Long live the king

tbron

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The King of Pop's Number Ones will fittingly lead the pack at No. 1 with 108,000 (an increase of 2,340%) while The Essential Michael Jackson and Thriller are in the Nos. 2 and 3 slots with 102,000 and 101,000, respectively. Additionally, his classic 1979 studio set Off the Wall re-enters at No. 4 with 33,000 while his 1987 album Bad returns at No. 6 with 17,000. At No. 5, the Jackson 5's The Ultimate Collection debuts with 18,000. Jackson's fourth studio album for Epic Records, 1991's Dangerous, re-enters at No. 7 with 14,000 while his 2001 compilation Greatest Hits: HIStory -- Volume 1 also comes back to the list at No. 8 with 12,000. Finally, Jackson's 2004 box set The Ultimate Collection charts its first week on the Pop Catalog chart, arriving at No. 9 with 11,000. (Billboard)



Thriller, The Essential Michael Jackson and Number Ones are each expected to top the six-figure mark and take the top three slots on the magazine?s Top Pop Catalog chart, which tracks ongoing sales of albums that are at least 18 months old. Such albums are not eligible to appear on Billboard?s Top 200 Albums ranking, but sales of Jackson?s albums figure to exceed the top-selling current release, the Black Eyed Peas? The E.N.D. (Los Angeles Times)



A remarkable 2.6 million songs by Mr. Jackson as a solo act or with the Jackson 5 were downloaded digitally through last Sunday, the standard end of the sales week of the SoundScan tracking service, upon whose numbers Billboard bases its charts. (Downloads for the week before were 48,000.) A total of 58 percent of the sales last week were downloads, and Mr. Jackson has become the first artist to sell more than a million song downloads in a single week. (New York Times)



After radio stations nationwide paid tribute to Michael Jackson over the weekend, Nielsen BDS released airplay data showing that 143 of Jackson's recordings totaled 67,383 plays for the week ending June 28, which is up 1,735 percent from last week's sum of 3,671 plays before his death. Twenty-two of Jackson's hits racked up more than 1,000 spins this past week, led by "Billie Jean" with 4,500 plays. That was followed by "Thriller" at #2 with 3,570, "Rock With You" at #3 with 3,546, "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" at #4 with 3,135 and "P.Y.T." at #5 with 2,986 plays. (FMQB)


http://www.sohh.com/2009/07/michael_jackson_explodes.html



LOS ANGELES -- Michael Jackson's album sales have exploded -- three of his albums are in the top three spots and 2.3 million tracks have been downloaded in the United States since his death, Nielsen SoundScan said Wednesday.


Album sales for the week through Sunday hit 422,000 in the U.S., up from 10,000 a week earlier. The week's tally was greater than all the Jackson albums sold from the start of the year to June 21.


The top three albums were "Number Ones," ''Essential Michael Jackson," and "Thriller." The Black Eyed Peas' latest CD came in fourth.


The 2.3 million digital downloads for the week was a record-breaking rise from the 37,300 the previous week. No single artist has sold more than a million digital tracks in a week since Nielsen began counting in July 2004.

When adding in all Jackson 5 songs as well as sales in Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, digital downloads for the week hit 3.3 million, up from 52,000 the previous week, SoundScan said.



http://www.nypost.com/seven/07012009/business/michael_jackson_album_sales_explode_177047.htm

MJ>ALL
 
Michael Jackson is expected to break one of the UK's longest standing chart records this weekend.

BBC News understands that the recently deceased popstar has six singles in the UK top 20, according to midweek sales.

Belfast singer Ruby Murray previously held the record for the most singles in the top 20 with five hits in the same week in March 1955.

Jackson's Man in the Mirror is also expected to be in contention for the top spot come Sunday.

When it was first released in the UK, the single only managed to reach number 21.

The King of Pop's Number Ones album is currently at number one in the UK album chart, jumping 120 places in the week following his death.

He would not be born for another three years when Ruby Murray set the record he now looks set to break.

Born on the Donegall Road in Belfast, she remains one of the biggest stars to hail from Belfast.
 
love to hear that :) MJ rules ;)

rest in peace my king, my friend, my legend...
 
So you mean Michael has the no. 1 - no. 9 spots on the US Billboard Chart? Wow! It's just a shame that something like this could only happen after he died.
 
