X-Factor UK’s One Direction may have had their streak of number one albums broken in the US, but they have put up formidable numbers for second place. Not since 2007 have two albums debuted with more than 400K in sales (that would be when Kayne West and 50 cents held a feud to see who could get number one). Although, more recently, Susan Boyle (from BGT) riding the viral fumes of her “Hey, the cat lady can sing” moment and Alicia Keyes were the lost to both sell 400K+ more recently in 2009 (it was Susan’s 4th week – those were some strong fumes).
One Direction has had four previous number ones: ‘Up All Night” in 2011 (this one did not go number one in the UK while “Made in the A.M.” likely will), “Take Me Home” in 2012, “Midnight Memories” in 2013 and “Four” in 2014. Not many artists can consistently get number one albums every year. Their last album sold 387K and they are likely to exceed that with this album which is another very difficult achievement.
Meanwhile, Justin Bieber will continue his current streak of Number 1 albums. His first EP, “My World” only opened at 5th in Nov 2009, but “My World 2.0” in March 2010 opened first followed by “My World Acoustic” opening at 7th in Nov 2010. Since then, he’s been putting out number ones with “Never Say Never” in Feb 2011, “Under the Mistletoe” in Nov, 2011, “Believe” in June 2012 and “Believe Acoustic” in Jan of 2013. That’s a lot of work in just over 3 years for a teenager, so unsurprisingly, he took a break to be a douche for a few years. Many could not come back from that, but a strong PR campaign and even stronger singles is yielding Justin Bieber his biggest sales week of his career.
Billboard details some of the strategies for these two albums this week.
Meanwhile, Def Jam is having a good week not only with the number one release, but also the number 3 (Logic”, 4 (Jeezy) and 10 (Alessia Cara) releases. The two Chris’s (Young and Stapleton) represent Country at 5 and 6 (Young is debuting and Stapleton still riding the success of his career making CMA performance) with Eric Church also in the top 10 at 8th. Kir Franklin is 9th representing Gospel music with “Losing my Religion” (if the name seems contrarian, it’s about his journey to set aside the trappings of religion to really focus on his relationship with God).
Aside from One Direction’s big review, Carrie Underwood is still going strong in her 4th week at 14th and Pentatonix continues to have he Christmas album of the season with “That’s Christmas to Me”. Pentatoix non-seasonal album also continues to sell well at 27th. From the Voice, we have last season’s winner Sawyer Frederick. He released an EP after his performance on the show last Wednesday and he is 34th in his first full week. Judge Blake is 28th. Now 56th at 7th features a track by Idol Winner Nick Fradiani and “We Love Disney” at 48th features Tori Kelly.
Baton down the hatches, bring the cat inside and put your earphones on – Hurricane Adele is blowing into town and she is going to be blowing the doors off of record records. This should be a fun week for number watchers.
HDD Sales Chart (89%)
— 1 JUSTIN BIEBER PURPOSE DEF JAM 396,385
— 2 ONE DIRECTION MADE IN THE A.M. SYCO/COLUMBIA 341,947
— 3 LOGIC THE INCREDIBLE TRUE STORY DEF JAM 68,217
— 4 JEEZY CHURCH IN THESE STREETS DEF JAM 57,311
— 5 CHRIS YOUNG I’M COMIN OVER RCA NASHVILLE 44,183
1 6 CHRIS STAPLETON TRAVELLER MERCURY NASHVILLE 31,767 [Nick Fradiani]
5 7 NOW 56 VARIOUS ARTISTS NOW/UME 21,416
2 8 ERIC CHURCH MR. MISUNDERSTOOD EMI NASHVILLE 21,390
— 9 KIRK FRANKLIN LOSING MY RELIGION RCA 19,796
— 10 ALESSIA CARA KNOW-IT-ALL DEF JAM 18,187
…
8 14 CARRIE UNDERWOOD STORYTELLER 19/ARISTA NASHVILLE 10,140
11 15 PENTATONIX THAT’S CHRISTMAS TO ME RCA 10,007
…
18 27 PENTATONIX PENTATONIX RCA 5,348
23 28 BLAKE SHELTON RELOADED: 20 #1 HITS WARNER BROS. NASHVILLE 5,163
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— 34 SAWYER FREDERICKS SAWYER FREDERICKS REPUBLIC 3,993
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34 48 WE LOVE DISNEY VARIOUS ARTISTS VERVE 2,926 [Tori Kelly]
…
7 50 SARA BAREILLES WHAT’S INSIDE: SONGS FROM WAITRESS EPIC 2,728
