Dec
29
Taylor Swift's Speak Now CD. Photo courtesy of Big Machine Records.
Billboard.com has compiled their list of the Top 200 Albums of 2011. Adele’s 21 was named the No. 1 album of the year, but Taylor Swift’s Speak Now album came in at No. 2. Jason Aldean’s My Kinda Party was also in the Top 5, coming in at No. 4. Rascal Flatts‘ Nothing Like This album took the No. 17 spot and Lady Antebellum’s Need You Now came in at No. 19.
Other country albums in the Top 50 include Zac Brown Band’s You Get What You Give at No. 23, Lady Antebellum’s Own The Night at No. 25, The Band Perry’s self-titled debut at No. 30, Sugarland’s The Incredible Machine at No. 33, Keith Urban’s Get Closer at No. 36, Kenny Chesney’s Hemingway’s Whiskey at No. 42, and Brad Paisley’s This Is Country Music at No. 46.
The Year-End top-selling albums are ranked by sales data as compiled by Nielsen SoundScan.
Top 20 Albums of 2011:
- 21 – Adele
- Speak Now – Taylor Swift
- Born This Way – Lady Gaga
- My Kinda Party – Jason Aldean
- The Gift – Susan Boyle
- Tha Carter IV – Lil Wayne
- Pink Friday – Nicki Minaj
- Sigh No More – Mumford & Sons
- Loud – Rihanna
- Teenage Dream – Katy Perry Continue Reading
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Dec
27
Taylor Swift photo courtesy of Big Machine Records.
Billboard.com has released its list of the Top Artists of 2011. Adele tops the multi-genre chart with Rihanna, Katy Parry, Lady Gaga and Lil Wayne rounding out the Top 5. Taylor Swift is the only country artist to make the Top 10, ranking No. 8. Jason Aldean and Lady Antebellum found themselves ranked inside the Top 20 with Jason coming in at No. 13 and Lady A at No. 20.
Artists are ranked according to chart performance on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart and the Billboard 200 albums chart. Other country artists making the Top 50 include Kenny Chesney at No. 28, Blake Shelton at No. 29. Zac Brown Band at No. 32, The Band Perry at No. 35, Rascal Flatts at No. 38 and Brad Paisley at No. 45.
Top 20 Artists of 2011:
- Adele
- Rihanna
- Katy Perry
- Lady Gaga
- Lil Wayne
- Bruno Mars
- Nicki Minaj
- Taylor Swift
- Justin Bieber
- Chris Brown
- The Black Eyed Peas
- Eminem
- Jason Aldean
- Britney Spears
- Wiz Khalifa
- P!nk
- Pitbull
- Kanye West
- Ke$ha
- Lady Antebellum
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Nov
9
Taylor Swift photo courtesy of Big Machine Records.
Taylor Swift has received three People’s Choice Awards nominations while Blake Shelton and Lady Antebellum snagged two apiece. Keith Urban and Rascal Flatts are also nominated for a PCA Award each. The People’s Choice Awards will air live on CBS on November 11 at 9/8 CT from Los Angeles.
Taylor received nominations for Favorite Country Artists along with Blake, Lady Antebellum, Keith Urban and Rascal Flatts. She is also nominated for all-genre Favorite Female Artist with Adele, Beyoncé, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga as well as Favorite Tour Headliner with Bon Jovi, Katy Perry, U2 and Usher. Continue Reading
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Apr
18
Taylor Swift photo courtesy of Big Machine Records.
Last week Billboard.com released the list of finalists for the 2011 Billboard Music Awards, scheduled to air on May 22nd at 8p ET/PT on ABC.
The Billboard Music Awards take a holistic look at artist performance based on key fan interactions with music — finalists and winners are determined by chart performance and social and streaming activity as chronicled in Billboard magazine and on Billboard.com during the eligibility period of Feb, 28, 2010 and Mar. 1, 2011.
The 46 award categories are based on measures provided by Billboard’s data partners including sales data shared by Nielsen SoundScan, radio airplay monitored by Nielsen BDS, streaming data measured by Tubemogul and Nielsen BDS, social media consumption gauged by Next Big Sound and tour grosses tracked by Billboard Boxscore.
Here’s a look at some of the key categories and finalists country fans will be most interested in: Continue Reading
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Dec
28
Lady Antebellum photo courtesy of Capitol Nashville.