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long live the king.
 
So you mean Michael has the no. 1 - no. 9 spots on the US Billboard Chart? Wow! It's just a shame that something like this could only happen after he died.

no it's the catalog chart which is for albums over 18 months old.
 
ZURICH (AFP) – A giant plastic statue of Michael Jackson has been unveiled in a village near the Swiss city of Zurich, ahead of a ceremony to pay homage to the late pop icon, an organiser said on Friday.

The 12-metre (39 feet), four-tonne grey statue of the King of Pop, with contrasting gold-coloured belts and straps, was installed on a lawn in the middle of Regensdorf.

"There are just 19 of them in the world and two in Europe," Andreas Grassman, who is organising the event, told AFP.

"We are organising a big party tonight and during the weekend to celebrate" the singer, he said.

The Swiss entrepreneur, who described himself as a big fan of Jackson, explained that that one of his friends had obtained the statue from Sony Music and used it on fairgrounds.

"We have spent the last five days restoring it completely," he added.

The organisers, who are expecting tens of thousands of fans, are preparing to sell roses and candles at the event.

They are also opening a book of condolence for visitors to sign.

"The event will be completely free and of course we will listen to Michael Jackson's music," Gassmann added.

Jackson collapsed and died in California at age 50 on June 25 as he prepared for a 50-date concert set in London.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090703/od_afp/entertainmentusmusicjacksonswitzerland_20090703152406
 
About 200 Michael Jackson fans from South Africa have performed his famous dance moves in tribute to the pop icon, who died last week.

Crowds watched them do his moonwalk in Johannesburg's Nelson Mandela Square and dance to his most popular tunes.

One fan said his music succeeded in transcending racial lines, which many artists were still striving to do.

"You see that just by looking at the different people gathered here to say their goodbyes," James Stevens said.

The BBC's Pumza Fihlani says the crowd of mostly teenagers gathered at lunchtime to celebrate Michael Jackson's timeless dance moves.

Some came dressed like the late star in black shoes, white socks and even glitter gloves, she says.

South Africa's popular hip-hop dance groups joined in as hits such as Thriller and Billie Jean were played.


Jackson's death at the age of 50 has triggered an outpouring of grief and messages of condolences to his family from all over the world.

One fan at Nelson Mandela Square told the BBC she was "heart-broken" that she would never see him perform.

Another said it was a tribute to the man that his music was universal.

"I am very sad that he had passed on but I know that his music will live on in the hearts of his fans all over the world. South Africa loves you Michael," Thandi Khoza said.

The event, organised in collaboration with some local radio stations, also collected clothing items and blankets to be donated to charities around Johannesburg in Jackson's honour.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8133696.stm
 
Promoter Don King announced today that he will pay tribute to Michael Jackson at a world championship boxing event King has slated for July 11 at BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Fla. King plans to give Jackson boxing’s traditional ringside 10 bell count honoring those who have passed and to play Jackson’s music and videos at King’s previously announced fight card highlighted by an International Boxing Federation bantamweight championship between titleholder Joseph King Kong Agbeko and world champion Vic “Raging Bull” Darchinyan, who is moving up in weight to face Agbeko. This match will be televised live on SHOWTIME beginning at 9 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the West Coast).

King promoted the historic Jacksons Victory Tour in 1984 that reunited the Jackson 5, and he brokered a colossal endorsement deal between Michael Jackson and Pepsi.

“I was shocked and saddened when I learned of Michael’s passing, and I shared the pain of Joseph and Katherine Jackson—without whom there never would have been a Michael Jackson—and their sons and daughters,” King said.

“One never knows how they will react to something like this, and I found it hard to do media interviews or even issue a statement. Like so many other people around the world, I have been trying to find a way to remember this musical genius, who I loved and was a good friend of mine. My next boxing event is on July 11, so I have decided to pay tribute to him there in any way we can think of.”

King is searching through his photo and film archives and has found some rare, behind-the-scenes video clips of him with Michael Jackson and the Jackson family from the time in which they worked together. King plans to play these clips at his boxing event in tribute to Michael Jackson.

