There was so much talk about the
return of The Backstreet Boys, the group that started the boy band craze
in the late 1990s. After a five-year hiatus, the group
reunited for the new album “Never Gone,” released in June amid much
buzz.
But nearly six weeks after the album’s release, it's not
selling at nearly the pace expected. The group's 1999 album “Millenium"
sold more than 1 million
albums in its first week. "Gone" has sold just half that over
six weeks.
Surely part of it is that the Boys are struggling to woo a
new audience of teenage girls, with many of their former fans now well out of
high school. But the bigger factor is just how much the
world of music has changed over the past five years. The era of one group
being that all-powerful seems to be over.
These days kids’ music tastes are very different. They
listen to a wider variety of music, much of it more eclectic, thanks to
the rise of the iPod. They’ve also abandoned the bubblegum pop that ruled the
late ‘90s, such as Backstreet, Britney Spears and ‘N Sync, for more
adult fare like Outkast and Coldplay.
In the meantime, the Backstreet Boys haven’t changed much
at all. Their tunes remain sweet and decidedly non-edgy, nothing like
Outkast or Coldplay.
“Teenage girls who used to like the Backstreet Boys are now
at a White Stripes concert,” says Bill Crandall,
music editor for Rollingstone.com. “If it weren’t for
teenage girls, Coldplay wouldn’t be doing as well.”
In its
first week, the week ended June 19, “Never Gone” sold 291,000 copies according to Nielsen
SoundScan. That’s down 74 percent from the 1.1 million units sold in the
first week for their 1999 album, “Millennium.” To date, “Never Gone” has sold 509,000
copies.
“Nobody is doing huge numbers,” says Crandall. “Nobody is
doing what the boy bands did.”
When “Never Gone” debuted at No. 3 on
the Billboard chart in June it was joined by acts like
Coldplay, Gwen Stefani, Black Eyed Peas and Shakira, each representing an
almost entirely different genre of music.
“Music has continued to fragment with every half decade, even in
the same demographic,” says Bob Thompson, director of the Center for
Study of Pop Culture at Syracuse University. “They’re all over the
place.
“Now the menu of what they can listen to is enormous,” he
says. “The choices are unbelievably
huge.”
Meanwhile, in movies over the weekend, the
Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson comedy “Wedding Crashers” claimed the top
spot in its third week in release, bringing in more than $20 million and
pushing its total to just over $116 million. That pushed “Charlie and
the Chocolate Factory” to No. 2, followed by the new releases “Sky
High,” “Stealth” and “Must Love Dogs.”
In home movies, the Academy Awards darling “Million Dollar
Baby” was the top video rental during the week ended July 24, according
to Billboard. It was the only new release to crack the top 10.
On the Billboard 200 album chart, the pop compilation “Now
19” was No. 1 in its first week, followed by Mariah Carey’s “The
Emancipation of Mimi.” Carly Simon’s “Moonlight Serenade” and a
self-titled album from Mary Mary were the other two new releases to make
the top 10.
And in books, J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” series is on
fire. Four Potter books made USA Today’s bestselling books chart for the
week ended July 24, led by the new “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood
Prince,” which was No. 1. The others to make the chart were “Harry
Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” (No. 4), “Harry Potter and the
Sorcerer’s Stone” (No. 6) and “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”
(No. 8).
