Daily Archives: March 14, 2012

Singer’s 21 will bump down a notch next week to make room for Bruce Springsteen’s Wrecking Ball.
By Gil Kaufman

Adele


Photo: Jeff Kravitz/ FilmMagic

Adele got so comfortable sitting in the #1 spot on the Billboard 200 chart during the first 10 weeks of 2012 that we started to forget anyone else could knock her off the perch. But after 23 non-consecutive weeks in the pole position dating back to last year and a board-running sprint for every chart week of the year so far, her good thing will come to an end next week when Bruce Springsteen‘s Wrecking Ball edges her out of the top position.

Sure, she came in at just 1,300 copies below the Boss at #2, and there’s a good chance she’ll be back in the hunt for #1 in the near future, but with a pause in the action, now is as good a time as any to take another look at her incredible run.

Some 21 facts:

» Her 23 non-consecutive weeks at #1 put Adele just one week short of the chart domination of two classic soundtracks: Prince’s Purple Rain and Saturday Night Fever.

» Though she’ll have to start over now, Adele was closing in on another all-time chart record: the most consecutive weeks at #1 by an album by a female solo act. That record still belongs to Carole King’s Tapestry, which did it back in 1971 by running the board for 15 weeks. (Whitney Houston’s “Bodyguard” soundtrack actually stayed in the #1 slot for 20 consecutive weeks, but that was not strictly a solo album.)

» Adele absolutely destroyed the record for the biggest post-Grammy sales boost in history when 21 moved 733,000 copies the week after she took home her six-pack of statues in February.

» The last album to hold the #1 spot before Springsteen took it was Michael Bublé’s Christmas, which edged out Adele during the week ending December 25. So far, she’s sold more than 8 million copies of 21, including more than 2 million in 2012 alone.

» During the course of her 55-week run on the charts, Adele has only fallen out of the top five once. In fact, she’s been in the #1 or #2 spot in all but 17 of those weeks.

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‘The Def Jam artist roster has always been synonymous with the greatest in hip-hop,’ former Warner Bros. exec Manda says in a press release.
By Rob Markman

Joie Manda


Photo: Getty Images

Def Jam started as an independent rap label run out of a college dorm room by Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin, but today it stands amongst hip-hop’s strongest brands. Now, the powerhouse label has added to its legacy by naming former Warner Bros. Records executive Joie Manda as its new president.

“Running Def Jam is the greatest challenge of my career,” Manda said in a press release issued to MTV News Wednesday (March 14). “The Def Jam artist roster has always been synonymous with the greatest in hip-hop, and I intend to carry that tradition into the future.”

While serving as head of Warner Urban Music, Manda helped build the record company’s current roster of Common, Gucci Mane and Rick Ross’ Maybach Music Group imprint. The move to Island Def Jam connects Manda with a roster that includes Kanye West, Rihanna, Ludacris, Nas, 2 Chainz and Rick Ross as a solo artist.

Lyor Cohen, Kevin Liles and Jay-Z have all famously held the esteemed position, and last year former Def Jam A&R and Murder Inc. CEO Gotti lobbied for the coveted job.

During an October interview on MTV News’ “RapFix Live,” Irv Gotti pleaded with Def Jam to fill the presidency position with someone who was passionate about hip-hop culture — of course nominating himself. “If you don’t want to hire me — the best man for the job, the man who will die for it — cool, I understand. You think I’m Suge Knight, you think the Feds may come in here again if you hire me, cool,” the music producer said, referring to the money-laundering charges he beat in 2005. “Put somebody in there, because you not giving any sign or any indication that you care about my culture.”

“As we look to expand Def Jam and our creative urban music activities even further, there is no one better to lead them than Joie,” said Barry Weiss, chairman and CEO of Universal Republic and Island Def Jam. “He has emerged as one of the most respected young executives in today’s urban music landscape, possessing all the qualifications and experience that are essential to run Def Jam, the world’s most important hip-hop destination.”

