Country Billboard Chart
News December 17, 2014
In Brief: Billboard Country Charts
Country Album Chart ** No.1
(1 week) Greatest Hits: Decade#1
Carrie Underwood
Hot Country Songs ** No.1 (3 weeks) ** “Shotgun Rider” Tim McGraw
Country Airplay ** No.1 (1 week) ** Shotgun Rider” Tim McGraw
Country Digital Songs ** No.1 ** (1 week) ** “The Old Rugged Cross” Craig Wayne Boyd
In this easy-to-use format
discover where your favourite acts songs and album are charting across the four
Billboard Country charts. It is prioritized by the first column showing the Hot
Country Songs chart frame standings for the week of December 27, 2014.
There are also separate rows
highlighting Women of Country music.
Scroll down for further
details on each of the individual charts.
Billboard Top
200 / Country Album Chart News
The Billboard
200 chart now includes on-demand streaming and digital track sales data.
The new chart in its second week was compiled using a new multi-metric
consumption methodology, adding together pure album sales with track equivalent
album sales (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA).
- Year-to-date overall all genre album sales are down 12% year-to-date over 2013.
- Physical CD sales
are up 20% over last week, down 4% over the same week last year and down 16% year-to-date over 2013.
- Digital album sales
are up 7% over last week, down 17% over the same week last year and down 10% year-to-date over 2013.
- Digital track sales
are down 4% over last week, down 9% over the same week last year and down 12% year-to-date over 2013.
Track-equivalent album sales are up 12.7% over last week and down 12.1% year-to-date over 2013.
J. Cole's third album, 2014 Forest Hills Drive,
easily debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard
Top 200 Album chart (BB200), marking the rapper's third consecutive
chart-topper. He previously led the list with his debut effort, 2011's Cole
World: The Sideline Story, and its follow-up, 2013's Born Sinner. 2014 Forest
Hills Drive moved 375,000 equivalent units in the week ending Dec. 14, according
to Nielsen Music. (The Billboard 200 chart measures multi-metric consumption,
including pure album sales. The ranking includes on-demand streaming and
digital track sales, in addition to traditional album sales, all measured by
Nielsen.)
On the latest Billboard
200, 84% of the chart's total units (adding up the weekly unit totals of Nos. 1
through 200) are pure album sales. The rest of its units are track equivalent
albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA).
2014 Forest
Hills Drive sold 353,538 copies in
it first week, the sum is the fifth-largest sales week for an album in 2014,
and the biggest for a hip-hop set in over a year.
The only larger weeks this
year were racked up by Taylor Swift's
1989 (in its first two frames: 1.29 million and 402,000, respectively), One
Direction's first week with Four (387,000) and Coldplay's arrival with Ghost
Stories (383,000).
Taylor Swift’s “1989”
fell to No.2 despite a 21% sales increase over last week and after five
non-consecutive weeks atop the Billboard 200.
The Pop album has now surpassed
the three million sales mark. “1989” shifted 324,000 units (up 18%), of
which 277,607 were pure album sales
(up 21%) and it has now scanned 3,003,615
at retail.
Comparing to her
previous “country” releases
RED in its 7th week
sold 166,999 (+22%; total 2,382,541) and SPEAK NOW in its 7th chart frame sold 201,318
(+14%; total 2,365,339)
To purely
country music matters Carrie Underwood scored her fifth consecutive top five
album, as her Greatest Hits: Decade #1
(19/Arista Nashville/SMN), made a bow at No.4 with 103,000 units (93,714 were pure album sales).
Underwood’s
album entered the Billboard Top Country
Albums at #1, displacing Garth
Brooks's Man Against Machine.
- It’s the first greatest hits album to top the
country chart since Brooks &
Dunn's #1s…and Then Some in September 2009; the first by a female
artist to do this since Shania
Twain's Greatest Hits had 11 weeks on top from November 2004 to
January 2005.
