No Grammy bounce for CD sales
With all those incredible performances at last Wednesday's Grammy Awards, you'd think there would have been a subsequent sales bonanza in record stores (or do we call them CD stores?). But the way things looked yesterday on the hitsdailydouble Web site, fans did not run to pick up CDs by the artists who appeared on the show. In fact, with 37 percent of retail stores accounted for, the hits site shows only Kelly Clarkson getting any kind of decided boost from her appearance and double Grammy win.
Right now, U2 and Kanye West aren't even making the hits chart, although that's sure to change today. Over at Amazon.com, U2's Grammy-winning "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" is No. 8. Kanye's "Late Registration" is No. 45, but that doesn't mean anything since Amazon seems to not have many R&B customers. Their CD sales tend to the mainstream (and that's an understatement).
If "hits" is correct, the big winner from last week is still... Barry Manilow. His "Songs from the Fifties" may repeat at No. 1, with another 150,000 copies sold. Manilow is so happy about his re-found fame that over the weekend he entertained his label chief, Clive Davis, and several friends at his Palm Springs estate.
Evidently, Manilow has calmed down some: right before Davis' pre-Grammy celebration began last week, Manilow - having just arrived at the Beverly Hilton - had what was described to me as a "meltdown". Others called it a "hissy fit". The word was he thought he was supposed to close Clive's show, a distinction that went more appropriately to Jamie Foxx.
But Barry pulled himself together and put on a fine medley of his hits before Foxx came on. Look, Barry Manilow certainly was never hip, ever. The fact that he's on the charts and at No. 1 in 2006 - this is unbelievable. He should be carrying Clive around in a sedan chair.
And one other thing about Clive's party, while we're on the subject. Reports yesterday that Mary J. Blige wouldn't sing with Jamie Foxx because she felt slighted - they were wrong. When the party began that night, Davis said from the stage: "Mary J. Blige begged me to get her on earlier tonight than in the past."
A few years ago, Mary J. came with Whitney Houston and waited all night to get on stage. This year, she had to get up early the next day. When it was certain that the evening was running late, she simply left. You couldn't blame her. And Fantasia's impromptu performance with Foxx was thrilling.
But what to do if CD sales from the Grammy's really turn out to be lifeless? Personally, I thought when Mariah Carey did her "Fly Like a Bird" number, a million CDs would be sold. It looks like the real total will about a tenth of that. Of course, maybe that's because nearly everyone in the US of A has Mariah's album by now, in two different configurations.
The real reason CDs aren't selling? Maybe it's time to start looking at radio monopolies, and how they're stifling interest in pop music. (Fox 411)
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