|
TOP MOVIES
Weekend Box
Office Estimates
Weekend of July 29-31, 2005 |
|
Rank |
MOVIE |
Engagements |
Box office (millions) |
|
1 |
Wedding Crashers (New Line) |
3030 |
$20.48 |
|
2 |
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Warner Bros.) |
3775 |
$16.39 |
|
3 |
Sky High (Disney) |
2905 |
$14.59 |
|
4 |
Stealth (Columbia Pictures) |
3495 |
$13.50 |
|
5 |
Must Love Dogs (Warner Bros.) |
2505 |
$13.05 |
|
6 |
Fantastic Four (20th Century Fox) |
2744 |
$6.80 |
|
7 |
The Island (Dreamworks SKG) |
3138 |
$5.60 |
|
8 |
War of the Worlds (Paramount) |
2324 |
$5.44 |
|
9 |
Bad News Bears (Paramount) |
3183 |
$5.43 |
|
10 |
March of the Penguins (Warner Independent) |
778 |
$4.13 |
|
Source: Yahoo Movies |
|
TOP VIDEO
RENTALS
Week ending July 24, 2005 |
|
Rank |
MOVIE |
|
1 |
Million Dollar baby (Warder
Home Video) |
|
2 |
Hide and Seek (FoxVideo) |
|
3 |
The Pacifier (Disney) |
|
4 |
Hitch (Columbia TriStar) |
|
5 |
Hostage (Miramax) |
|
6 |
Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and
Fabulous (Warner Home Video) |
|
7 |
Coach Carter (Paramount) |
|
8 |
Diary of a Mad Black Woman
(Lions Gate) |
|
9 |
Be Cool (MGM) |
|
10 |
National Treasure (Dimension) |
|
Source: Billboard |
|
BESTSELLING
ALBUMS
Week ending July 24, 2005 |
|
Rank |
TITLE |
Last week |
Weeks on chart |
|
1 |
Various Artists, Now 19 |
- |
1 |
|
2 |
Mariah Carey, The Emancipation
of Mimi |
5 |
15 |
|
3 |
R. Kelly, TP.3 Reloaded |
1 |
3 |
|
4 |
Coldplay, X&Y |
4 |
7 |
|
5 |
Bow Wow, Wanted |
3 |
2 |
|
6 |
The Black Eyed Peas, Monkey
Business |
8 |
7 |
|
7 |
Carly Simon, Moonlight
Serenade |
- |
1 |
|
8 |
Mary Mary, Mary Mary |
- |
1 |
|
9 |
Gorillaz, Demon Days |
14 |
9 |
|
10 |
Foo Fighters, In Your Honor |
11 |
6 |
|
Source: Billboard |
|
NEW YORK
TIMES BESTSELLING BOOKS
Week ending July 23, 2005 |
|
Fiction (hardback) |
|
Rank |
TITLE |
Last week |
Weeks on chart |
|
1 |
Lifeguard by James Patterson
and Andrew Gross |
1 |
2 |
|
2 |
The Interruption of Everything
by Terry McMillan |
- |
1 |
|
3 |
The Historian by Elizabeth
Kostova |
2 |
6 |
|
4 |
Until I Find You by John
Irving |
3 |
2 |
|
5 |
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown |
6 |
123 |
|
Nonfiction (hardback) |
|
1 |
1776 by David McCullough |
1 |
9 |
|
2 |
100 People Who Are Screwing Up
America by Bernard Goldberg |
5 |
3 |
|
3 |
The World is Flat by Thomas L.
Friedman |
2 |
16 |
|
4 |
Freakonomics by Steven D.
Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner |
3 |
15 |
|
5 |
Confessions of a Video Vixen
by Karrine Steffans |
7 |
4 |
|
Fiction (paperback) |
|
1 |
Trace by Patricia Cornwell |
1 |
4 |
|
2 |
White Hot by Sandra Brown |
- |
1 |
|
3 |
The Kite Runner by Khaled
Hosseini |
2 |
46 |
|
4 |
The Rule of Four by Ian
Caldwell and Dustin Thomason |
3 |
4 |
|
5 |
Night Tales: Night Shift,
Night Shadow by Nora Roberts |
4 |
4 |
|
Nonfiction (paperback) |
|
1 |
The Tipping Point by Malcolm
Gladwell |
1 |
50 |
|
2 |
Dress Your Family in Corduroy
and Denim by David Sedaris |
2 |
8 |
|
3 |
Guns, Germs, and Steel by
Jared Diamond |
3 |
151 |
|
4 |
Devil in the White City by
Erik Larson |
5 |
76 |
|
5 |
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch
Albom |
4 |
137 |
|
Source: New York Times |
|
USA TODAY
BESTSELLING BOOKS
Week ending July 24, 2005 |
|
Rank |
TITLE |
Last week |
|
1 |
Harry Potter and the
Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling |
1 |
|
2 |
Lifeguard by James Patterson
and Andrew Gross |
2 |
|
3 |
White Hot by Sandra Brown |
- |
|
4 |
Harry Potter and the Order of
the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling |
8 |
|
5 |
Natural Cures “They” Don’t
Want You to Know About by Kevin Trudeau |
9 |
|
6 |
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s
Stone by J.K. Rowling |
15 |
|
7 |
Trace by Patricia Cornwell |
4 |
|
8 |
Harry Potter and the Goblet of
Fire by J.K Rowling |
18 |
|
9 |
1776 by David McCullough |
6 |
|
10 |
100 People Who Are Screwing Up
America by Bernard Goldberg |
25 |
|
Source: USA Today |
|
