billboard r.i.p.

the billboard chart is full of idiosyncracies. you would think it could be straight forward. the biggest 200 sellers of the week make up the top 200. wrong. they have a rule that once an album is over two years old, it is considered a "catalogue" title and is ineligble for the main chart anymore. it is instead relegated to the "pop catalogue" chart forevermore. regardless of whether or not it sells enough to be number 101 or 199, it is not in the top 200. there is one addendum to the rule. if you are in the top 100, you can stay there for as long as you want. forever even. if you sell enough copies to be ranked number 99 for five years in a row, then thats fine. but if you pass your two years and slip down to number 101, you go straight to the pop catalogue chart. and even if the next week you sell enough to be back at 99, too bad, you are out for good. so, that's that. more complicated than i thought and you cared to read i imagine.

which brings me to the postal service. released on february 18, 2003, the album was slow to build steam. it didn't debut on the chart until about ten weeks into its run and it came and went for the next two years. it never peaked above 114, but it managed to sell 513,000 copies before being booted to the pop catalogue chart this week. so unlike other billboard shout out bands that exit the chart and sell less than 4,000 copies a week forever after, we know that the postal service went out on top, still selling enough to keep it in the big leagues if it wasn't for beaurocracy. certified gold and still going, an amazing achievement for this little album. i'm sure you already have it, but here's my favorite track.

the postal service - recycled air