This week on Scoreboard: Arcade Fire has the new #1 album and remembering Glen Campbell
Billboard Artist Top 10
For the magazine dated August 19, 2017
See the full chart at http://www.billboard.com/charts/artist-100
| Billboard Artist Top 10 | Name | Billboard 200 Album Rank | Billboard Hot 100 Singles | Highest Charting Single |
| 1 | Arcade Fire | 1 | – | |
| 2 | Bruno Mars | 17 | 2 | 4: That’s What I Like |
| 3 | Ed Sheeran | 8 | 2 | 9: Shape Of You |
| 4 | Imagine Dragons | 7 | 2 | 5: Believer |
| 5 | Kendrick Lamar | 2 | 4 | 13: Humble |
| 6 | Linkin Park | 22 | 1 | 96: Heavy |
| 7 | Shawn Mendes | 25 | 1 | 8: There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back |
| 8 | DJ Khaled | 4 | 2 | 2: Wild Thoughts |
| 9 | Charlie Puth | 146 | 1 | 7: Attention |
| 10 | Justin Bieber | 109 | 3 | 1: Despacito (Remix) |
This week Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire takes #1 on both the Billboard 200 and the Artist 100 with new album Everything Now. The remainder of this week’s Scoreboard is a shuffle of well-known names. On the Billboard 200, Kendrick Lamar‘s DAMN., the year’s most-consumed album, returns to #2 for a sixth non-consecutive week at that rung (DAMN. also spent three weeks at #1). On the Artist 100, Bruno Mars is back at #2 as former #1 “That’s What I Like” is staying strong at #4 on the Hot 100. The #1 on that chart is “Despacito (Remix)” by Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee, and Justin Bieber for the 13th week, setting the record for most weeks at #1 in 2017 (Ed Sheeran‘s “Shape Of You” was on top for 12 weeks) and becoming only the 11th song in chart history to earn 13 weeks on top. In other music news this week, veteran country star Glen Campbell passed away at age 81. Scoreboard remembers him at the end of this week’s column.
Imagine Dragons, at #4 on this week’s Artist 100, already got their gold plaques
Arcade Fire Bring Indie Disco
According to Wikipedia, the Montreal band Arcade Fire only has six official members, though when they perform live the backing musicians make it seem like a small village. Their albums also sound massive and the volume especially gets turned up on their fifth, Everything Now. The band has made each of their album a statement around a central theme, with the peak coming on their 2010 rumination The Suburbs that pulled off an unlikely win for the Album of the Year Grammy. This time around the subject is the media landscape, a world of “Infinite Content,” which is, of course, dystopian. Take “Creature Comfort,” a electronic jog which has the line “God, make me famous” in the chorus and a verse about a woman contemplating suicide while listening to Arcade Fire’s first album (Funeral).
Although the lyrical content is bleak, the melodies of Everything Now are upbeat. The ballads the band is known for are few and instead we get a disco sound reminiscent of Abba. Disco is a strange choice for one of the biggest indie bands of the last decade, but this is not just an album, it is also an “everything now store,” and perhaps no music style is more commercially-orinted than dance. In a few months, Grammy voters will decide if the Everything Now sound will also be award-winning.
Arcade Fire’s Infinite Content tour will be coming to Brazil in December
R.I.P. Glen Campbell (1926-2017)
In the early 1960’s Glen Campbell was one of the hardest-working behind-the-scenes studio musicians in Los Angeles. A native of Arkansas, Campbell made it to L.A. after playing in bands in New Mexico. He made himself an indispensable studio presence as a backup singer and bass guitar player, contributing to albums by many of the day’s biggest American artists, including Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra. He was especially liked by The Beach Boys, who briefly took him on tour to fill in for Brian Wilson. By 1965 he was ready for a solo career and soon started conquering both country and pop charts with hits such as “Gentle On My Mind” and “Wichita Lineman.” What followed was a prolific output of more than 70 albums, as well as television and film appearances. On the Hot 100 Campbell earned two number ones, the Lite FM staple “Southern Nights” and his signature song, “Rhinestone Cowboy,” Bilboard’s #2 hit of 1975.
Despite his music, film, and television success, Campbell had his share of country-rock star problems. He battled alcohol and drug addiction and was married four times. A number of his eight children joined him on his latter albums and on tour, including his farewell tour that completed in 2012 and was featured in 2014 documentary Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me. The central subject of the documentary was Campbell’s struggles with Alzheimer’s disease, to which Campbell’s death was attributed. The farewell tour went on longer than initially planned, and Campbell’s resilience remains a central part of his legacy. Check out @glencampbellofficial in his prime as the “Rhinestone Cowboy” below: