With the biggest sales week for a single album since 2008, when AC/DC‘s Black Ice (review) debuted with 784,000, Eminem is back on top. While he now admits, “That last Relapse CD was ehh,” even that album debuted with 608,000, no small feat. Of course, ten years ago *N Sync sold more than that in a single day. But still, Yahoo’s Paul Grein points out that Em’s the only artists in the Soundscan era to “top the 700K plateau in weekly sales with four albums.” So congrats.
Here’s the rest of the top ten on this week’s Billboard 200:
1. Eminem – “Recovery” – 741,000 (debut)
2. Drake – “Thank Me Later” – 157,000 (down 65%)
3. Miley Cyrus – “Can’t Be Tamed” – 102,000 (debut)
4. Ozzy Osbourne – “Scream” – 81,000 (debut)
5. “Now 34” – 55,000 (down 38%)
6. The Roots – “How I Got Over” – 51,000 (debut)
7. Jack Johnson – “To The Sea” – 44,000 (down 36%)
8. Justin Bieber – “My World 2.0” – 43,000 (down 9%)
9. Sarah McLachlan – “Laws of Illusion” – 38,000 (down 59%)
10. “Twilight: Eclipse” soundtrack – 38,000 (down 30%)
Further down:
11. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – “Mojo” – 33,000 (down 74%)
22. Christina Aguilera – “Bionic” – 18,000 (down 54%)
26. Cyndi Lauper – “Memphis Blues” (debut)
38. Macy Gray – “Sellout” – 11,000 (debut)
42. Michael Jackson – “Number Ones” – 10,000 (up 86%)
53. Michael Jackson – “Essential” – 8,000 (up 116%)
79. Michael Jackson – “Thriller” – 6,000 (up 71%)
96. Michael Jackson – “This Is It” – 5,000 (up 64%)
• Overall album sales in this past chart week (ending June 27) totaled 6.06 million units.
• Digital track sales this past week totaled 21.6 million downloads
The N•Suck numbers were an aberration: even in the salad days of the music biz for an artist to sell 500,000 copies–a gold record certification, natch–during the first week, was monumentous. Hell, going gold, in and of itself, was a huge deal.
(I can remember the monstrous buzz Metallica got for Master of Puppets going gold without MTV or radio.)
Good point, Kiko. 500,000 is a shitload of records. Makes me reconsider the whole fragmented culture angle I’ve been buying into for years now…
I found an interesting opinion piece from NY Mag from September 2009 that explores this a little. Of course, there’s one glaringly wrong prediction:
“This fall, the dream-team concert with Kanye West and Lady Gaga stands to sell a gazillion tickets and to be both a great spectacle and real art.”
That tour, of course, was canceled in the wake of Kanye interrupting Taylor Swift at the VMAs (which — looking back — caused WAY more hoopla than it warranted).
But yeah, maybe the mainstream isn’t as dead as it seems. Then again, I still find it odd how rarely I actually stumble across the the Number One songs on the Hot 100. Should I really have to make an effort to go out and look for “California Gurls” by Katy Perry? Shouldn’t it be bombarding me? Shouldn’t I be sick of it already? I still haven’t heard the song of the summer and it’s already July!
Jake, that NY mag article reads like some editor threw a bone to a relative or significant other: it’s got more holes than swiss cheese. (Sorry ’bout that last one.)
Two things:
– Perhaps the music of today’s mainstream is, arguably, less relevant and more disposable than yesterday’s, but it still draws people in significant numbers.
– More avenues to discover and revel in one’s interests, both mainstream and obscure, probably makes it easier to avoid one or the other, depending on one’s tastes. No?