“The Jackson 5 was black America’s first family when they arrived on the scene in the late 1960s and early 1970s,” King said. “Then everyone in America came to embrace them as their own. They were groundbreaking in that regard. America’s first family today, the Obama family, is part of a transformation in America that began with the Jackson family. Family is the most important thing of all and something black people were stripped of when our country was ruled by that peculiar institution. That’s why we say, REMEMBER IOWA where the baby was born: hope, change, freedom.”


http://www.fightnews.com/?p=16147
 
Michael Jackson went from being Gary, Ind.'s most talented kid to one of the most recognizable human beings on the planet. And while his worldwide album sales were astounding, that wasn't the sole reason for his fame. his ascendancy went far beyond the cash register—he inspired dance moves, dictated fashion trends and raised awareness for social causes around the globe.

Less than a day after Michael Jackson's death, the mayor of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, announced that the city would erect a statue of the singer in Dona Marta, a favela that was once notorious for drug dealing and is now a model for social development. The change was spurred partly by Jackson's 1996 visit to film the video for "They Don't Care About Us."

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/michael-jackson-remains-a-global-phenomenon-1003990447.story
 
Michael Jackson Dominates UK Charts, UK Sales Skyrocket
Michael Jackson's music sales aren't just surging in the U.S. The BBC Online says Jackson's 2003 hits collection "Number Ones," which had been at number 121 on the British album chart, is claiming the top spot on this week's list. But it's just one of four Jackson CDs that are back in the UK top 20. "Thriller," which was at number 179, is now holding the number seven spot. The 2008 compilation "King of Pop," which was released as a three-disc set in the UK, returns to the chart at number 14, while "Off The Wall" resurfaces at number 17 and "The Essential Michael Jackson" rounds out the top 20. Seven other Jackson discs, either solo efforts or Jackson 5 discs, are peppered throughout the UK to 200 albums. Meanwhile, Jackson dominates the UK singles chart. Nearly a quarter of the entries on the list of 200 feature Jackson, who currently has 43 songs on the chart. His highest placement is number eleven with "Man in the Mirror." Other tracks in the UK top 40 include "Billie Jean" at number 25, "Smooth Criminal" and number 28, "Beat It" at number 30, and "Earth Song" at number 38. British music retailers say none of Jackson's single landed in the top ten simply because he had so many hits, so no specific track was in demand. HMV's Gennaro Castaldo notes Jackson sales are currently 80-times higher since he died. Castaldo adds that HMV, quote, "had a lot of stock because we had been preparing for the O2 concerts, but sadly we didn't expect to sell them for this reason."

http://philadelphiaathome.com/dct/6...-Dominates-UK-Charts--UK-Sales-Skyrocket.aspx
 
Stevie Wonder Salutes Michael Jackson In Concert
Stevie Wonder is remembering the late Michael Jackson on stage. The veteran star performed Tuesday night to launch the Montreal Jazz Festival. Rollingstone.com says Wonder paid tribute to Jackson several times during his performance. He set the tone at the start of the show, telling the crowd, quote, "I want for us to celebrate the life and the legacy of Michael Jackson." He added, quote, "We can continue to keep the life and spirit of this man's music alive forever." Wonder's tribute began with the concert kick-off -- "I Can't Help It," a Jackson-Wonder composition from Michael's "Off the Wall" album. But Wonder's ongoing salute reportedly included some odd moments in which he interrupted his set to play Jackson recordings. The performance also included a number of Wonder classics such as "Uptight (Everything's Alright)," "Superstition," "Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours," "My Cherie Amour," and "Sir Duke," along with covers of The Beatles' "Michelle" and Miles Davis' "All Blue." Word of Jackson's sudden passing last week is said to have hit Wonder hard. While countless performers were coming forth with reactions and memories just hours after Michael died, a statement from Wonder's camp noted Stevie was too "emotionally distraught" to make an immediate comment.

http://philadelphiaathome.com/dct/6...onder-Salutes-Michael-Jackson-In-Concert.aspx
 
Michael Jackson Dominates Australian Chart
by Paul Cashmere - July 5 2009


The death of Michael Jackson has spurred fans back into music stores in Australia. He has an incredible 15 albums in the top 100 and 34 songs in the singles chart this week.


Jackson now holds down the top three spots on the ARIA chart. He has 4 albums in the Top 10, 5 in the Top 20, 7 in the Top 30 and 15 albums in the top 100 (including sales of Jacksons albums).

