Electronic Album Chart now oon Billboard.com

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I visited Billboard's website and was pleased to see they have just added a new chart for Top Electronic Albums although I shrug at the contents:

http://www.billboard.com/billboard/charts/electronic.jsp

The Top 10 you ask?

01. Dirty Vegas, Dirty Vegas
02. 18, Moby
03. This Is Ultimate Dance!, Various Artists
04. Bunkka, Oakenfold
05. Trance Party (Volume Two), The Happy Boys
06. Laika Come Home, Space Monkeyz vs. Gorillaz
07. DJ Encore Presents: Ultra.Dance 02, DJ Encore
08. The Private Press, DJ Shadow
09. Louie Devito's Dance Factory, Louie DeVito
10. Live On Brighton Beach, Fatboy Slim

[~Amorphic]

I completely agree. But I do believe that in time that bands like VNV Nation, Icon Of Coil, Mesh, Covenant, Seabound, etc. are going to cross over onto these Billboard charts. I live in Vancouver and I am already seeing VNV Nation (for example) apeal to people that listen to "mainstream" music. Now some people might see this as a bad thing but I don't. The more places that these bands are played, the better. As long as it doesn't make them want to change their song that brought them there.

Cheers.

Amorphic

[~incognito]

I completely agree. But I do believe that in time that bands like VNV Nation, Icon Of Coil, Mesh, Covenant, Seabound, etc. are going to cross over onto these Billboard charts.
I don't mean to sound rude here, but are serious? Do you really think that because Covenant, VNV and every band who sounds exactly like them get hugely popular in our scene that they suddenly have the potential to be mainstream Billboard charting electronic acts? It's not going to happen for numerous reasons. Do you know what kind of sales it takes to get into places like Billboard? At best, these 'big time' indie guys are lucky to sell maybe 20,000 copies of their CD's worldwide over a long period of time... and that's if they are real lucky. In the mainstream world, 20,000 sales isn't even a drop in the bucket. They want those kind of sales in the first week of an album's release in one territory and some sign that they'll keep increasing over the next 30, 60 and 90 days worlwide, not a year or two year later.

I live in Vancouver and I am already seeing VNV Nation (for example) apeal to people that listen to "mainstream" music.
Big deal. I've gotten people who normally listen to Top 40 junk into numerous bands from our scene too... so what? Just because some of these people like what I force fed them does not mean anything in the long run. You can play ANY band in our scene to a mainstream kid and have them like what they hear, but until these bands have their faces flashed all over MTV or Spin Magazine, they'll continue to remain underground. No offence, but I am so sick of seeing everyone in this scene constantly refer to VNV Nation as the prime example of a band who has mainstream crossover potential. Just because 3 or 4 of these futurepop sensations happen to be the only names the scene knows anymore, it does not mean they will be the next big things in the mainstream, or that every band who mimics their sound also has that potential. Seabound? Icon Of Coil? Come on. Think about it... everyone (in our scene) knows who VNV, Covenant and Apoptygma are. Yay. Those are only -3- names in a scene that has, what?, easily over 1000 bands now, half of which all claim to sound like VNV, Covenant and Apoptygma. Ask anyone on the street if they've heard of these bands and you'll get a blank look response. I don't know why or how people can keep kidding themselves like this... these bands all have a loooooong way to go, and as long as they all fall under the umbrella of being industrial related (sorry but the futurepop term will always be in direct conjunction with industrial), they'll never get the big break a few hardcore fans think they should and will get. And look what happens to the bands who -do- brush the shoulders of mainstream labels. Anyone who says Apop would have released an album like Harmonizer without being on a sub-sub-label of Warner is smoking wacky tobaccy. The same thing with Covenant's new album... it's Depeche Mode with a few harder beats.

If some of you guys want to see examples of bands who have the real potential of crossing over, start opening your mind a little more and look at the bands who aren't this months newest futurepop flavor. The ones who successfully hybrid much more than some little typical trance sound will be the ones who get noticed in the big leagues.

[~MidiRipper]

Everyone of those albums is a dance/club album. Yes even your Mobys and Fatboys. They should just keep it on the dance charts. Hmmmm dance-album chart?

It's like saying that their dance charts are electronic singles charts.

'Ripper

[test]

Thank you.

[7red7]

Yeah as far as overall albums go, I don't see any of the above mentioned Billboard artists having a solid album throughout...Maybe just one or two catchy radio tunes, thats about it...JMO :)


I remember the days of receiving Alternative Press in the mail and checking out all of the different charts they had in there...True it was an indie mag at the time, and lord knows what happened to it over the years, but it was fun to see the charts posted in it, and other mags like it...Billboard and total albums sold charts they were far from being, but oh well...Nevermind, I'll stop rambling now :)

[~Amorphic]

Interesting to see that there is so much interest in this topic. When I said that some of these bands could get pretty "big", I ment that it could take a few years. It is just my prediction. I think that more and more people will become board with traditional "pop" and "rock" music over the years and start turning to the music we already listen to. As disappointing as it is to have so many people disaggree with me, I'm glad I at least sparked an interesting debate.

