Jack Johnson's <i>Sleep Through the Static</i>
Photo: Brushfire Records

We're not even two months into 2008, and already a disturbing trend has developed for the ever-slumping music industry: So far this year, only two of the records to assume the Billboard album chart's peak position have sold more than 100,000 copies. Of course, six-digit sales figures used to be the norm — without them, most records never stood a chance at claiming the chart's #1 spot.

After Radiohead's In Rainbows sold more than 122,300 copies during the first week of '08, earning it Billboard's coveted apex, each subsequent #1 album has failed to come even remotely close to matching that sales total. Alicia Keys' As I Am spent the next two weeks on top, selling 70,300 and 60,500 copies, respectively. Then, the "Juno" soundtrack took over, after moving close to 65,000 units. Keys' LP returned to the #1 position just last week, having sold just 61,300 copies.

But this week, before the release of the generally high, post-Grammy sales figures, surfer-turned-crooner Jack Johnson has reversed the tide, at least for the time being. With little more than 374,600 copies sold during week one, Johnson's latest studio offering, Sleep Through the Static, has become the year's best-selling new release. That means it is 2008's first bona fide "hit" record, according to the latest SoundScan data.

But being on top is a sensation Johnson knows well. While his 2003 LP, On and On, and 2005's In Between Dreams both entered the top 200 at #3, his 2006 effort, Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies for the Film "Curious George," debuted at #1, with sales clocked at just under 163,000. Johnson's new one even robbed music vet Sheryl Crow of a #1 debut. Her latest album, Detours, bows at #2 on next week's chart, after generating just 92,300 scans.

A whopping 22 new releases enter next week's top 200, with four opening in the coveted top 10. Lenny Kravitz's latest, It Is Time for a Love Revolution, opens at #4 with 73,300 copies snatched up, right behind Keys' As I Am, which drops two spots to #3 with 80,200 sold. The 2008 Grammy Nominees compilation holds at #5 with 51,700, while the "Juno" soundtrack trails in the #6 slot, selling another 47,200 units. Meanwhile, Mary J. Blige's Growing Pains closes out the week with 44,600 in sales to finish at #7. The last newcomer to the top 10 checks in at #8: k.d. lang's Watershed, which sold 41,000 copies. Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus follows at #9, scanning an additional 40,000 units, while Taylor Swift's self-titled debut rounds things out at #10 with sales reported at 38,700.

The next highest-charting of the week's newcomers comes in at #13. The soundtrack to "Step Up 2: The Streets," featuring tracks by Flo Rida, Missy Elliott, Cassie, T-Pain and others, sold close to 31,500 units; and next week's #14, Kenny G's Rhythm & Romance, generated first-week sales of 31,000 and change. Nada Surf's Lucky enters the chart at #81 with 9,200 sold, while Hot Chip's Made in the Dark opens at #108 with sales of 7,100. The HorrorPops' Kiss Kiss Kill Kill bows at #148, with 5,200 scans. They Might Be Giants' Here Come the 123s sits in the #171 hole, with 4,500 carried away from the nation's record stores. Finally, Bob Mould's District Line just makes the list at #190, with 4,000 scans, and Al Green's What Makes the World Go Round enters at #197, selling 3,700 copies.

• Jack Johnson
• Alicia Keys
• Sheryl Crow
• Mary J. Blige
• Miley Cyrus

Josh Groban's <i>Noël</i>
Photo: WEA/ Reprise

Since its initial release 10 short weeks ago, Josh Groban's Noël has unexpectedly gone from being just another in a long list of forgettable Christmas-centric LPs to the best-selling album of 2007. With nearly 2.8 million copies sold — most coming within the last four weeks — Noël has usurped the "High School Musical 2" soundtrack (which has sold just over 2.7 million units) and Daughtry, the 2006 self-titled debut by "American Idol" finalist Chris Daughtry's band, (2.3 million) for that title.

What's more, Noël, which has increased in sales each week and has remained in the Billboard top 10 all those weeks, has shattered several sales records, thanks in large part to Oprah Winfrey's recent endorsement of the album as "the one Christmas CD every family should have."

According to the latest SoundScan totals, Noël, which sold another 669,000 copies, is the first Christmas album to spend four consecutive weeks on top in the chart's 51-year history. It's also only the second Christmas album to ever spend a total of four weeks at #1, tying it with Elvis Presley's 1957 LP Elvis' Christmas Album.