The Michael Jackson catalogue sold 62,015 albums last week according to ARIA chart figures which accounts for 29.6% of all sales in the Top 100.

11,466 of those album units were digital downloads. That equals 18.4% of albums sales were downloads showing that more than 4 out of every 5 people who bought a Jackson album last week bought the physical CD.

On the singles chart, Jackson has an massive 34 songs in the Top 100. The singles tallied 107821 units.

‘Thriller’ was the biggest seller at number 3. It sold 11,845 units.

Nearly all Jackson’s singles sales were downloads. Of the 11,845 ‘Thriller’ sales, only 6 units were on CD.

Australian Albums sales:
1 The Essential Michael Jackson (19360)
2 #1’s (12394)
3 Thriller (10651)
7 King of Pop (7300)
19 Off The Wall (2729)
24 Dangerous (2137)
28 Bad (1957)
48 HIStory Book 1 (1103)
55 Invincible (908)
60 The Very Best of Michael Jackson with the Jackson Five (779)
66 The Jacksons – Can You Feel It, Jacksons Collection (653)
78 The Jacksons – The Essential Jacksons (560)
79 The Jacksons – The Very Best of The Jacksons and the Jackson 5 (557)
87 Bad/Dangerous (502)
99 The Jackson 5 – Gold (425)

Australian Singles sales:

3 Thriller (11,845)
6 Black Or White (8270)
7 Billie Jean (7533)
8 Man In The Mirror (6981)
13 The Way You Make Me Feel (5756)
14 Ben (5213)
16 Smooth Criminal (4966)
17 Beat It (4907)
21 Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough (4498)
22 You Are Not Alone (4315)
27 Bad (3658)
30 Heal The World (3467)
36 Rock With You (2945)
40 Remember The Time (2795)
41 Can You Feel It (2647)
43 ABC (2561)
44 Blame It On The Boogie (2393)
45 They Don’t Care About Us (2389)
52 I Want You Back (1984)
53 Wanna Be Starting Something (1980)
63 Give In To Me (1683)
64 Dirty Diana (1631)
65 You Rock My World (1611)
70 Will You Be There (1446)
71 Scream/Childhood (1375)
77 Earth Song (1321)
80 Thriller megamix (1183)
84 I’ll Be There (1040)
86 Human Nature (1007)
88 I Can’t Stop Loving You (88)
93 The Girl Is Mine (934)
95 Stranger In Moscow (906)
97 She’s Out Of My Life (887)
98 P.Y.T. (861)


http://www.undercover.com.au/News-Story.aspx?id=8703_Michael_Jackson_Dominates_Australian_Chart
 
MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- They headed to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow after news broke that Michael Jackson had died. And they're still coming.

Young Russian fans, some of whom don't even speak English, bring homemade signs, pictures and drawings of Jackson, Russian religious icons, candles, teddy bears -- all signs of how much they loved the singer.

"At first I couldn't believe it had happened," 23-year-old Zhenya Iordanskaya said. "I thought it was another rumor. My friend told me about it, and then I saw it on TV, on every channel. I was really in shock. And I still can't believe it."

Iordanskaya was standing in the rain Sunday with her friend Alexandra Belayeva, 20, looking at the shrine Jackson's fans have erected along the fence in front of the Embassy.

Iordanskaya says she was 8 when she first heard "Black or White."

"I didn't understand English, but the faces of all the different people really inspired me. And the fact that he dealt with all these issues, you really have to give him credit for that," Iordanskaya said.

Belayeva says she became a fan about three years ago.

"The way he lived his creative live really inspired me," she said. "I really got into him as a person. Because you can really see the soul of a person in their creativity, can't you? It was such a shame that people put him down so much."

Belayeva says she's still in shock over Jackson's death at his California home on June 25. "When I heard he had died, I really couldn't believe it. He was so close to us. Not one of us, but so close. He was unbelievably kind.

"It's so sad to lose a person like him. It's also so sad that he was so alone at the end of his life. People didn't understand him. But at least they recognized his genius during his life. Sometimes that doesn't happen."


Iordanskaya and Belayeva love to dance, and when they saw "Dangerous," they knew they had to try it out. "We studied his moves in that for days! We practiced. We really loved it!"

