Lady Antebellum is actually a very good country act, and I think they have a lot of natural talent. I agree about Justin Bieber, he is awful, but like the Jonas Brothers he will be over in a year or two, unless he is the next Usher/Chris Brown before he beat Rihanna.

Are they adding the numbers of The Fame Monster and The Fame together? The are two version of The Fame Monster, the EP, which is listed on the Billboard 200, and the The Fame Monster that's bundled with The Fame, which is called The Fame Monster Deluxe Edition. The Fame shouldn't have been able to stay in the top 10 for this long since there's a bundle. I have a feeling they're adding the The Fame Monster Deluxe Edition and The Fame's sales together which is a bit unfair. They have two names and it wasn't exactly a re-release of an album.

They count them sepperatly, unless you buy just the 5 track Fame Monster I think. I think if you buy the re release with the old tracks then I think it counts toward the old one.

I bought Lady GaGa's album like the week it came out, before she was even huge in the U.S. Then The Fame Monster came and I bought the 5 track CD instead of the re release with the old songs.

I'd never call popular music crap as the charts just give you a picture of most popular music anyway (and with an excellent indie band like Arcade Fire debuting at #1 in USA/UK and #4 in my country among others it can't be that bad), but I see the pattern that what I'd call prefab music is generally the most popular today in western countries.

This doesn't mean though that people won't buy the latest Bonnie 'Prince' Billy or Joanna Newsom albums anymore. Less popluar or "alternative" (always hated that term) artists will always have their fans and there's also still mainstream artists who have talent and are successful (e.g. in the ladies department Alicia Keys, Erykah Badu and - unfortunately to a lesser extent - Janelle Monaé, whose brilliant debut album sells worse than I expected).

okr, that's just it... so much of that music is pre-fab. Even GaGa is over-produced but at least she brings something to the table with her offbeat personality and showmanship.

I flip over to popular music stations and just roll my eyes at the sewage spewing out of them and it all sounds the same. Popular music has always (mostly) been crap but with studios clamoring to for money after the entire landscape changed with Napster, they're producing more and more of the same and pushing it to the top of the charts. It's kind of ironic that right now, music is possibly at the best and worst it has ever been. Digital downloads, satellite radio, etc. have given everyone access to great underground bands that they'd never hear otherwise but in turn, studios are pushing more watered-down shit at the mainstream than they ever have before.

noooooooooooooooooooooooo

Ps3 said:

70000 - Justin Bieber - 000,37 (Down 2000%)

Fixed

Lady Gaga is an interesting case. She's the worldwide queen of prefab music at the moment. Every artist is influenced of course, but in her case almost everything feels purposely assembled from earlier sources of pop culture - her songs, her videos, her looks, her attitude, her robotic dance moves (thanks to the enormous popularity of the Jackson clan and Madonna decades later almost everything in mainstream music choreography seems still seems to be "Thriller", "Rhythm Nation 1814" and "Like A Prayer").

I think Gaga has talent, she seems to be a decent musician and a great performer and I like her personality, but only time will tell if she decides to stay another modern copy/paste music-worker who's satisfied with the current position as the world's leading music industry cash-cow or if she's willing to develop an own profile.

It's really good so far. I've only got it today and listened to it once. It seems less anthem driven than their previous two albums - though not much so.

And like Neon Bible, it has very different sound than its predecessor. Month of May especially was a pleaseantly surprising sound from them.

I really gotta see these guys live.

^ Thanks for the impressions. Looking forward to it.

Well at least theres a decent band on top of the list.