American Idols out there in the cornfield and topping charts

Scotty McCreery's debut album, Clear as Day, had clear sailing to the top of The Billboard 200 this week to become the first Idol debut album to enter the charts at No. 1 since Ruben Studdard did it in 2003. Though other Idol winners had larger sales weeks (Scotty sold 179,000) albums are selling fewer copies these days.

In addition to reversing the trend of declining exposure from Idol alums (last year's winner Lee DeWyze was dropped from RCA recently after his debut bombed and Season 7 winner David Cook has fared poorly with his sophomore release) Scotty becomes the youngest male artist to debut at No. 1 and the first country artist to debut at the top on the all-genres chart.

Click here for my reviews of Scotty's album and runner-up Lauren Alaina's debut, Wildflower, which will see chart action next week. Follow on Twitter @HowardCohen

 

Comments

[Iman Scowell]

Howard...why no coverage of X Factor?

[Laurirose]

Hi Howard,
Interesting post but imho, you left out Adam Lambert, who single-handedly "reversed the trend of declining exposure from Idol alums" with his debut album FOR YOUR ENTERTAINMENT.

His 1.25 million Twitter followers http://twitter.com/adamlambert and more fans around the world are avidly awaiting his sophomore album out in 2012.

As evidence of major status and acclaim, did you see his epic performance with QUEEN at the MTV European Music Awards last week?

http://tv.mtvema.com/video

(Just scroll on the Live Performances 2011 list on the right to Clips 11 & 12 of 13 which contain the extraordinary medley he performed with QUEEN.)

PS. I agree with Iman - would love to see you cover X Factor USA - especially the most talented vocalist on that show, Josh Krajcik.

Just watched this again tonite - One word: Sublime.

http://youtu.be/mRZ4n_T0DLs

[HoCo]

Hi there,
Nope, I didn't leave out Adam Lambert. Nothing spectacular about album sales of 850,000 or so given his hype and exposure, especially noting that albums were selling more a couple years ago when his went on sale.
Was far from impressed with his resulting concert tour, as well. Mediocre at best.
No interest in X Factor but thanks for the request!
Take care.

[HoCo]

Also, Lauri, Adam Lambert did not win Idol. He was a runnerup. Item comments on Idol winners' sales.

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