- The two-disc set markedthe biggest debut sales
week for a country best-of since Toby
Keith’s 35 Biggest Hits bowed with 103,000 on May 24, 2008.
- It’s the best debut week for a country female
artist’s hits package since Reba
McEntire’s Reba: #1s began with 117,000 (Dec. 10, 2005).
- Carrie’s is also the highest BB200 ranking for a
newly-released greatest hits album since Kenny Chesney's Greatest Hits II debuted and peaked at #3 in
May 2009.
- This is the first best-of collection for the
singer, who previously logged four albums that reached the top two on the
BB200: her “Some Hearts” debut (Released Nov 15, 2005; No.2 on Billboard
200; 315,000 debut sales), followed by three No.1s: “Carnival
Ride” (Released Oct 23, 2007; 527,101 first week sales), “Play On” (Released Nov 2, 2009; 317,695 first week sales) and “Blown Away” (Released May 1, 2012, debut
sales 267,338 copies). Carrie was only the third
woman to take three country albums to No. 1 on the Billboard 200, Linda
Ronstadt and Faith Hill were the others.
Underwood's
latest set is the highest-charting greatest hits album since the chart dated
Aug. 25, 2012, when Frank Sinatra's Nothing But the Best re-entered at No. 3
(thanks to deep discounting by Amazon MP3). Underwood logs the biggest sales
week for a best-of since Whitney Houston's Whitney: The Greatest Hits shifted
112,000 on the chart dated March 17, 2012 (in the wake of Houston's death), and
the biggest sales debut for a hits set since Sinatra's Nothing arrived with
99,000 (at No. 2) on the May 31, 2008 chart.
Greatest hits
albums are less vital in the iTunes era than they used to be. In a previous
era, Underwood’s album would probably have vied for #1. Many previous artists
have marked their first decade in the music business with compilations that had
the word “decade” in the title. Underwood’s is the fourth to make the top five.
Celine Dion's All the Way…A Decade of Song hit #1 in November 1999. Motley
Crue's Decade of Decadence – ‘81-‘91 reached #2 in October 1991. Janet
Jackson's Design of a Decade 1986/1996 hit #3 in October 1995.
On Hot Country
Songs, “Something in the Water,” Underwood’s new single from the set, bulleted
for a second week at No. 2 after a three-week run at No. 1 (having reached the
summit on Nov. 22). A second new song, “Little Toy Guns,” enters the
multimetric list at No. 40.
Carrie two-disc
compilation, Greatest Hits: Decade #1, released Dec 9, 2014 featuring her
latest hit, "Something in the Water," celebrates the approaching 10th
anniversary of Carrie
"I was the
first one to be like, 'I mean, I've only been doing this 10 years,' but it's been 10 years," Carrie said.
"If we waited much longer, we'd be out of two discs, hopefully!". Looking
over the track listing, Carrie added, "It's really cool to kinda see my
career, and well, my life over the past 10 years kinda chronicled in that
way." Carrie's Greatest Hits also includes the rough demo versions of some
of her biggest hits, and she was excited to let fans hear how these hits, like
"Last Name," sounded before they got polished in the studio.
Promoting the
album the pregnant star appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
(NBC) on Dec 8th.
Critical
reception for Carrie Underwood’s Greatest Hits: Decade #1:
(2-CD) 25
tracks/ Time: 1:40:10 CD - MP3 - Smart Choice Music - Amazon.com
Allmusic (Rating: 4 STARS).....If the subtitle
"Decade #1" seems too optimistic, consider this: back in 2004, few
ever would've bet that the winner of the third season of American Idol would
still be on the charts. A decade later, Carrie Underwood was a genuine
superstar who left her television roots far behind. Greatest Hits: Decade #1
helps bury those early American Idol memories by sandwiching her coronation
song "Inside Your Heaven" between two bombastic new songs
("Something in the Water," the better of the two, opens up the
proceedings, followed by "Little Toy Guns") and "Jesus, Take the
Wheel," the song that truly kicked off her streak at the top of the
country charts...... the 21 singles -- which are supplemented by three demos
that reveal Carrie works well in a stark setting, too -- are of a piece,
expertly constructed post-Shania and Faith Hill country-pop proving that
Underwood is the new-millennial heir to their throne.
