Even if you don’t like Vampire Weekend‘s music, you’ve got to admit that it’s cool that a truly independent album debuts at Number 1 on the Billboard 200. Billboard points out that it’s “only the 12th independently distributed album to top the Billboard 200 chart since SoundScan began powering the list in May of 1991.” So congratulations to the Beggars Group. Is this further evidence of the declining influence of the major label system? Let’s see how the rest of 2010 shakes out…

1. Vampire Weekend – “Contra” – 124,000 (debut)

2. Susan Boyle – “I Dreamed a Dream” – 77,000 (down 18%)

3. Ke$ha – “Animal” – 67,000 (down 56%)

4. Lady Gaga – “The Fame” – 64,000 (down 3%)

5. Alicia Keys – “The Element of Freedom” – 48,000 (down 23%)

6. Lady Gaga – “The Fame Monster” EP – 36,000 (up 14%)

7. Mary J. Blige – “Stronger With Each Tear” – 35,000 (down 26%)

8. Taylor Swift – “Fearless” – 33,000 (down 12%)

9. “Alvin and the Chipmunks: the Squeakquel” – 33,000 (down 12%)

10. Black Eyed Peas – “The E.N.D.” – 32,000 (down 10%)

More sales data after the jump…

By comparison, VW’s first album had first week sales of 28,000, and has since sold 498,000. They’re a quarter of the way there already!

Also:

Contra is also the highest indie-rock debut since both the Shins and the Arcade Fire released albums — Wincing the Night Away [Sub Pop] and Neon Bible [Merge] — that opened at #2 back in 2007. It’s the first #1 album in XL’s 20-year history, not to mention the label’s highest debut since Thom Yorke‘s The Eraser bowed at #2 in 2006.

Will Spoon be able to make it two weeks in a row next week? Go Merge!

Further down:

19. Omarion – “Ollusion” – 19,000 (debut)

31. Michael Jackson – “Number Ones”

39. OK Go – “Of the Blue Colour of the Sky” – 11,000 (debut)

48. O.A.R. – “Rain or Shine” – 9,000 (debut)

58. Ringo Starr- “Y Not” (debut)

98. Paul McCartney – “Good Evening New York City” (cume: 245,000)

136. Teddy Pendergrass – “The Essential Teddy Pendergrass”

Additional sales data via Yahoo and MTV.