Events Calendar
In This Section
Most Read Stories
Police accuse bank robbery suspect of gobbling up note (with dashcam video)
Dad accused of forcing son into field, killing him
Man found dead in North Akron home is identified
Victim of beating in Kent last week is declared dead at Akron hospital
Coventry man killed in crash at I-77 ramp
Browns' roster nearly devoid of consistent players
NFL star Chris Spielman's wife loses cancer battle
College student mistaken for deer, shot to death
Blogs:
Pets:
Cat-loving chihuahua suckles seven abandoned kittens
The Heldenfiles:
Friday Night Notebook
Patrick McManamon:
For your Saturday entertainment …
Akron Zips:
Hitchens leads Zips in second-half comeback
Tribe Matters:
Seven players added to Tribe’s 40-man roster
Cleveland Browns:
Holmgren expresses interest in Browns position
Kent State Sports:
Kent State blown out in second half, loses to Temple 47-13
Cleveland Cavaliers:
Gameblog: Cavs vs. Philadelphia 76ers
Buckeye Blogging:
OSU – Michigan college football rivals meet in Baghdad
Varsity Letters:
Four area football teams play tonight
All Da King's Men:
Headed For Disaster
Blog of Mass Destruction:
Will Health Care Reform Pass?
Akron Law Café:
Health Care Financing Reform: (69) The Brookings Institute Study on "Bending the Curve" – Four General Strategies
See Jane Style:
Vintage Chic
Car Chase:
TIME TO GET YOUR COLLECTOR CARS WINTERIZED
Let's Talk Real Estate:
Silverdome Potentially SOLD!
Ohio Travels with Betty:
George is looking for a Thanksgiving buffet in Akron.
Sound Check:
Steely Dan Plays "The Royal Scam" at E.J. Thomas Hall
HRLite House:
Colloquium at University of Akron
Akron Gamer:
Nintendo's Mario endures even as games come and go
Digital tracks, albums popular with fans but classical, country discs record significant drop
By Malcolm X Abram
Beacon Journal music writer
POSTED: 07:26 a.m. EST, Jan 08, 2009
Welcome to 2009. I hope your first week of the new year has been a good one and may it be a better year for all of us.
It was only five years ago that gangsta rapper 50 Cent was shifting 7 million copies of his Get Rich Or Die Trying and only 10 years ago that Shania Twain was selling 10 million-plus copies of her Come on Over.
My how times have changed.
The 2008 year-end Nielsen numbers are out and record sales continue to plunge while digital sales continue to rise but they haven't quite yet met in the profitable middle. Overall music sales (including albums, singles, video and digital tracks) rose from 1.4 billion to 1.5 billion despite a drop in both total album sales and overall album sales. Unsurprisingly, digital tracks and digital album sales continue to grow, surpassing 1 billion and 65 million respectively, Soundscan records that will likely be broken next year.
Album sales were down in every major genre of music. The biggest losers were classical (those old folks just keep dying off), which fell 26 percent and country, which fell 24 percent. The country drop is a bit surprising given the year Taylor Swift had and the fact that other noncountry artists (Jon Bon Jovi, Darius Rucker and Jewel, for example) are trying to hoist themselves onto the country bandwagon.
The top-selling album of 2008 was Lil Wayne's The Carter III, which famously sold platinum in its first week of release but only needed to sell 2.8 million to be the year's top earner. However, late-year entries from Beyonce and AC/DC could surpass that number by spring of '09.
Swift, who currently has two albums in the Billboard top 30 including the current No. 1 Fearless, was the year's top-selling artist, selling more than 4 million copies of her records. The rest of the top five was AC/DC (you can't stop the rock!), Lil Wayne, Coldplay and Metallica, whose relative return to form, Death Magnetic, was also the best-selling Internet album of the year.
Here's an interesting side note for you old technology loyalists. In 2008, there were more vinyl albums sold (1.8 million) than in any other year in Soundscan history (1991-now). Additionally, two out every three vinyl albums was purchased at an independent record store.
As a lifelong indie record store loyalist, that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.
Also, the top vinyl records of the year were Radiohead's In Rainbows (25,800) followed by (and here's a surprise) The Beatles' Abbey Road, which managed to sell 16,500. The top five is rounded out by Guns N' Roses' long-awaited Chinese Democracy (13,600), The B-52s' Funplex (12,800) and Portishead's also long-awaited Third (12,300).
It's interesting that the 12-inch vinyl record will apparently outlast the once amazing technology known as the compact disc. In fact vinyl has proven to be quite resilient, outliving many of the formats intended to bury it. Anyone still using their 8-track, Digital Audio Tape, cassettes, reel to reel, Digital Compact Cassettes or MiniDiscs?
Didn't think so.
This brings me smoothly into a reader's question about vinyl: Where can a music lover get a turntable these days without having to shell out a grand for some high-end, diamond-coated, platinum-plated, kissed-by-an-angel piece of super equipment?
