Benson Boone and Karol G can’t displace Morgan Wallen on the charts

This week’s highest debuts on the Billboard 200 albums chart — Benson Boone‘s American Heart, Karol G‘s Tropicoqueta and the soundtrack to Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters — all land in the top 10. But they don’t come anywhere near displacing this summer’s sturdiest blockbuster: Morgan Wallen‘s I’m the Problem. On the Hot 100 singles chart, Alex Warren‘s “Ordinary” reigns yet again. Still, with the top 10 debut of “Outside,” Cardi B is making it known that she’s got big plans to shake up the Billboard charts come autumn.

TOP ALBUMS

Morgan Wallen’s I’m the Problem holds at No. 1 for a sixth consecutive week, and it’s still posting blockbuster streaming numbers — in fact, its streams are down just 4% week-over-week, which is absurd considering how strong its numbers were in week five. Never one to shy away from an esoteric statistic, Billboard informs us that I’m the Problem has posted the best week-six numbers since Adele‘s 25 back in January 2016. (That album was humongous.)

Below Wallen, three fresh debuts replace last week’s debuts in the top 10 — almost spot-for-spot, in fact. Last week, the K-pop group ATEEZ entered the chart at No. 2 with GOLDEN HOUR: Part.3; this week, it drops to No. 106, while Benson Boone’s American Heart takes its place at No. 2. Boone’s fundamentals look reasonably solid — and its singles, “Sorry I’m Here for Someone Else” and “Mystical Magical,” climb into the top 25 — but with 61,000 equivalent album units to Wallen’s 177,000, he didn’t come anywhere near threatening for the top spot.

Last week’s No. 3, DOPAMINE by rapper Lil Tecca, falls to a more-than-respectable No. 14; Karol G’s Tropicoqueta takes its place at No. 3, which marks the Grammy-winning Colombian singer’s new all-time chart high.

Last week’s No. 7, contemporary Christian singer-songwriter Brandon Lake, falls to No. 41 with King of Hearts. It’s replaced in the top 10 — at No. 8, in this case — by the soundtrack to the Netflix original film KPop Demon Hunters. K-pop records have a long history of burning hot and bright on the charts, then fading fast, but virtually all of KPop Demon Hunters‘ numbers come from streaming, which tends to lend itself to longer chart runs.

Elsewhere on the Billboard 200, Haim‘s new album, I Quit, debuts at No. 25. And, if you love a weird chart anomaly, consider this: Last week, the soundtrack to Disney’s Moana sat at the very bottom of the albums chart, at No. 200. This week — its 425th on the chart — it sits at… No. 200. NOW! That’s What I Call Stasis!

TOP SONGS

It’s getting tough to find new ways to say, “This week’s Hot 100 singles chart looks an awful lot like last week’s Hot 100 singles chart.” Alex Warren’s “Ordinary” sits at No. 1 for a fourth nonconsecutive week, as it digs in like a hungry tick for what looks like is gonna be a long, long run.

Morgan Wallen’s “What I Want (feat. Tate McRae)” edges from No. 3 to No. 2, swapping places with Sabrina Carpenter‘s “Manchild,” though the latter isn’t losing much momentum in the aftermath of its debut atop the chart a few weeks ago. Meanwhile, Wallen posts three songs in the top 10 — the others are “Just in Case” and “I’m the Problem” — for a sixth week.

Below those, you’ve got the eternals — the songs that just will not die, no matter how much listeners pray for mercy. Shaboozey‘s “A Bar Song (Tipsy).” Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars‘ “Die With a Smile.” Teddy Swims‘ “Lose Control,” which extends its all-time chart records with 67 weeks in the top 10 and 97 weeks in the Hot 100. Do commercial radio stations have anti-request lines, where listeners can call and plead for, say, an hour of freedom from these songs?

There is, thankfully, one new song in the top 10 — it’s a Hot 100 debut and everything. At No. 10, it’s Cardi B’s “Outside,” which will appear on the rapper’s forthcoming Am I the Drama? (For more on Cardi B, sit tight.)

