot 100.
The above said, what does the chart actually measure? If you know, please respond with a comment!
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Saturday, August 9, 2008
Fixing the Billboard Hot 100 chart: Part II
By the early 1990's, physical sales singles were no longer a very accurate way to measure a song's success. Billboard in their infinite wisdom, decided to mess with the one part of the chart which didn't need fixing - the pop airplay component. Pop radio stations (also known as Top 40) were known as such because they played the songs that were popular regardless of format. Whether it be pop, rhythm and blues, country, easy-listening, etc. a song had a home at top 40 radio if it was truly a hit. That's always been the beauty of top 40 radio - it's the "melting pot" of POPular music so to speak. Instead of just tracking pop station airplay, Billboard would eventually combine the airplay of EVERY other popular format into one chart: The Hot 100 airplay chart. This created a whole new monster, one which I will explore in Part III.
In the meantime, while the "airplay only" hits were finally allowed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, they still faced a serious disadvantage to any song actually available as a single. The very first song that was #1 in pop airplay after Billboard revised it's chart policy in late 1998 was "Lullaby" by Shawn Mullins. Despite spending five weeks on top of the Radio & Records pop airplay chart, it only made it to #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. And this handicap was the norm for #1 pop hits without an avaiable single - they rarely ever cracked the top 5 of the Hot 100. Billboard would later revise it's formula from 60% airplay/40% sales to 80% airplay/20% sales, but the reality was even this wasn't good enough as for all intents and purposes, the single was dead.
There were so few singles available by this time, that even a song that didn't get much pop airplay could chart VERY high on Billboard's Hot 100 chart if it sold a lot of units, so the record companies decided to start the practice of deeply discounting CD singles to the point that they were actually losing lots of money on them. Typically, a deeply discounted single sold for only .49 cents.
The first artist to habitually exploit this loophole in Billboard's Hot 100, perhaps ironically, was Mariah Carey. As this GREAT article entitled "Hot 100 Blues" by Jon Cummings points out:
"Labels began playing more overt games with the Hot 100 as well during those years. More and more frequently, beginning with Michael Jackson’s “You Are Not Alone” in September 1995, they delayed releasing a single until airplay was cresting – and then often put the singles into stores at a huge discount – so that a song’s combined airplay and sales figures would result in a Number One debut. Sony employed this strategy with Mariah Carey three times between ’95 and ’97."
Up until the early 1990's, the Hot 100 had always been a chart that a song would naturally rise up and down based on it's popularity. As per the above, Michael Jackson's song was the first song to debut at #1 on the Hot 100. "Fantasy" would do the same for Mariah four weeks later, on September 30, 1995. Sony then began to even more blatently manipulate the chart starting with Mariah's duet with Boyz II Men, "One Sweet Day." And while "One Sweet Day" indeed was a huge radio hit, spending eight weeks at the top of R&R's pop chart, the record label manipulation (i.e: deeply discounting the song), to go along with the fact that so few songs were now available as singles allowed it to spend a ridiculous 16 weeks at #1 on the Hot 100!!!
In the modern era (1965-present), The Beatles were the first act to spend as many as nine weeks at number #1 on the Hot 100 with their hit "Hey Jude" in 1968. Debby Boone broke that record in 1977, scoring 10 weeks at #1 on the Hot 100 with "You Light Up My Life." Olivia Newton-John tied that record four years later with "Physical." With the single getting phased out in the early 1990's, it became easier and easier for songs to have long runs at the top of the Hot 100. In fact, from 1992 to 1994, FOUR songs spent 11 weeks or more at #1! Those four songs would be "I Swear" by All-4-One (11 weeks), "I Will Always Love You" by Whitney Houston (14 weeks), and the Boyz II Men hits "End of The Road" (13 weeks) and "I'll Make Love To You" (14 weeks). Clearly, even prior to Mariah's first two chart manipulations in 1995, something was VERY wrong with the Hot 100 chart.
In 1997, Sony employed their shady chart tactics a third time as the song "Honey" was released from Mariah's Butterfly album. Unlike all of her previous releases, "Honey" was not accepted well either by pop radio or Mariah's huge fanbase. Indeed, at the time I was such a fan of Mariah's that I would buy her albums the day they came out. Well, Butterfly marked the first time that I was disappointed with a Mariah album. "Honey" was a very highly anticipated single, and within two weeks of relase, it had already reached #18 on the R&R pop chart. It struggled mightily after that though, peaking at #10 just four weeks later. Callout scores (numbers which measure a song's popularity amongst radio listeners) were also very low for the first time with a Mariah release. Seeing all of this, Sony rush released "Honey" to the record stores just in time to get it three weeks at the top of the Hot 100 chart, again discounting the song to .49 cents just to ensure that it got there.
Over the next three years, Mariah's label would continue this practice of chart manipulation. "My All" reached only #15 on the R&R pop airplay chart in 1998, "Heartbreaker" reached #21 in 1999, and "Thank God I Found You" peaked at #28 in 2000. Thanks to Sony stalling the release of the deeply discounted singles until the songs were peaking at radio and thanks also to perhaps only 5% of songs at that time even being available as singles, all three of these songs managed a #1 peak on Billboard's Hot 100. Have any of you out there even heard of these three songs? I didn't think so. None of these songs was a radio hit, nor the "most popular song in the nation" as the Hot 100 would lead you to believe.