Well, turntables aren't that hard to come by, particularly if you're not too hung up on perfect sound reproduction. Any online site such as eBay, or Craig's List will have a ton of choices both new, used and ''vintage,'' as does Amazon. If you don't have Internet access or know anyone with Internet access (is that still possible?) then you might try raiding yard sales or older relatives' attics.
'Idol' returns . . . hooray
Yep, it's that time of year again when America gets all amped up about the biggest talent show in the frickin' free world! Undoubtedly, this year's batch of American Idol hopefuls will be touted by the show as the ''bestest, most awesomely scrumtralescent collection of amateur singers ever assembled in the history of the universe'' but I'm already exhausted. (Hey, I'm not complainin', just glad to be workin', boss.) And my esteemed colleague Rich Heldenfels and I haven't even started our annual video podcasts (yep, that's a sly bit of self-promotion).
The season premiere is on Tuesday on Fox. Last season, it seemed fairly evident to me that the producers were hoping that ''rocker'' David Cook would win as his target sound (tuneful post-grunge) and market was easy to identify. Also, he was already a songwriter with tour experience.
Runner-up David Archuleta may have been a cute and talented puppy dog you could easily root for on the show — similar to Taylor Hicks — but as an artist he's so vanilla that it's difficult to pinpoint a specific sound/genre that suits him best. Consequently, his album is filled with ''lite'' takes on R&B, alt-rock and crescendo-infused ballads, none of which really define him as an ''artist.''
Archuleta's album debuted at No. 7 and has fallen to the 30s after seven weeks.
Meanwhile Cook, whose album is also quite boring, at least has a laser beam focus. Cook and company know his audience and his sound. Cook's album, which sounds a lot like his self-released 2006 debut Analog Heart, is for people who miss Our Lady Peace and find Chris Daughtry and Nickelback to be too heavy. It's post-grunge pop with professional songwriting help from Cook favorites such as Chris Cornell (who can't seem to get his solo career on track), Raine Maida (of Our Lady Peace) Johnny Rzeznik (of the Goo Goo Dolls) and other pop pros such as Chantall Kreviazuk and Cathy Dennis.
Despite all those ummm . . . cooks in the songwriting kitchen, the album sounds exactly as expected with not one moment of surprise or originality. Songs such as Declaration, the anthemic power ballad A Daily AntheM and really all of the album adhere to the post-grunge sonic blueprint. It's almost impressive how much work the songwriters/producers and Cook seem to have put into the album to ensure that every genre cliche is included among the album's 13 tracks.
Big arena rafter-reaching choruses? Check.
Delicate piano intros leading to inspirational (and big) choruses? Yep.
Goopy ballads that make you want to check your ears for possible Pablum leakage? Check.
Soft verse, loud chorus, soft verse song structures? Natch.
Corny lyrics? Oh yeah.
It's also sitting at No. 10 on the Billboard charts, continuing AI's reign as an at least temporary star maker.
But again, Cook was more prepared to be a pop ''star'' than Archuleta from day one, while Archuleta made for better TV. Chances are, this season (season 8) will come down to a similar quandary for fans, pitting the TV show favorite vs. a potential artist.
Who will win?
Why, the producers, of course.
Malcolm X Abram can be reached at mabram@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3758.
Welcome to 2009. I hope your first week of the new year has been a good one and may it be a better year for all of us.
It was only five years ago that gangsta rapper 50 Cent was shifting 7 million copies of his Get Rich Or Die Trying and only 10 years ago that Shania Twain was selling 10 million-plus copies of her Come on Over.
My how times have changed.
The 2008 year-end Nielsen numbers are out and record sales continue to plunge while digital sales continue to rise but they haven't quite yet met in the profitable middle. Overall music sales (including albums, singles, video and digital tracks) rose from 1.4 billion to 1.5 billion despite a drop in both total album sales and overall album sales. Unsurprisingly, digital tracks and digital album sales continue to grow, surpassing 1 billion and 65 million respectively, Soundscan records that will likely be broken next year.
Album sales were down in every major genre of music. The biggest losers were classical (those old folks just keep dying off), which fell 26 percent and country, which fell 24 percent. The country drop is a bit surprising given the year Taylor Swift had and the fact that other noncountry artists (Jon Bon Jovi, Darius Rucker and Jewel, for example) are trying to hoist themselves onto the country bandwagon.
The top-selling album of 2008 was Lil Wayne's The Carter III, which famously sold platinum in its first week of release but only needed to sell 2.8 million to be the year's top earner. However, late-year entries from Beyonce and AC/DC could surpass that number by spring of '09.
Swift, who currently has two albums in the Billboard top 30 including the current No. 1 Fearless, was the year's top-selling artist, selling more than 4 million copies of her records. The rest of the top five was AC/DC (you can't stop the rock!), Lil Wayne, Coldplay and Metallica, whose relative return to form, Death Magnetic, was also the best-selling Internet album of the year.
Here's an interesting side note for you old technology loyalists. In 2008, there were more vinyl albums sold (1.8 million) than in any other year in Soundscan history (1991-now). Additionally, two out every three vinyl albums was purchased at an independent record store.
As a lifelong indie record store loyalist, that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.
