With a heavy dose of hip hop and R&B, Now That's What I Call Music! 31 debuts at no. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart.
Top 10 Albums on the Billboard 200:
1. Now That's What I Call Music! 31
2. Brad Paisley – American Saturday Night
3. Rob Thomas – Cradlesong
4. Wilco – Wilco (The Album)
5. The Black Eyed Peas – The E.N.D.
6. Jeremih – Jeremih
7. Killswitch Engage – Killswitch Engage
8. Jonas Brothers – Lines, Vines and Trying Times
9. Eminem – Relapse
10. Lady GaGa – The Fame
Available on iTunes:
Now That's What I Call Music! 31
Over at Hip Hop Press:
Newest Installment of World's Best-Selling Music Compilation Series,
Now That's What I Call Music!, Debuts in Top Spot
This is the least amount of Hip-Hop in a weekly top ten in quite a while. A fellow writer and I were just discussing how there simply haven’t been a lot of “urban” releases in the past few months. Here’s hoping the fall produces something good.
It ebbs and flows. I’m wondering how much has to do with mixtapes and related free products, that aren’t included in the charts, replacing albums.
Since I don’t follow any other genre nearly as closely as I follow hip hop, I wonder how things like pushbacks and cancellations differ across genres as well as the issue of how majors decide to promote or not promote albums once they’ve released them.
I also wonder about the criminal element, e.g. drug money, as a source of financing and that effect on the release of albums.