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      Morgan Wallen’s Career Seemed Over. Now He’s Broken a Billboard Record.

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      The country singer was rebuked by the music industry after using a racial slur. Still, “Dangerous: The Double Album” has logged 86 weeks in the Top 10 of Billboard’s 200 chart.Nineteen months ago, it seemed that the music career of Morgan Wallen — primed as Nashville’s next crossover star — might be dead. Instead, he is now playing to sold-out arenas and has broken chart records set by the likes of Adele and Bruce Springsteen, in a success story that highlights the power of fan loyalty and the challenges of cancel culture.“Dangerous: The Double Album,” Wallen’s second LP, came out at the beginning of 2021 and shot to No. 1 on Billboard’s album chart, with big streaming numbers that demonstrated his power among a new generation of country performers. The album was in its third week at the top when TMZ published a video of Wallen using a racial slur. The rebuke was immediate and strong, with Wallen’s songs removed from radio and streaming playlists, and Wallen’s label, Big Loud, saying it would “suspend” his recording contract “indefinitely.”Yet “Dangerous” would hold at No. 1 for a further seven weeks, and since then it has become an unusually enduring hit. The album has now spent 86 weeks in the Top 10 of Billboard’s chart — dipping to No. 12 only once, when it was pushed out by holiday albums last December — and has been in the Top 5 for 65 of those times.“Dangerous” stands at No. 2 on the latest chart, beaten only by the Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny’s “Un Verano Sin Ti,” another streaming blockbuster that came out in May and has just matched Wallen’s 10-week run at No. 1.Wallen has now beaten the 1964 record set by the folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary for the longest Top 10 run for an album by a single artist. (In the 66 years of the Billboard 200 album chart, seven other titles have had longer stretches in the Top 10, but those are all movie soundtracks or Broadway cast albums; the longest run of all albums is 173 weeks for the cast album of “My Fair Lady,” which came out in 1956.)In the wake of the controversy last year, Wallen issued multiple apologies, but was otherwise largely unseen in the mainstream media — a rare test of the commercial appeal of an artist without the benefit of supportive TV interviews or magazine covers. But for many in Nashville, he remains a symbol of a pervasive racism that exists just below the surface of the country music business.To hear it from executives at Big Loud, which functions as Wallen’s label, management company and music publisher, the success of “Dangerous” is proof of Wallen’s broad cultural appeal and the quality of his music, which blends beer-soaked bro-countryisms with mellow melodies that at times recall classic rock like Eagles.“We’re having our Garth Brooks moment, our Taylor Swift emergent moment,” Seth England, the chief executive of Big Loud, said in an interview, “of just an artist so big, everyone is getting used to it. Pop is short for popular culture, and he just is popular culture.”When asked how “Dangerous” has managed such extraordinary success, Greg Thompson, the president of Big Loud Management, added simply: “There’s only one explanation. The music is that good.” (Wallen’s suspension from Big Loud, which continued to sell his music, was temporary. Through a representative, Wallen declined to answer questions for this article.)Yet from the beginning, Big Loud — and Republic Records, the division of the giant Universal Music Group that has a deal with Big Loud to promote its artists — has pursued smart strategies to make “Dangerous” a success in the streaming era. Most obvious is the album’s length; taking a page from hip-hop albums that have been exploiting this aspect of the streaming economy for years, “Dangerous” has 30 songs on its standard edition, each of which contributes to the album’s overall numbers each week.Second, Wallen stoked his fans by releasing batches of new songs ahead of the album’s release, sometimes a few at a time, which helped foster the fan loyalty that sustained him in his fallow months of promotion.With Republic’s help, Wallen has also had some success as a pop crossover act, though that process has been slow. Two of his songs, “7 Summers” and “You Proof,” his latest single, have gone as high as No. 6 on Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart. According to data from the tracking service Luminate, a little more than half of Wallen’s radio airplay has been on country stations, with pop stations a distant second.In the wake of Wallen’s use of the slur, musicians and journalists debated the role of racism in country music. Wallen gave an interview to “Good Morning America” in which he characterized the incident as a mistake among close friends who “say dumb stuff together.” He added: “In our minds it’s playful. That sounds ignorant, but that’s really where it came from.”Gradually, the Nashville world, and beyond, has largely welcomed him back. In an interview with The New York Times published this month, the country singer Kane Brown, who is Black, said: “I texted him that day. I told him he shouldn’t have said it, but also knowing Morgan, I knew that he didn’t mean it in the way that the world thought that he meant it.” Late last year, Wallen appeared on Lil Durk’s track “Broadway Girls,” a hit on the rapper’s No. 1 album “7220.”Despite the intensity of the criticism levied against Wallen, fans remained loyal. According to Chartmetric, a company that tracks data from streaming and social media, Wallen’s followers on Facebook and Spotify increased at the height of his controversy.Within months, his songs were back in force on the official playlists of major streaming platforms. And according to Luminate, radio stations are now playing Wallen more than at any point since “Dangerous” was released, with his songs being played about 19,000 times a week this summer.Also on this week’s Billboard album chart, the veteran metal band Megadeth opens at No. 3 with its first studio release in six years, “The Sick, the Dying … and the Dead!” DJ Khaled’s “God Did,” last week’s top seller, falls to No. 4, and Harry Styles’s “Harry’s House” is in fifth place. More

