Black Eyed Peas Sales Slip

**jobeterob** · 12-10-2010, 02:59 AM

Black Eyed Peas' album debuts at No. 6
Hopefully the Black Eyed Peas aren’t too salty about their latest album’s record sales – the super-group arrived at No. 6 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with their latest effort, “The Beginning.”

Although there was incentive to snag a copy of the ensemble’s album, since fans could win a chance to see the Peas perform live during their halftime performance at the Super Bowl XLV, the record sold 119,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Billboard speculates that the lower-than-last-time debut could have something to do with the middling reception to the album’s single, “The Time [[Dirty Bit).” Comparatively, when the group’s last album, “The E.N.D.,” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts in June, 2009, their single “Boom Boom Pow” was enjoying its 11th week as the top single on the Billboard Hot 100.

Yet the group’s still faring better than others – Soulja Boy of “Crank Dat” and “Pretty Boy Swag” fame has sold only 13,000 copies of his latest album, “DeAndre Way.”

Besting them all, including last week's chart champions Kanye West and Nicki Minaj, is Susan Boyle, whose album "The Gift" is sitting pretty at No. 1 with 272,000 copies sold.

**soulster** · 12-10-2010, 09:54 AM

"The Time [[Dirty Bit) was an odd and weak choice for a first single.

I think it's a shame that albums today are expected to hit #1 on the first day of release, and that the average hit album only sells about 13.000 copies! My God! Remember the days when you had to sell 500,000 just to be considered in the game? I don't think we'll ever see a platinum album again. But, it's not all illegal distribution and downloading, people are putting their money into games. But, I digress...

Getting back to the BEP: While I enjoy "The Beginning", the more I listen to the album, I realize that it isn't as strong as the last. It sounds a bit too experimental to me. I don't think that's where most pop music fans are these days. They're not feeling too adventurous. Who do the BEP think they are? Madonna?