Zach Bryan’s self-titled fourth album remains the Number One album on Billboard’s Top 200 album chart for a second consecutive week.
With over 141 million streams according to Luminate, which powers the Billboard charts, it was the top streaming album of last week, and the album sold another 3,500 units. The album’s success reflects country music’s streaming surge, which has catapulted the genre to the top of the charts this year. Fellow country superstar Morgan Wallen’s One Thing At a Time, the best-performing album of 2023, came in at Number 2 this week. Travis Scott’s Utopia, which spent a month atop the chart, took third.
Songs You Know By Heart, Jimmy Buffett’s greatest hits album, came in at four this week after sales and streams surged following Buffett’s death on September 1st. Sales on the album climbed to over 15,000 from just over 200 the week prior, while album streams jumped by about 40 million in the same period.
Meanwhile on the Hot 100, Doja Cat’s “Paint the Town Red” continued its climb and topped the chart a month after its initial release, beating out Bryan and Kacey Musgraves’ duet “I Remember Everything” which fell to Number 2. The song ends rap’s year-long drought without topping the Hot 100, a feat just missed by other rap superstars including Drake, 21 Savage, Lil Durk and J. Cole. “Paint The Town Red” ended country’s six-week streak holding the crown, both because of streaming smashes like Bryan and Wallen and songs from Oliver Anthony and Jason Aldean that drew in unusually high digital download sales after support from conservative influencers and politicians.
“Paint the Town Red” also represents an unexpected posthumous victory for Burt Bacharach, listed as a co-writer on the song because of its sampling of “Walk On By.” Per Billboard, the last time a Bacharach-written tune topped the chart was nearly 20 years ago for Kanye West’s “Slow Jamz,” which sampled “A House Is Not a Home.”
The song also reflects the dominance of women in rap. The last rap song to top the Hot 100 until today was Nicki Minaj’s “Super Freaky Girl”. The only other rapper to have topped the chart this year was Latto for her feature on Jungkook’s “Seven.” Meanwhile, among the most notable songs to debut last week was Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallions’ “Bongos,” a followup to their smash hit 2020 collab “WAP.”
Bryan’s album repeat caps a notable few days for the singer. After his album and single topped the Billboard charts last week, he launched an on-sale for his upcoming Quittin’ Time Tour, announcing that he would return to playing venues that use Ticketmaster after previously boycotting the company.
Fans were frustrated over ticket prices for the new shows, with some platinum tickets selling for nearly $1,000, a stark contrast to the pricing restrictions Bryan implemented on his recently concluded Burn Burn Burn Tour. That latter tour also drew fan complaints over resale restrictions that looked to limit scalping but also made it more difficult for fans who missed out on the initial on-sale to get tickets. “Damned if you do and damned if you don’t, another lesson learned in the life of 27 year olds,” Bryan posted on X, formerly Twitter, regarding the ticket sales.
By Thursday, Bryan was arrested after mouthing off to a police officer after Bryan’s security guard got pulled over. He took to X again on Friday, explaining what happened. “So I get too lippy with him, he brings me over to his car, and I just didn’t help my situation at all,” Bryan said. “I felt like a child. It was ridiculous, it was immature, and I just pray everyone knows I don’t think I’m above the law. I was just being disrespectful, and I shouldn’t have been. It was my mistake.”
Zach Bryan marks the singer’s first album to top the Billboard charts and follows up his 2022 album American Heartbreak, which as of publication is the 11th best-performing album of 2023 according to Luminate. Bryan will likely have stiff competition for next week’s album chart as Olivia Rodrigo’s sophomore album Guts seems primed for the top. Rodrigo is also a likely contender for the Hot 100, alongside Doja and Bryan.