Rounding out the
new Billboard 200's top 10 is Garth Brooks' MAN
AGAINST MACHINE, descended 8-10 (2-1 Country) with 62,000 units (up 8% on
previous weeks 57K). On the Top Album Sales chart, it fell 7-8 with the same
sum, as the album is unavailable on streaming services, and its individual
tracks are unavailable to purchase.
The other new
entry on the Top 25 Country albums came via
The Nashville Season 3, Volume 1 Official Soundtrack which made a debut at
No.75 on the BB200 (#10 Country)
selling 11,000 copies with the ABC
Network program’s Christmas With Nashville holiday album sitting right behind
it on both the Billboard 200 and Country Album charts.
As the winter
finale of ABC’s “Nashville” drew closer, the plot lines grow thinner and the
scant 10-song soundtrack followed suit. Domestic turmoil was the major theme
this season as diva Juliette Barnes (Hayden Panettiere) became unexpectedly
pregnant before the filming of a Patsy Cline biopic. Unfortunately, Panettiere’s
excellent rendition of “Crazy” is omitted on the album. In a tumultuous love
triangle, Charles “Chip” Esten (Deacon Claybourne) turns in a clichéd, yet
pleasing acoustic ode, “I Know How To Love You Now “to the soon to be married
Reyna James (Connie Britton) the woman he will always love...Read More
Critical
reception:
Various Artists
- Music Of Nashville: Original Soundtrack - Season 3, Volume 1 [US Exclusive
Deluxe]
Allmusic
(Rating: 4 Stars) ....One can argue that the only thing that keeps Nashville
from being a
Outside the
top 25 Country Albums
On their second week at
retail Willie Nelson And Sister Bobbie fell 26-34 with December Day: Willie's
Stash. Vol. 1 (Legacy) and at No.44 there was a debut at #44 for Various
Artists set Country Christmas (Ume)
2014 Country Album sales Year-To
Date:
30,616,000 (Physical sales 20,964,000 (down 9%) + Digital
sales 9,652,000 (down -8.2%)) which is 17.0% down at the same point in 2013 (36,901,000
sales)
Billboard Top 200 / Country Album
Placings
(Issue dated Chart week of December 27, 2014)
(Country Album positions #1 - #25)
(TW) This Week, (LW) Last
Week, Co (Country Album Chart placing / Movement)
Actual Album
Sales (NOT including Track Sales + Streams
which the Billboard 200 compile)
Top 25 Hot Country Songs (week of December
27, 2014)
On Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart - which blends:
a)
All-format airplay, as monitored by BDS
b) Sales,
as tracked by Nielsen SoundScan and
c) Streaming,
(tracked by Nielsen BDS from such services as
Spotify, Muve, Slacker, Rhapsody, Rdio and Xbox Music, among others) according
to BDS it results in:
- Tim McGraw held at No.1
for a third successive week with “Shotgun
Rider” (McGraw/Big Machine).
- Craig Wayne Boyd,
the newly crowned seventh-season winner of NBC’s The Voice, placed new
versions of classic compositions on Hot Country Songs for a fourth
straight week. Gospel standard “The
Old Rugged Cross” (Republic) is the Hot Shot Debut at No. 7 while his
cover of Merle Haggard’s 1969 blue-collar anthem “Workin’ Man Blues” entered at No. 37. Boyd performed both
songs on the Dec. 8 episode.
- On the same evening, coach Blake Shelton and duet partner
Ashley
Monroe performed current single “Lonely Tonight” (Warner Bros./WMN) which helped it lift 21-5 with top Digital Gainer honours. The
pair also performed the track on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Dec. 11. “Lonely
Tonight” also reached a new peak (9-2) on Country Digital Songs (41,000
sold, up 147%).
