Eminem 2013 Songs Climb Billboard Charts: New Single 'Berzerk' at No. 2 Behind Katy Perry's 'Roar'
After the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) and Labor Day Weekend, long-loved music artists are finding their way back to the top of the charts. Amongst the chart-toppers for this Labor Day week is Eminem.
Eminem teased his latest single, "Berzerk" on a Beats by Dre commercial that aired during the VMAs. The song sampled the Beastie Boys and Billy Squier and made fans reminisce about the real Slim Shady. As a result, "Berzerk" sold 362,000 copies, Rolling Stone reports. This makes "Berzerk" number two on Billboard's Digital Songs chart.
These sales are similar to the first-week sale of Eminem's previous album's first single. 2010's Recovery's, first single, "Not Afraid" premiered at number 1 on the Digital Songs chart. "Not Afraid" garnered 379,000 downloads in its first week according to Nielsen SoundScan.
The success of "Not Afraid" eventually led to the success of Recovery. Recovery debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, making it Eminem's 6th album to do so.
The Marshall Mathers LP 2 will be released Nov. 5 and is expected to make a similar splash in terms of music sales.
At the top of Billboard's Digital Songs chart is "Roar" performed by Katy Perry. Perry performed "Roar" at the VMAs helping the song reach 448,000 sales, an increase of 14 percent over the previous week.
Perry's Prism is due Oct. 22.
Meanwhile, Miley Cyrus, who made a confusing, attention-grabbing performance with Robin Thicke at the VMAs is seeing moderate success as well. Her single "Wrecking Ball," which was released 12 days ago, has jumped from number 13 on Billboard's Digital Songs chart to number. 5. The summer jam, "We Can't Stop," which the infamous performance began with, dropped two spots down from number seven on the chart
Lady Gaga performed "Applause" on the VMAs. Since the performance, "Applause" moved up one spot on Billboard's Digital Songs chart, from number five to number four.
Avenged Sevenfold did not have an outlandish performance on the VMAs that drove tabloids mad with excitement. Still, the rock band is causing some excitement on Billboard's chart. Hail to the King, Avenged Sevenfold's sixth studio album, sold 159,000 copies its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan, making it number one on the Billboard 200 album chart. This makes Avenged Sevenfold's second consecutive album to reach number one on this weekly chart.