I ask the women to name their favorite Jackson songs. They roll their eyes. Where do you start? Iordanskaya starts with "Liberian Girl." "Also 'Earth Song.' "

"It's really powerful," she said, "the energy and the lyrics!"

On a rainy, cold day in Moscow, Iordanskaya and Belayeva say they still cry thinking that Jackson is no longer on Earth.

In the garden of flowers and mementos that sprouted almost overnight in front of the U.S. Embassy, next to eight flickering votive candles that make you feel as if you are in a Russian church, one fan has written a poem: "You're an angel flying into the distance, you're an angel, a carefree angel, flying into the distance."


http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/07/05/russia.michael.jackson/index.html?section=cnn_latest
 
HONG KONG – Michael Jackson fans gathered in Hong Kong and Taiwan to imitate their late hero's dance moves and watch his performances Sunday, as tributes to the American pop legend continued to pour in from Asia more than a week after his death.

In Hong Kong, fans wearing Jackson's trademark fedora hat bowed to a poster of him and performed his body-jerking, crotch-grabbing dance moves to songs like "Beat It" and "Billy Jean," as hundreds peered over railings at a multistory suburban mall to watch.

The memorial also featured an exhibition of Jackson memorabilia including CDs, figurines, pins and magazines.

"I'm sad that the world lost a genius," said one performer, 17-year-old high school student Lam Yuet-wing, who wore a black sequined jacket and a single white glove in honor of his hero.

Jackson, who died last Thursday in Los Angeles, enjoyed a huge following in Asia.

In the Taiwanese capital of Taipei, about 200 fans held a memorial where impersonators performed on a stage adorned with his photos. Many sobbed as they watched videos of Jackson's concerts.

"I paid tribute to him with my dance," said Kao Sha-ming, 30, wiping tears after he mimicked Jackson's moves in a red T-shirt and a black jacket.

Kim Lin, 32, said she was picked to dance with Jackson when he performed in Taiwan in 1996. She said she screamed for 20 minutes after hearing about his death.

"My god of music just died. It was too hard to accept that because I was so close to him on the stage," she recalled.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090705/ap_en_ot/as_asia_michael_jackson_2
 
wow, these comments from fans across the world are so inspiring.....also glad to see MJ kicking butt on the charts worldwide, but again so sad that it had to take his death for this to occur
 
Wow!

Michael Jackson will always be # 1 W.O.R.L.D.W.I.D.E !!

When the CNN reporter asked her what it was about MJ that made her spend all her time camped out in the street waiting for a glimpse of his head in a car speeding away, all she could say, over and over again was-- "He invented the Moon Walk! He INVENTED the Moon Walk!"

Amazing.
 
Michael Jackson albums have maintained their sales in the 4 days of the new week of the charts.


According to Nielsen SoundScan 233,000 Jackson albums were purchased over June 29 and 30 and July 1 and 2 from the sample taken from Anderson, iTunes, Best Buy, Borders, Starbucks, Target and Trans World.

Out the 7 outlets surveyed, Jackson album accounted for 70% of sales of their Top 200 albums.

‘Thriller’ was the biggest seller this week, moving 85,000 units. ‘The Essential Michael Jackson’ sold 65,000 units

http://www.undercover.com.au/News-Story.aspx?id=8722_Michael_Jackson_4-Day_Sales
 
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long live the king.





:punk::punk::punk::clapping:
 
Students challenging a world record danced to the Michael Jackson hit Thriller in an attempt to Beat It.

The 354 students from the Oasis Academy got on the floor after Working Day and Night on their routine since the challange began in May.

The current record stands at 242 and was set by Kevin Dua in the USA in an event at the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, USA on April 19, 2009.

Miss Van der Berg said: “I am extremely proud of the students and staff of Oasis Academy Coulsdon.

"Michael Jackson's Thriller choreography is quite challenging to learn, but each member of the Academy has put in so much effort to learn the dance and they have all worked so well together.”

The academy will send the video footage to Guinness Book of World Records to see if the succeeded in seizing the title.


http://www.croydonguardian.co.uk/ne...chael_Jackson_world_record_dance_off/?ref=rss
 
NEW YORK – Nielsen SoundScan says 800,000 copies of Michael Jackson albums were bought in the U.S. last week — nearly double his sales from the previous week.