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      Lil Durk and Morgan Wallen Return to the Top of the Album Chart

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      The country star’s “Dangerous: The Double Album” has had tremendous staying power, landing at No. 2 in its 66th week out.The Chicago rap mainstay Lil Durk returns to No. 1 on the Billboard album chart, with his latest LP, “7220,” beating out new releases by Jack White and Fivio Foreign after its debut a month ago.But the greater accomplishment this week may be the continued staying power of Morgan Wallen’s “Dangerous: The Double Album,” which is No. 2 in its 66th week out.Released in January 2021, “Dangerous” held the No. 1 spot for its first 10 weeks, and has remained in the Top 10 every week but one, last December, when it was pushed out by holiday albums. Incredibly, 49 of its 66 weeks have been in the Top 5; quite a few of those were spent while Wallen was in a form of industry purgatory — removed from many radio playlists, ignored by the Grammy Awards — after he was caught on video using a racial slur. He apologized (more than once), though Wallen’s fans never gave up on him, and he has largely returned to the mainstream with a major tour.For its latest week, “Dangerous” had the equivalent of 46,500 sales in the United States, according to Luminate, the tracking service behind the Billboard charts. That means Wallen came within about 500 copies of retaking No. 1: Lil Durk’s “7220” was credited with 47,000. (Luminate’s publicly reported numbers are rounded.) Wallen may even have contributed to holding himself at second place: he is featured on “Broadway Girls,” the most popular cut on “7220.”In a slow sales week, however, neither total is impressive. The 47,000 equivalent sales figure for “7220” — which incorporates its 69 million streams and about 1,000 copies sold as a complete package — is the lowest for a No. 1 album in more than three years, since “Hoodie SZN” by the rapper A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie notched its third time at the top in February 2019 with similar numbers.Also this week, White’s “Fear of the Dawn” opens at No. 4 with 42,000 equivalents, including 24,000 copies sold on vinyl.The “Encanto” soundtrack is No. 3 and Olivia Rodrigo’s “Sour” is No. 5. Two hip-hop albums open in the lower half of the Top 10: 42 Dugg and EST Gee’s “Last Ones Left” is No. 7, and Fivio Foreign’s debut studio album, “B.I.B.L.E.,” starts at No. 9. More

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      Justin Bieber’s ‘Justice’ Debuts at No. 1, Ending Morgan Wallen’s Run

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      The pop superstar’s new album and the latest from Lana Del Rey bumped the country singer-songwriter to No. 3 after 10 weeks atop the Billboard 200.After 10 weeks of domination by the country singer-songwriter Morgan Wallen, the Billboard album chart has a fresh champion: Justin Bieber.Bieber’s new album, “Justice,” opened at No. 1 with the equivalent of 154,000 sales in the United States, including 157 million streams and 30,000 copies sold as a complete package, according to MRC Data, Billboard’s tracking service. It is Bieber’s eighth time in the top spot; at 27, he is the youngest solo artist to achieve that feat. (Elvis Presley was rounding 30 by the time his “Roustabout” soundtrack topped the chart, in early 1965. The members of the Beatles were all 26 or younger when “Yesterday and Today” became their eighth No. 1, in 1966.)Bieber also takes the top spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart with “Peaches,” the fifth single from “Justice,” after a long marketing campaign that began in September.The No. 2 album this week is also new: Lana Del Rey’s long-awaited “Chemtrails Over the Country Club” debuted with the equivalent of 75,000 sales.Wallen’s “Dangerous: The Double Album,” which came out in early January, became a streaming blockbuster — still a rarity among country releases — and has ruled the chart ever since, surviving an industry rebuke after Wallen was caught on video using a racial slur. Wallen held on through a combination of fan loyalty and a lack of serious competition. This week, “Dangerous” falls to No. 3.The arrival of new albums by two boldface-name artists heralds a change on the chart, and the return of a more competitive release schedule. Many artists held off from releasing new music over the winter, in part over uncertainty about this year’s touring prospects. But with a return of concerts looking more likely this summer or fall, albums are beginning to flood the market. New titles from Carrie Underwood and the rapper NF are already out, to be followed soon by releases from Demi Lovato, Taylor Swift and many others.Also on the album chart this week, Pop Smoke’s “Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon” is No. 4 and Dua Lipa’s “Future Nostalgia” is No. 5. More