[~MidiRipper]

Originally posted by djstargazerX

having a dance chart and a electronic chart would be too redundant...


Exactly.

'Ripper

[test]

My point in starting the thread was to say that on one hand it's great to see an Electronic album chart, but on the other hand I am disappointed at the albums listed as they are more what I would consider Dance/DJ albums as opposed to the kind of Electronic albums we would all like to see listed.

[~MidiRipper]

Originally posted by djstargazerX
wait, werent you saying that it seemed like dance singles charts?

i'm confused now..

none of those listed on the charts are singles, they are albums..

what was the point behind this conversation? just to say that billboard has electronic music charts now? sorry i turned this into some sort of argument or something.. i dunno what i was thinking

lol, it happens.

'Ripper

[~incognito]

When I said that some of these bands could get pretty "big", I ment that it could take a few years. It is just my prediction. I think that more and more people will become board with traditional "pop" and "rock" music over the years and start turning to the music we already listen to.
What do you mean "become bored"? People already ARE bored with it, which is why you're hearing more and more mainstream bands try to combine different styles, whether it's electronics, strings, rap & rock, trance or what have you. The last thing people are going to do is turn to the indie boom-boom-boom untz-untz-untz electro scene where 90% of all the bands either sound like some Depeche or NIN/Puppy knockoff's... all of which are virtually unattainable unless you have a credit card and access to the internet. And thanks to companies like Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft releasing 'remix games' where you "make" electronic music with a game controller and joystick, people are going to think our scene is even more ridiculous for hyping up bands who make the same thing an 8 year old can do on the TV now. There's a reason why people call pure electronic music kareoke, agree with it or not. And mainstream people still want concerts where people PLAY their instruments, not live shows with some guy singing over a bunch of pre-recorded music. It may work for Britney Spears and N'Sync, but even they have 'live' bands behind them to help fill out the performance. Until VNV or Covenant learn a bunch of syncronised dance moves, look like they're 12 years old, and get a bunch of stage dancers, no one outside of this scene is going to take it seriously. Hell, even people IN this scene can't handle their 'live' shows. Big video backdrops preaching about CO2 in the air (VNV) or pretty girls rolling around in latex (Apop) only distracts people for so long before they want to see an actual performance of some sort. It may have worked for Depeche Mode and New Order back in the day, but times have changed and those bands happen to be a mere 2 exceptions to the general rule.

[~pop]

Electronic music don't get airplay in commerical radio stations. Unless you are B.Spears and other boy/girl bands..... Only airplay electronic music get played is the clubs. That's why dance music gets more purchased. Depeche Mode/Erasure/New Order have been around for over two decades. They are considered more of pop bands than electro bands. They are getting commerical airplays. American is rock town, becaue we invent them. America is pround of it. That's why old fashion DJs don't give electronica
a chance... Probably will never happen.....

For underground stuff, we only get airplayed in Goth/Industrial scenes. Probably, there are 3 to 7 nights of Goth/INdustrial nights in popular cities. Every week, approximately, 200 to 1000 people get to hear them.
In the big cities, there are probably 20,000 people go to regular clubs in major city per week.
Do the simple math.... Who is going to win.....
If you dont like the result, start changing things around....
Start mingling with people outside your environment ...

[test]

If you can't change the world, change yourself
If you can't change the world, change yourself
If you can't change the world, change yourself
And if you can't change yourself then, change your world

The The - Lonely Planet

[Avil]

When are we going to accept the fact that it will take a very very long time until our dear bands will get on other charts than the Electorgarden chart.

I´m quite satisfied with how things are now.
OK, sure I want the bands I like to be famous and everything just because I like them so much, but in the same time I don´t want them to be that big. I don´t wanna be one among 10 million others... Selfish maybe...

[~pop]

Nobody in synthpop world will be *NIN* level famous....
I just want the scene to get bigger....
It can if everybody think uniform way and help each other out...
Look how fast Trance scene took off....
People who listen to Trance are very friendly people...

[~Amorphic]

POP has a good point. I want to see a lot of these bands gain some popularity. It's hard to make some pretty good money making music these days and I'd like to see some of these bands make some money so they can keep making music. I also like what a lot of bands have to say in their lyrics. So the more people that can hear them, maybe the more "enlightened" others can be. So I say the bigger the better.