Backstreet Boys, Ricky Martin Continue To Rule Top 10
Although sales of their album Millennium dropped by nearly half
last week, that was still enough to keep the Backstreet Boys atop the Billboard
200 albums chart.
Millennium once again leads a pop triumvirate that finds Ricky
Martin's self-titled album at #2 and Britney Spears'
But it was a big week for hip-hop, too. Conceptual rappers the Insane
Clown Posse entered the chart at #4 with their fifth album, The Amazing
Jeckel Brothers. Old-school rapper Slick Rick debuted at #8 with
The Art of Storytelling, his first album since he was released from
prison in 1996 after serving six years for attempted murder. And rap-rocker Kid Rock broke into
the top 10 for the first time with his steadily climbing Devil Without a Cause.
One week after Millennium sold 1,133,505 copies to debut at #1 and break the
modern single-week sales record, sales of the group's second album fell 45 percent to
621,621, according to sales-tracker SoundScan. That's still the third-highest weekly sales total
any album has had in 1999, and it beat out the #2 album, Ricky Martin, by more than
200,000 copies.
Millennium features the single "I Want It That Way" (
HREF="http://media.addict.com/atn-bin/get-music/Backstreet_Boys/I_Want_It_That_Way.ram">RealAudio excerpt), which is
on the verge of breaking into the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Martin sold just shy of 400,000 copies of his English-language debut,
giving it sales of 1.6 million in three weeks. The Puerto Rican pop singer
has been propelled by his Grammy Awards performance of the international
hit "La Copa de la Vida" in February and the #1 success of the album's
first single, "Livin' la Vida Loca" (
HREF="http://media.addict.com/atn-bin/get-music/Martin,_Ricky/Livin_La_Vida_Loca.ram">RealAudio excerpt).
Along with Spears'
Boys and Martin albums are part of an explosion of sweet, youth-targeted pop music. Lori
Majewski, entertainment editor for Teen People, said the music is
a natural part of teenagers' lives.
"You go to school with your headphones on," Majewski said. "In school, you listen to music.
You watch [MTV's] 'Total Request Live' the second you get in the door. Music has such a
huge influence on teenagers. It has such an effect on their way of life."
Meanwhile, Jordan Knight -- who as a member of New Kids on the Block was part of an
earlier teen-pop explosion -- entered the chart at #29 with his self-titled solo debut.
Rap and rock continue to sell, too, and Detroit's Insane Clown Posse, who combine the two
genres, sold 140,902 copies of The Amazing Jeckel Brothers in the week ending
Sunday.
The album, Insane Clown Posse manager Alex Abbiss has said, is installment number five in
a catalog of albums that draws on the mythology of joker cards. When the sixth album turns
up, the "Dark Carnival" -- or apocalypse -- is supposed to begin, according to Abbiss.
Kid Rock (born Bob Ritchie), another artist who uses rock to fuel his rhymes, has climbed the
charts with Devil Without a Cause thanks to steady radio play of "I Am the Bullgod"
and "Bawitdaba." The album moved up four spots to #9.
Slick Rick is neither as conceptual as the Insane Clown Posse nor as hard-rocking as Kid Rock,
but his old-school rhymes and urban stories helped launch The Art of Storytelling into
the top 10.
Slick Rick, 34, said recently the album represents the dawn of mature rap. "I'm not going to sit
around and write about anal sex or some crazy talk like that. I want to try and represent my
own age group," he said.
Other high-charting debuts included rapper JT Money's Pimpin' on Wax at #28 and
former Blackstreet member Dave Hollister's Ghetto Hymns at #34. Both have top-40
singles at the moment -- JT Money's "Who Dat" and Hollister's "My Favorite Girl."
Master P Presents the No Limit All Stars Who U Wit?, a hip-hop tribute to basketball
that features such No Limit artists as Snoop Dogg and Mystikal, debuted at #62.
With the summer movie season now under way, soundtracks are continuing to sell strongly.
The symphonic soundtrack to "Star Wars: Episode 1 -- The Phantom Menace" fell two spots
to #7, while the Phil Collins-dominated soundtrack to the Walt Disney film "Tarzan" leaped 25
spots to #20.
Country-pop singer Shania Twain, soul veteran Al Green and pop group 98 Degrees all
have songs on the soundtrack to the Julia Roberts movie "Notting Hill," which took an
enormous jump from #196 to #58 on the Billboard 200 albums chart while the movie enjoyed a
big week at the box office (finishing second, behind "The Phantom Menace").
Marilyn Manson and Rage Against the Machine are among the acts on the soundtrack to "The
Matrix," which stood at #35.
Rounding out the top 10 were hip-hop/soul trio TLC at #5 with Fanmail; Twain at #6
with Come on Over; and the hip-hop compilation Ruff Ryders: Ryde or Die Vol.
1 at #10.
