Picture of Tori in Billboard

[ed@wente.llnl.gov (Ed Suranyi)]

There's a picture of Tori Amos in this past week's issue of _Billboard_.
(May 9 issue).  She's shown wearing her Billboard "No. 1 on Heatseekers"
T-shirt, accompanied by Billboard officials.

"What is that T-shirt?" I hear you asking.  Well, I'll tell you.

A few months ago Billboard came up with their best new idea in many
years:  the Popular Uprisings page with its Heatseekers chart.  
The page is devoted to new and developing acts.  The Heatseekers chart
shows how new acts are doing.  It lists the top selling albums by artists
who have never placed in the top 100 of the Billboard 200 album chart, nor
in the top 10 of the Billboard R & B or Country album charts, nor in the
top 5 of any other album chart.  Once an artist gets above any of these
cutoffs, that album and any future album by that artist are ineligible
for the Heatseekers chart.

An artist that gets to No. 1 on the Heatseekers chart gets the T-shirt
I mentioned above.  Billboard wants to keep this exclusive, so no such
T-shirts go to the producer, or the label, or anyone else but the artist.

When a Heatseeker artist passes the cutoff in one of the other album
charts, he, she, or they are said to have "graduated" from Heatseeksers.
Every week the Popular Uprisings page lists those who have graduated.
Typically, one or two make it each week.  Tori graduated several weeks
ago; she's now around no. 69 on the Billboard 200.

Ed
ed@wente.llnl.gov