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How far down the Billboard 200 did Miley Cyrus’ “Bass Persuades” album fall in its second week? Curiosity about that grew over the last few days, particularly as Billboard announced the top 10 of its album chart on Sunday,
and Cyrus’ album was not in it, after having debuted at No. 1 the previous week. Now there’s an answer to that, as the full list has been revealed: “Bass Persuades” plummeted to No. 157.
And yes, that’s a record.
The specific record “Bass Persuades” set is for the most precipitous fall from an album that premiered at No. 1 in its debut week to a considerably less lofty place in week 2.
Some news outlets erroneously reported that Cyrus’ album was in second place for the biggest fall from No. 1 in an album’s second week out, citing Bon Jovi’s “This House Is Not for Sale” as having taken an even bigger tumble, from No. 1 to No. 169. But the Bon Jovi album was already two years old at that point, and it had regained the top spot for a week only after having been long gone from the chart entirely, via a tricky maneuver that is no longer allowed today.
“This House Is Not for Sale” first came out in 2016 and went right to No. 1, and then what was considered a fairly embarrassing fall to No. 43 in its second week, before a gradual disappearance. So how did it ever come back to reach No. 1 again, briefly, in 2018? That had to do with the practice of “bundling” albums with concert tickets to tack on extra album units, a tactic since banned by Billboard and Luminate. (As the New York Times reported at the time: “When fans buy tickets to Bon Jovi’s new tour, they receive codes that can be redeemed for a CD of ‘This House Is Not for Sale.'”)
In the years since Bon Jovi’s second and bigger chart free-fall with “This House Is Not for Sale,” another album has come along, actually, that had an biggest descent from No. 1: Travis Scott’s “Days Before Rodeo.” It went right from being No. 1 to not being in the Billboard 200 at all. But, again, as with Bon Jovi, that mixtape had already been out for years — its 10 anniversary was being celebrated — before it ascended to the summit under odd circumstances. It had finally been released to DSPs, and about a month into its first streaming release in 2024, it climbed only as high as No. 106 — before suddenly soaring to No. 1 when a first-time vinyl release that had been pre-ordered by fans finally shipped out. After that one-time vinyl deluge hit mailboxes, “Days Before Rodeo” took an instant dive back into chart nowheresville.
So neither Bon Jovi nor Travis Scott — whose records had been out from 2-10 years at the time of their ascents and descents — were in the same ballpark as Miley (as she now goes, having professionally dropped her last name).
Meanwhile, if you stretch much. much, much further back in history, to the 1950s, there is another artist who went from No. 1 to off the chart entirely, a la Travis Scott. That artist was Elvis Presley, and the record was “Elvis’ Christmas Album.” However, there’s an important distinction there. The Billboard album chart at the time only consisted of 25 entries each week, not 200, and it was no shocker when a holiday album took a dive from the top 25 right after Christmas. (The chart was expanded to 200 albums in 1967 and has remained at that number since.)
Any trouble “Bass Persuades” with its second-week hold may be partly due to the lack of a hit single; the title track peaked on the Hot 100 at No. 35 prior to the full album’s release, despite some fans initially responding enthusiastically to the number. Reviews noted that the initial single and album title weren’t really indicative of the rest of the album, which was not ultimately heavy on dance-pop overall. The singer has just put out a music video for a followup track, “Different Religion.”
In any case, Miley is likely to be laughing all the way to the Bowl. She has two rare concert dates booked for the Hollywood Bowl on Oct. 16 and 18, with advertisements suggesting the superstar specifically designed the dates around performing “Bass Persuades” live. Both shows sold out within 10 minutes of going on sale three weeks ago.
