Where did you get the chart position ?

Rockingfan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> For the US I just think the home market is so huge
> that it is very complicated to be number one. I
> think you have to count on the long run. Who
> really did amke it on the long run and who
> remained? Even if the Stones don't make it number
> one they will be last band who maintained for so
> many decades.

Well it can't be so complicated if other artists can get to #1 - why not the Stones? They're doing huge tours all over the USA when they release new albums... still the US Americans don't buy them (instead they heave their fat asses into the seats of their baseball stadiums eating popcorn).

On the other side we have the Middle European countries which always have to wait until next summer for the next Stones tour. Still they buy enough albums to bring the Stones to # 1 - also, very often the Stones keep the #1 spot for several weeks. In the UK they stay one week at #2, then fall back to #14, in they US they only reach #3 even with a massive tour going on.

How long did the last U2 album stay at the first position of the charts in the US?

If Rain or another track were to be
a radio hit it could bounce it back
up the charts. First week high
probably reflected pre orders
from legions of fans and the curious.
Long term sales will still push it's
final total up quite considerably
over years, not the mere weeks or months
an albums stature is usually judged by.

nmaillot Wrote:
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> How long did the last U2 album stay at the first
> position of the charts in the US?

Only for a week, but look at the U2 sales during the first five weeks in US:
Week 01 #1 / Sales: 842,930
Week 02 #2 / Sales: 288,466
Week 03 #2 / Sales: 280,332
Week 04 #5 / Sales: 299,645
Week 05 #3 / Sales: 350,013

U2's album sold almost 7 more times than ABB in the first week (842,930 U2 - 129,313 AB and they sold 2 million only the first month on stores.


Sadly, ABB will go on free fall worldwide:
2-13 UK
4-15 Australia
1-8 Canada
5-19 Japan

The chart positions are from Billboard, ditto sales from recent BB article (I may be off a hundred thou one way or the other as I'm reporting from memory, but 1.3 & 2.6 on the last 2 major releases is very close)
Top 200, 25 years: date, peak pos, weeks on top 200

07/19/80 1 51 Emotional
09/12/81 1 58 Tattoo
06/26/82 5 23 Still Life
11/26/83 4 23 Undercover
04/12/86 4 25 Dirty Work
09/16/89 3 36 Steel Wheels
04/20/91 16 17 Flashpoint
07/30/94 2 38 Voodoo
12/02/95 9 19 Stripped
11/02/96 92 3 Rock and Roll Circus
10/18/97 3 27 Bridges to Babylon
11/21/98 34 8 No Security
10/19/02 2 48 Forty Licks
11/20/04 50 2 Live Licks
09/24/05 3 - A Bigger Bang

<<Rubbish, complete, total and utter rubbish. ABB is ten times better than the overproduced crap of Steel Wheels. A few good songs on Steel Wheels but that is it. It's better than anything since Some Girls. Most professional critics who have reviewed it agree with this assessment. If you like Steel Wheels so much, no wonder you don't like ABB, a back to the basics rocker that is light years better than the overpolished stuff on Steel Wheels. Come on, that album made the great Charlie Watts sound like the drummer from Duran freaking Duran, for God's sake. >>

Guess you can't read. I didnt mention anything about Steel Wheels. I would have agreed with your assessment on that one. Next time, look before you swing. Moron!

God, Live Licks was only on the charts for 2 weeks....????!!!!

Serves 'em right for putting such a piece of opportunistic mediocrity out. I knew it would be their worst seller. I doubt it even went gold.

I'll finally buy it when I see it in a bargain bin. I would like to hear the second disc, from what I've heard y'all post.

#......Go ahead....Bite the Big Apple....Don't mind the Maggots.....Uh Huh...#

Here in Sweden ABB went directly to # 1. But don´t forget that young people don´t buy CD´s. They download the music they want from the net. Most of the people who like the Stones are somewhat older and don´t know how to download music, so they buy the album. I guess it´s the same in the States.

After all the Stones might not be that big in the States as we think.

===After all the Stones might not be that big in the States as we think.====

Sad, but true. A new generation has no respect for its musical heritage....but the same can kind of be said of the Stones when they were Young Turks.

well - I have 3 kids (20, 17, 15) and they all are music-lovers - but they don't buy CDs much anymore - so if the newer generation of music lovers ain't buying ABB, that's a possible explanation.

Thats both bad and good. Its good as it means they don't ever have to buy a whole album of filler crap and they can download whatever tunes they want. The bad thing is that they'll never hear it on the radio to find out about the Stones. When I was a teen-ager, I loved buying new albums by the people I liked.

#......Go ahead....Bite the Big Apple....Don't mind the Maggots.....Uh Huh...#

For me The Stones havent come close to topping their earlier hit albums Tattoo You and Some Girls.Emotional Rescue was largely ignored by the public.The first I heard the title track I thought Mick went DISCO on us !!!They do still produce very good music it is just hard to recapture the old magic.Dont forget some of Tattoo You songs had been around since Black & Blue days so that can explain why that was such a stellar album.I will be seeing the boys for my 11th time here next Monday and can only HOPE that the setlist does change after their vacation.I would REALLY REALLY REALLY love to hear Memory Motel or Fool To Cry live..... Their are some gems on the new cd that should performed live also.. LONG LIVE THE GREATEST ROCK % ROLL BAND in the world

I'm a newbie/lurker/non-regular/unreliable intruder/blah blah, but I have to jump in here.
You guys overestimate the radio way too much. gut wrote "The bad thing is that they'll never hear it on the radio to find out about the Stones"-- this doesn't really apply.

I'm 24, I download and listen to an unbelievable amount of new music each week. And I haven't listened to the radio for over 3 years.
Downloading/internet HELPS you find music in many ways that the radio never did. Internet music sites and forums are informative about what is new and what is out there in general-- minus the Clear Channel censorship. Even doing a simple search on various p2p filesharing networks helps far more than relying on dumbass DJs.

After sucking up the doomsday atmosphere of this thread, I popped into Lime Wire, and did a search for Bigger Bang. 265 results came up. Um, believe me, people are hearing it. Considering the Stones are a bunch of multi-millionaires who have actually gotten GOOD reviews for ABB, and who have very little still to prove (young fans of new artists like Kanye buy his albums because he has something to prove, and even then many, many don't bother), it's no wonder why they are more downloaded than bought. I have to, however, admit my ignorance about just how much downloading is done in Europe. I haven't lived there since 1999. I am going to make a guess it's less than in the US, however; just a hunch.

Many people who are actually into music don't need the radio. The "casual" fan can hear something on the radio, and buy an album, sure-- but he/she can also forget it in a week, and never give it a second thought again. So why are the casuals so important? That's pretty much why chart success never immediately meant longevity.

PS: Personal opinions on ABB aside, I always get beyond irritated when Stones are compared to U2. If you're going to go by their respective career paths, then U2 managing to crap out "Beautiful Day" is comparable to Stones managing to crap out SMU. ABB is in no way comparable to 'All that you can't leave behind', even if we o say that Stones have lost inspiration, or the ability to write a hit these days. If U2 managed to reach the "record buying under-25" demo with their last 2 albums, that's nice. THey were also 40 instead of 60 (BIG difference in public sentiment), haven't yet become a staple on late night comedy and have, most importantly, produced far less amount of work so far than the Stones at a "comparable" point. And those are just SOME of the main reasons.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2005-09-22 18:52 by Some Girl.