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      Morgan Wallen Tops Chart for a 10th Week

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      “Dangerous” has benefited from little competition and is at No. 1 even as promotion for the album came to a standstill after Wallen was caught using a racial slur.When the country singer-songwriter Morgan Wallen released “Dangerous: The Double Album” in early January, it seemed destined to be a hit. But there was little reason to expect just how huge a hit it would become.Ten weeks later, after a code-red industry scandal over Wallen’s use of a racial slur, “Dangerous” remains No. 1 on Billboard’s album chart. No album has opened with a longer chart run since Whitney Houston’s “Whitney” in 1987, which spent its first 11 weeks at No. 1 and featured blockbuster radio singles like “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)” and “So Emotional.”In many ways, “Dangerous” has benefited from poor competition. That is often the case in the winter doldrums, when few big-name artists release new albums. But that pattern has been exacerbated by the pandemic, leaving Wallen, week after week, with virtually no major new challengers to contend with.Yet “Dangerous” has also been an unqualified hit by itself. That is all the more remarkable since promotion for the album was almost entirely stopped after Wallen was caught on video last month casually using a racial slur. Radio stations and streaming platforms yanked his songs from their playlists — although some have quietly reinstated them — and Wallen’s record label said it was “suspending” his contract.Last week, “Dangerous” had the equivalent of 69,000 sales in the United States, including 89 million streams and 4,000 copies sold as a complete package, according to MRC Data, Billboard’s tracking arm. Since its release on Jan. 8, the album has racked up the equivalent of about 1.3 million sales, including 1.4 billion streams. Whatever Wallen’s competition, those numbers prove his appeal.The chart run for “Dangerous,” however, may have reached its end. Last week, Justin Bieber released “Justice,” which is expected to take the No. 1 spot on the next chart.Also this week, Pop Smoke’s “Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon” is No. 2, and Dua Lipa’s “Future Nostalgia” rose three spots to No. 3, helped by her performance at the Grammy Awards and its win for best pop vocal album.The Weeknd’s “After Hours” is No. 4, and the Southern California R&B singer Giveon opened at No. 5 with “When It’s All Said and Done … Take Time,” a compilation of two EPs from last year. More

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      Drake Shakes Up the Singles Chart, but Morgan Wallen’s Album Holds On

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyThe ChartsDrake Shakes Up the Singles Chart, but Morgan Wallen’s Album Holds OnThree of the rapper’s new tracks dislodged Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License” on the Hot 100, while the country star notched a ninth week atop the Billboard 200.Drake’s “What’s Next,” “Wants and Needs” and “Lemon Pepper Freestyle” take the top three spots on the Hot 100.Credit…Chris Delmas/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesMarch 15, 2021, 3:09 p.m. ETAfter two static months, the pop charts are finally beginning to change, at least a little.Olivia Rodrigo’s song “Drivers License” has dominated the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for eight weeks, and been a phenomenon on social media, but now it has finally given way. And not just to one song, but three: Drake takes the top three spots with “What’s Next,” “Wants and Needs” and “Lemon Pepper Freestyle” — the first artist in history to do so. (Perhaps not coincidentally, those songs are the first three tracks, in order, on Drake’s recently released EP, “Scary Hours 2.”) “Drivers License” falls to No. 4.The album chart, however, has not budged. “Dangerous: The Double Album,” by the country singer-songwriter Morgan Wallen, notches a ninth week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. It had the equivalent of 78,000 sales in the United States, including 98 million steams and 6,000 copies sold as a complete package, according to MRC Data, Billboard’s tracking unit.Despite a rebuke from the industry after Wallen was caught on video casually using a racial slur, “Dangerous” has had the most weeks at No. 1 for any album in five years (since “Views,” by Drake — who else?), and is one of only four country albums in the 65-year history of the chart to spent at least nine weeks at No. 1. The others? Garth Brooks’s “Ropin’ the Wind” (1991), Billy Ray Cyrus’s “Some Gave All” (1992) and Taylor Swift’s “Fearless” (2008).Also on this week’s album chart, Pop Smoke’s “Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon” is No. 2, Pooh Shiesty’s “Shiesty Season” is No. 3, the Weeknd’s year-old “After Hours” is No. 4 and Lil Durk’s “The Voice” is No. 5.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Olivia Rodrigo and Morgan Wallen Dominate the Charts After Eight Weeks