Also, the top vinyl records of the year were Radiohead's In Rainbows (25,800) followed by (and here's a surprise) The Beatles' Abbey Road, which managed to sell 16,500. The top five is rounded out by Guns N' Roses' long-awaited Chinese Democracy (13,600), The B-52s' Funplex (12,800) and Portishead's also long-awaited Third (12,300).
It's interesting that the 12-inch vinyl record will apparently outlast the once amazing technology known as the compact disc. In fact vinyl has proven to be quite resilient, outliving many of the formats intended to bury it. Anyone still using their 8-track, Digital Audio Tape, cassettes, reel to reel, Digital Compact Cassettes or MiniDiscs?
Didn't think so.
This brings me smoothly into a reader's question about vinyl: Where can a music lover get a turntable these days without having to shell out a grand for some high-end, diamond-coated, platinum-plated, kissed-by-an-angel piece of super equipment?
Well, turntables aren't that hard to come by, particularly if you're not too hung up on perfect sound reproduction. Any online site such as eBay, or Craig's List will have a ton of choices both new, used and ''vintage,'' as does Amazon. If you don't have Internet access or know anyone with Internet access (is that still possible?) then you might try raiding yard sales or older relatives' attics.
'Idol' returns . . . hooray
Yep, it's that time of year again when America gets all amped up about the biggest talent show in the frickin' free world! Undoubtedly, this year's batch of American Idol hopefuls will be touted by the show as the ''bestest, most awesomely scrumtralescent collection of amateur singers ever assembled in the history of the universe'' but I'm already exhausted. (Hey, I'm not complainin', just glad to be workin', boss.) And my esteemed colleague Rich Heldenfels and I haven't even started our annual video podcasts (yep, that's a sly bit of self-promotion).
The season premiere is on Tuesday on Fox. Last season, it seemed fairly evident to me that the producers were hoping that ''rocker'' David Cook would win as his target sound (tuneful post-grunge) and market was easy to identify. Also, he was already a songwriter with tour experience.
Runner-up David Archuleta may have been a cute and talented puppy dog you could easily root for on the show — similar to Taylor Hicks — but as an artist he's so vanilla that it's difficult to pinpoint a specific sound/genre that suits him best. Consequently, his album is filled with ''lite'' takes on R&B, alt-rock and crescendo-infused ballads, none of which really define him as an ''artist.''
Archuleta's album debuted at No. 7 and has fallen to the 30s after seven weeks.
Meanwhile Cook, whose album is also quite boring, at least has a laser beam focus. Cook and company know his audience and his sound. Cook's album, which sounds a lot like his self-released 2006 debut Analog Heart, is for people who miss Our Lady Peace and find Chris Daughtry and Nickelback to be too heavy. It's post-grunge pop with professional songwriting help from Cook favorites such as Chris Cornell (who can't seem to get his solo career on track), Raine Maida (of Our Lady Peace) Johnny Rzeznik (of the Goo Goo Dolls) and other pop pros such as Chantall Kreviazuk and Cathy Dennis.
Despite all those ummm . . . cooks in the songwriting kitchen, the album sounds exactly as expected with not one moment of surprise or originality. Songs such as Declaration, the anthemic power ballad A Daily AntheM and really all of the album adhere to the post-grunge sonic blueprint. It's almost impressive how much work the songwriters/producers and Cook seem to have put into the album to ensure that every genre cliche is included among the album's 13 tracks.
Big arena rafter-reaching choruses? Check.
Delicate piano intros leading to inspirational (and big) choruses? Yep.
Goopy ballads that make you want to check your ears for possible Pablum leakage? Check.
Soft verse, loud chorus, soft verse song structures? Natch.
Corny lyrics? Oh yeah.
It's also sitting at No. 10 on the Billboard charts, continuing AI's reign as an at least temporary star maker.
But again, Cook was more prepared to be a pop ''star'' than Archuleta from day one, while Archuleta made for better TV. Chances are, this season (season 8) will come down to a similar quandary for fans, pitting the TV show favorite vs. a potential artist.
Who will win?
Why, the producers, of course.
Malcolm X Abram can be reached at mabram@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3758.
Comments
Click here to post your comments
boston, ma
Posted 05:50 PM, 01/07/2009
Ithink you should check your facts. David Archuleta's album debuted at #2 on the Billboard Charts and David Cook debuted at #3. Just saying.....
Macon, GA
Posted 08:12 PM, 01/08/2009
I agree with missy music. David A's album debuted at #2, and his debut single "Crush" has sold almost 1.4 million copies. Cook's album debuted at #3, and his single "Light On" debuted at #17. They've both done a great job.
Chesapeake, VA
Posted 01:13 AM, 01/09/2009
I love that rock is doing so well! And I must be the only person on the planet without a Taylor Swift CD... I'm heading off to Target today to buy one; she does have a beautiful voice. I'm excited about American Idol returning too! Loved that rocker guy David Cook from last year. Thanks for the info. Sounds like he's doing well. I heard him sing at the Rockefeller Center Christmas thing and boy did I love his rendition of "Happy Christmas".
