Pharrell Williams, the “Happy” owner of the new No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, continues to soar on the Social 50 chart. This week he moves a whopping 29-7 after he announced his new album, “G I R L,” on Wednesday February 19. The album hits retail on March 3.
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The Social 50 ranks the most popular artists on YouTube, Vevo, Facebook, Twitter, SoundCloud, Wikipedia, Myspace and Instagram. The chart’s methodology blends weekly additions of friends/fans/followers along with artist page views, song plays and reactions as measured by music analytics company Next Big Sound.
The news of Pharrell’s album came unexpectedly, and was announced via a 30-second video montage featuring Pharrell in various studio settings that was uploaded to YouTube and then shared across his various online platforms.
The announcement, which has received more than 800,000 views, created a major impact online. Twitter mentions of @Pharrell increased by 26% in the week ending February 23, with more than 59,000 mentions, while stories created about the artist on Facebook rose by 8%. The rise in activity caused audiences on each respective platform to grow, with 51,000 new followers being added on Twitter (up 35%) and 266,000 (up 59%) being added on Facebook.
Christina Aguilera continues to rise up the Social 50 as well. This week, she moves 39-11 to nearly break the top 10 from activity still circulating around her recent engagement to Matthew Rutler (announced on February 14). In the latest tracking week (ending February 23), it was reported that she is pregnant. The one-two punch of news contributes to a 86% gain in chart points for Aguilera, driven by a 136% increase in online audience. She added 691,000 new fans across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for the week.
In other chart news, Young Jeezy debuts on the Social 50, with a significant amount of online buzz resulting from the February 7 release of Rick Ross’ “War Ready,” a single that Jeezy is featured on.
But the main driver of Jeezy’s arrival on the Social 50 was YG dropping the “My Nigga” remix video (featuring Jeezy) on February 21. The remix also boasts Nicki Minaj (22-26 on the Social 50), Lil Wayne (No. 40) and Meek Mill. The video helps drive more than 61 million VEVO views towards Jeezy — a 2,800% increase over the previous week.
As for the rest of the top 10, Shakira extends her lead at No. 1 for the fifth consecutive week, while Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber remain at Nos. 2 and 3 respectively. Rihanna hops 8-4, displacing Katy Perry who falls 4-5 . Bruno Mars also dips one rung, falling 6-7. Justin Timberlake ascends 11-8 into the top 10, coming in above Taylor Swift who tumbles 6-9. Selena Gomez goes 13-10 to anchor the region.