On the Charts: Meghan Trainor Channels ‘Bass’ Into Number One Album
COULD SHE BE A SINGLES AND ALBUMS ARTIST?: Meghan Trainor‘s pathway to Number One — her debut Title moved 238,000 units and displaced Taylor Swift’s long-reigning 1989 this week— has been more Pharrell Williams than, say, Lecrae. Whereas Williams exploded with a super-hot single, then released an album, then hit Number One in his first week nearly a year ago, Lecrae never had a hit single and quickly dropped out of the Top 10 after a Number One debut last fall. Trainor put out two of last year’s biggest singles, “All About That Bass” and “Lips Are Movin’,” then followed it with an album, then . . . we’ll see if she has more hits, and staying power.
WHY SHOULD OK GO ALWAYS GET TO OWN THIS SPACE ON YOUTUBE?: Turns out Maroon 5 did not crash any weddings in real life — the band appeared to do so in a “Punk’d”-style video in which Adam Levine and crew showed up at a series of weddings, argued with dads, set up equipment, dropped a white curtain and made brides (and grooms) swoon. But real or not, the smart video for “Sugar” has scored nearly 51 million YouTube views since it came out January 14th. So why don’t more big stars do these kinds of concept videos? They work.
FUNNY HOW KIDZ BOP ALWAYS SEEMS TO ARRIVE EARLY IN THE YEAR: You know it’s a slow week when Kidz Bop Kids takes over the pop charts. The 27th installment of the long-running series moved 80,000 units, 77,000 of which were actual album sales — suggesting it’s easier for parents to buy stuff than to figure out how to stream it on Spotify or YouTube while driving their kids around. For you Kidz Bop trivia enthusiasts, the last album in this series to sell this many copies was Kidz Bop 23, which sold 81,000 copies in February 2013.