Jackson is claiming the entire Top 10 roster on the Top Catalog Album chart this week. His "Number Ones" collection is the top seller, followed by "Thriller." Solo albums occupy every position but No. 7, where the Jackson 5's "Ultimate Collection" album resides.

Data from the week ending Sunday — the first full week since Jackson's June 25 death — shows physical albums accounted for 80 percent of his sales.

On Billboard's Hot Digital Songs chart, Jackson holds five out of the top 10 slots, with "Man in the Mirror" leading as his top-selling digital download song of the week.

Four Jackson CDs also are in the top 10 albums sold on iTunes, and five of the top 10 singles for the week ending Monday.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090708/ap_on_en_mu/us_jackson_album_sales_4
 
LOS ANGELES (Billboard) – On the day the world said goodbye to Michael Jackson, his star continued to shine on Billboard's charts, a testament to his lasting musical legacy and impact.

Based on preliminary sales numbers from Nielsen SoundScan, Jackson's catalog of solo albums sold a whopping 800,000 copies in the U.S. in the tracking week that ended at the close of business Sunday (July 5). That's an increase of 90 percent from the previous week, when his combined albums sold 422,000.

A jump in sales was expected, since this was the first full week of sales since Jackson's passing on June 25. Most physical retailers swiftly sold out of available Jackson albums in the days after his death, but last week Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group replenished brick-and-mortar stores with CDs to meet customer demand.

Physical albums accounted for 82 percent of Jackson's sales last week -- 656,000 physical albums versus 144,000 download albums. In the week previous, when Jackson's albums moved 422,000 copies, physical albums accounted for 43 percent of that sum (181,000), and digital albums made up 57 percent (241,000).

When SoundScan's charts are released Wednesday morning (July 8), Jackson's "Number Ones" collection will be the top-selling album in the United States, with 339,000 (up 215 percent), and will also be No. 1 on Billboard's Top Comprehensive Albums chart. "Thriller" will be No. 2 with 187,000 (up 86 percent). The third-place set will be the newly released "Now 31" compilation of various pop artists, which will start with 169,000.

Jackson will again dominate the Top Pop Catalog Albums chart. It tallies albums that are more than 18 months old, have fallen below No. 100 on the Billboard 200 and don't have a current radio single. Catalog albums are ineligible to appear on the Billboard 200 chart -- the main album chart -- but they can make it onto the Top Comprehensive Albums chart.

Last week, Jackson had a record eight albums out of the top 10 on the Top Pop Catalog Albums chart, and a Jackson 5 compilation also found its way into the upper tier. This week, the entire top 10 belongs to Jackson. He alone has albums at Nos. 1-6 and Nos. 8-10, with a Jackson 5 title ("The Ultimate Collection") residing at No. 7.

On Billboard's Hot Digital Songs chart, Jackson will hold down five of the top 10 slots, with "Man in the Mirror" leading as his top-selling digital download song of the week (159,000; down 3 percent). Overall, it ranks as the second-best-selling song of the week, next to the Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling" (215,000; up 6 percent).


http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090708/people_nm/us_jackson_billiboard_2
 
Michael Jackson may be gone, but fans obviously can't stop 'til they get enough.

The week after his death, Jackson sold a whopping 800,000 albums—double the week earlier—easily outperforming any new pop releases and accounting for the entire Top 10 of the catalog chart.

Number Ones led the way with 339,000 copies, followed by Thriller with 187,000 for the week ended Sunday—the first full week since his June 25 death—according to the stat-meisters at Nielsen SoundScan.

The closest any new release came was Now That's What I Call Music! Vol. 31, which topped the Billboard 200 chart with sales of 169,000.

Part of the reason behind the sales spike is availability. Most retailers sold out of their existing inventories in the days immediately after Jackson's death, which led to a major shift toward digital sales. This week, with supplies replenished, physical albums made up 82 percent of the overall sales, compared to 43 percent in the previous sales frame.

For the second week in a row, Jackson sold more than 2 million total digital tracks—no other artist has even sold 1 million copies in single frame before.