While people could shell out .49 cents for the few singles that were available during the late 1990's/early 2000's, the fact of the matter was that for most popular songs, you usually had to purchase a full length CD to get the one song you wanted. So out of public frustation more than anything, the file sharing site called Napster came to prominence as more and more consumers became fed up with having to shell out $10-$11 for a full length CD for their favorite song. By 2001, many other sites, including Kazaa had sprouted up and tried to get a piece of the "illegal file sharing" marketplace. Several years after the illegal sites came into prominence, the record industry finally figured out a way to tap into this source of potential revenue. The single was re-birthed (for the most part) via iTunes, Walmart and many other online sites where you could legally download popular single songs to your computer for .99 cents or so. Unfortunately, Billboard didn't start using digital downloads in the Hot 100 formula until 2005. With this change, it finally looked like there was hope for the Hot 100 chart...
WEDNESDAY: Part III ... Just when things were looking better, Sony finds yet another way to manipulate the Hot 100.
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In the meantime, while the "airplay only" hits were finally allowed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, they still faced a serious disadvantage to any song actually available as a single. The very first song that was #1 in pop airplay after Billboard revised it's chart policy in late 1998 was "Lullaby" by Shawn Mullins. Despite spending five weeks on top of the Radio & Records pop airplay chart, it only made it to #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. And this handicap was the norm for #1 pop hits without an avaiable single - they rarely ever cracked the top 5 of the Hot 100. Billboard would later revise it's formula from 60% airplay/40% sales to 80% airplay/20% sales, but the reality was even this wasn't good enough as for all intents and purposes, the single was dead.
There were so few singles available by this time, that even a song that didn't get much pop airplay could chart VERY high on Billboard's Hot 100 chart if it sold a lot of units, so the record companies decided to start the practice of deeply discounting CD singles to the point that they were actually losing lots of money on them. Typically, a deeply discounted single sold for only .49 cents.
The first artist to habitually exploit this loophole in Billboard's Hot 100, perhaps ironically, was Mariah Carey. As this GREAT article entitled "Hot 100 Blues" by Jon Cummings points out:
"Labels began playing more overt games with the Hot 100 as well during those years. More and more frequently, beginning with Michael Jackson’s “You Are Not Alone” in September 1995, they delayed releasing a single until airplay was cresting – and then often put the singles into stores at a huge discount – so that a song’s combined airplay and sales figures would result in a Number One debut. Sony employed this strategy with Mariah Carey three times between ’95 and ’97."
Up until the early 1990's, the Hot 100 had always been a chart that a song would naturally rise up and down based on it's popularity. As per the above, Michael Jackson's song was the first song to debut at #1 on the Hot 100. "Fantasy" would do the same for Mariah four weeks later, on September 30, 1995. Sony then began to even more blatently manipulate the chart starting with Mariah's duet with Boyz II Men, "One Sweet Day." And while "One Sweet Day" indeed was a huge radio hit, spending eight weeks at the top of R&R's pop chart, the record label manipulation (i.e: deeply discounting the song), to go along with the fact that so few songs were now available as singles allowed it to spend a ridiculous 16 weeks at #1 on the Hot 100!!!
In the modern era (1965-present), The Beatles were the first act to spend as many as nine weeks at number #1 on the Hot 100 with their hit "Hey Jude" in 1968. Debby Boone broke that record in 1977, scoring 10 weeks at #1 on the Hot 100 with "You Light Up My Life." Olivia Newton-John tied that record four years later with "Physical." With the single getting phased out in the early 1990's, it became easier and easier for songs to have long runs at the top of the Hot 100. In fact, from 1992 to 1994, FOUR songs spent 11 weeks or more at #1! Those four songs would be "I Swear" by All-4-One (11 weeks), "I Will Always Love You" by Whitney Houston (14 weeks), and the Boyz II Men hits "End of The Road" (13 weeks) and "I'll Make Love To You" (14 weeks). Clearly, even prior to Mariah's first two chart manipulations in 1995, something was VERY wrong with the Hot 100 chart.
In 1997, Sony employed their shady chart tactics a third time as the song "Honey" was released from Mariah's Butterfly album. Unlike all of her previous releases, "Honey" was not accepted well either by pop radio or Mariah's huge fanbase. Indeed, at the time I was such a fan of Mariah's that I would buy her albums the day they came out. Well, Butterfly marked the first time that I was disappointed with a Mariah album. "Honey" was a very highly anticipated single, and within two weeks of relase, it had already reached #18 on the R&R pop chart. It struggled mightily after that though, peaking at #10 just four weeks later. Callout scores (numbers which measure a song's popularity amongst radio listeners) were also very low for the first time with a Mariah release. Seeing all of this, Sony rush released "Honey" to the record stores just in time to get it three weeks at the top of the Hot 100 chart, again discounting the song to .49 cents just to ensure that it got there.
Over the next three years, Mariah's label would continue this practice of chart manipulation. "My All" reached only #15 on the R&R pop airplay chart in 1998, "Heartbreaker" reached #21 in 1999, and "Thank God I Found You" peaked at #28 in 2000. Thanks to Sony stalling the release of the deeply discounted singles until the songs were peaking at radio and thanks also to perhaps only 5% of songs at that time even being available as singles, all three of these songs managed a #1 peak on Billboard's Hot 100. Have any of you out there even heard of these three songs? I didn't think so. None of these songs was a radio hit, nor the "most popular song in the nation" as the Hot 100 would lead you to believe.
While people could shell out .49 cents for the few singles that were available during the late 1990's/early 2000's, the fact of the matter was that for most popular songs, you usually had to purchase a full length CD to get the one song you wanted. So out of public frustation more than anything, the file sharing site called Napster came to prominence as more and more consumers became fed up with having to shell out $10-$11 for a full length CD for their favorite song. By 2001, many other sites, including Kazaa had sprouted up and tried to get a piece of the "illegal file sharing" marketplace. Several years after the illegal sites came into prominence, the record industry finally figured out a way to tap into this source of potential revenue. The single was re-birthed (for the most part) via iTunes, Walmart and many other online sites where you could legally download popular single songs to your computer for .99 cents or so. Unfortunately, Billboard didn't start using digital downloads in the Hot 100 formula until 2005. With this change, it finally looked like there was hope for the Hot 100 chart...
