5. Lady Antebellum  "Need You Now"

Sales this week: 86,616
Percentage change: +11
Weeks on: 10
Cume: 1,647,332

Could end up outselling GaGa.  Definitely could have a longer career.

In other words, tradition triumphs over fad.  Just like Nickelback plays meat and potatoes rock and sells forever, tonnage, Lady Antebellum sings songs, that you can not only sing along with, but play on the guitar.

You can quote rap.  You can wear heavy metal clothing.  But songs you can sing build outside the radio, outside home play.  Friends sing them together.  They know the lyrics.

I don’t think this act is incredible.  And although the woman is cute, the guys are dorky, so I don’t think it’s all about sex appeal.  Rather, this is a harbinger that the public is ready for melody.

If you want to chase a fad, clone this, forget the Top Forty rappers and one hit wonders.  Come on, how long a career do you really think Ke$ha is going to have?  And Justin Bieber better make his money now, before his voice changes.  He’s not even as good as the Backstreet Boys, he’s crap like New Kids On The Block.

19. Zac Brown Band "Foundation"

Sales this week: 25,451
Percentage change: +3
Weeks on: 72
Cume: 1,781,509

People are still discovering Zac.  In the last century, he would have been all over television and the public would have already rendered an opinion.  Now most people are still unaware who he is.  Upside is gargantuan, especially when you’ve got a good album and a good live act.  This is an interesting conundrum.  On one hand, it’s best not to release another album for years, until everybody knows who Zac is and this one plays out.  Because a new album will negatively impact this one and it’s going to have to be extremely good, with hits, to keep up the momentum.

43. Train "Save Me San Francisco"

Sales this week: 12,526
Percentage change: +15
Weeks on: 23
Cume: 219,471

Have a hit song and…people don’t want the album, only the track.  People only want the album if your act has an identity, it stands for something.

If there’s another hit from this album people will still only want the hit.

No one believes if there’s a hit on an album, even two or three, that the rest of the record is any good.  Except for the younger generation, really younger generation, which hasn’t realized that albums are a few good tracks at best, and filler.  So, ironically, it’s kiddie acts like Miley Cyrus who sell albums.  Or really old acts appealing to baby boomers who don’t have any hits and don’t move much product anyway.

115. White Stripes "Under Great White Northern Lights"

Sales this week: 5,431
Percentage change: -39
Weeks on: 3
Cume: 43,473

Who needs a live album when we’ve got YouTube (and BitTorrent and RapidShare).

Furthermore, with so many side projects the act is now Jack White, not the White Stripes.  His old act with Meg has lost momentum.

137. 30 Seconds To Mars "This Is War"

Sales this week: 4,275
Percentage change: +38
Weeks on: 17
Cume: 194,783

It never pays to fight with a major label.  Because you lose precious time.  They can’t let you walk, can’t set precedent, otherwise all their other acts will want this option.  So, they’ll let you ruin your career to prove a point.  30 Seconds To Mars lost momentum.  They needed to make the best of a bad situation.  Or go totally rogue.  Release the album to the Net and go on tour anyway.

161. 50 Cent "Before I Self-Destruct"

Sales this week: 3,647
Percentage change: -1
Weeks on: 20
Cume: 433,113

Needs to put out new music soon!  Before we forget about him, before the stink of this stuff stays on his career and truly destroys it.

Today, you fail in private.  Only success is public.  In order for an act of Fitty’s magnitude to succeed, he’s got to interest casual fans.  And stiffs don’t register on casual fans’ radar screens, only hits.  So, starting over is really like starting for the first time, because people missed your failure!

In an era where people just cherry-pick the hits does it matter how much material you release anyway?  We’re separating the wheat from the chaff. Fitty’s got to harvest some wheat.

170. Peter Gabriel "Scratch My Back"

Sales this week: 3,406
Percentage change: -22
Weeks on: 5
Cume: 43,012

He’s become an oldies act.  Someone you go see live, close your eyes and remember when you were thinner, had hair and were in a different relationship.

This was completely mishandled.  Peter had no visibility.  Unlike Jeff Beck, whose new album comes out tomorrow, Gabriel hasn’t been on TV, didn’t appear at the Grammys…and if an oldster wants to sell product he’s got to be visible.

Gabriel is almost completely invisible.  Enough fans will support him live, but even those fans don’t want the new album.  Because it seems like a cheap shot.  Covers?  Is that the rule, you’re over sixty and you can no longer record new material?

Gabriel should have cut one good new track and hyped it to high heaven, licensed it to ESPN, appeared as a commentator, released some new video footage, then when there was a frenzy, put out the album.

As hard as it is for new acts to break through, old acts don’t automatically get a pass.  They need to be visible, they’ve got to let their audience know they’ve got a new album.  And print isn’t enough.  Especially when Gabriel kept talking about how the reciprocal album, where the people he covered covered his tracks, never came to fruition.

182. Dave Matthews Band "Big Whiskey & the Grux Grux King"

Sales this week: 3,123
Percentage change: +1
Weeks on: 44
Cume: 1,065,976

Did anybody who isn’t a fan of Dave even hear this album?

These sales show how large Dave’s cult truly is.  Built on a live show and a couple of hit tracks when video still mattered and a band without beats could get mainstream exposure.  In other words, the new DMB will grow slower and take longer to reach critical mass.  Unless they’re really damn good and college students spread the word.  The word of mouth at colleges travels at light speed!

197. Joan Jett & the Blackhearts "Greatest Hits"

Sales this week: 2,831
Percentage change: -14
Weeks on: 4
Cume: 14,090

Who thought a Runaways movie was a good idea?  We didn’t care about the Runaways when they were together, why should we care now.  And "Cherry Bomb" has aged worse than "Afternoon Delight".

In order to get us to see anything but an action picture, the film has got to be good.  And no one said this flick was great.

Joan Jett was a middling artist with one huge track.  Neither hatable or lovable, she’s just part of the endless eighties miasma.

This album was supposed to sell after the movie hit.

Now, there might be a video aftermath.  But I wouldn’t count on it being too big.