When Lady Antebellum wrote “Need You Now” in 2009, the band had no idea that the song was going to vault them into the same pop world inhabited by the other lady — Lady Gaga — in 2010.
In fact, a lot of songwriters in Nashville thought “Need You Now” was a bold song — it was built around a drunken booty call, and since country radio stations are very attuned to offering family-friendly material, many Music Row writers were a bit shocked when the song caught on. And it caught on very quickly. Not only was it a multi-week No. 1 single at the end of ‘09, it also got picked up by pop stations who played it frequently throughout 2010, aiding a jump for the oddly-named trio into music’s big leagues.
Lady Antebellum’s ascent ranks at No. 4 as GAC counts down the dozen biggest stories of country music from 2010.
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Dec
9
Jason Aldean photo courtesy of Broken Bow Records.
Jason Aldean is one of the most prominent voices in modern country music, but good luck trying to put the guy in a stylistic box.
One of his biggest hits is named after country icon Johnny Cash, and you can’t get much more country than the farm-centered lyrics in “Amarillo Sky” or “Big Green Tractor.” On the other hand, the guitar chords on “She’s Country” sound more like AC/DC than Merle Haggard; his current single, “Don’t You Wanna Stay,” teams Jason with pop singer Kelly Clarkson; and he even has a rap section on “Dirt Road Anthem,” one of the key tracks on his current album My Kinda Party.
Jason grew up on the outskirts of Macon, Ga., and his background brought all of those different musical threads together.
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Dec
2
Lady Antebellum photo courtesy of Capitol Nashville.
Hello, world: Just in case anyone was left on the planet that hadn’t figured out how significant Lady Antebellum was this year, the Recording Academy slipped the band into three of the big-four, multi-genre categories on the prestigious Grammy Awards ballot. Finalists in the general-interest categories were unveiled Wednesday during a one-hour nominations special on CBS.
“Need You Now” and the album of the same name were tabbed as finalists for Record, Song and Album of the Year, pitting Lady A against such pop, rock and rap acts as Eminem, Katy Perry and Arcade Fire.
Miranda Lambert sang her snarky “Only Prettier” on the special, which also saw “The House That Built Me” gain a Song of the Year nomination for composers Tom Douglas and Allen Shamblin. As a result, two country titles — “Need You Now” and “House” — are among the five Song of the Year finalists, something that’s only happened seven times in the Grammys’ previous 52 years.
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Oct
27
Taylor Swift photo courtesy of Big Machine Records.
Taylor Swift released her latest album on Monday. And you probably know that, because she’s seemingly been on every television show and in every newspaper and magazine talking about Speak Now or singing songs from the project.
All that work is apparently paying off. Billboard is predicting the first-week numbers for the album could possibly go as high as 1 million copies. Right now, the magazine says music-business insiders are expecting it to sell in the neighborhood of 800,000-900,000 copies, which would make it the best start for any release in any genre this year. Eminem’s Recovery album has the best first-week numbers thus far in 2010 after selling 741,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, when it was first released.
All of that talk puts Taylor in an awkward position. She’s a 20-year-old recording artist. Her focus is — and should be — creating music, not selling it. But the industry’s been in a big slump for years, and since she’s one of its biggest stars, there’s a lot of pressure being directed at her.
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Aug
11
Taylor Swift photo courtesy of Big Machine Records.
Late last week Taylor Swift’s new single “Mine,” originally scheduled to hit radio on August 16, was leaked and subsequently released to radio and as a digital download. With just four full days of sales, the song has grabbed the top slot for digital sales moving 297,000 downloads, slipping past Eminem’s “Love the Way You Lie” for the week. Continue Reading
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Jan
7
Carrie Underwood wins Female Vocalist of the Year at "The 42nd Annual CMA Awards," on Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2008, live from the Sommet Center in Nashville on the ABC Television Network. Photographer: Jim Hagans / Provided by Country Music Association.
Carrie Underwood might have tripped on her way to the stage at Wednesday’s People’s Choice Awards, but she succeeded in taking home the trophy once she got to the podium.
“That just shows you,” she said after stumbling, “how excited I am!”
Carrie was one of three country stars to join the winner’s circle during the show, aired live on CBS from the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles. Keith Urban walked off with Favorite Male Artist, and Taylor Swift collected Favorite Female.
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