WEDNESDAY: Part III ... Just when things were looking better, Sony finds yet another way to manipulate the Hot 100.
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Thursday, August 7, 2008
Fixing the Billboard Hot 100 chart: Part I
As many of you know, when I cite the positions of popular songs, I rarely even mention the word "Billboard" here in this blog. Usually, I will use the radio airplay charts from Mediabase (old Radio & Records), and occasionally, I will cite sales figures from iTunes or Soundscan. For those of you that don't know the reason why I don't care for Billboard, it's because I don't recognize their main chart, the Hot 100, as being realistic or even close to resembling what is truly popular.
Once upon a time - think back about 20 years - you could buy pretty much any song you wanted to that you heard on the radio in the form of a physical single. Singles were pretty cheap back then, ranging from .99 cents to $1.99 depending on where you went to buy them. If you liked a song, it was much better for the consumer to spend a couple of bucks on a single instead of $9-10 or more on a full-length album. And for the real music fan like me who actually collected singles, it was a GREAT hobby. If I really liked an artist or multiple singles from the album, then I was more likely to buy the album in addition to the single.
At that time, Billboard's Hot 100 chart was comprised of Pop radio station airplay and physical sales, unlike today where they combine the airplay from stations of all formats (more on this inherent problem later). For a very long time, this method of combining pop airplay and sales produced very reliable and informative charts which represented what was truly popular. Sometimes you'd have songs not be such huge airplay hits such as Golden Earring's "Twilight Zone" (which never even cracked the top 30 in pop airplay) be such huge sellers, that they would end up in the top 10 of the Hot 100 chart. Conversely, there were songs such as Billy Joel's "Allentown" which were huge in pop airplay (#3), yet only sold well enough to get to #17 on the Hot 100. And of course, you had other songs that did well in both areas such as "Every Breath You Take" by the Police, which was #1 in airplay for eight weeks and also #1 on the Hot 100 for the same eight weeks as a result of it's dominance on the sales front.
In the late 1980's though, the first signs of true corporate greed within the music industry began to take hold. Record companies were looking at ways to generate more revenue. Short-sightedly, they inferred that sales of singles cut dramatically into album sales. As a result, the physical single started to become harder to come by in 1989 as record labels began to limit their releases. By 1991, this trend got to the point that even releases by very popular artists such as Mariah Carey were affected. Mariah's hit "Emotions" reached #1 on the pop airplay chart for four weeks late in 1991, and #1 on the Hot 100 for three weeks. However, due to the fact that the label didn't release a ton of copies of the single, it only reached #10 in sales. Songs that weren't even reaching the top 40 in either sales or airplay were becoming top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. For example, Nelson's "Only Time Will Tell" reached #28 on the Hot 100, yet only reached #42 on the airplay chart and #51 in sales. Cher's "Love and Understanding" reached #17 on the Hot 100 on the "strength" of reaching #38 on the pop airplay chart and #45 in sales. Clearly, the once reliable Hot 100 chart had some major problems... and it only got worse! 17 years later it's STILL trying to recover!
The main reason the Hot 100 lost it's accuracy in the early 1990's is that Billboard was slow (and I mean VERY slow) to react to the fact that the record companies were phasing out the single. "Airplay only" hits became more and more prevalent as a result. In 1994, the Counting Crows had a HUGE #1 pop radio hit called "Mr. Jones." Their follow-up single, "Round Here" also cracked the top 10, peaking at #9 on the Radio & Records airplay chart. Not surpringly, their debut album August and Everything After was a huge success here in the U.S., eventually going 7x platinum. If you were watching the Billboard Hot 100 chart during their 1994 run though, you would have completely missed out on the Counting Crows. Since neither song had a physical single released, neither was eligible to chart on the Hot 100.
Remember the T.V. show Friends? Of course, you do!!! And yes, it's true that I've been known to recognize Courtney Cox-Arquette just from seeing her amazing blue eyes on a magazine cover. Anyways, a band called the Rembrandts had a song called "I'll Be There For You" which turned out to be used as the theme for the show. The song spent eight weeks at #1 on the R&R pop chart in mid-1995, but once again didn't chart on the Hot 100 while it was huge on the radio. Over 3 1/2 months after it peaked at radio, the song was finally released as a single. By that time, most of us had shelled out $10 for the Rembrandts' LP album and didn't need a copy of the single. As a result, it only reached #35 in sales, and a #17 Hot 100 peak.
In 1996, a band from Southern California called No Doubt was gaining national prominence... Their debut song, "Just A Girl" hit #22 on the R&R pop airplay chart. The follow-up, "Spiderwebs," hit #11 on the chart. Late that year, the song which probably more than any other single song caused Billboard to FINALLY start to rethink their Hot 100 chart policy, "Don't Speak," spent nine weeks at #1 on the R&R pop airplay chart. As with the Counting Crows, none of the No Doubt songs was available as a single and of course none of them charted on the Hot 100. By the end of 1997, their Tragic Kindgom album was 11x Platinum here in the U.S...
To further add insult to Billboard's injury, the Cardigans came from across the Atlantic to have their hit "Lovefool" spend six weeks at #1 on the R&R Pop airplay chart in early 1997... once again, no single available, so no Hot 100 chart appearance. The next year, Natalie Imbruglia's "Torn" would spend 11 weeks at #1 on the Pop airplay chart. Later that year, "Iris" by the Goo Goo Dolls would spend four weeks at #1 and an amazing 28 weeks in the top 10 of the R&R pop airplay chart. On December 5, 1998, Billboard FINALLY made the change to their Hot 100 chart which had been many years overdue - they allowed airplay only hits to chart... but did that fix the problem? No. In fact, the colective record company greed of the 90's decade finally caught up with them, creating it's own "piranha" so to speak the very next year in the form of a little thing called NAPSTER.
