> 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.
I have stayed away from the media circus the last few days and so I won't comment on it. Seeing the above article, my first thought was of the concept of zombie creative works, meaning the situation where the work of dead artists pushes the work of living artists out of the marketplace. An example of this is in newspaper comics where strips go on long long after the creator died and up-and-coming comic artists don't get a chance. My first thought ends with a supposition that a lot of people feel that they can buy MJ albums now knowing their money isn't going to enable him to do depraved things or pay off the victims. And that's in my head - I haven't talked to anybody who has bought MJ albums since his death. My second thought comes from something Aaron Barnhart said (I think to Paul Harris) about the show Rockstar - INXS. This was back when the show was on the air. Aaron said it made sense to find a group from the '80s, from a time there was a mass music scene before it became fragmented. My second thought is surprise, not that an album became best-selling after his death, but that the top 10 best sellers are his. Nobody making music now can compete with music made 20 years ago, not for the most sold album and not even for the tenth most sold album. My third thought is that this shows a shift in the entertainment market - the people who were coming of age in the '80s are the ones who are buying all the albums. Taking the top ten spots shows that these people are willing to spend more money on music than the teenagers and young adults who are considered to be the target for popular music. As an aside: the question arose of which celebrity achieved the status of Jackson? When he was playing, and for a few years after, I would have said Michael Jordan. He was certainly as well known, and at least as well respected. I don't think he is at that level in the US today and I haven't been overseas in years to find out if he is still an icon overseas or if his star has dimmed in his absence. Tom --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
