Rolling Stone: Is Macklemore this year’s Gotye? Billboard: He’s better

Macklemore-Ryan-Lewis-perform-at-Sasquatch
Macklemore at Sasquatch! 2011. Photo by Dave Lichterman

 

Last week Rolling Stone posted something on its website that suggested Macklemore & Ryan Lewis could be this year’s Gotye. The magazine was making the case that the somewhat slow burn of Macklemore & Ryan Lewis‘ The Heist, which has been inching its way back up the Billboard charts since its debut at No. 2 in October, is similar to the success story of Gotye’s breakthrough record Making Mirrors. The comparison is a good one as the chart performances between the two albums and their hit songs are similar.

Watch: Macklemore “Thrift Shop” parody videos

But that comparison was slightly tipped in Macklemore’s today when “Thrift Shop” topped the Billboard Hot 100, making the nod to Gotye more appropriate. And as good as  the song is doing on the Hot 100 chart, it’s also at the top of the Streaming Songs chart with 1.68 million streams and at the top of the On-Demand Songs chart with 1.54 million streams. That last number passes the previous record holder for most on-demand streams.

Who was that record holder? Gotye, of course, with 1.41 million streams last year.

 

About Travis Hay

Travis Hay is a music journalist who has spent the past 20 years documenting and enjoying Seattle's music scene. He's written for various outlets including MSN Music, the Seattle-Post Intelligencer, Seattle Weekly, Pearl Jam's Ten Club, Crosscut.com and others.

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One Comment on “Rolling Stone: Is Macklemore this year’s Gotye? Billboard: He’s better”

  1. Amazing stuff, and they still aren’t on a record label, right? Kind of deconstructs the whole rationale of signing your creative efforts away to a record label if you can reach the top with them!

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