Chartflash 11-12: Eurodance is not all but it is

This is the chart update covering the week 11th to 17th March – the week which saw the world somehow stopping shocked by the occurences going on in Japan. Indeed the very polemic mainstream chart site oljo.de paused publishing – and critisized TV shows like DSDS for continuing their scandalizing performance without any hesitation. Well – pop music hardly stops. There is no evil or accident which really could make people not consuming music and have some entertainment and fun. Or am I wrong?

A look at the actual preview of this weeks chart given by media control tells you the show’s going on. No news at the Top. Lady Gaga still holds firm at No. 1 with Born This Way. It is the second longest stay at the top spot for the Lady as both its predecessors Paparazzi and Bad Romance spend a single week at the top. Lady Gagas very first No.1 hit Poker Face spent there whole 13 weeks in 2009. Will the new single have the power breaking this feat?

The actual statistic sees Lady Gaga collecting 17 weeks at No.1 – she approaches the top 10 of artists with most weeks spending at the top. Right now she is joining acts like Bee Gees and Petula Clark.

The highest new entry in the list is an old one coming in the like of jay sean ft. Lil Wayne. Their Down was performed at DSDS (German’s take on Idols) by what looks like the next winner Pietro Lombardi which gives the track a huge boost in online sales shooting it up to No.9. What makes this rise spectacular is the fact that Pietro Lombardi performed the song a month before at the recall show making the track reentering at position 51. It spend three weeks within the charts cause of its circulating youtube video. Now Pietro Lombardi and the track had much more presence in the show – and the fan crowd of the contestant is growing obviously.

Jay Sean finally sets his one and only chart track in Germany to a proper hit. His companion on the track Lil Wayne knows already how it feels in the upper regions of the charts. In early 2009 he accompanied Kevin Rudolf for the crossover track Let It Rock which spent three weeks at No. 10. Down is for now the highest charting track he is credited to.

The highest really new entry is not at all the most successful CD release of the week. That crown goes again to Lady Gaga … but well No.1 is No.1 with or without a proper physical release. A full release after a three years break should called a comeback. Well here it is: the lady used to be a superstar at the very beginning of this century Jennifer Lopez or shortly called JLO. Between 1999 and 2007 she topped the US charts four times and having five Top 10 hits additionally. Germany was not really the region of big success. JLO have had only six Top 10 hits none of them rising higher than position 5. The american RnB sound was featured everywhere on TV and radio but the real life was slightly different. Five years later the world seems different: Europop is crowding the US charts. Me as an European do not really understand what is so interesting with cheesy sounds and stamping beats. Well it works. Right now in the US also. No wonder the big RnB diva chose an old European hit from 1989 to rework. Lambada by French project Kaoma was the sound of the late 80ies giving the longing for a hot holiday affair a musical interpretation. The song topped the charts in almost every European country. Originally Lambada bases upon a Bolivian track – maybe that link made the single a minor hit in the states as well. No.46 – meaning a small fan crowd took notice of it.

The new take on the hook line attracts much more people. JLO combined the caribbean sound with club appeal and a guest rap by playboy of now Mr. Pitbull. The melange works – On The Floor by now reached No.5 in the US. In Europe the hedonistic anthem just started catching fire. Austria and Switzerland see the track rising to No.3. Germany by now is a little more reserved. The single starts its chart life at No.10. It is the first time in four years JLO reaches the Top 10 in Germany. Pitbull does have his third track inside the German Top 10 – or if you count his appearance on Enrique Iglesias’ I Like It this is his fourth Top 10 hit.

The best new CD start offered by German artist is the new recording of Die Atzen (sorry, that term is really not translatable). The last three years they had two huge hits with Das geht ab (That rocks) and Disco pogo followed by two minor releases. Now they try to continue their success with their latest album Party Chaos announced with the single Strobo Pop. The formula of the sound is well known – what is new is the featured artist they asked for help. It is nobody else than NENA. She is one of the female German artists recording for almost 30 years and still very popular. The other one is Anette Humpe who just take a pause from her work with Ich + Ich. Well – NENA had a lot of transformations in her carreer. Now she is in her fifties and still can attract an audience of teenagers. In fact NENA probably has more fans within the group of underaged than amongst the more serious adults. The actual collaboration clearly underlines that. One could argue and discuss now about the strength of pop and its ability of undergoing every commitment. Four years ago Die Atzen were famous for being the nasty and rude rap boys – NENA more or less tried to keep 80ies icons alive like Kim Wilde. In 2011 both together appear on an electro club track taking some 90ies power combining it with the toughness of today and talking about only ones: party party party. Strobo Pop for me is the straight consequence of tracks like JLOs On The Floor – more hedonistic, more reckless and much more complicated to sell. In Germany that new youth culture still have power – No. 20 in the first week is a statement.