Noël is also the first album of any kind to spend four consecutive weeks at #1 and experience a sales increase each of those weeks since No Doubt's 1995 outing Tragic Kingdom, and the 669,000 copies the Groban album sold last week denotes the biggest single-week tally for a Christmas album since Kenny G's Miracles: The Holiday Album sold 819,000 copies during one of the last weeks of 1994. Plus, Noël is on pace to pass the 3 million-sold mark, which would make it the only album released in 2007 to reach that plateau.

Needless to say, everything's coming up Groban on Billboard's weekly albums chart. But Noël's sales aren't the only interesting development on next week's chart. For starters, a total of 10 new records enter next week's top 200, though none debut in the chart's top 10. The highest-charting debut of the week comes in at #11: Face Off, a collaborative album from rapper Bow Wow and R&B singer Omarion, sold 107,000 copies during its first week in stores, falling about 13,000 scans short of #10 finisher Garth Brooks' Ultimate Hits, which sold 119,400 copies.

Behind Groban at #2 is Alicia Keys' As I Am, with sales reported at 292,300, and the Eagles' Long Road Out of Eden follows her at #3 with 241,000 scans. Meanwhile, the 26th addition to the Now That's What I Call Music! compilation series comes in at #4 with 191,800 sold, and at #5, with 180,000 scans, it's Mannheim Steamroller's Christmas Song. The aforementioned "High School Musical 2" soundtrack holds at the #6 position with sales of 178,000, and Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus trails in the #7 spot, having sold another 177,500 units. Country crossover artist Taylor Swift's self-titled debut climbs one spot to #8 with 138,700 sold, and Carrie Underwood's Carnival Ride falls two spots to #9 with sales of 137,500.

Rapper Birdman's 5 * Stunna was the top 200's second-highest charting debut offering, coming in at #18 with 86,000 sold. Mario's Go follows at #21 with 76,900 scans, and coming in at #25 with 68,500 copies snatched up, it's the Wu-Tang Clan's 8 Diagrams. The-Dream's Love/Hate bows at #30 with sales of 58,900, and rapper Beanie Sigel returns to the chart at #37, having sold 49,300 copies of his latest, Solution.

The Wal-Mart exclusive High School Musical: Hits Remixed enters the chart at #42 with 42,300 scans, while Gucci Mane's Back to the Traphouse debuts at #57 with 31,700 sold. The Dave Matthews Band's Live at Piedmont Park occupies the #68 slot, thanks to 27,400 scans, while Puerto Rican songstress Ednita Nazario's Real opens at #101 with 18,000 sold.

• Josh Groban
• Daughtry
• Elvis Presley
• No Doubt
• Kenny G

Nelly
Photo: Universal

With eight artists grabbing five nominations each, this year's Grammy Awards looks to be one of the most competitive in the ceremony's 45 years. (Click here for the list of nominees and for photos of this year's Grammy nominees and performers.)

Three relative newcomers, Ashanti, Norah Jones and Avril Lavigne, join Sheryl Crow, Eminem, Nelly, Raphael Saadiq and Bruce Springsteen as the artists with the greatest chances of leaving New York's Madison Square Garden on February 23 with the most golden gramophones in their arms.

All eyes will be on Norah Jones, who stands to reign supreme on Grammy night with four of her five nominations arriving in the big four categories: Best New Artist; Album of the Year, for Come Away With Me; and Song of the Year (given to the songwriter Jesse Harris) and Record of the Year for "Don't Know Why." Jones and her full-length debut album also received nods in the categories Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, Best Pop Vocal Album, and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical, while the LP's producer, Arif Mardin, scored one in the Producer of the Year, Non-Classical category to give the Norah Jones camp a whopping eight nominations combined.

Eminem, Nelly, Springsteen and Lavigne received two nods apiece for the big awards. Em's "Without Me" is up for Record of the Year, along with Nelly's "Dilemma" (which features Kelly Rowland), Nickelback's "How You Remind Me" and Vanessa Carlton's "A Thousand Miles." The Eminem Show will vie for Album of the Year honors against Come Away With Me, the Dixie Chicks' Home, Nelly's Nellyville and Bruce Springsteen's The Rising.

Springsteen was also nominated in the Song of the Year category for "The Rising." The Boss' tune, which resonated with many after the events of September 11, 2001, will face off against another song inspired by the tragedy, Alan Jackson's "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)."

The Best New Artist category finds John Mayer the sole male amidst a quartet of ladies, Ashanti, Michelle Branch, Jones and Lavigne, whose single "Complicated" is also up for Song of the Year. (Last year, Alicia Keys walked off with the prestigious honor. Who do you think should win Grammy's equivalent to Rookie of the Year? Take our poll.)

"Chauvinists unite!" Mayer joked at Madison Square Garden, in a half-hearted attempt to strum up support for his cause. "I'm just going to go to sports bars and lobby.

