by Paul Grein in Chart Watch
Madonna lands her seventh #1 album as Hard Candy debuts in the lead position. In the 52 year history of Billboard’s weekly album chart, only one female artist-Barbra Streisand–has had more #1 albums. Madonna is also second only to Streisand for the longest span of #1 albums. Streisand’s span a little more than 33 years, from People in October 1964 to Higher Ground in November 1997. Madonna’s span a little more than 23 years, from Like A Virgin in February 1985 to Hard Candy.
The two women would seem to have little in common. Streisand is renowned as one of the most gifted vocalists of all time. Madonna’s innate vocal talents are fairly modest. As she has pointed out, she didn’t go into music because she thought she had a spectacular voice but because she had something to say.
The two women were received differently from the outset. Streisand’s debut album won a Grammy for Album of the Year. By the time she was 27, Streisand had also won an Emmy and an Oscar, representing a rare degree of affirmation by the show business establishment. Madonna, by contrast, had a hard time at the outset even being taken seriously in the music industry. She didn’t win a Grammy until 1992, and then only in a lower-profile video category. She didn’t have a really good night at the Grammys until 1999, when she won three awards, including Best Pop Album and Best Dance Recording.
For all their differences, the two women also have a lot in common. A friend summed it up by saying they’ve both got a lot of gumption (though he didn’t use the word “gumption”). In both cases, their cultural significance was apparent early on. Streisand made the cover of TIME in April 1964, two weeks before her 22nd birthday. Madonna was on TIME’s cover in May 1985, a few months before she turned 27.
Madonna famously bowed before Streisand when the veteran diva made a surprise cameo appearance in a “Coffee Talk” sketch on Saturday Night Live in February 1992. (You can watch the video at the end of this week’s blog.) Less famously, but significantly, when Billboard ran a special issue saluting Streisand in December 1983, Warner Bros. made a point of taking the back-cover ad to promote Madonna. The Madonna ad was headlined “A Star Is Born”–the title of Streisand’s 1976 movie musical. That week, Madonna’s “Holiday”–her first Hot 100 single–was in its first week in the top 40. For such a newcomer to invite any comparisons to the top female star of a generation took a lot of nerve.
Madonna has not equaled Streisand’s success in films, despite a critically-hailed performance in Desperately Seeking Susan and a Golden Globe-winning turn in Evita. Nor has Madonna equaled Streisand’s success on Broadway in Funny Girl. They’ve had about equal success in TV, though comparing Streisand’s classy, Emmy-winning specials with Madonna’s dozens of trend-setting music videos is a bit like comparing apples and bustiers.
While it may be hard to believe, especially given the erotic photo on the cover of Hard Candy, Madonna will turn 50 on Aug. 16. When Streisand was the same age, she was basking in the success of her lavish, four-disk career retrospective Just For The Record. Since then, Streisand has had two #1 albums, Back To Broadway and Higher Ground, but for the most part, she has seemed content to let her recording career wind down. Having recently signed a major deal with Live Nation, Madonna seems likely to remain active as a recording act.
In addition to being second only to Streisand as the female vocalist with the most #1 albums, Madonna is second only to Mariah Carey for most #1 singles on Billboard’s Hot 100. Madonna has had 12, to Carey’s 18. So you can make a reasonable argument that Madonna is the top female recording act (albums and singles combined) of the rock era. For a woman who is not a great singer to have achieved such a feat says two things–that Madonna has tremendous will and fortitude and that values in pop have changed. Under the new rules (which Madonna helped to write), vision and image matter more than pure vocal ability.
Hard Candy is Madonna’s fourth consecutive studio album to reach #1, the longest such streak of her career. It follows Music, American Life and Confessions On A Dance Floor. At her white-hot heyday in the ‘80s, Madonna reached #1 with three successive studio albums, Like A Virgin, True Blue and Like A Prayer. It’s striking that Madonna has had more #1 albums since 2000 than she did in the ‘80s. (And it’s curious that she had none at all in the ‘90s.)
Hard Candy is the third consecutive #1 album by a female solo artist, following Leona Lewis’ Spirit and Mariah Carey’s E=MC2. This is the first time that three female solo artists have made #1 in succession since Monica, Beyonce and Ashanti scored in June and July 2003. This is also the second time in the past three weeks that female solo artists have locked up the top three spots on the pop album chart. (Men, we’re getting whooped here.)
Hard Candy opens with sales of 280,000. That’s the third highest weekly sales total of 2008, following E=MC2 (463,000) and Jack Johnson’s Sleep Through The Static (375,000).
Lewis’ “Bleeding Love” holds at #1 on Hot Digital Songs for a fourth week, with 217,000 paid digital downloads. This is the fifth time that the smash has topped 200,000 in weekly sales, which extends the record that Lewis set last week. And this is the seventh week in a row that the #1 title on this chart has topped 200K, which is also a new record. I see growth in this field!
http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/chart_watch/7172/week-ending-may-4-2008-madonna-closes-in-on-streisands-record
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