Hot County Songs
** No.1 (3 weeks) ** “Shotgun
Rider” Tim McGraw
** Airplay Gainer ** No.3 “Talladega” Eric Church
** Digital Gainer ** No.5 “Lonely
Tonight” “Blake Shelton feat. Ashley Monroe
** Hot Shot Debut ** No.7 “The
Old Rugged Cross” Craig Wayne Boyd
** Streaming Gainer ** No.8
“I See You” Luke Bryan
Debut No.37 “Workin’ Man
Blues” Craig Wayne Boyd
Debut No.40 “Little Toy
Guns” Carrie Underwood
Debut No.49 “When I’ve Been
Drinkin’ Jon Pardi
Billboard
Country Airplay Chart Week of December 27, 2014
Tim McGraw collected his 27th No. 1 on Billboard’s
Country Airplay tally with “Shotgun
Rider” (McGraw/Big Machine), which drew 47.603 million audience impressions (up 8%, a gain of +3.575
million) and received 7,813 radio
plays (+732) and stepped 2-1, thus becoming the artist with the most No.1s
dating to the chart’s launch 25 years ago (January 1990).
During that time
frame, McGraw breaks out of a three-way tie with Alan Jackson and George Strait
(26 apiece) on a list that also includes Kenny Chesney (23), Brooks & Dunn
(20), Toby Keith (20), Blake Shelton (18), Brad Paisley (18), Garth Brooks (18)
and Keith Urban (17).
“Rider” written
by Marv Green, Hillary Lindsey and Troy Verges was first released on Sept 8,
2014 as the third single from his second studio album for Big Machine Records,
SUNDOWN HEAVEN TOWN. It peaked in its 15th chart week, marking the artist’s
quickest chart-topping ascent in nearly four years. He hasn’t reached the summit
faster since “Felt Good on My Lips” reigned in its 14th week on the Jan. 8,
2011 list. He clocked his fastest No. 1 when “It’s Your Love” (with Faith Hill)
needed just five weeks to peak (June 7, 1997).
Top local
audience exposure for “Rider” during the Dec. 8-14 Nielsen Music tracking week:
KKBQ Houston (1.4 million
impressions), WNSH New York (1.3
million), KKGO Los Angeles (1.1
million), WKLB Boston (1.1 million)
and KMNB Minneapolis (902,000).
- The heat quickly cooled on last week’s No.1 as Maddie & Tae’s
“Girl In A Country Song” which
slumped 1-7 a 11.683 million audience loss and 5,610 radio plays (down
2,038).
- Florida Georgia Line
scored its seventh straight top 10 single with “Sun Daze” (Republic Nashville), which hopped 11-9 in its 10th chart week. The
track is the second single from the duo’s sophomore album, ANYTHING GOES,
which has sold 407,000 copies through the week ending Dec. 7, according to
Nielsen Music. During that time frame, “Sun Daze” has sold 200,000
downloads — it debuted and peaked at No. 4 on the Oct. 4 Country Digital
Songs chart.
- Luke Bryan’s “I See You” (Capitol Nashville) became
the artist’s 17th top 10 on the Country Airplay chart, where it advanced
13-10 in its sixth chart week.
- Blake Shelton’s “Lonely Tonight” (Warner Bros./WMN),
featuring Ashley Monroe, earned Most Increased
Audience honours logging 19.689
million impressions, up 30%, a gain of +4.514 million and received 3,335 radio plays.
- Dierks Bentley
stacked up the Most Added honours with “Say You Do” (Capitol Nashville) receiving 1,440 radio plays (+312)
thanks to 17 fresh radio commitments (ADDS)
Women of
Country 2014 Watch:
There were two solo
female artists on the Top 30 Country Airplay songs with Carrie Underwood’s
“Something In The Water” (7-5) and RaeLynn’s “God Made Girls” moving 21-20.
Kelsea Ballerini
#35, Lucy Hale #58 and Katie Armiger #60 were the additional three solo females
in the remaining 31-60 slots, to make it just 8.33% of the entire Top 60 chart.
Country
Airplay
*** No.1 (1
week) *** "Shotgun Rider” Tim McGraw
** Most
Increased Audience ** “Lonely Tonight” No.17 Blake Shelton feat. Ashley Monroe
** Most Added **
“Say You Do” No.27 Dierks Bentley
** Hot Shot Debut
** No.55 "Girl Crush" Little Big Town
Debut No.57
“House Party” Sam Hunt
Debut No.59
“Raised By A Good Time” Steven Lee Olsen
Billboard
Country Digital Singles Chart Week of December 27, 2014
With a similar pattern to the
previous week saw NBC’s The Voice effect the Top 5 Downloads show contestant Craig Wayne Boyd along
with his
coach Blake
Shelton, dominate the chart. Boyd returned to #1 with a southern
gospel classic “The Old Rugged Cross”
.
Watch his performance on the Live Semi Final.
Blake Shelton and Ashley
Monroe’s “Lonely Tonight” jumped 9-2
thanks to their performance of the song on the TV show. Last weeks No.1 RaeLynn with
“God Made Girls” fell 1-5 to round out the top 5 shifting a further 22,000
downloads.
Just edged out of the Top 30 Carrie Underwood’s
“Little Toy Guns” the second new
song from her Decade #1 hits set made a bow at #31 selling 8,000 copies.
Women Of Country Watch
RaeLynn (1-5) with
“God Made Girls”, Carrie Underwood with “Something
In The Water” (No.3), Brenda
Lee with the Christmas
classic Rockin’ Around The Christmas
Tree (18-17) and Faith Hill’s ” Where Are You Christmas? (27-30) were the 4
solo female acts on the Top 30.
Dropping off the Top 30:
5 - Off The Chart Craig Wayne Boyd “Take It Easy”
21 - Off The Chart
Blake Shelton “God Gave Me You”
22 - Off The Chart Kid Rock feat Sheryl Crow “Picture”
23-32 Frankie Ballard “Sunshine & Whiskey”
27-36 Big & Rich “Look At You”
17-46 Craig Wayne Boyd “I Walk The Line”
Year-Over-Year Country Digital Track Sales:
2014: 126,861,000
; down 16.8% compared to 152.464,00 million in 2013
Top 30 Digital Singles in Country Music
(published December 18, 2014)
(LW) Last Week (TW) This Week
*Numbers are
rounded to nearest 1000th
Country Aircheck MEDIABASE Chart
Tim McGraw moved 2-1 to land No1 on
Mediabase with “Shotgun Rider” (Big
Machine). The song logged 7,914
radio spins (+616) and 56.273 million
audience impressions from 149 tracking stations for the tracking week December
7 to December 13, 2014 and published chart December 15th.
Congratulations
to BIG MACHINE SVP/Promotion Jack Purcell, Nat. Dir./Radio Marketing Mandy McCormick,
and the entire Big Machine Promotion
team for scoring the week's #1 single on the MEDIABASE Country singles chart
with Tim McGraw's "Shotgun Rider." The single is McGraw's third from
his current album "Sundown Heaven Town."
Congratulations
to UMG NASHVILLE SVP/Promotion Royce Risser, Capitol Nashville VP/Promotion
Shane Allen and the entire Capitol Promotion
team for earning 49 MEDIABASE adds
on Little Big Town's new single, "Girl
Crush." Those adds give LBT the "Most Added" title for the tracking week. Treats
were due to be delivered to the staff (Dec 15) to celebrate their success.
For a detailed
report check out Country Aircheck Weekly Issue 427 - December 15, 2014 [PDF File]
For the very latest
up to the minute Mediabase Chart
(Past 7 Days) go here - www.mediabase.com
