Arcade Fire’s third album, The Suburbs, has debuted at #1 in both the US and UK. I think this means that “indie rock” is now officially mainstream, or something like that.

I’m actually not much of a fan of Arcade Fire. I find their approach to be a bit over-dramatic. They remind me of my […]

From time to time I like to check out the Billboard album charts to see what kind of music people are buying in mass quantities these days. This is one of those times.
I’m mostly pretty detached from the “pop” world (most of my favorite new music doesn’t sell huge quantities) so this is my effort […]

Ringo Starr turns 70 today. He was born as Richard Starkey on July 7, 1940. Ringo was the oldest Beatle. John Lennon would be turning 70 on October 9 of this year and Paul McCartney just turned 68 (June 18th.) George Harrison was the youngest Beatle as he would have turned 67 this year (on […]

According to this story on Billboard, Michael Jackson has sold over 30 million copies of his albums around the world since his death one year ago (June 25, 2009.)
In the US alone, MJ has sold over 9 million copies of his albums in the past year. On top of that he has sold over 12 […]

The new Billboard album charts are out today and I find the sales numbers for MGMT’s new album, Congratulations, interesting enough to pass along: 66,000 copies sold in the first week which is good enough to debut at the #2 spot (behind Justin Bieber at #1.)
The Billboard story also mentioned that MGMT’s first album, […]

I wasn’t that surprised to see that Valleys of Neptune (the latest collection of previously unreleased Hendrix recordings released as a new album) debuted at #4 on the US album charts this week, because Hendrix definitely seems to have an enduring popularity. But I was a bit surprised to see how many of his older […]

Soldier of Love, Sade’s first album since 2000’s Lover’s Rock, debuted at #1 on this week’s Billboard 200 album charts with more than half a million copies sold.
It’s Sade’s second #1 album in the US, the first being 1985’s Promise which was their second album (their debut album, Diamond Life, was released in 1984 […]

Elvis Presley was born on January 8, 1935 which means he would have been 75 years old today. Presley died on August 16, 1977 at the age of 42.
To coincide with his 75th birthday a box set titled Elvis 75 - Good Rockin’ Tonight was released a month ago. It includes a total 100 […]

On the final Billboard 200 album chart prior to Christmas a total of eight Beatles releases made the top 200 sellers of the week:
#082 Abbey Road (1969)
#085 The White Album (1970)
#099 The Beatles in Stereo Box Set (2009)
#126 1 (2000)
#130 Sgt. Pepper’s… (1967)
#163 Rubber Soul (1965)
#170 Revolver (1966)
#184 Love (2006)
Not a bad showing considering that […]

The This Is It documentary (on the preparation for the Jackson concert series that never happened) was the #1 movie in the US last week and now the accompanying This Is It soundtrack (which is essentially another “greatest hits” package with the title track being the only new song) debuted at #1 on the US […]