Sabrina Carpenter, who additionally topped the chart with Brief n’ Candy final yr, enjoys the strongest week of streaming in her profession.
Gilbert Flores/Billboard by way of Getty Pictures
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Gilbert Flores/Billboard by way of Getty Pictures
This week’s albums and singles charts are each dominated by the identical document: Sabrina Carpenter‘s Man’s Finest Pal, which debuts at No. 1 and lands all 12 of its songs within the Scorching 100’s high 40. Not less than the place the charts are involved, it is onerous to be nearly any tune that is not on one among three albums: Man’s Finest Pal, the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack and Morgan Wallen‘s I am the Downside.
TOP ALBUMS
Final week, the Billboard 200 albums chart was flooded with new titles debuting within the high 20 — seven in all, plus a reentry — because the Ok-pop boy band Stray Youngsters topped the chart for the seventh time in simply three and a half years. This week, there’s considerably much less motion, besides on the very high: Sabrina Carpenter debuts at No. 1 together with her new album, Man’s Finest Pal.
Carpenter, who additionally topped the chart with Brief n’ Candy final yr, enjoys the strongest week of streaming in her profession — even topping the stretch final summer time when she was usually posting three high 10 hits concurrently. Man’s Finest Pal is the week’s high vendor and No. 1 in streaming… it is a hit, to place it mildly. It is bought some heavy-duty competitors to deal with within the coming weeks — most notably Taylor Swift‘s The Lifetime of a Showgirl, which is destined to crush something and all the pieces in its path when it comes out Oct. 3 — nevertheless it seems to be prefer it has endurance.
The success of Man’s Finest Pal is buoying different titles in Carpenter’s catalog, too: Brief n’ Candy zooms to No. 7, whereas 2022’s Emails I Cannot Ship re-enters the Billboard 200 at No. 31.
Elsewhere within the high 10, Stray Youngsters’ Karma dips from No. 1 to No. 4 as its “equal album models” quantity — that is the determine representing the cocktail of gross sales and streaming that is utilized in formulating the Billboard 200 — drops roughly 80%. However, contemplating that Karma posted one of many yr’s largest debuts, an 80% drop retains it within the high 5.
Just under the highest 10, there are two extra titles value noting this week: Nation singer Zach Prime debuts at No. 11 together with his new album, Ain’t in It for My Well being — that is a brand new profession peak for Prime, whose earlier album has spent greater than a yr on the Billboard 200 — whereas up-and-coming singer-songwriter sombr climbs from No. 14 to No. 12 together with his new debut album, I Barely Know Her. Anticipate to listen to extra from sombr as he and his label will doubtless make a push for finest new artist consideration at subsequent yr’s Grammy Awards.
TOP SONGS
For the third straight week, the soundtrack to KPop Demon Hunters locations a record-setting 4 songs within the high 10 concurrently, led by HUNTR/X’s “Golden” at No. 1. But it surely’s not the one album whose songs are crowding the Scorching 100 chart: All 12 tracks from Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Finest Pal land within the high 40, with two of them — “Tears” debuts at No. 3 and previous chart-topper “Manchild” climbs to No. 4 — within the high 5.
Scanning the present high 40, a whopping 23 songs come from simply three albums: Man’s Finest Pal (12), KPop Demon Hunters (7) and Morgan Wallen’s I am the Downside (4). The 17 that stay are plagued by the undead stays of previous charts; 10 of them have resided within the Scorching 100 for at the least six months, with Teddy Swims‘ “Lose Management” registering its record-demolishing 77th week within the high 10.
All of which makes sombr’s incremental-but-steady rise — he is bought two songs, “Undressed” and “Again to Buddies,” on this week’s high 40 — that rather more spectacular. In any case, it is by no means been more durable for brand spanking new artists to make a major dent within the charts.
WORTH NOTING
Three weeks in the past, the pop hitmaker OneRepublic hit the Billboard 200 for the eighth time in its chart profession, which stretches again to 2007. However the group’s star has dimmed a bit in recent times: Its final album, 2024’s Synthetic Paradise, peaked at No. 50, and none of that document’s songs hit the Scorching 100. So the band did one thing that is prolonged many chart careers: It launched a greatest-hits compilation.
The Assortment, which debuted at No. 46, now sits at No. 87. Which, provided that OneRepublic is not selling any present hits, is fairly spectacular. And it demonstrates the worth of a best-of compilations within the streaming period: Positive, followers may assemble a playlist with their favourite songs by a given artist. However placing all of the hits on a single official “album” makes it a lot, a lot simpler for legacy acts to remain on the charts. Best-hits units are, by definition, one-stop searching for informal listeners in the hunt for acquainted favorites.
A scan of this week’s Billboard 200 reveals 39 greatest-hits compilations — practically one-fifth of the titles, led by Ed Sheeran‘s +-=÷x (Tour Assortment) at No. 39. (Sheeran’s chart place will little question skyrocket after he performs a stay Tiny Desk live performance this Friday.) Scanning the chart, you have bought best-ofs by present-day hitmakers (Put up Malone, The Weeknd), in addition to all-timers in rock (Queen, Journey, Lynyrd Skynyrd, et al.), hip-hop (Eminem, T-Ache, 2Pac) and nation (Toby Keith, George Strait, Thomas Rhett, Brooks & Dunn). You won’t have anticipated to see, say, Nickelback or Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band on the charts in 2025, however they’re rattling round, too.
In fact, in relation to catalog titles, greatest-hits compilations are solely the start: Dozens extra traditional albums fill out a lot of the Billboard 200, together with a number of by artists with greatest-hits albums on the chart (Fleetwood Mac‘s Rumours, Michael Jackson‘s Thriller, and so forth.), persevering with runs that stretch for years — or perhaps a decade or extra.
Only one extra information level to show simply how troublesome it’s for brand spanking new artists to crack the charts in 2025. There’s extra competitors on the market than ever, from the previous as a lot as the current.