On the Hot Digital Songs chart, Jackson claimed five of the Top 10, with "Man in the Mirror" leading the way at No. 2 with 159,000 downloads. Only the Black Eyed Peas accounted for more, with 215,000 downloads of the current Hot 100 chart-topper "I Gotta Feeling."

(Jackson fever is so hot that even new Lakers addition Ron Artest is getting into the action, selecting the number 37 for his jersey in honor of Thriller's 37 weeks at No. 1.)

While M.J. dominated, there were a few notable newcomers.

Following Now! 31, Brad Paisley sold 129,000 of American Saturday Night at No. 2, Rob Thomas moved 121,000 of Cradlesong at No. 3 and Wilco's Wilco (The Album) checked in at No. 4 with 98,000.

Also cracking the Top 10 were self-titled albums by Jeremih and Killswitch Engage at Nos. 6 and 7, respectively.

http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b13...m_medium=rssfeeds&utm_campaign=rss_topstories
 
Los Angeles – Can there ever again be a megastar the size of Michael Jackson?

Nowadays, it's rare for a pop-culture icon to unite the world's divided attention. The globe's communal moments have come, instead, from times of disaster – the 9/11 terrorist attacks or the 2004 tsunami. Yet for several hours on Tuesday, TVs and computers from Tokyo to Tel Aviv were tuned in to the Michael Jackson memorial service in Los Angeles.

That Jackson could command such an audience is testament to the kind globe-straddling star power that was possible in an earlier, simpler entertainment age. Amid today's fragmented popular culture, in which an unlimited buffet of mass media has segregated consumers into niche-oriented tribes, Jackson was arguably one of the world's last superstars.

"It isn't just that Michael Jackson was the last superstar because he was one of the last people to benefit from an unfragmented media," says Timothy Burke, a cultural historian at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. "He may also have been one of the last people who could surprise us with a stunning innovation where we didn't have that sense already of being so jaded by the ubiquity of spectacularly good entertainment. That someone could just leap on the stage and do this thing, and you could go, 'Wow, I've never seen that before!' "

A star is born – via old media
Jackson became a star during a precocious appearance with The Jackson 5 on "The Ed Sullivan Show." It was 1969, and that one show could be the launchpad for a career: The Beatles' 1964 appearance, for example, was seen by 73 million viewers.

"He's one year younger than me, so I remember when he came on [his] first 'Ed Sullivan Show' with Diana Ross," says Mark Ferguson, who won a lottery ticket to the memorial service. "I grew up with it."

In those pre-Internet days, when music labels held the keys to distribution and budgeted millions of dollars for promotion, the primary struggle for any artist was to secure a record deal. Anyone fortunate enough to clear that hurdle had a shot at winning over a gargantuan audience that was collectively tuned in to FM radio. Jackson went one step further. He capitalized on the emergence of MTV at a time when cable hadn't yet ballooned into the 1,000-channel behemoth it is today. With his fedora tilted at a steep gradient and white socks glaring from beneath too-short jeans, the star's image-defining music videos were embraced by the 1980s teenagers who adopted the channel as an ersatz counterculture. In 1983, MTV captured a ratings share of 10 – an astonishing figure for a cable outfit in those days – whenever it aired the video for "Thriller."

To date, Jackson has notched an estimated 750 million album sales worldwide, with at least 28 million units for "Thriller" in the US alone.

No apparent heirs
That's why the King of Pop has no apparent heirs, though there are many pretenders to the throne – Akon, Justin Timberlake, and Usher, to name a few. Each of those stars is successful in his own right. But none is a global, epoch-defining icon whose tunes even your grandmother can hum. In an era in which listeners can find songs by hundreds of thousands of artists on iTunes, it's a rarity for any artist or band to sell upward of 1 million copies in the US. Last year's top-selling record, Lil Wayne's "Tha Carter III," shifted a mere 2.8 million copies.

At Tuesday's service, Jackson's pallbearers – each wearing sequined gloves – positioned the superstar center stage one last time.

"I doubt that there will ever, ever be anyone of that magnitude," says Gina Prudhomme, an Angeleno who attended the memorial. "I don't know Madonna's music. I don't know U2's music. But his music, everybody knew – black, white, Asian, African, Russian. There will never be anyone who can transcend countries and cultures the way he did."


http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20090708/ts_csm/amegastar_1
 
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