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyThe ChartsOlivia Rodrigo and Morgan Wallen Dominate the Charts After Eight WeeksThe 18-year-old singer and actress’s song “Drivers License” holds at the top of Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, and the country star’s LP repeats at No. 1 on the Top 200.With few blockbuster releases at the top of the year, the Hot 100 and Top 200 charts haven’t changed much in several weeks. Olivia Rodrigo’s song “Drivers License” holds at No. 1.Credit…Erica HernandezMarch 8, 2021, 2:06 p.m. ETIn late 1966, Elektra Records signed a new band called the Doors, and the label had a feeling its debut was special. To prevent the album from getting lost in the crowded fourth-quarter market, Elektra released it at the start of the next year, when it faced scant competition. “The Doors” became a sensation, eventually reaching No. 2 on the Billboard chart.The strategy of rolling out a hot album in the January doldrums proved lucrative once again this year with “Dangerous: The Double Album” by Morgan Wallen, a country singer-songwriter who rode a lot of buzz to an instant No. 1.But the charts have rarely been as static as they have been this year, as big stars have largely held off releasing new material. That helped Wallen hold at No. 1 for eight weeks now — even as he came under fire last month for using a racial slur — and also given an advantage to Olivia Rodrigo, an 18-year-old singer and actress, who has now dominated the singles chart for eight weeks with her song “Drivers License.”“Dangerous,” which has held strong streaming numbers since it was released, had the equivalent of 82,000 sales in the United States last week, including 103 million streams and 6,000 copies sold as a complete package, according to MRC Data, Billboard’s tracking arm. With few major challengers, “Dangerous” may hold at No. 1 for a ninth week, although competition is coming from Justin Bieber and Drake.“Drivers License,” which had nearly 20 million streams last week, may not hold the top spot much longer, after the long-awaited release of three new Drake songs on “Scary Hours 2.”The rest of this week’s album chart is dominated by other recent hits, most of which have hovered in the Top 10 for weeks if not months: The Weeknd’s hits compilation “The Highlights” (No. 2), Pop Smoke’s “Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon” (No. 3), Pooh Shiesty’s “Shiesty Season” (No. 4) and Lil Durk’s “The Voice” (No. 5).The highest-charting new release was Julien Baker’s “Little Oblivions,” at No. 39.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      With Seven Weeks at No. 1, Morgan Wallen Breaks a Chart Record

