October 28, 2005
EXAMPLE: Ashlee Simpson #1 This Is What's Wrong With Popular Music
No wonder Fashion Bomb believe they can actually get a break!
This is something terribly upsetting to someone wh has based his career around the music industry for 20 plus years. The world knows she ws busted lyp synching on "live" TV, and she walked off in shame. SNL had her back and now so has America so it seems. WHAT'S WRONG WITH PEOPLE??? IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT MUSIC ! Not something sugar coated singing over a producers track with lyrics and music she didn't create.
Sometimes, art does imitate life: Take this week's album chart, which finds Rod Stewart chasing after a younger blonde woman--Ashlee Simpson.
Jessica's lip-synching sibling managed to hold off the advances of Stewart's latest for-the-fogies compilation of standards, Thanks For the Memory...The Great American Songbook: Volume IV--along with buzzed-about new releases from Martina McBride, Stevie Wonder, Bun-B and Depeche Mode--to notch her second straight chart-topper.
Simpson's I Am Me sold 220,000 copies for the week ended Sunday, while Stewart's Songbook moved 193,000, according to Nielsen SoundScan tracking. It's the sixth week in a row that a new album has debuted at number one on the Billboard 200.
Still trying to live down her SNL debacle from last year, the younger Simpson reappeared on the NBC late-night show to prove she can sing without the help of prerecorded vocals. She followed that up with a relentless promotional schedule that included pit stops on TRL, Ellen, Good Morning America, Live with Regis & Kelly and The Tonight Show. Her lead single, "Boyfriend," is in heavy rotation on both the radio and video charts.
Still, her Milli Vanilli moment has apparently cost her fans. I Am Me sales were well below that of her debut album, Autobigraphy, which opened with 398,000 in sales last year. In any case, she still holds family bragging rights--sister Jessica has yet to top the album charts.
And while Stewart couldn't top Simpson, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer's fourth and--he swears!--final collection of reworked classics continues to exceed all expectations. In just three years, the four volumes have sold a combined 13 million copies and have given the singer his first number one album this side of the Carter administration. And last year's third volume, Stardust, which reentered the charts this week at 119, earned him the first Grammy trophy of his decades-long career.
Country chanteuse McBride rode in at number three spot as her latest, Timeless, sold 186,000 discs. The self-produced album, which is atop Billboard's country chart, features McBride's reworking of classics by the likes of Hank Williams, Buck Owens and Loretta Lynn.
Speaking of classic artists, Wonder's first studio album in a decade, A Time to Love, sold nearly 121,000 copies at number five. The iconic artist, who has sold more than 100 million career copies, last released a studio album in 1995 with Conversation Peace.
Rounding out the Top 10 bows this week, UGK rapper Bun-B sold 117,000 copies of his solo effort Trill to open at six, while the comeback-minded Depeche Mode's Playing the Angel moved 99,000 copies at seven. The band's cut "Precious" also took over the top of the singles chart.
Country singer Billy Currington just missed the Top 10, with his latest, Doin' Something opening at 11 with 54,000 copies. O.C. punk faves Thrice also made a solid showing at 15 with Vheissu, while the jazzy Chris Botti followed at 18 with To Love Again.
Another country artist, Tracy Lawrence, opened at 35 with his Then & Now collection, while Bad Boy Entertainment rapper Black Rob debuted at 40 with the Black Rob Report.
Other notable releases included Bryan Adam's Anthology at 65, Mest's Photographs at 116, Tony Hawk's American Wasteland soundtrack at 148, the soundtrack to Showtime's Masters of Horror at 161 and Wu-Tang Meets Indie Culture's Think Differently at 190.
Here's a recap of the top-selling albums for the week ended Sunday:
1. I Am Me, Ashlee Simpson
2. Thanks for the Memory...The Great American Songbook: Volume IV, Rod Stewart
3. Timeless, Martina McBride
4. All the Right Reasons, Nickelback
5. A Time to Love, Stevie Wonder
6. Thrill, Bun-B
7. Playing the Angel, Depeche Mode
8. Monkey Business, Black Eyed Peas
9. Unplugged, Alicia Keys
10. Late Registration, Kanye West