Soundscan Surprises, Week of 2/16
Back-catalog sales numbers of note from Nielsen SoundScan.
The definition of “back catalog” is: “at least 18 months old, have fallen below №100 on the Billboard 200 and do not have an active single on our radio.”
Who is Joy Villa, asked only me, the one idiot who didn’t watch the Grammys or see the flood of tweets about the lady in the Trump dress. According to Forbes:
Villa is an independent artist who has shown up on the Grammy red carpet for the past three years (it’s relatively easy to get a ticket, if you’re wondering) in outlandish outfits, hoping to drum up press for her 2014 EP, I Make The Static. Villa’s Pro-Trump outfit immediately began trending on social media last weekend, leading tens of thousands of Trump supporters to download the EP and flood iTunes’ review portal with pro-Trump messages.
In the end, more than 26,500 Americans shelled out $4.95 to buy Villa’s EP on iTunes or Amazon. (100% of her sales are from digital retailers since no physical stock was available.) Had Villa sold even one copy of her EP in the preceding two years, this jump would have represented one of the largest percentage-wise in chart history. However, digital sales prior to last Sunday’s Grammy Awards (from July 2014 through February 2017) were zero.
And according to The Daily Beast, she is also a vegan bodybuilder and Scientologist who also goes by the name “Princess” and was a Bernie supporter. She arrived at the Staples Center wearing a white sheet (A FUCKING WHITE SHEET) and then tore it off on the red carpet to reveal a truly wild dress that says RUM in the back.
WOW OKAY well then here is her Scientology spotlight/ad:
Now that you’ve made no sense of that, on to the rest of the surprises. I couldn’t find a reason for the Frank Sinatra jump, but then again I’m not sure there’s anything wrong with one—no explanations necessary. The Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack obviously got bumped because of that bangin’ Zayn and Taylor Swift song, I mean, the Fifty Shades Darker movie.
What else? Al Jarreau died, 21-year-old former Voice contestant Melanie Martinez is expected to release an album this year, and Gary Clark Jr. is a young blues guitarist from Austin, Texas who performed “Born Under A Bad Sign” with William Bell at this year’s Grammys.
I’m genuinely not sure what explains the 999% jump in sales for David Bowie’s Station to Station except perhaps the Canadian artist David Tycho’s upcoming exhibition of paintings paying homage to the album. The Red Hot Chili Peppers played Madison Square Garden last week, and MercyMe is a Contemporary Christian band are expected to release a new album titled Lifer on March 31st. Religion sells!
- VILLA*JOY I MAKE THE STATIC 26,545 copies
10. SINATRA*FRANK NOTHING BUT THE BEST (REMASTER 4,609 copies
18. SOUNDTRACK FIFTY SHADES OF GREY 3,424 copies
39. MARTINEZ*MELANIE CRY BABY 2,181 copies
45. JARREAU*AL VERY BEST OF: AN EXCELLENT ADV 1,984 copies
65. CLARK*GARY JR. BLAK & BLU 1,596 copies
74. MERCYME WELCOME TO THE NEW 1,523 copies
135. CLARK*GARY JR. GARY CLARK JR. LIVE (2CD) 1,173 copies
143. RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS STADIUM ARCADIUM 1,145 copies
197. BOWIE*DAVID STATION TO STATION 963 copies
(Previously.)
