The second week in a row with no new songs, though the top ten is bopping around like crazy. With Leona Lewis's album coming out last week, I expected her to retake number one, but who would have expected Mariah Carey not only to drop to number five but to lose her bullet in the process, bested by Lil' Wayne and Jordin Sparks? This is beginning to look like the early days of digital influence on the charts, when records bounced up and down, seemingly on a whim, first within the top ten, and then on the chart as a whole. Which means in another three months or so Billboard will need to change its rules again to keep radio and the major labels happy.

Not yet, though, because the current rules are still strong enough to keep Daughtry's Idol Gives Back performance out of the top ten (it debuts at 18 and will probably drop next week). Compare this to last year, when Carrie Underwood's version of "I'll Stand By You" debuted in the top ten on the strength of nothing but Itunes sales, confirming the overwhelming power that online sales now wield in the marketplace.

Idol Gives Back, by the way, provides half of the debuts in the Hot 100 this week, all uniformly mediocre except for Annie Lennox's version of "Many Rivers to Cross", which is shockingly awful (I'd swear she knew how to sing once). The rest is mid-level country, except for Rihanna's next likely top ten entry, the hilarious "Take A Bow", a Stargate/Ne-Yo penned follow-up to "Irreplaceable". After three albums they've finally discovered some emotions Rihanna can express without sounding like a machine: sarcasm and disgust (choice line: "You're so ugly when you cry"). It's a start, anyway.