Despite the entry of five new songs into the top ten over the last three weeks, and the promise of a couple more next week, the overall stagnation on the chart continues. This week, the top seven hasn't moved at all, and the only change in the rest of the chart is the disappearance of "Independent" and the arrival of "Bleeding Love" (which will be number one next week if Oprah has her way--and when doesn't she?). For those who are counting, "Apologize" has now been in the top ten for 24 bloody weeks (a period of time roughly equivalent to six goddamn months or half a fucking year). It's at number nine, though, so this may be its last week. I wouldn't look for it to drop out of the top forty until around September, though.

Not much to get excited about in this week's debuts: bad country (Rascal Flatts); mid-level country (Brad Paisley, scraping what I assume is the final single off the bottom of his latest album, and sounding a lil' homophobic at the end there); and mediocre hip-hop (Ryan Leslie). There are, however, two curiosities. The first is Danity Kane's "Damaged", which has the weirdest opening line of any song so far this year: "Do you got a first aid kit handy?" The second is Lil' Wayne's "Lollipop", its broken, staggering, blunted sound begging the question: how can you possibly have sex when you're that stoned?