SATURDAY: Part II...
-----
Once upon a time - think back about 20 years - you could buy pretty much any song you wanted to that you heard on the radio in the form of a physical single. Singles were pretty cheap back then, ranging from .99 cents to $1.99 depending on where you went to buy them. If you liked a song, it was much better for the consumer to spend a couple of bucks on a single instead of $9-10 or more on a full-length album. And for the real music fan like me who actually collected singles, it was a GREAT hobby. If I really liked an artist or multiple singles from the album, then I was more likely to buy the album in addition to the single.
At that time, Billboard's Hot 100 chart was comprised of Pop radio station airplay and physical sales, unlike today where they combine the airplay from stations of all formats (more on this inherent problem later). For a very long time, this method of combining pop airplay and sales produced very reliable and informative charts which represented what was truly popular. Sometimes you'd have songs not be such huge airplay hits such as Golden Earring's "Twilight Zone" (which never even cracked the top 30 in pop airplay) be such huge sellers, that they would end up in the top 10 of the Hot 100 chart. Conversely, there were songs such as Billy Joel's "Allentown" which were huge in pop airplay (#3), yet only sold well enough to get to #17 on the Hot 100. And of course, you had other songs that did well in both areas such as "Every Breath You Take" by the Police, which was #1 in airplay for eight weeks and also #1 on the Hot 100 for the same eight weeks as a result of it's dominance on the sales front.
In the late 1980's though, the first signs of true corporate greed within the music industry began to take hold. Record companies were looking at ways to generate more revenue. Short-sightedly, they inferred that sales of singles cut dramatically into album sales. As a result, the physical single started to become harder to come by in 1989 as record labels began to limit their releases. By 1991, this trend got to the point that even releases by very popular artists such as Mariah Carey were affected. Mariah's hit "Emotions" reached #1 on the pop airplay chart for four weeks late in 1991, and #1 on the Hot 100 for three weeks. However, due to the fact that the label didn't release a ton of copies of the single, it only reached #10 in sales. Songs that weren't even reaching the top 40 in either sales or airplay were becoming top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. For example, Nelson's "Only Time Will Tell" reached #28 on the Hot 100, yet only reached #42 on the airplay chart and #51 in sales. Cher's "Love and Understanding" reached #17 on the Hot 100 on the "strength" of reaching #38 on the pop airplay chart and #45 in sales. Clearly, the once reliable Hot 100 chart had some major problems... and it only got worse! 17 years later it's STILL trying to recover!
The main reason the Hot 100 lost it's accuracy in the early 1990's is that Billboard was slow (and I mean VERY slow) to react to the fact that the record companies were phasing out the single. "Airplay only" hits became more and more prevalent as a result. In 1994, the Counting Crows had a HUGE #1 pop radio hit called "Mr. Jones." Their follow-up single, "Round Here" also cracked the top 10, peaking at #9 on the Radio & Records airplay chart. Not surpringly, their debut album August and Everything After was a huge success here in the U.S., eventually going 7x platinum. If you were watching the Billboard Hot 100 chart during their 1994 run though, you would have completely missed out on the Counting Crows. Since neither song had a physical single released, neither was eligible to chart on the Hot 100.
Remember the T.V. show Friends? Of course, you do!!! And yes, it's true that I've been known to recognize Courtney Cox-Arquette just from seeing her amazing blue eyes on a magazine cover. Anyways, a band called the Rembrandts had a song called "I'll Be There For You" which turned out to be used as the theme for the show. The song spent eight weeks at #1 on the R&R pop chart in mid-1995, but once again didn't chart on the Hot 100 while it was huge on the radio. Over 3 1/2 months after it peaked at radio, the song was finally released as a single. By that time, most of us had shelled out $10 for the Rembrandts' LP album and didn't need a copy of the single. As a result, it only reached #35 in sales, and a #17 Hot 100 peak.
In 1996, a band from Southern California called No Doubt was gaining national prominence... Their debut song, "Just A Girl" hit #22 on the R&R pop airplay chart. The follow-up, "Spiderwebs," hit #11 on the chart. Late that year, the song which probably more than any other single song caused Billboard to FINALLY start to rethink their Hot 100 chart policy, "Don't Speak," spent nine weeks at #1 on the R&R pop airplay chart. As with the Counting Crows, none of the No Doubt songs was available as a single and of course none of them charted on the Hot 100. By the end of 1997, their Tragic Kindgom album was 11x Platinum here in the U.S...
To further add insult to Billboard's injury, the Cardigans came from across the Atlantic to have their hit "Lovefool" spend six weeks at #1 on the R&R Pop airplay chart in early 1997... once again, no single available, so no Hot 100 chart appearance. The next year, Natalie Imbruglia's "Torn" would spend 11 weeks at #1 on the Pop airplay chart. Later that year, "Iris" by the Goo Goo Dolls would spend four weeks at #1 and an amazing 28 weeks in the top 10 of the R&R pop airplay chart. On December 5, 1998, Billboard FINALLY made the change to their Hot 100 chart which had been many years overdue - they allowed airplay only hits to chart... but did that fix the problem? No. In fact, the colective record company greed of the 90's decade finally caught up with them, creating it's own "piranha" so to speak the very next year in the form of a little thing called NAPSTER.
SATURDAY: Part II...
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Saturday, March 29, 2008
Another Day, Another #1 For Leona!
Leona Lewis' "Bleeding Love" rose from #7 to #1 this week on VH1's Top 20 Video Countdown! Yet another #1 on another chart for this fabulous singer. Congrats to Leona!!!
