10/16/2008
Music News: Britney Spears Hits #1...One More Time, Plus The Saturdays, Take That, Ace Of Base
Robbie Daw presents a weekly pop music update here on Towleroad! Robbie runs his own site called Chart Rigger.
Ten years ago this month, "...Baby One More Time," a single from a little-known former Mouseketeer named Britney Spears was released. A few months later, it topped Billboard's Hot 100 Singles chart and launched the career of the most-searched individual on the Internet in 2008.
And so yesterday it was reported by Billboard that Spears' new single "Womanizer" sold 286,000 digital downloads in its first week of availability—enough to unseat T.I. and Rihanna's "Live My Life" from the top of the Hot 100 and become Britney's second U.S. chart-topping song.
One interesting fact to consider: "Womanizer" makes only the sixth Top 10 hit (in the U.S.) of Britney's career, after "...Baby One More Time" (#1, 1999), "You Drive Me Crazy" (#10, 1999), "Oops!...I Did It Again" (#9, 2000), "Toxic" (#9, 2004) and "Gimme More" (#3, 2007).
As a sign of how much the music business has changed since the advent of the iTunes/paid digital downloads age, Rihanna has had five #1-charting singles in the past two years alone. One thing that factors into that is that when Britney's first three albums were released, there was no online music store that figured into chart tallying. And Jive Records didn't release physical CDs for most of Britney's singles, leaving them to chart on airplay alone.
Anyway, at the end of the day, "Womanizer" has become Britney's second #1 single. Combine that with her winning her first three MTV VMAs last month for "Piece Of Me," and it's hard not wonder if all the current goodwill for her might not stem more from a desire for Spears to rebound from her previous bad couple of years than from a general quality improvement of her musical output.
Switching gears, here are a few clips of songs from pop acts across the pond:
1. Ace Of Base, "Wheel Of Fortune 2009": One of the Swedish foursome's (now pared down to a threesome) first singles gets an electro update for the band's umpteenth greatest hits collection.
2. The Saturdays, "Up": The British girl group who supported Girls Aloud on their recent U.K. tour comes into its own with their second single, out this week in their own country.
3. Keane, "The Lovers Are Losing": This one's available this week on U.S. iTunes.
4. Take That, "Greatest Day": First single off the thirtysomething Brit boyband's upcoming fifth album, The Circus. And, yes, it's a ballad.
THIS WEEK'S NEW RELEASES:
Keane's third album, Perfect Symmetry. co-produced by Stuart Price and Jon Brion with the band.
Lucinda Williams' 10th studio album, Little Honey, featuring appearances by Elvis Costello, Susanna Hoffs, Charlie Louvin and Matthew Sweet.
Nikka Costa's Pebble To A Pearl, produced by her husband Justin Stanley.
New singles from Taylor Swift ("Fearless"), Fall Out Boy ("What A Catch, Donnie"), Seal ("A Change Is Gonna Come") and The Decemberists ("Always The Bridesmaid").
Posted 5:20 PM EST by Robbie in Britney Spears, Music, Music Recommendations, Music Video, Take That | Permalink
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I'm fascinated by that goodwill that Britney absolutely does receive. I don't get it—she is aggressively uncreative and untalented (okay, she can move about seductively), has had zero input into any of her music ("Dear Diary" and crap like that was not even real), has almost NEVER sung live under any circumstances, is a redneck who supported Bush, gave up her kids, lost her mind (okay, maybe that wasn't her fault...???), a druggie. I feel like she has taken a dump on all of the goodwill over the years and is getting yet another second chance. It's bizarre but impressive. I also think that it's bizarre how few hit songs she's ever had—the charts are so insane that they're hinged on airplay. I despise Britney Spears but she's had so many more songs that should have gone Top 10 or higher.
Posted by: Matthew Rettenmund | Oct 16, 2008 5:40:32 PM
That new Keane album is not very good upon first few listens. Maybe it will grow on me. But anyhoo, you can buy the entire MP3 album for $2.99 at Amazon through the end of the week.
I'm dying to get the new Snow Patrol in a few weeks.
Posted by: crispy | Oct 16, 2008 5:57:09 PM
Britney has had more than 6 top 40 hits, I think you meant top 10. There was "Lucky", "Me Against The Music", "Stronger" and more.
Posted by: JEFFERSON | Oct 16, 2008 6:22:43 PM
lol Mathew for someone who despises Britney you sure have been following her career pretty closely...
How about you waste even more of your time spouting off about something that means ever less to you...
I mean really now
Posted by: Derek | Oct 16, 2008 9:28:27 PM
Derek - with all due respect - I don't think Matthew needed to follow Britney's career, per se, to have known any of the subjects he's mentioned. All one needed to do was browse the internet, turn on the TV, watch the news, listen to the radio, read any major music magazine (from Spin to RS to Billboard to, well, you get the idea...) to be over-saturated with all Britney all the time.
It IS a shame because she is arguably the least-talented hack to have emerged in the past decade (well, at least I can make that argument). That's the unfortunate culture we live in, but it's a fact of life in this Perez Hilton/internet world. Even if some of us refuse to partake in the absurdity of it all, we can't help but smell it if it's constantly rotting under our noses.
Posted by: jeffreychrist | Oct 16, 2008 9:51:35 PM
When is she going to go away already?
Posted by: michael | Oct 17, 2008 2:21:59 AM
Who is Britney Spears?
Posted by: Matt | Oct 17, 2008 9:24:34 AM
I find it insulting that you would assume that Britney's latest success is due to 'good will' toward her. While I do hope she gets her life together (the same wish I hold for anyone going through a tough time), I wouldn't buy or listen to her music if I didn't enjoy it.
I am unashamed to say that I LOVED Blackout. It is pure fun from start to finish. And I'm equally grooving on Womanizer.
Those of you who want her to 'go away', how about you just stop paying attention to her? Oh, that's right, you are the aribiter of everyone's taste level. Thank you for your superior knowledge and for taking pity on us peons.
Posted by: wetcnt | Oct 17, 2008 3:37:29 PM
Well said, Wetcnt!!!
Posted by: Jamo | Oct 18, 2008 10:00:24 PM