Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift and Jennifer Lopez storm Billboard’s Nielsen BDS-based Mainstream Top 40 radio airplay chart with new singles, led by Bieber’s record-breaking bow.

Bieber’s “Boyfriend” launches at No. 20 with 3,961 first-week plays on 129 of the chart’s 134 reporters (an average of 31 plays per station), marking the best first-week plays sum for a song by a male artist in the chart’s almost 20-year history. The song also ties for the seventh-best positional start among all acts in the tally’s archives.

The arrival of “Boyfriend” is all the more impressive given Bieber’s track record on Mainstream Top 40, where the teen star has yet to log a top 10. Despite his sales success (8 million albums sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan) and high social media profile (19 million Twitter followers), Bieber has charted only as high as No. 14 with debut hit “One Time” in 2009.

“Boyfriend” is set for a lofty launch on the Billboard Hot 100 this week, aided by approximately 400,000 first-week downloads, according to industry projections. Check Billboard.biz Wednesday (April 4) for the earliest highlights of the Hot 100 and Hot Digital Songs charts.

Repeat ACM Entertainer of the Year winner Taylor Swift scores her highest Mainstream Top 40 debut, as “Eyes Open” bounds in at No. 28. The song, from the soundtrack “The Hunger Games: Songs from District 12,” which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 last week with 175,000 copies sold, according to SoundScan, starts even higher on Adult Top 40 (No. 24). The debut is the Adult Top 40 chart’s highest since Dec. 13, 2008, when the Fray’s “You Found Me” began at No. 19.

“Eyes” arrived as the Hot Shot Debut on the Hot 100 last week at No. 19, fueled by a No. 4 entrance on Hot Digital Songs (176,000 downloads sold).

Jennifer Lopez completes the Mainstream Top 40 chart’s trio of debuts, as “Dance Again,” featuring Pitbull, shimmies in at No. 34. The pair teamed last year for the No. 5-peaking “On the Floor,” Lopez’s first top 10 since 2003. The video for “Dance,” available in the iTunes Store as of today, will premiere Thursday (April 5) on “American Idol.”

Pitbull, meanwhile, is readying his own entrance on Mainstream Top 40. His solo single “Back in Time,” from the forthcoming movie “Men in Black III,” is bubbling under the survey after its first week of airplay.

All rankings, including the Hot 100, Hot Digital Songs and Mainstream Top 40, will be refreshed Thursday (April 5) on Billboard.biz.

Source: Billboard

In 2002, Justin Timberlake blew everyone’s minds when he droppedJustified, his star-making solo album. It propelled him from tween-dream poster boy to legitimate pop star.

Exactly 10 years later, there’s another young singer who is looking to make the same leap. When Justin Bieber dropped “Boyfriend” earlier this week, he laid down the gauntlet and declared his pop-star manhood.

His transition is one that Timberlake faced a decade ago as he looked to carve a new path for himself in a post-’NSYNC world. With grinding, ear-busting production from the Neptunes and Timbaland, the onetime boy-bander created an album that sounded unlike anything his fans had heard before. Sure, he had teased it on ‘NSYNC’s last album, Celebrity, but this album was different — it was all Timberlake. It was sexy and definitely much edgier lyrically, with him singing about girls and sex in a more-mature way.

At the time, he faced the incredibly difficult pop conundrum of having to grow up right before an audience. That’s the challenge Bieber now faces. At 18, he can’t stray too far from his My World days, but in order to grow as an artist and a person, he also can’t make “Baby” over and over again.

And, honestly, who would want him to? Edgy and sexy feel like the innate next step for the teen star, with Usher as his mentor — a dude who made a name for himself singing songs about the things he does in the bedroom and flaunting his abs all over town. Although, it’s interesting to note that Bieber chose to follow in Timberlake’s footsteps. A little history lesson: Timberlake once was in a bidding war to sign Bieber on as his protégé. Usher won, and the rest is history.

“Boyfriend,” Bieber’s lead single off his Believe album, set for release later this year, is straight from the Timberlake blueprint. With production from Mike Posner and Mason Levy, the song is the perfect blend of hip-hop, vintage Michael Jackson-flavored R&B and pop. It’s not a far cry from JT’s “Like I Love You” thematically: A young man meets a young woman and uses a song, full of bleeps and beats, to declare all the reasons they should be together. Consider all the young women across the world sold on every one of his swag-heavy arguments.

It’s easy to harp on Bieber for playing it very close to the Timberlake playbook. But, why shouldn’t he? Timberlake seems more focused on movies than music; Bieber’s filling the blue-eyed soul void left by Timberlake’s absence on the charts. And with A-list assistance from Timbaland (yes, Timberlake’s producer), Diplo and will.i.am, Believe just might make us all believe in the power of Bieber.

With the single poised for a huge debut and radio embracing the teen in a bigger way than ever before, now might be the perfect time for Bieber to become everyone’s musical boyfriend. So, grab your fondue pot, get your swaggie on, and blast the track. You know you want to.

Source: MTV