Scoreboard: Harry Styles, Zac Brown Band

Charts this week feature Harry Styles’s debut album and a new release from country’s Zac Brown Band

Billboard Artist Top 10

For the magazine dated July 3, 2017

See the full chart at http://www.billboard.com/charts/artist-100

With the summer kicking off, Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee, and Justin Bieber are in prime position to dominate airwaves for the next three months with “Despacito (Remix)” at #1 on the Hot 100 for the second week in a row. The Spanglish hit has also topped the British singles chart for three weeks and has been #1 in Spain for 17 weeks. Even though it translates to slowly or gently, “Despacito” took the world by storm quickly and may not let go of #1 for weeks this summer. Although the turnover on the Hot 100 has come to an end, there is a change on top of the Artist 100. Taking #1 with his self-titled debut album is former One Direction singer Harry Styles. Following Styles at #1 on both the Artist 100 and the Billboard 200 is Georgia’s Zac Brown Band with their fifth album Welcome Home.

Luis Fonsi is #1 across Scoreboards

Harry Styles Takes #1 on the Billboard 200

Five weeks ago Scoreboard featured Harry Styles and new single “Sign Of The Times,” which started at #4 on the Hot 100 and is currently hanging out lower at #17. The single did not sound like a 2017 production: it did not feature a rapper, it avoided any imitation of The Chainsmokers, and it could have belonged in an epic 1980’s movie. Styles’s debut album arrives on the heels of the new single and continues to confound. Its first week performance is certainly impressive: #1 on the Billboard 200, sixth biggest debut week of 2017, most albums sold in a debut week by a solo British male artist, and, most importantly, 73,000 more albums sold in week one than Zayn‘s debut album last year. While Styles has taken a leg up on his fellow Directioners, the longevity of the album on the charts will be tested in the coming months.

What is confounding about Harry Styles is that the album not only departs from One Direction pop-rock, but also goes all the way back to British rock of the 1960’s and 1970’s with production recalling The Rolling Stones and David Bowie. Take “Woman,” a 1970’s stomp that clocks in close to five minutes and has Styles uh-ing in anger at the subject being with another man. John Lennon‘s “Woman” this is not, but at least Styles is gambling with a rock sound conspicuously missing on today’s charts. Of course focusing solely on music misses the larger point of @harrystyles the celebrity. He was the Directioner who dated Taylor Swift, his hair made him easily the most memorable band member, and he got to play Mick Jagger on a Saturday Night Live sketch earlier this year. Even if his singles do not top the charts, it seems that @harrystyles will remain a presence on television and in the magazines for the near future.

Harry Styles goes starts on the rockstar road with his debut album

Zac Brown Band go back “Home”

Country singer-songwriter Zac Brown paid his dues on the travel circuit in the 2000’s before finally breaking through with “Chicken Fried” in 2008, a song first written and recorded in 2003. If you only know “Chicken Fried” and not the country #1s that followed, new album Welcome Home will sound familiar. Over the years, Brown and his band have widened the tent to include rock, lite FM, and even pop sounds. Their previous album, 2015’s Jekyll + Hyde included guests such as Jewel, Sara Bareilles, and the late Chris Cornell. This time around around, the pop-rock guests are gone and the band is back at the Georgia cabin sticking to country basics. These basics include “Roots,” “Family Table,” and “My Old Man.” Like “Chicken Fried,” these are comforts of ZBB’s distinctively Southern lifestyle that deliver for the band’s core fans and do not attempt to expand appeal to fans of other genres. The album’s first week sales are lower than the previous three ZBB releases, but based on the YouTube album trailer you can see below, @zacbrownband members are quite alright to sit back and keep it country this go-round.