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The first week of sales for Lady Gaga's Born This Way are the highest for any release in the last six years.
Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" album debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart with 1,108,000 copies sold in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It's only the 17th album to sell a million in a week since SoundScan began tracking sales data in 1991, and the highest sales week since 2005. "Born This Way" also marks Gaga's first No. 1 album -- "The Fame" debut peaked at No. 2, while "The Fame Monster" EP reached No. 5 and dance effort "The Remix" hit No. 6. "Born This Way's" bow reaps the largest sales week of any album since 50 Cent's "The Massacre" did 1,141,000 in its first week, in March of 2005. The last time we had a million-plus frame was when Taylor Swift's "Speak Now" premiered at No. 1 with 1,047,000 in November of 2010. The SoundScan-era record week is held by NSYNC's "No Strings Attached," when it debuted at No. 1 with 2,416,000 in 2000.
In a smackdown squarely aimed at iTunes, today Amazon began selling Lady Gaga's new full-length album for a mere 99 cents. The release is priced at $11.99 on iTunes. Amazon's sale is for today only.
Rising rap star, music press darling, and Coachella 2011 "breakout artist" Tyler was the subject of a lengthy and fawning New York Times profile published last week. His new album, Goblin, debuts today.
“Goblin” is spiteful, internal, confident, vitriolic, vividly bruised stuff, a shocking — and shockingly good — album that bears little resemblance to contemporary hip-hop. It has more in common with the stark, thick-with-feelings independent rap of the mid-to-late-1990s and also the improbably rich-sounding minimalism of the Neptunes in the early 2000s. For every caustic rhyme about violence there’s a pensive, unexpectedly gentle production choice to go with it. Unlike the maximalism of hip-hop radio, you can feel the air in these songs, the gasping for breath.But what the Times misses is that their new hero is viciously anti-gay and litters his multiple daily Twitter updates with references to "faggots" and "homos."
Another recent Tyler tweet: "Just walked into Abercrombie with my sister cause she wants a shirt. It smells like faggot in here." We'll have to see if the music press and promotion machine cares about this at all. Goblin is pegged to debut at or near the top of next week's album chart.(Tipped by JMG reader Roman)
This Saturday is Record Store Day, an annual celebration of the nation's dwindling music retailers in which acts such as the Beastie Boys make in-store appearances and issue special releases for the day.
This is the one day that all of the independently owned record stores come together with artists to celebrate the art of music. Special vinyl and CD releases and various promotional products are made exclusively for the day and hundreds of artists in the United States and in various countries across the globe make special appearances and performances. Festivities include performances, cook-outs, body painting, meet & greets with artists, parades, djs spinning records and on and on. Metallica officially kicked off Record Store Day at Rasputin Music in San Francisco on April 19, 2008 and Record Store Day is now celebrated the third Saturday every April.RELATED: Buzzfeed today posts dozens of photos of closed record stores around the country.
"We were very surprised and disappointed by the statements made by Lady Gaga's organization related to her partnership with Target. Target remains committed to the LGBT community as demonstrated by our contributions to various LGBT organizations, our recently established Policy Committee to review our political giving and our respectful, inclusive workplace environment." - Target spokesperson.
"That discussion was one of the most intense conversations I've ever had in a business meeting. Part of my deal with Target is that they have to start affiliating themselves with LGBT charity groups and begin to reform and make amends for the mistakes they've made in the past ... our relationship is hinged upon their reform in the company to support the gay community and to redeem the mistakes they've made supporting those [antigay] groups." - Lady Gaga, speaking with Billboard Magazine.
