I wish that I cared more about the SoundScan charts. If I did, then Plug One would have been one of the hundreds of thousands of websites that gleefully announced Kanye West’s opening week numbers for Graduation on Wednesday morning, September 19. (In fact, Billboard announced the news on the Tuesday night beforehand; SoundScan numbers are usually announced on Wednesdays.) Unfortunately, I don’t. But it’s hard to escape the implications of West’s achievement.
Graduation moved 957,000 copies in its first week. It was the most CDs sold by an artist since 50 Cent’s The Massacre moved 1.1 million units in March 2005. Graduation‘s sales dropped 76 percent the following week, but still managed to move 226,000 copies.
To his credit, West executed Graduation‘s pre-release promotion strategy flawlessly. He issued a teaser single, “Can’t Tell Me Nothing,” that won him respect among hardcore adherents and mixtape DJs; and then cleaned up with “Stronger,” which sailed to the top of the singles chart. “Stronger” capitalized on the burgeoning popularity of Daft Punk, which may be this year’s version of the Pixies (a.k.a. a band that builds its comeback through buzzworthy shows.) Then he milked the attention with countless “leaked” versions of the album and conflicting tracklistings, as well as more acclaimed mixtape cuts (such as “Big Brother.”)
Graduation, however, won’t be a real triumph unless it can reach the sales figures of the likes of Nickelback, Fergie and the High School Musical soundtracks. Those albums might not garner much media or critical attention, but they have shelf lives longer than the bloggerati’s short attention span.
West’s first two albums both earned multiplatinum discs, but didn’t reach sales expectations for different reasons. The College Dropout had a bevy of hit singles, but Roc-A-Fella wasn’t sure how to promote it. In contrast, Late Registration only had one legitimate smash single, the “Gold Digger” collabo with Jamie Foxx, so despite a better promotion strategy it went triple platinum, barely surpassing The College Dropout’s tally (double platinum). Hate on 50 Cent all you want, but West will be hard-pressed to match the sales total of 50’s The Massacre (six times platinum), much less Get Rich or Die Tryin’ (five times platinum), unless he can better extend his brand beyond his loyal fanbase. And then there’s the problem of downloading…
Will Graduation tumble to the bottom of the charts, as so many other rap albums do after a hot start? Or will West finally have the bonanza sales to match his big-man talk? Stay tuned.
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