http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b82375_bruce_springsteen_shows_taylor_swift.htmlBruce Springsteen Shows Taylor Swift Who's Boss
There's a reason they call him the Boss.
Bruce Springsteen just accomplished what eight weeks of challengers failed to do, namely knock out Taylor Swift from atop the Billboard 200. The Boss and his E Street Band took the No. 1 spot as Working on a Dream worked up 224,000 in sales for the week ended Sunday, per Nielsen SoundScan.
With his ninth chart-topper, Springsteen is tied with the Rolling Stones for the fourth most No. 1 albums of all time. The Beatles have the most with 19, followed by Elvis Presley and Jay-Z, both with 10.
The Boss' album clearly got a boost from Super Bowl XLIII hype. The Jersey rocker played an electrifying halftime set, which will have a further impact on next week's sales chart as the game averaged 96 million viewers.
While the Boss scored a touchdown on the charts, there was a yellow flag thrown over tickets for his upcoming tour.
Fans trying to buy tickets to his Meadowlands show from Ticketmaster.com received messages saying the shows were sold out and pushing would-be concertgoers instead to the company's ticket reseller TicketsNow, where plenty of seats were available at jacked-up prices.
Springsteen today issued a statement saying he was "furious" at the move. "We perceive this as a pure conflict of interest," Springsteen and the E Street Band said. "Ticketmaster is there to ensure that we have a good, fair sale of our tickets at their face value plus normal ticketing charges."
The rocker says he has a promise from Ticketmaster to stop redirecting fans to TicketsNow. But that's not good enough for a New Jersey congressman who is demanding that the Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department investigate.