What do you think of Joie Manda’s appointment as Def Jam president? Tell us in the comments!

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Wrecking Ball narrowly beats out 21 to top Billboard 200 albums chart.
By Gil Kaufman

Bruce Springsteen


Photo: WireImage

For the first time this year, someone other than Adele will post up in the #1 spot on the Billboard 200 albums chart next week. After a smash run at #1 during the first 10 weeks of 2012, Adele’s 21 will settle for #2 next week thanks to the debut of Bruce Springsteen‘s Wrecking Ball, which will barely win the race thanks to sales of nearly 196,000. In fact, the Boss appears to have edged out Adele by just over 1,300 copies, according to figures provided by Nielsen SoundScan.

Even as she crossed the 8-million-sold barrier, Adele saw sales of 21 drop 21 percent to 195,000, which was still more than enough to hold off NOW 41 (#3, 152,000), one of several top 10 albums that got triple-digit sales boosts from a 25-cent online sale. Also
benefitting: Lady Antebellum, Own the Night (up 12 spots to #4, 108,000, sales up 437 percent); Coldplay, Mylo Xyloto (up 24 spots to #5, 100,000, sales up 567 percent); and Lil Wayne, Tha Carter IV (up 29 spots to #8, 36,000, sales up 173 percent).

The rest of the top 10: Whitney Houston, The Greatest Hits (#6, 70,000); Drake, Take Care (#7, 58,000); Luke Bryan, Spring Break 4 … Suntan City (30,000); and Andrew Bird, Break It Yourself (#10, 30,000).

Things didn’t get any better for Kid Cudi’s WZRD side project, which plummets 31 spots in its second week to #34 as sales trailed off by 84 percent to just over 10,000 for the disc that Cudi has complained was not promoted properly by his label.

Adele may have to lay back in the cut for another week during the next chart cycle, which brings the debut by U.K. boy band One Direction and the latest from the Shins.

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‘In order to walk in their shoes, you have to be oblivious to the things they’re oblivious to,’ Gary Ross says of telling a story from a character’s perspective.
By John Mitchell, with reporting by Josh Horowitz

Gary Ross


Photo: MTV News

How exactly “The Hunger Games” director Gary Ross intended to bring the first-person perspective of the beloved book series to life on the big screen has been a lingering question for fans.

The books, for those not already familiar, tell the story of Katniss Everdeen, who is chosen as a “Tribute” to represent District 12 in the annual Hunger Games. Part twisted entertainment, part government intimidation tactic, the Hunger Games is a nationally televised event in which 24 tributes — one teenage boy and girl chosen from each of the country’s 12 districts — must fight one another until only one survivor remains.

The books’ narrative is written from Katniss’ point of view, and that presented a challenge for Ross when he sat down to pen the script with co-writers Suzanne Collins (author of the novels) and Billy Ray (“State of Play,” “Shattered Glass”).

“You put your finger on the biggest challenge of the movie. That really is the question of the movie,” Ross tells MTV News. “In any book you adapt, [it's] ‘What’s the essence of this thing, what’s my first job?’ The essence of this was, ‘How do I stay in Katniss Everdeen’s point of view? How do I get in her head in the way, or the cinematic equivalent of the way, Suzanne was able to do it?’ ”

For Ross, it came down to always being cognizant of what Katniss was and was not aware of in the world around her and keeping his lens trained on only those things.

“I thought about this a long time and what I realized about POV, about a character’s point of view, is that it is really about restricting information to what the character knows and to not know more than they know,” Ross says. “In order to walk in their shoes, you have to be oblivious to the things they’re oblivious to, perceive things the way they perceive them. … It’s wandering through that world in that way and not knowing more than them.”

Check out everything we’ve got on “The Hunger Games.”

For young Hollywood news, fashion and “Twilight” updates around the clock, visit HollywoodCrush.MTV.com.

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