A Must Read Article about Adam and Some Gay? Rock Stars
100 & Single: Buy An Adam Lambert Album, Strike A Tiny Blow For Gay Rights
By Chris Molanphy Mon., May 7 2012 at 9:00 AM
Here's the article in its entirety: http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2012/05/adam_lambert_gay_pop_star.php
which is really full of stuff I didn't know. This is the bit about Adam's new album from the Village Voice in NYC, I think. There are so many great reviews about it this week it's hard to keep up. Waiting impatiently for it to arrive hopefully this weekend.
What's perhaps even more notable about Lambert is how unremarkable his orientation is in 2012. It doesn't seem to be hurting him much now that he's off the show. His first albumFor Your Entertainment debuted in the fall of 2009 at No. 3 and spawned the 2010 Top 10 hit "Whataya Want from Me." The debut's opening-week sales total of 198,000 copies was the highest debut-week total for an Idol competitor in the last four years. That total not only beat Lambert's opponent Kris Allen, it also edged out the subsequent No. 1 debut by 2011 Idol Scotty McCreery, as I noted in a recent column.Adam Lambert, "Never Close Our Eyes"
As I also explained in that column, the difference between a No. 1 debut and a No. 3 debut is often all about release date: McCreery's 197,000 was enough to top the chart because it was dropped during an October week with light competition, while Lambert's 198,000 in the busy holiday season meant he fell short.
For Lambert's second album, his label's chosen date of May 15 offers Lambert a fair fight.Trespassing's biggest competition includes another in the long, seemingly bimonthly string of Glee cast albums, which stopped topping the charts a year ago; a live album by Godsmack, who are a regular presence in the album-chart No. 1 spot, but we have seen very few concert-album chart-toppers in recent years by any act; and a new disc, Heroes, by Willie Nelson, who has never scored a pop No. 1 album (and also, frankly, deserves one).
Of course, to make it to No. 1, Lambert will probably need at least a low six-figure sum just to contend with penthouse fixture Adele, whose 21 is No. 2 this week and regularly sells around 100,000 copies a week, even now. In the absence of a big current hit at radio, Lambert will need more than his hardcore fans turning up; a sales-goosing TV appearance would help.
For all I know, Trespassing will not only fall short of the penthouse, it'll debut outside of the Top 10. Speculating about whether Lambert could pull this off is mostly the sort of sporting interest I regularly take in the pop charts-and it's hard to predict what will capture the public's fancy. If you'd told me at the start of 2012 that the only artist besides Adele to top the Billboard 200 for more than one week this year would be Lionel Richie, I'd have looked at you funny.
I offer all of this data mostly as an observation. A No. 1 album by Adam Lambert would make him not only the first openly gay artist to top the Billboard 200 but also the first openly gay American to top either of Billboard's two flagship charts. (Past Hot 100 chart-toppers by out gay or bisexual artists include British stars Elton John and David Bowie, and Right Said Fred's Richard Fairbrass.)
Even at this tipping-point moment for acceptance of gay civil rights, there's still another tiny cultural barrier left to cross. If anyone wants to start a Bridesmaids-style grassroots movement in the next couple of weeks, it might be fun to see if a gang of progressive-minded pop fans and chart geeks could help lift Lambert into the penthouse.
Probably won't happen. But wouldn't it be fun if it did?
I wasn't go to listen to it but if you can't wait and want to hear it it's here at Adam Official: http://www.myplaydirect.com/adam-lambert/trespassing-box-set/details/26791996
By Chris Molanphy Mon., May 7 2012 at 9:00 AM
Here's the article in its entirety: http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2012/05/adam_lambert_gay_pop_star.php
which is really full of stuff I didn't know. This is the bit about Adam's new album from the Village Voice in NYC, I think. There are so many great reviews about it this week it's hard to keep up. Waiting impatiently for it to arrive hopefully this weekend.
What's perhaps even more notable about Lambert is how unremarkable his orientation is in 2012. It doesn't seem to be hurting him much now that he's off the show. His first albumFor Your Entertainment debuted in the fall of 2009 at No. 3 and spawned the 2010 Top 10 hit "Whataya Want from Me." The debut's opening-week sales total of 198,000 copies was the highest debut-week total for an Idol competitor in the last four years. That total not only beat Lambert's opponent Kris Allen, it also edged out the subsequent No. 1 debut by 2011 Idol Scotty McCreery, as I noted in a recent column.Adam Lambert, "Never Close Our Eyes"
As I also explained in that column, the difference between a No. 1 debut and a No. 3 debut is often all about release date: McCreery's 197,000 was enough to top the chart because it was dropped during an October week with light competition, while Lambert's 198,000 in the busy holiday season meant he fell short.
For Lambert's second album, his label's chosen date of May 15 offers Lambert a fair fight.Trespassing's biggest competition includes another in the long, seemingly bimonthly string of Glee cast albums, which stopped topping the charts a year ago; a live album by Godsmack, who are a regular presence in the album-chart No. 1 spot, but we have seen very few concert-album chart-toppers in recent years by any act; and a new disc, Heroes, by Willie Nelson, who has never scored a pop No. 1 album (and also, frankly, deserves one).
Of course, to make it to No. 1, Lambert will probably need at least a low six-figure sum just to contend with penthouse fixture Adele, whose 21 is No. 2 this week and regularly sells around 100,000 copies a week, even now. In the absence of a big current hit at radio, Lambert will need more than his hardcore fans turning up; a sales-goosing TV appearance would help.
For all I know, Trespassing will not only fall short of the penthouse, it'll debut outside of the Top 10. Speculating about whether Lambert could pull this off is mostly the sort of sporting interest I regularly take in the pop charts-and it's hard to predict what will capture the public's fancy. If you'd told me at the start of 2012 that the only artist besides Adele to top the Billboard 200 for more than one week this year would be Lionel Richie, I'd have looked at you funny.
I offer all of this data mostly as an observation. A No. 1 album by Adam Lambert would make him not only the first openly gay artist to top the Billboard 200 but also the first openly gay American to top either of Billboard's two flagship charts. (Past Hot 100 chart-toppers by out gay or bisexual artists include British stars Elton John and David Bowie, and Right Said Fred's Richard Fairbrass.)
Even at this tipping-point moment for acceptance of gay civil rights, there's still another tiny cultural barrier left to cross. If anyone wants to start a Bridesmaids-style grassroots movement in the next couple of weeks, it might be fun to see if a gang of progressive-minded pop fans and chart geeks could help lift Lambert into the penthouse.
Probably won't happen. But wouldn't it be fun if it did?
I wasn't go to listen to it but if you can't wait and want to hear it it's here at Adam Official: http://www.myplaydirect.com/adam-lambert/trespassing-box-set/details/26791996