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Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Payola, Chart Rigging or Both? You Be The Judge!
Two longtime pop "divas" also made their latest singles available for download yesterday. Madonna did things close to the normal way, releasing her new song, "4 Minutes" to pop radio last week (where it's already risen to #22 on the Mediabase airplay chart). In the old days, before the era of payola and sales chart manipulation by the record labels, songs were always released to the radio stations and the public for purchase at the same time.
Which leads me to that other diva, the one who's record label has bought several "#1 hits" on Billboard Hot 100 chart via sales chart manipulation over the past several years. That of course would be Mariah Carey. Do any of you remember the songs "Thank God I Found You," or "Heartbreaker" by her? I didn't think so - I'd be shocked if you did actually. What do these songs have in common? Well, neither of them was a hit here in the U.S., the songs reaching #28 and #21 on the U.S. pop airplay charts respectively. What they also have in common is that Mariah's record label bought #1 positions for both on Billboard's Hot 100 chart by suppressing downloads for a very long period after the songs were released to radio. I don't have the exact sales figures, but long story short is that both songs received so many downloads in their first week of availability, that they reached #1 on both the aforementioned chart and on the sales chart. The same thing was also done with her semi-hit singles "My All" (#12) and "Honey" (#10). So, the Billboard Hot 100 record book may say that Mariah has 17 #1 hits. The reality is that only 13 of them can truly be considered #1's.
Fast forward to today. Mariah released her latest single, "Touch My Body" to radio on February 12th. It was not well received by most listeners, consistently finishing amongst the bottom quarter of the songs rated by pop music listeners at www.ratethemusic.com. After a rapid ascent into the top 20 of the airplay charts, the song started losing steam quickly, looking like it would peak in the mid teen's on the pop chart. Songs with the sub 3.40 call-out scores that Mariah's new song have been garnering typically fall quickly on the chart... for some odd reason though, the song though managed to push it's way to it's current position of #8 on the pop airplay chart. There is widespread speculation within both the industry and on various music boards that something funny is happening with this song. Is it a case of payola? It may very well be.
To further matters, Mariah's label delayed the release of the single for download a full SIX weeks after it went to radio!!! In other words, the sales of the song which would have taken place over a seven week period, are now going to be compressed into ONE week! It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what that means. Yes, Mariah's label by next week at this time will have purchased her 5th "#1 hit" on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In two days, it's already dethroned Leona Lewis' "Bleeding Love" (which sold almost 220,000 downloads last week - it was released back in December '07) from the #1 spot on the iTunes sales chart. A pretty meaningless accomplishment when you consider that you effectively have had 44 days worth of sales crammed into just TWO! It's high time that Billboard reviewed their chart methodology so that this kind of manipulation will be ended once and for all. The industry will be better for it.
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Which leads me to that other diva, the one who's record label has bought several "#1 hits" on Billboard Hot 100 chart via sales chart manipulation over the past several years. That of course would be Mariah Carey. Do any of you remember the songs "Thank God I Found You," or "Heartbreaker" by her? I didn't think so - I'd be shocked if you did actually. What do these songs have in common? Well, neither of them was a hit here in the U.S., the songs reaching #28 and #21 on the U.S. pop airplay charts respectively. What they also have in common is that Mariah's record label bought #1 positions for both on Billboard's Hot 100 chart by suppressing downloads for a very long period after the songs were released to radio. I don't have the exact sales figures, but long story short is that both songs received so many downloads in their first week of availability, that they reached #1 on both the aforementioned chart and on the sales chart. The same thing was also done with her semi-hit singles "My All" (#12) and "Honey" (#10). So, the Billboard Hot 100 record book may say that Mariah has 17 #1 hits. The reality is that only 13 of them can truly be considered #1's.
Fast forward to today. Mariah released her latest single, "Touch My Body" to radio on February 12th. It was not well received by most listeners, consistently finishing amongst the bottom quarter of the songs rated by pop music listeners at www.ratethemusic.com. After a rapid ascent into the top 20 of the airplay charts, the song started losing steam quickly, looking like it would peak in the mid teen's on the pop chart. Songs with the sub 3.40 call-out scores that Mariah's new song have been garnering typically fall quickly on the chart... for some odd reason though, the song though managed to push it's way to it's current position of #8 on the pop airplay chart. There is widespread speculation within both the industry and on various music boards that something funny is happening with this song. Is it a case of payola? It may very well be.
To further matters, Mariah's label delayed the release of the single for download a full SIX weeks after it went to radio!!! In other words, the sales of the song which would have taken place over a seven week period, are now going to be compressed into ONE week! It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what that means. Yes, Mariah's label by next week at this time will have purchased her 5th "#1 hit" on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In two days, it's already dethroned Leona Lewis' "Bleeding Love" (which sold almost 220,000 downloads last week - it was released back in December '07) from the #1 spot on the iTunes sales chart. A pretty meaningless accomplishment when you consider that you effectively have had 44 days worth of sales crammed into just TWO! It's high time that Billboard reviewed their chart methodology so that this kind of manipulation will be ended once and for all. The industry will be better for it.
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Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Leona Lewis to be on Oprah!
The rumored appearance of U.K. singing senation Leona Lewis on the Oprah Winfrey show has been confirmed by her official website. Leona will be appearing on Oprah on Monday, March 17th and will be singing her #1 international smash hit, "Bleeding Love." Released just one month ago to radio stations here in America, the song is already up to #29 on the Mediabase pop chart, and also is currently the 12th most downloaded song on all of iTunes. Additionally, she was voted #7 on VH1's top 20 video countdown this past week. For more details, please visit the following links:
Leona's official website:
Leona Lewis fansite (U.K.)
