Christmas comes early in Week 10 of Fall ’16 with a new album by Pentatonix, while Lady Gaga and Michael Buble also make it big.
Billboard Artist Top 10
For the magazine dated November 12, 2016
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 | Lady Gaga | 1 | 3 | 57: Million Reasons |
| 2 | Drake | 5 | 7 | 23: One Dance |
| 3 | Twenty One Pilots | 12 | 2 | 3: Heathens |
| 4 | Michael Buble | 2 | – | |
| 5 | Pentatonix | 3 | 1 | 32: Hallelujah |
| 6 | Chainsmokers | 188 | 3 | 1: Closer |
| 7 | Weeknd | 43 | 1 | 2: Starboy |
| 8 | Ariana Grande | 14 | 2 | 7: Side To Side |
| 9 | Korn | 4 | – | |
| 10 | Bruno Mars | 152 | 1 | 6: 24K Magic |
The Billboard charts this week get a shakeup as usual, but one constant has been The Chainsmokers maintaining the #1 spot on the Hot 100 with “Closer” ft. Halsey, which crosses into “I Swear” territory earning its 11th straight week at #1 and becoming the longest-running #1 of the year. With Halloween barely behind us, Scoreboard is already in Christmas mode. Pentatonix and Trans-Siberian Railroad both enter the top 10 of the Billboard 200 with new Christmas albums, while Lady Gaga and Michael Buble beat the holiday rush with new albums coming in at #1 and #2.
Korn also made the Artist Top 10 this week with their 12th album The Serenity Of Suffering
Lady Gaga Returns To Pop
Lady Gaga’s 2013 album Artpop did not live up to her early career successes and she spent the last three years away from pop, partnering on classic duets with Tony Bennett and winning a Golden Globe for acting on American Horror Story: Hotel. Nonetheless, music brought Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta the fame and this week she conquers the top of the Billboard 200 and the Artist 100 with new album Joanne. She named it not after herself, but after her aunt who passed away at age 19, before Gaga was born. The death had a profound influence on the family and on @ladygaga, who has Joanne’s date of death tattooed on her arm. On the title track, Gaga pleads for Joanne to stay over an acoustic audio track. She spends half the album moving between country and soft rock that recall her “You And I” from 2011, the most obvious example being second single “Million Reasons.” For those more eager for love and revenge there is lead off banger “Perfect Illusion” that stalled on the Hot 100 and sexy 80’s throwback “Hey Girl” with Florence Welch that raises the question why have there been so few female duets since “The Boy Is Mine.” Here’s hoping that Gaga stays adventurous in her evolving artpop and does not drown in soft rock treacle.
Gaga is ready for election day
Michael Buble Provides More Standards And One Rap Verse
You can make an accusation that Michael Buble has coasted on The Great American Songbook, which was written decades ago and provided plenty of material for his nine albums, including the latest, Nobody But Me. His personal output has been limited to modern standards “Home” and “Haven’t Met You Yet,” but on too many albums he has been content to let the old songs do their thing, and on this one he trots out nine covers, including Tony Bennett’s “The Very Thought Of You” and The Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows.” The three originals include a duet with Meghan Trainor (who is trending as the #8 Artist of 2016 on my unofficial Scoreboard) and a rap verse from Black Thought of The Roots on “Nobody But Me.” It is good to see Buble bring in hip-hop and @meghantrainor, but when 75% of the material is cover versions, he is mostly earning income. We will need to wait for album ten to see if @michaelbuble can deliver more original material.
Is Michael Buble the Tom Hanks of Adult Contemporary?
Did I mention Tony Bennett twice on this week’s Scoreboard?
Ready Or Not, Here Comes Pentatonix Christmas
The five members of Pentatonix have quickly been promoted from Internet fame to The Sing-Off to being the biggest a capella juggernaut in the world. Their success is more attributable to popular cover versions than Michael Buble’s and the most wonderful time of the year to sing covers is, of course, right now. This week we get A Pentatonix Christmas, which delivers nine covers and two originals with PTX precision. Although @ptxofficial can collect income on the @michaelbuble circuit these two months, WHY did they have to bring in Leonard Cohen‘s “Hallelujah” into the Christmas mix? It was NOT written as a holiday song and did not sound like Christmas when Jeff Buckley made his own in 1994. Newsweek attempted to rank 60 versions of “Hallelujah” in 2015 and unfortunately they may need to update that list every holiday season. I will admit that PTX do sound better than Susan Boyle, who also included “Hallelujah” on her 2010 holiday album The Gift. C’mon Susan! Check out the PTX version below, you will hear the fourth, the fifth a lot this holiday season: