Frank Kogan

Two at least nominally country tracks jump high quickly.

( Taylor Swift )

( Kenny Chesney )

( Ke$ha )

( Linkin Park )

"Water" bubbles under at 42; other than that I've got almost nothing to say, as no one can be bothered to buy anything that a lot of other people hadn't already bought last week.

( David Guetta & Chris Willis )

Eminem gets help and it's enough to get him over the line. Selena's help gets in her way.

( Eminem )

( Eminem )

( Selena Gomez & The Scene )

( Usher )

In this week's episode, Enrique makes a foray into the New Dance Mess, while Nicki gets a lump in her throat, and Bieber gives us his widest smile.

( Nicki Minaj )

( Enrique Iglesias )

( Justin Bieber )

( Glee Cast )

This year, Glee is having more of an impact than American Idol.

( Glee Cast )

( Lee DeWyze )

( Carrie Underwood )

( Shontelle )

I have an opinion on Charice's "Pyramid," but you're not going to see it this week since the track is only at 52. In other chart news, T.I.'s "I'm Back" and Kenny Chesney's "Ain't Back Yet" are back-to-back at 61 and 62.

( Katy Perry )

( Glee Cast )

( Alicia Keys )

Yet another performer has changed a letter in his name without my knowing it.

( Travie McCoy )

( Timbaland )

( DJ Khaled )

B.o.B bobs up to the top and also has a new entry in the top 20. And I actually enjoy listening to a couple of Glee tracks. A surprisingly pleasant week, though the music doesn't have a lot of surprise in it.

( B.o.B )

( Christina Aguilera )

( Lady GaGa )

( Glee Cast )

( Glee Cast )

( La Roux )

The top eight remains* unchanged, with "Hey Soul Sister" still too close to the top at number 3. Top eight seems unusually many for such stasis, but I actually haven't been tracking change versus unchange in the top ten except to notice the top three, usually. Ke$ha's "Your Love Is My Drug" re-enters the top 40, possibly as an official single, though this seems owing to popular demand (last I'd heard, "Take It Off" was being touted), "Your Love Is My Drug" already getting unsolicited airplay, perhaps. In this instance the populace is wrong, since "Your Love Is My Drug" is the least inventive or distinctive track on Animal. Flogs its clichés, eats, shoots, and leaves.**

( Usher )

( Diddy - Dirty Money )

*Uncertain whether this should be "remain" or "remains," but I went with the latter since I'm considering "top eight" as a collective singular*** like the top ten or the top forty, and I'm pointing out that this entity is unchanged in its constitution (i.e. song order), not that this song and that song and all songs within it remain unchanged in their individual constitutions. (This latter point is an oblique reference to events in Kyrgyzstan, pronounced /ˈkɜrɡɪstɑːn/; KUR-gi-stahn.)

**Do like the part in the middle eight where Ke$ha breaks into a compulsive-percussive breakbeat repetition of the phrase "your drug."

***Of course, with rock groups, for instance, I've been treating the collective as plural no matter what, simply as a convention since I habitually end up using the third-person plural pronoun as soon as a pronoun is necessary, so decided to go plural all the way. So, you know Public Enemy are punk rockers 'cause they bitch about rock crits and airwaves so much, etc.

Six days late, is the longest I've let this stretch. My enthusiasm is compelling. Or my compulsion is enthusiastic. But I'm not.

( Justin Bieber )

( Jay-Z and Mr. Hudson )

( Zac Brown Band )

In contrast, here's Johnny Rivers doing Chuck Berry's "Memphis," effective storytelling that tells a lot, quickly. 1964.