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Leona's official website:
Leona Lewis fansite (U.K.)
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Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Carrie Hits #1 AGAIN!
Did any of us ever imagine three years ago when we started following Carrie Underwood on American Idol that she would have the kind of success she has so far in the Country music world? I knew she would do well, but did I imagine a 7x Platinum debut album and six consecutive #1 hits on the Country chart? I don't think any of us could have imagined this kind of success for Carrie, but as those of us that have followed her on this 3+ year "Carnival Ride" have come to find, we know that trying to limit Carrie can be a fruitless exercise - she seems to always exceed our wildest expectations!
Yesterday morning, Carrie's latest single "All-American Girl" was at #1 on the Billboard/Radio & Records BDS Country tracker. This morning, she moves to #1 on the Mediabase Country chart!!! Carrie has released six singles to Country radio since winning A.I. and every one of them has made it to the top on one or both of the industries two major Country charts. Congrats to Carrie on yet another incredible accomplishment!!!
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Yesterday morning, Carrie's latest single "All-American Girl" was at #1 on the Billboard/Radio & Records BDS Country tracker. This morning, she moves to #1 on the Mediabase Country chart!!! Carrie has released six singles to Country radio since winning A.I. and every one of them has made it to the top on one or both of the industries two major Country charts. Congrats to Carrie on yet another incredible accomplishment!!!
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Monday, March 3, 2008
R.I.P. Jeff Healey
It's rare when someone can overcome as much as Jeff Healey did in his life and yet still manage to become as famous and well known as he did. From the time he was age one, when a rare form of cancer called Retinoblastoma claimed his eyesight, he bravely fought the disease.
I still remember the year 1989 very well. Scott Shannon had come over from New York to launch "Pirate Radio" 100.3 FM out here in Los Angeles, and though it was a HUGE success initially, the station (and the Rock 40 type format) didn't have legs, and Shannon was back in New York just a couple of years later. Scott brought many great artists to the attention of L.A. radio listeners, and one of those was Jeff Healey. Healey's single, "Angel Eyes" was one of Scott's personal favorites and he helped get the ball rolling in helping it become a HUGE hit. By August of that year, "Angel Eyes" was a top 10 national pop hit, peaking at #9 on Radio & Records' pop chart. Jeff's album "See The Light" went Platinum. He went on to be nominated for a Grammy award for that work.
Sadly, the cancer finally got the best of Jeff last night, and he succumbed to the disease after a 40 year battle. He leaves behind a wife, two children and also an album of new music entited Mess Of Blues which is scheduled for an April 22nd release. Jeff Healey was the epitome of someone with strength, courage, perseverance and a never-say-die attitude. He will sorely be missed. You can leave messages and condolences and read the messages others have left here:
Jeff Healey Wishes
Rest In Peace, Jeff.
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I still remember the year 1989 very well. Scott Shannon had come over from New York to launch "Pirate Radio" 100.3 FM out here in Los Angeles, and though it was a HUGE success initially, the station (and the Rock 40 type format) didn't have legs, and Shannon was back in New York just a couple of years later. Scott brought many great artists to the attention of L.A. radio listeners, and one of those was Jeff Healey. Healey's single, "Angel Eyes" was one of Scott's personal favorites and he helped get the ball rolling in helping it become a HUGE hit. By August of that year, "Angel Eyes" was a top 10 national pop hit, peaking at #9 on Radio & Records' pop chart. Jeff's album "See The Light" went Platinum. He went on to be nominated for a Grammy award for that work.
Sadly, the cancer finally got the best of Jeff last night, and he succumbed to the disease after a 40 year battle. He leaves behind a wife, two children and also an album of new music entited Mess Of Blues which is scheduled for an April 22nd release. Jeff Healey was the epitome of someone with strength, courage, perseverance and a never-say-die attitude. He will sorely be missed. You can leave messages and condolences and read the messages others have left here:
Jeff Healey Wishes
Rest In Peace, Jeff.
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Wednesday, February 27, 2008
America's Bleeding Love For Leona!
Yes, I know it's only been four days since my last Leona Lewis update, but things are moving rather swiftly here in America as "Bleeding Love" continues to make waves EVERYWHERE! Since I last wrote, "Bleeding Love" has ascended to #21 on the iTunes chart. Up 11 more spots the past four days! Yes, the cracking top 20 seems to be just a matter of hours away!
The radio airplay story on "Bleeding Love" continues it's slow, yet steady development. It's now up to #35 on the Mediabase pop chart, despite being played on barely half of the nation's major top 40 music stations. It's a similar story on the rhythmic chart, where it's at #47 on the chart with less than 30% of the panel's reporters playing it. Long story short is there's A LOT of room for growth for "Bleeding Love" here on American radio, and once the buzz really starts getting huge, watch out!
The video outlets are also continuing to HUGELY be into Leona. VH1 is showing the video for "Bleeding Love" twice a day, and now even FUSE TV has begun playing it!
Some of you have asked me how to best support Leona. I have received several good suggestions and ideas from many of you. I'll mix them in with some of mine and with our combined efforts, we can really make this bird fly!
For starters, if you have not already done so, please spend a dollar or so buy "Bleeding Love" off of iTunes or some similar site.
Also, if you happen to be one of the lucky ones who is hearing "Bleeding Love" on your local radio station, tell them how much you LOVE the song and also make sure to request it! If your station isn't playing it yet, politely ask them to start!
Another great way to support "Bleeding Love" is to vote for her on weekly on VH1's top 20 video countdown. The first week out, she got enough votes to be #7 in the countdown!!! Last week though, she didn't make the top 20! So, let's get to voting and get her back on the countdown where she belongs!