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyThe ChartsWith Seven Weeks at No. 1, Morgan Wallen Breaks a Chart RecordWith little competition, the singer-songwriter, who was rebuked in February for using a racial slur, is now the first country artist to spend his first seven weeks in the top spot of the Billboard 200.With no major releases to challenge him, Morgan Wallen has dominated the Billboard album chart in 2021.Credit…Ed Rode/Getty Images for CMTMarch 1, 2021Updated 4:02 p.m. ETIs Morgan Wallen’s “Dangerous: The Double Album” the most popular country LP in decades, or just the beneficiary of weak competition?“Dangerous,” Wallen’s second album, was released on Jan. 8, and it became an instant streaming hit. A former contestant on “The Voice,” Wallen has an aw-shucks appeal and a musical approach that is based in traditional country songwriting but, like much of contemporary Nashville, also borrows from pop and hip-hop production techniques, like the use of electronic drum loops.Journalists portrayed him as a charming newcomer with a bit of a bad-boy streak: In October he was booked to perform on “Saturday Night Live” but that invitation was revoked after images circulated on social media showing him cavorting maskless in an Alabama bar. He made an apology video and was welcomed back to “S.N.L.” in December.“Dangerous” opened at No. 1 on Billboard’s album chart and has held strong ever since — even after a video emerged in early February showing him using a racial slur. He was quickly rebuked by the industry, with his songs removed from radio and streaming playlists and his record company saying that it had “suspended” his contract. But Wallen made another apology video, and fans continued to stream his music.“Dangerous” has now logged seven weeks at No. 1, the longest consecutive run at the top by any album since Drake’s “Views” five years ago. “Dangerous” is also the only country LP to spend its first seven weeks at No. 1 in the 64-year history of the Billboard 200, the magazine’s flagship album chart. (Other big country albums, like Garth Brooks’s “Ropin’ the Wind,” from 1991, and Billy Ray Cyrus’s “Some Gave All,” from 1992, have racked up more weeks at No. 1 over all, but not in their first seven weeks out.)Last week, “Dangerous” had the equivalent of 89,000 sales in the United States, including 111 million streams and 7,000 copies sold as a complete package, according to MRC Data, Billboard’s tracking arm. Since it came out, “Dangerous” — which contains 30 songs, with three more on a “bonus” version — has had the equivalent of just over one million sales in the United States, including 1.1 billion streams.Wallen’s fans have clearly been devoted to him, even as his mullet-framed face has become a dart board target for criticism of the music industry’s troubled history with race, particularly in the country genre. But there is another explanation for the continued success of “Dangerous”: Nothing else has come along to supplant it.For the last seven weeks, Wallen’s biggest competition has come from weeks- or months-old albums by Taylor Swift, Pop Smoke and Lil Durk, and from new releases by Foo Fighters, the Memphis rapper Pooh Shiesty, the R&B singer Jazmine Sullivan and the boy band Why Don’t We, none of which has opened higher than No. 3. The only new title to make it as high as No. 2 was a hits compilation from the Weeknd, released to coincide with his appearance at the Super Bowl.Will Wallen land an eighth week at No. 1? His album’s pace is slowing. But the arriving new releases — by Julien Baker, Madison Beer, Jimmy Edgar and Willie Nelson — don’t include any obvious blockbusters.The rest of this week’s Top 5 is typical for this year so far, with recurring hits, some of them many months old, but none with enough sales and streams to topple “Dangerous”: Ariana Grande’s “Positions” (No. 2, thanks to a “deluxe” reissue with five new tracks), Pop Smoke’s “Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon” (No. 3), Lil Durk’s “The Voice” (No. 4), Pooh Shiesty’s “Shiesty Season” (No. 5).AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Despite Rebukes, Morgan Wallen Earns a Sixth Week at No. 1

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyThe ChartsDespite Rebukes, Morgan Wallen Earns a Sixth Week at No. 1The country star’s “Dangerous: The Double Album” continues to perform well on the Billboard chart, three weeks after he was caught on video using a racial slur.With six weeks at the top of the Billboard 200, Morgan Wallen has tied the longest run at No. 1 since Taylor Swift’s “Folklore” last summer.Credit…Charles Sykes/Invision, via Associated PressFeb. 22, 2021, 10:50 a.m. ETFor three weeks now, the music industry has agonized over what to do about Morgan Wallen.One of country’s newest stars, Wallen had been caught on video casually shouting a racial slur to a friend. After the music world banded together last summer, promising to hold itself accountable for racial inequities, there needed to be action.Denunciations poured forth on social media, and Wallen’s record label “suspended” his contract. Radio stations and streaming services quickly scrubbed his songs from playlists. Artists and commentators gathered at roundtables, wrestling over Nashville’s rocky history with race. Wallen apologized. Twice.But the marketplace has apparently been less troubled by Wallen’s transgression, sending his breakthrough release, “Dangerous: The Double Album” to No. 1 once again. It has held the top spot on Billboard’s album chart for six weeks in a row now, the longest run in the peak position since Taylor Swift’s “Folklore” last summer, and the only country album to spend its first six weeks at No. 1 since Garth Brooks’s “The Chase” in 1992.In its sixth week out, “Dangerous” had the equivalent of 93,000 sales in the United States, including 112 million streams and 10,000 copies sold as a full album, according to the tracking service MRC Data, which is owned by Billboard’s parent company. So far, “Dangerous,” which has 33 tracks in its “bonus” version, has logged just short of one billion streams in the United States.“Dangerous” has been aided by minimal competition. This week, the strongest contender against it was “After Hours,” the nearly year-old album by the Weeknd, who played the Super Bowl halftime show on Feb. 7. Last week, “After Hours” had the equivalent of 42,000 sales — less than half that of “Dangerous” but enough for No. 2 on the chart.Also this week, Lil Durk’s “The Voice” is No. 3; Pop Smoke’s “Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon” is No. 4; and the Memphis rapper Pooh Shiesty’s “Shiesty Season” is No. 5 in its second week out.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More