Taylor Swift’s Fearless moved back into the top spot on the album charts this week, thanks to a 29% sales gain that brought the album’s one-week sales totals just shy of the 250,000-sold mark. And the eagle-eyed folks at the trade mag Hits, who have access to one-day sales figures from various retailers around the nation, are projecting that the next chart week will be even better for the album, with sales somewhere between 330,000 and 350,000 copies. After the disappointing Black Friday numbers for Chinese Democracy and 808s And Heartbreak, I engaged in a little bit of prediction as far as what albums would get big sales boosts from the run-up to the gift-giving season. So, how am I doing, keeping in mind that sales overall were down 14.4% compared to last year and 45% from this period in 2006?
1. Taylor Swift, Fearless: As noted, its momentum is unstoppable.
2. Coldplay, Viva La Vida: Up 15% from the previous week, with 35,000 sales (No. 41).
3. Pink, Funhouse: Up 32% from its previous week, with 61,000 sales (No. 19).
4. Jonas Brothers, Jonas Brothers / A Little Bit Longer / Camp Rock soundtrack: Up 25% (19,000 sold, No. 64); up 32% (59,000 sold, No. 22); up 25% (25,000 sold, No. 54).
5. David Archuleta: Up 6% (59,000 sold, No. 21).
Hey, do I know what people want to give for the holidays or what? Other big gainers included Miley Cyrus’ Breakout (No. 20, 60,000 copies sold), AC/DC’s Black Ice (No. 8, 110,000 copies sold), and Rascal Flatts’ new greatest-hits collection (No. 23, 53,000 sold). Also of note is that in its third week on the chart, Kanye West’s 808s & Heartbreak only stumbled about 10%, remaining in the top 10 for a third week (No. 6, 127,000 sold)—that’s a far cry from the fate of its Black Friday competitor, Chinese Democracy, which is skidding down the charts and nearly dropped out of the top 30 this week (No. 29, 47,000 sold). I wonder if Best Buy’s way of dealing with “rapid” and “seismic” sales losses from the past six weeks will result in any deep discounting of the album?
Those Taylor Swift sales figures are astounding! I am nowhere near a fan, but far better her than Britney, in my mind.
Nothing wrong with Britney’s music, either. Sheesh.
@chachwitablog: Actually, you’re dumb. If Chuck Eddy & Sasha Frere-Jones & Joshua Clover are young, I’m Solange Knowles. Taylor Swift’s new record is one of the best of the year, & I’m betting you haven’t heard it.
@Murk: Oh, I’m sorry. I’m SURE you weren’t saying that by bringing up three rock critics. Right.
ooh, does a NEW YORKER critic like taylor swift? Oh I’m sorry, I take back all my insinuations that her fanbase was mostly tweens or whatever. That clearly can’t be the case.
OMG look you can see all the village voice critics reaching out to try and touch her hand!
[blog.mlive.com]
I’ve heard enough of it (at least 5 of the “singles” that were on top at itunes) to know it absolutely isn’t music I like. But that isn’t her fault, I just like my pop synthy/dancey and not so much guitar/singer-songwriter.
I first read her name as “Taylor Dayne” and was terribly, terribly confused.
@King of Pants: they totally have the same hair!!!
She could do a pretty good cover of “Tell It To My Heart”
“Actually, you’re dumb” is the best insult I’ve heard in a while. I’ll be adopting that if you don’t mind.
@Murk: Wow, argument from authority much?
@Lucas Jensen: Um, if I had said “These dudes like her, so she must be good,” that would be an argument from authority. And it’s a weird misconception that an argument from authority is prima facie invalid. But obviously the point was that it simply isn’t true that all of Swift’s fans are young: I named three older dudes who love her stuff. That’s called an empirical argument; an argument from older dudes.
aside from the fact that I actually like Britney’s (reent) music, what would make swift “better” anyway? She writes her own (terrible) lyrics? She dated a jonas? her fans are younger?