Leona also has a Myspace and a Facebook account, so add her as a friend and also get "Bleeding Love" on your profile so that your friends, family and other visitors can hear it!
If you happen to be a fellow blogger, make links to Leona's official website and also Leona's AMAZING fansite as I've done!!! On these two sites you can listen to all of Leona's music, see pictures of her, and discuss her on forums and much much more!
Lastly, and definitely not least spread the word to anyone and everyone not covered in the above - tell your friends and family about this GREAT new artist you've "discovered." If you can bring your IPOD to work with you and listen to it like me, make sure you let all of your co-workers get a listen to her amazing set of pipes!
Also, don't forget to mark April 8, 2008 on your calendar - this is when Leona's long-awaited Spirit album will finally be available for purchase here in the States! You can also pre-order Spirit here on Amazon.com
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Saturday, February 23, 2008
Leona Lewis U.S. Update!
The buzz continues to grow here in the States about U.K. singing sensation Leona Lewis. Only 2 1/2 weeks since her single "Bleeding Love" was released to radio, it is already a smash top 40 hit, already residing at #38 on the Mediabase pop chart. Early support for Leona at top 40 radio has come from some high profile stations including WNOU 100.9 in Indianapolis and WHTZ (Z-100) in New York, where the song is already generating top five requests! Much to my surprise, Rhythmic stations are also behind Leona as she's at #51 on the Mediabase rhythmic chart and about to crack the top 50.
Perhaps more important than anything in Leona's success so far though has been VH1's support of her as their "You Oughta Know" artist of the month of February. The video for "Bleeding Love" has already risen to #7 on their top 20 countdown and is getting played two or three times a day.
All of this exposure for Leona via T.V. and the radio has of course resulted in the inevitable sales spike on iTunes and other similar sites. "Bleeding Love" has quickly risen all the way up to #32 on iTunes top 100 sales chart.
Leona's off to a GREAT start here in the U.S., and with an upcoming appearance on American Idol on March, and her Spirit album dropping here on April 8th, I think we're only seeing the beginnings of what will truly be the "year of Leona" here in America.
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Sunday, February 10, 2008
Clive Davis' Pre-Grammy Party
No, I wasn't there - oh how so I WISH I was there! Anyways, you can watch a 2 hour and almost 15 minute video of the party at this link:
Clive Davis' Pre-Grammy Party
About 25 minutes in, Leona Lewis makes her appearance and sings "Bleeding Love" (which is already at #51 on the U.S. pop chart in it's first week of release), and also "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" - the Roberta Flack classic. I got chills during both performances! Imagine if I had been there!!!
Carrie Underwood and Leona Lewis in the same room...WOW!!! The Foo Fighters, Daughtry, Alicia Keys, and of course Clive Davis himself are amongst the star-studded attendants at this annual bash. The Grammy Awards are tonight... GO CARRIE!!!
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Clive Davis' Pre-Grammy Party
About 25 minutes in, Leona Lewis makes her appearance and sings "Bleeding Love" (which is already at #51 on the U.S. pop chart in it's first week of release), and also "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" - the Roberta Flack classic. I got chills during both performances! Imagine if I had been there!!!
Carrie Underwood and Leona Lewis in the same room...WOW!!! The Foo Fighters, Daughtry, Alicia Keys, and of course Clive Davis himself are amongst the star-studded attendants at this annual bash. The Grammy Awards are tonight... GO CARRIE!!!
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Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Super Tuesday!
As most of you know, I rarely get into politics here... but if you read between the lines, then most of you probably know how I stand. That said, more than anything I hope each and every one of you that has the opportunity to vote today does their civic duty. Voting is your right and privilege and your opportunity to be heard. No matter what your affiliation, don't waste it!
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Today is also a "Super Tuesday" musically as perhaps the year's most anticipated release to date, Leona Lewis' "Bleeding Love" officially goes for adds at radio today. 21 contemporary pop stations have already jumped the gun and added "Bleeding Love" to their rotations, good enough to get it to #62 on the Pop chart. The spins should start to rise VERY swiftly starting today! After spending seven weeks at number one in the U.K. and breaking all kinds of records there and all over the world, the sky is truly the limit here for "Bleeding Love" and the rest of Leona's music here in the States!
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Today is also a "Super Tuesday" musically as perhaps the year's most anticipated release to date, Leona Lewis' "Bleeding Love" officially goes for adds at radio today. 21 contemporary pop stations have already jumped the gun and added "Bleeding Love" to their rotations, good enough to get it to #62 on the Pop chart. The spins should start to rise VERY swiftly starting today! After spending seven weeks at number one in the U.K. and breaking all kinds of records there and all over the world, the sky is truly the limit here for "Bleeding Love" and the rest of Leona's music here in the States!
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Friday, February 1, 2008
Leona Lewis Hits U.S. Airwaves!
Every once in a while, a music talent comes along that just blows me away from the first time I heard their voice. I still remember seeing Carrie Underwood on American Idol a few years ago and knowing from the first time I heard her that she was going to do great things. Way back in 1990, a woman named Mariah Carey came along with her song "Vision Of Love." From the first time I heard that amazing voice, I knew we'd be hearing from her for a very long time... "Vision" would be the first of an unprecented 10 consecutive #1 hits on Radio & Records' top 40 chart! In 2005, Mariah scored her 13th and 14th #1 pop hits including "We Belong Together" which spent 11 weeks at the summit.When you first hear Leona Lewis and her music from the Spirit album, it does remind you a lot of Mariah, particularly her early stuff. Leona's first single, "Bleeding Love" already spent seven weeks at #1 in the U.K. and is set to be released to U.S. radio on Super Tuesday. The anticipation for this song has been so strong that no less than 18 stations here in the States have already added the song to their playlists. As of this morning, it already stands at #66 on the Mediabase CHR/Pop chart. When I first heard "Bleeding Love" a little over a month ago, I have to admit I was hooked from the very first listen. It's truly an amazing piece of work, engaging and melodic. Simply put, a musical masterpiece! Being someone who is pretty picky when it comes to music, that very rarely happens with me. Watch for the song to rocket up the charts here in the coming weeks. Leona's debut album Spirit will hit the stores here in America on April 8th. The album I think only touches on Leona's potential, though there are several other songs which should become hits here. I think we will be seeing a whole lot of Leona Lewis for many years to come!
