Bark + Bite

Bruno Mars is stacking up hits and breaking records

Photo: Andreas Laszlo Konrath

Bruno Mars is the king of the world! No Titanic.

The Hawaiian-born singer was recently crowned the king of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI)'s 2011 worldwide digital singles charts, taking both the number 1 and 2 slots.

The #1 best-selling digital single of the last year was Mars' "Just the Way You Are," which racked up an impressed 12.5 million digital sales, according to a press release from Atlantic Records. The #2 best-selling digital single, "Grenade," also belonged to Mars and sold a whopping 10.2 million copies.

"The Lazy Song," his third single from his debut album Doo-Wops and Hooligans, which is 25 times platinum worldwide according to his label, came in at #10 the IFPI chart with 6.5 million copies sold. This triple feat makes Bruno the first artist to have 3 songs in the digital singles top 10 in one year. Bruno makes hit records and smashes records on the charts. Call him the Demolition Man.

In related news, Bruno is also featured on UK rapper Master Shortie's latest single, "All I Need." For American Hooligans, this should be a rare treat as there's no word on when or if this will ever officially make its way to the States.

Listen to Bruno on the new Master Shortie track below

With Adele back on top of the charts, there is hope

In today's music world, talent is sometimes secondary. Let's face it, the state of pop and radio in this country is often worthy of parody. But with Adele back in the #1 spot on the Billboard charts, there may be hope for the music business yet.

The British singer's reascension to the top provides Americans an example of quality over sensation. Adele, who graces the cover of Rolling Stone this month, opened up to the magazine about her fellow female singers and their brand of shock pop:

"I love seeing Lady Gaga's boobs and bum. I love seeing Katy Perry's boobs and bum. Love it. But that's not what my music is about. I don't make music for eyes. I make music for ears."

Adele brings up an interesting point: Is much of pop music today made for eyes, not ears? At a time when MTV removed the "music" from their logo and music videos are rarely found anywhere but YouTube, why do looks sometimes matter more than substance?

While Adele's time on top does offer hope that there can be more balanced types of pop music thrown into the mix, Katy Perry's "E.T." collaboration with Kanye West is still number 1 on iTunes, and Britney Spears' return to music, Femme Fatale, is #2 on Billboard, so the current crop of pop stars aren't fading away anytime soon.

Can America ever truly put looks aside and seek out really good music solely on the basis of remarkable singing, impressive melodies and poignant lyrics? Who knows. For now, let's just enjoy the fact that Adele is winning with opportunities that Amy Winehouse squandered — even if just for a moment.

Adele debuts at number 1, knocks down the Biebs

The charts are in, Adele is queen, and all is right with the world.

Yes, the new Billboard 200 chart revealed that the British singer's latest release, 21, has risen to the top with 352,000 copies sold. She beat out last week's champion Justin Bieber, whose bump from his movie release Never Say Never only got his remixes less than a third of Adele's sales this week. Also featured as top sellers were several performers from this year's Grammys, including Bruno Mars, Mumford & Sons, Eminem, Rihanna, and Lady Antebellum.

Former Fall Out Boy singer turned solo artist Patrick Stump released his first EP this week, entitled Truant Wave. Although it only reached spot #67 on Billboard, the short album did spend some time in the top 10 on the iTunes albums chart.

Adele's album is also  #1 on iTunes, and her single, "Rolling in the Deep," is top 5 there as well. In the top spot there is, unsurprisingly, Lady Gaga with her new song "Born This Way." Other female pop stars on the top 10 singles iTunes chart include Rihanna, Ke$ha, Pink, Katy Perry, and in the rear Jennifer Lopez (whose single was not, by the way, #2 last night when Ryan Seacrest announced it was on American Idol and J.Lo confirmed it).

The Running Man puts the Black Eyed Peas single back on top

Photo: Wireimage

First the Black Eyed Peas sampled the '80s classic "The Time of My Life" from Dirty Dancing, also an '80s classic, and now the the multicultural quartet have borrowed their way to the top yet again with a mega-sized display of the late '80s dance craze known as the Running Man at the Super Bowl halftime show.

If you missed the full performance of the Black Eyed Peas, featuring cameos by Usher and Slash, go here and check it out. But the most essential part of the halftime performance can be distilled down to a simple 20 seconds of glory.

Watch the Black Eyed Peas get crunk with it at the Super Bowl below

Where have all the Soulja Boy fans gone?

Photo: Wireimage

What a difference a few years, a hundred tattoos and a few million ringtone sales make. Soulja Boy once dubbed himself a "voice" for his generation. He sparked a movement with nothing more than cheap Fruity Loops beats and a basic dance that millions of people mimicked on YouTube.

He has even used social media to his advantage, building significant followings on MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, where he has over 2.5 million followers. And yet, this week, Soulja Boy's latest album, The DeAndre Way, debuted on the Billboard 200 at #79 selling an embarrassing 13,000 copies. Guess we can say that the swag is officially turned off for Dre.

Have the Black Eyed Peas worn out their welcome?

As a successful pop music entity, the Black Eyed Peas have been pretty consistent since adding Fergie to the lineup way back in 2001. The hits in their catalogue are instantly recognizable: "Where Is the Love?," "Don't Phunk With My Heart," "My Humps." But the Peas hit their breakthrough moment last year with their conversion to trance/house/electro pop music and their incredibly successful album "The E.N.D." which spawned three certified hits back to back: "Boom Boom Pow," "I Gotta Feeling" and "Meet Me Halfway." The album has sold over 7 million copies worldwide and is certified double platinum in the U.S. A major feat in the current anemic music sales market.

And so seeing how well the public had embraced the new dance/trance sound that they'd ushered in, the Peas quickly decided to give the public more of this electro delicacy quickly recording and releasing a "sequel" to The E.N.D. called The Beginning. So far, it's really looking like it might be spelling the end, and no cute acronym meanings this time either.

The Peas are slated to have a disappointing opening for The Beginning with projections placing the album at 100-125,000 in the first week. This is a significant dropoff from The E.N.D., which sold over 300,000 copies the first week and debuted at #1, and in the face of impressive sales from the likes of newbies and veterans like Kanye West and Nicki Minaj, perhaps a sign that the Peas brand has been oversaturated.

Maybe it's just because the rollout of the album was really rushed. The single premiered at the end of October and the album was released almost exactly a month later. There hasn't been a lot of time for the public to warm up to it, though it appears the Peas and their team thought people didn't need warm up time since they were already scorching hot a few months ago.

But it raises the question: Have the Black Eyed Peas worn out their welcome? Or did they just have a messy release that they can overcome with hit singles after the fact?

Rihanna's "Only Girl" has a second wind, pulls into the #1 spot

Rihanna is proving to be a one-woman Hitsville, USA. The singer landed her 9th Billboard Hot 100 this week with "Only Girl," the lead single from Loud, climbing to the #1 spot and blessing her a bevy of record-breaking titles.

She is now the artist with the most number 1s since 2000, beating out Usher, who she was tied with at 8, according to Billboard. Rihanna also finds herself as the only artist to score four #1 songs in one calendar year, tying once again with Usher who achieved a the same feat during his Confessions days.

This is also the first time that an artist's first single has gone #1 after it's second single has claimed the top spot. Rihanna is bending the rules and besting expectations. Call her Rihanna the Conqueror. Deal with it.

Rihanna rises to the top of the charts with Drake-assisted "What's My Name"

Photo: Wireimage

The Rihanna reign, it's not letting up again. The ruby redhead has scored another bragging right with her second single, "What's My Name" featuring Drake, shooting straight to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 this week on the back of strong digital sales. Rihanna is asking what her name is on the island-flavored single, but it must be a rhetorical question because there are few names bigger than her's in music right now.

This marks the singers's 8th #1 single on the Billboard Hot 100. Her previous #1s are: “S.O.S.,” “Umbrella,” “Disturbia,” “Take A Bow,” “Rude Boy,” her collaboration with T.I. on "Live Your Life" and her collaboration with Eminem on “Love The Way You Lie." And if the hot shot move to the top of the charts weren't enough, Rihanna's first single, "Only Girl," is still holding on strong at #4 on the Hot 100 chart. Sorry, Willow Smith fans. That red wig ain't snatched yet!