"It's cool," he continued sincerely. "I look at the list and say, 'It makes sense to me.' "

While Ashanti is likely to have her fingers crossed for the big Best New Artist win, she'll be doubly excited when the Best Rap/Sung Collaboration category is awarded. Besides receiving a nod for assisting Fat Joe with "What's Luv?" the songbird with the second-best-selling debut album of 2002 has increased her chances of winning with "Always on Time," her collaboration with Ja Rule. Ashanti likes both songs, but she looks to the phrase "blood is thicker than water" when deciding whom to root for.

"I don't necessarily have a preference, but it I had to choose, it would have to be my brother Ja," she said. "That's my family, Murder, Inc. Records."

Nominations for the 45th annual Grammy Awards were announced Tuesday (January 7) at a press conference held in Madison Square Garden. Among the artists on hand to read the roster of those hopeful for Grammy gold were Ashanti, country singer Kenny Chesney, '80s faceplate Cyndi Lauper, Avril Lavigne, John Mayer, Justin Timberlake, Nelly and producer Jimmy Jam, who filled in for a previously scheduled but absent Sean "P. Diddy" Combs.

The artists each took the podium in turn to announce the contestants for two of the categories, which made for some interesting pronunciations. Ashanti (pronounced a-shan-tee) became the faux-fabulous sounding "A-shan-tay" whenever most on hand mentioned her name; and Lavigne, in announcing the nominees for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance botched David Bowie's name, pronouncing it 'Bow-wee" (as in the dog sound "bow-wow"). The flub is not likely to go unnoticed among Lavigne's critics, and it just might go down in pop-star infamy, the way Britney Spears' remark that suggested Pat Benatar sang "I Love Rock 'N Roll," a song Joan Jett made famous, did in a fall 2001 interview.

Four nominations fell on the Dixie Chicks, Alan Jackson, R&B singer Remy Shand and Chad Kroeger, who scored one with his band Nickelback, and three others for his song "Hero," penned for the soundtrack to "Spider-Man."

Besides two in the big four, Vanessa Carlton's other nomination came in the Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s). While most categories in the Composing/Arranging field are often overlooked in favor of more artist-specific ones, the 21-year-old pianist doesn't consider her third nod to be any less important. In fact, considering that she's the only nominee who's also an artist in that category, she said she's perhaps most proud of that honor because it shows her as the well-rounded artist she is.

"I am most excited for that nomination because it is recognizing the process, something other than the vocal and the song itself," she explained. "It kind of acknowledges how the puzzle fits together. I think [Be Not Nobody] is a beautiful record and I'm really proud to know that people recognized that. I was totally surprised, though. I really was."

India.Arie, Erykah Badu, Johnny Cash, Elvis Costello, Dr. Dre, Randy Newman, Arif Mardin and No Doubt also nabbed three nominations each.

Touting over 100 categories, the Grammys is the most comprehensive music awards show, but even with classifications such as Best Polka Album (for which Jimmy Sturr's Top of the World looks to be the odds-on favorite) and Best Remixed Record, Non-Classical, there just aren't enough designations for some folks.

"Actually, one they didn't mention was best haircut-changing-style every year,' a near-bald Timberlake kidded. "I'm hoping I get the Victrola for that."

Maybe next year, Justin. In the meantime, the 'NSYNC star must be content with just one nomination, for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, for the Clipse-featured "Like I Love You," the first single from his solo debut, Justified.

Super production duo the Neptunes were puzzlingly absent from the Producer of the Year category, which instead found Dr. Dre, Nellee Hooper, Arif Mardin, Rick Rubin, and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis attempting to stake their claim to the title. After producing a number of Grammy-nominated tracks, including Timberlake's "Like I Love You," Nelly's "Hot in Herre" and Mystikal's "Bouncin' Back (Bumpin' Me Against the Wall)," it's a mystery why Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams didn't receive any love from the Recording Academy.

"For the second year in a row, can you imagine that?" Williams said of his Grammy dis. "All the work we've done? For whatever reason, nobody thought to put us on the ballot."

The 45th annual ceremony marks the Grammys' return to New York, after Los Angeles hosted the previous four events. The show will be broadcast live on CBS at 8 p.m. (ET/PT). Before the show, catch MTV's pre-show telecast "Backstage at the Grammys," airing at 7 p.m. ET.

MTV's parent company, Viacom, also owns CBS.

For more Grammy news, check out the MTV News Grammy Archive.

• Nelly
• Avril Lavigne
• Norah Jones
• Eminem
• Vanessa Carlton