After six weeks of owning the Billboard Top 100 Katy Perry’s song, ‘California Gurls’, has officially been knocked from the penthouse! Eminem’s ‘Love The Way You Lie’, featuring Rihanna, becomes the number 1 song is the country after being number 1 on itunes for the last two weeks. With the song gaining radio impressions each week, and selling over 300,000 on itunes it looks as if this is just the beginning for the song’s reign. The songs victory is not only big for Rihanna and Eminem, but also producer Alex Da Kid, who can now say he has a number 1 song to his name. This makes him even more desirable for other artists.

This becomes Eminems fourth number 1 song to date. It was only a few weeks ago that ‘Not Afraid’ was number 1 for one week and a little over a year ago ‘Crack A Bottle’ hit number 1 for one week. His 2002 hit, ‘Lose Yourself’, was number 1 for 12 weeks, becoming his most successful song to date. ‘Recovery’ is the only one of Eminem’s albums to contain two number 1 songs. It’s easy to say that Eminem is back and better than ever. With no end in sight I am curious to see how long the song will stay number 1; I’ll assume 8 weeks.

Rihanna is the one who should really be cheering the most tonight because this further cements her as one of music’s leading forces. Since appearing on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2005 Rihanna has massed a total of 7 number 1 songs, five of which she is the leading artist. She has the most number 1 songs of any female since 2000. Next in line is Beyonce with 5. Up until this March Rihanna and Beyonce were tied for most number 1’s. Its important for Rihanna to have a good lead if she expects to keep the coveted title, and in my opinion it will be hard for Beyonce to catch up with Rihanna dropping a new album towards the end of the year.

The song also entered the top ten pop chart this week as well, which adds an even bigger feat to Rihannas name. She now has 15 top ten hits thus passing Madonna who has 14. She is only two behind the Mariah Carey, who has the most top 10 hits of all time with 17. In a mere 5 years Rihanna has surpassed Madonna whose career expands over 20 years. This is amazing. I’m sure that she will beat Mariah within the next year or two. This news should really put to rest any rumors about Rihannas staying power because she is obviously going to be around a long time.

A few weeks ago I questioned the current state of the music industry right before Drakes album came out, anticipating that it would changes the sales trend of the year thus far. I knew that Eminem would sell well, but I was convinced that Drake would out-sell him due to strong anticipation for his album. Little did I know that Eminem’s ‘Recovery’ would not only have the biggest opening of the year, but that it would become one of the years top selling albums in less than one month of release.

To date, ‘Recovery’ has sold 1.3 million copies. I really cannot believe the success that he has achieved, considering he does not hold the same social presence as he did in the early 2000’s. He has stayed at number 1 for the last three weeks now, which means that ‘Recovery’ is the first albums since Sade’s ‘Solider of Love’ to be number 1 for three weeks in a row. According to Hits Daily Double he is on track for his fourth week at number 1, which would make him the first artist to hold the number 1 spot in Susan Boyle in 2009. On top of this all his song ‘Love The Way You Live’ featuring Rihanna is sitting at number 2 on the Billboard charts and is on track to be his next number 1 song.

This is not only a big feat for Eminem, but also the music industry as a whole. Since the debut of the itunes store and illegal downloading the sales of albums have been on a steady decline, while the sales of singles continue to skyrocket. Your probably wondering why this is so bad because artist and record labels still receive profits from the singles; this is true but the problem is that the label, artist, songwriter, producer and distributor all have to split the mere $1.29 it cost to download a song. Compare that to the $9.99 that is cost to buy an album and you can see where the problem lies. Eminem is proving that strong album sales are still a possibility.

For whatever reason Eminem still has the “it” factor, and that is the reason he is selling so well. The right song and the right promotion go a long way. With the state that the music industry is in, more artists need to step their game up. It is a shame that a successful album today only needs to sell 500,000. Where are the days where artist sold 2 million in two months? The industry is dying, but it is not dead. If more albums sell like ‘Recovery’ than the industry can land on its feet again. I have hope, but I think it is going to take a lot longer than I wish it would. Congratulations to Eminem, and thank you for helping save this year in music.