WORTH NOTING

To watch the Billboard charts closely is to witness a series of master classes in chart manipulation. Artists and labels have many techniques to game the charts using tricks that extend beyond a simple accumulation of streams, radio airplay and sales.

Some examples:

1. Artists release “deluxe editions” of existing albums, adding bonus tracks of one sort or another (B-sides, outtakes, live tracks, instrumentals, et al.). These deluxe editions receive fresh promotion, generate fresh streams and sales… and add to the chart numbers of the original title. This technique sent Ariana Grande‘s Eternal Sunshine hurtling back to the top of the Billboard 200 earlier this year, more than a year after its release.
2. Artists release physical editions of albums that had previously only been available via streaming — or vinyl editions of albums that had only been available via streaming and CD. When old albums rocket up the charts without new material, this is often the reason; for a recent example, Bad Bunny released DeBÍ TiRAR Más FOToS on vinyl months after its digital release, exclusively via his webstore. In May, this sent the album zipping from No. 7 back to No. 1.
3. Maybe this is more like 2a) than 3), but there’s manipulation within manipulation when it comes to physical editions. For artists who control their own physical distribution — specifically via their own webstores — they can time their shipping dates so that they accumulate online orders and payments over the course of several weeks or months, then ship all the copies simultaneously. It’s shipping that triggers credit for a sale, so mass shipments have a huge effect on a given week’s chart position. Travis Scott perfected this move with the chart-topping vinyl release of Days Before Rodeo last fall.
4. Streaming has had an overwhelming impact on the way listeners consume music, but physical editions offer virtually countless opportunities to pad an artist’s statistics. Artists release vinyl and CDs as lavish box sets, with variant cover art, with bonus ephemera such as stickers and other merch, with autographs… If there’s a way to compel superfans to purchase multiple copies, artists will try it. This is a huge component of the K-pop playbook, but it extends well beyond K-pop.
5. In order to qualify as a “sale,” Billboard dictates that there has to be a reasonably substantial purchase; artists and labels can’t just sell boatloads of downloads for a penny a pop and call those “sales.” (And, yes, some would do just that, if it meant saying that a title had topped the Billboard charts. Major titles have been released to the world as free downloads, after all.) The floor for what qualifies as a direct to consumer “sale” of a digital album was increased earlier this year by Billboard and Luminate from $4.99 to $7.99. But last year, when Taylor Swift really wanted The Tortured Poets Department to surge back to No. 1 — it was surely a coincidence that her nemesis, Kanye West, had an album due to hit the charts that same week — she dropped a bunch of variant digital editions simultaneously, each with its own exclusive bonus track. The price of each? $4.99. That maneuver just got more expensive, but it’s not going away.

Every once in a while, someone will criticize an artist for “gaming the charts,” but this has all become standard operating procedure for major acts — which, in turn, adds up to yet another factor making it a challenge for new and independent artists to dent the charts. No superstar has a monopoly on any of these techniques.

Still, there’s a fresh masterclass in manipulating numbers to achieve a desired outcome — though it involves platinum certification rather than the Billboard charts, at least for now.

Cardi B recently announced that she’s releasing an album called Am I the Drama? on Sept. 19 — a whopping seven years after her last album, Invasion of Privacy, became a blockbuster. Am I the Drama? will contain 23 tracks, and those will include songs she’d previously released as standalone singles, such as 2021’s “Up” and 2020’s “WAP (feat. Megan Thee Stallion),” the latter of which went platinum eight times over.

Because they’d never appeared on a Cardi B album before, and because they do appear on her new record, all of those songs’ accumulated numbers apply to Am I the Drama? upon its release. Which means, according to Chart Data, that Cardi B’s next album — which won’t even come out for another two and a half months — is already guaranteed platinum status, regardless of how it performs upon release.

Now, Am I the Drama? was virtually certain to be a blockbuster regardless; her latest single, “Outside,” debuts in this week’s top 10, after all. But if there’s one thing we’ve learned from the Billboard charts in the streaming era, it’s that you can never do enough to guarantee that your next record is a hit.