As They Are?

Last year, the musical Dreamgirls made a lot of headlines, Jennifer Hudson won the Oscar, the notorious snub in the Best Picture race, Beyonce's first real acting role, oh, and the soundtrack set the record for the lowest-selling #1 Billboard 200 Album in the history of Nielsen Soundscan with 60,000 copies sold, bettering the previous record it set a week earlier of 66,000.

And yet, this week history very nearly repeated itself.

Alicia Keys' As I Am, that opened 10 weeks ago, held the top spot this week with 61,000 copies sold, a 14% decrease since last week's total of 70,000. The total copies of albums in the top 20 even did not cross the 1 million mark. These numbers indicate the continuing trend of the past three years: the slow but sure death of the music industry, with digital downloads ruling and musicians finding new ways to promote their music, with Radiohead releasing an album online and Madonna signing a contract with Live Nation, ending her 25-year run with Virgin.

Has the music industry really collapsed? With the movie and television industry already suffering from the writers' strike (Will there be no Oscars?), is there really no bright future for the beloved entertainment industry? More importantly, are we expected to live through reruns and reality shows?

Oh wait, American Idol's on again!