Billboard Chart Review-2/14/13

Before I start, I'll say that I made an error in telling you when Billboard's sales tracking week starts and ends. It actually goes from Monday to Sunday, so I've been distorting exactly which days are being counted into which sales weeks. This week's chart, dated February 23, actually reflects the sales week of Monday, February 4 through Sunday, February 10.

The Billboard Hot 100:
Song                                        Position           Last Week
Thrift Shop                              1                      1
Locked Out of Heaven            2                      2
Scream & Shout                      3                      3
Ho Hey                                    4                      4
I Knew You Were Trouble     5                      5
Don’t You Worry Child         6                       6
Daylight                                  7                      14
Suit and Tie                             8                      13
When I Was Your Man           9                      22
Beauty and a Beat                  10                     7
So there's this little thing called The Grammys, and it has a drastic effect on sales this time of year. That's why "Suit and Tie", "Daylight" (ew), and "When I Was Your Man" have all entered the top ten, all three artists performed those songs (or their previous hits) on the Grammy stage and this caused a major boost in sales for their music. Also, there's a general re-interest that the Grammys have on other titles as well, which explains why the whole first six songs kept their ranks from last week. So, that explains the top ten, let's see what songs just missed out: Alicia Keys keeps 12-12 with "Girl on Fire", Pink falls 9-13 with "Try", Calvin and Florence fall 10-14 with "Sweet Nothing" (whether or not those titles will re-enter the top ten is unknown, since the Grammys were on a Sunday, the end of the sales tracking week, a full week of boosted sales has not been accounted for yet). Mumford and Sons bullet 26-15 with "I Will Wait", its highest rank yet, Ed Sheeran rebounds 23-20 with "The A Team", Fun's "Some Nights" holds 24-24 in its 51st chart week, Ke$ha falls 27-29 with "C'Mon", Gotye and Kimbra shoot 47-42 with "Somebody That I Used to Know" in its 58th chart week (the fact that the song won Record of the Year explains this feat), Fun rockets 65-43 with "Carry On", and Rihanna debuts at number 57 with "Stay".

The Billboard 200:
Album                                     Position           Last Week
All That Echoes                      1                      -
Two Lanes of Freedom           2                      -
Now 45                                   3                      -
Babel                                       4                      7
Passione                                  5                      2
Believe Acoustic                     6                      1
Release the Panic                    7                      -
Unorthodox Jukebox              8                      6
The Afterman: Descension     9                      -
The Lumineers                        10                    9
The Grammys have not been so kind to album sales just yet, as the majority of last week's sales came before Sunday. Although, Grammy nominations also have an effect on re-booting interest in the albums. Josh Groban beats out the competition this week as "All That Echoes" benefits from a massive amount of pre-orders. Tim McGraw and the 45th "Now That's What I Call Music" compilation score top ten debuts as well. Mumford and Sons obviously rise 7-4 with "Babel" because it was nominated for Album of the Year (and it subsequently won this category), and early sales reports say that the album is sure to ascend to number one come next week. And yeah, not too interested in the rest of the top ten, so let's see which albums are also on the rise:
Fun bullets 25-14 with "Some Nights", Rihanna inches 19-17 with "Unapologetic", Maroon 5 rises 32-20 with "Overexposed", Pink's "The Truth About Love" climbs 29-23, Alabama Shakes rockeets 79-43 with "Boys and Girls", Frank Ocean rises 85-46 with "Channel Orange", Eminem is our pacesetter this week as "Recovery" zooms 170-72, Florence + The Machine rises 119-71 with "Ceremonials", Jack White's "Blunderbuss" rises 143-95, Taylor Swift's "Speak Now" bullets 194-115, and Kelly Clarkson's "Stronger" benefits from its Best Pop Vocal Album nomination (and subsequent win) and rises 180-128. Next week we'll see a full Grammy sales impact, and also notable is that sales are now picking up, making the charts alot more interesting than before.