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Thursday, November 8, 2007
Carrie, Flatts win 2 CMA's!
I just wanted to give a quick shout out and congratulations to both Carrie Underwood and Rascal Flatts for the two CMA awards they each won last night. Two of my absolute favorite Country acts and so deserving of their wins!!!
Friday, October 12, 2007
Are You Ready for a CARNIVAL RIDE???!!!
If you're a big Country music fan like me, then you've probably really enjoyed the past several weeks. Over that time, we've had new releases come out from Rascal Flatts, Kenny Chesney, Brooks & Dunn, and a "duets" set from Reba McEntire. Faith Hill and Sara Evans have put out Greatest Hits sets the past two weeks as well. And OK, I still like my pop/rock stuff - last week I bought the new Matchbox Twenty greatest hits CD Exile On Mainstream which also features six new tracks. Next week, there really aren't any significant new Country releases coming out (this makes my credit cards happy)... however, the following week we have perhaps the year's most anticipated release in Carrie Underwood's sophomore effort Carnival Ride.
For those of you counting, Carrie's debut album Some Hearts has sold nearly six million copies here in the U.S. to date in the 99 weeks since it was released. Likely soon, it will be certified SEVEN times platinum for shipments totalling over 7,000,000 copies here in the States. Yes, the audience certainly got it right in season four of American Idol. Of course, Carrie's biggest fanbase is at Country, but she's also had crossover success and top 10 hits at Christian AC, Adult Contemporary, Hot AC, and even the pop charts, where the ubiquitous "Before He Cheats" climbed to #9 on the Mediabase charts back in May. That song is like the Energizer Bunny - it just keeps going and going; in fact it's perched at #5 on the Adult Contemporary chart this week. This is more than 15 months after she first hit the top 50 of the Country chart (she later spent five weeks at #1 there).
As for the current and that which is to come, well I'm sure you've heard her first release "So Small" from the Carnival Ride album - it's doing very well at #8 on the Mediabase Country chart at the moment, and is looking to become her fifth straight #1 Country hit... I got some very exciting news regarding the Carnival Ride project today - you can now hear snippets of ALL 13 tracks which will be included on the album!!! Just go to this site:
Carnival Ride preview @ Arista
Here's the track listing:
1. So Small
2. Last Name
3. All-American Girl
4. Just A Dream
5. Get Out Of This Town
6. Crazy Dreams
7. I Know You Won't
8. Flat On The Floor
9. You Won't Find This
10. I Told You So
11. The More Boys I Meet
12. Twisted
13. Wheel Of The World
I've listened to the previews several times now, and let me just say I'm VERY impressed... I have no idea how the songs are going to sound in their full form, but if the snipets are any indication, this one is going to be as big if not bigger than Some Hearts. There's a lot of variety in the songs both stylistically and lyrically... slow songs and faster ones, some twangier, others sounding more contemporary... Of course, Carrie's amazing vocals shine through on each track - did I really need to say that? ;) Needless to say (yes, I say that A LOT) I'm HUGELY anticipating this release... the Carnival Ride will come to a store near you on October 23rd. Don't be left off!!!
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For those of you counting, Carrie's debut album Some Hearts has sold nearly six million copies here in the U.S. to date in the 99 weeks since it was released. Likely soon, it will be certified SEVEN times platinum for shipments totalling over 7,000,000 copies here in the States. Yes, the audience certainly got it right in season four of American Idol. Of course, Carrie's biggest fanbase is at Country, but she's also had crossover success and top 10 hits at Christian AC, Adult Contemporary, Hot AC, and even the pop charts, where the ubiquitous "Before He Cheats" climbed to #9 on the Mediabase charts back in May. That song is like the Energizer Bunny - it just keeps going and going; in fact it's perched at #5 on the Adult Contemporary chart this week. This is more than 15 months after she first hit the top 50 of the Country chart (she later spent five weeks at #1 there).As for the current and that which is to come, well I'm sure you've heard her first release "So Small" from the Carnival Ride album - it's doing very well at #8 on the Mediabase Country chart at the moment, and is looking to become her fifth straight #1 Country hit... I got some very exciting news regarding the Carnival Ride project today - you can now hear snippets of ALL 13 tracks which will be included on the album!!! Just go to this site:
Carnival Ride preview @ Arista
Here's the track listing:
1. So Small
2. Last Name
3. All-American Girl
4. Just A Dream
5. Get Out Of This Town
6. Crazy Dreams
7. I Know You Won't
8. Flat On The Floor
9. You Won't Find This
10. I Told You So
11. The More Boys I Meet
12. Twisted
13. Wheel Of The World
I've listened to the previews several times now, and let me just say I'm VERY impressed... I have no idea how the songs are going to sound in their full form, but if the snipets are any indication, this one is going to be as big if not bigger than Some Hearts. There's a lot of variety in the songs both stylistically and lyrically... slow songs and faster ones, some twangier, others sounding more contemporary... Of course, Carrie's amazing vocals shine through on each track - did I really need to say that? ;) Needless to say (yes, I say that A LOT) I'm HUGELY anticipating this release... the Carnival Ride will come to a store near you on October 23rd. Don't be left off!!!
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