‘Prejudice’ Stalled on Chart

Will George Michael’s snubbing his base audience--young dance fans--to do a “mature” album come back to haunt him? There are signs of it already. Though his “Praying for Time” is the new No. 1 pop single on the Billboard magazine chart, his “Listen Without Prejudice” album should already be No. 1 on the pop chart but, after three weeks, it moved up just one notch to No. 4. Though by no means a flop, it’s not the juggernaut it was expected to be. Two of the hottest new albums are by rappers--Vanilla Ice’s “To the Extreme” (No. 23) and LL Cool J’s “Mama Said Knock You Out” (No. 25).

* Apparently INXS’ last album, 1987’s “Kick”--which sold more than 4 million units--was no fluke. The Australian rockers’ new “X” zoomed up the chart to No. 13 in just two weeks.

POP ALBUMS

Rank Rank 2 Weeks Title (Label) Last Week Weeks Ago on Chart 1. “Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em” 1 1 32 M.C. Hammer (Capitol) 2. “Wilson Phillips” 2 2 27 Wilson Phillips (SBK) 3. “Mariah Carey” 3 3 16 Mariah Carey (Columbia) 4. “Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1” 5 22 3 George Michael (Columbia) 5. “Poison” 6 5 28 Bell Biv DeVoe (MCA) * “X” 46 -- 2 INXS (Atlantic)