Week Ending 7/3
Beyonce's Notches 4th Billboard 200 No. 1 with "4"by Keith Caulfield, L.A. | July 06, 2011 11:00 EDT
AAs expected, Beyonce's fourth solo studio album, "4," bounds in at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, selling 310,000 copies according to Nielsen SoundScan.
It's the diva's fourth solo No. 1 -- and fourth studio set to top the list. She's only the third act -- and second woman -- to see their first four studio albums debut atop the Billboard 200. Britney Spears did it with her first four between 1999 and 2003 while DMX's first five all started at No. 1 between 1998 and 2003
"4's" sales launch is lowest of her four releases: 2008's "I Am ... Sasha Fierce" entered with 482,000; 2006's "B'Day" bowed with 541,000 and 2003's "Dangerously In Love" started with 317,000.
Of course, "4" is thus far lacking a smash hit single, which could help explain the album's softer entry. Its lead track, "Run the World (Girls)," peaked at No. 29 on the Billboard Hot 100 -- the first time the first single from a Beyonce studio set has missed the top 10.
Still, "4's" bow is pretty big for 2011. It marks the third-largest sales week of the year, after the No. 1 bows of Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" (1.1 million) and Adele's "21" (351,000).
Also arriving in the top 10 this week is rapper Big Sean's debut album "Finally Famous" (No. 3 with 87,000), Selena Gomez & the Scene's third set "When the Sun Goes Down" (No. 4 with 78,000), David Cook's sophomore effort "This Loud Morning" (No. 7 with 46,000) and Scotty McCreery's Wal-Mart exclusive five-song (and $5) EP "American Idol Season 10 Highlights" (No. 10 with 40,000).
For Gomez, "When" marks her best sales week yet. She's seen a bigger debut sales week with each successive release: her first album "Kiss and Tell" started at No. 9 with 66,000 in 2009, while the following year "A Year Without Rain" bowed at No. 4 with a little more than 66,000.
The story's different for Cook, as his new album is off to a slow start compared to his 2008 self-titled debut. That album -- which entered at No. 3 with 280,000 -- came six months after Cook won "American Idol," so a big bow wasn't terribly surprising. However, his new album has yet to find a hit single and he doesn't have the glow of "Idol" to aid him. The new album's lead track, "The Last Goodbye," has so far only dented one of our airplay charts -- Adult Pop Songs (No. 29 this week).
This new McCreery EP tracks separately from his similarly-named iTunes-exclusive offering that arrived a month ago. The 14-song set was titled "American Idol Season 10" and debuted and peaked at No. 12 with 23,000 in its first week.
Last week's No. 1 album, Jill Scott's "The Light of the Sun," drops to No. 5 with 55,000 (down 60%) while Adele's "21" moves 3-2 with 92,000 (down 10%). Jason Aldean's "My Kinda Party" rallies 10-6 (48,000; up 20%), Jackie Evancho's "Dream With Me" slips 4-8 (44,000; down 43%) and Bad Meets Evil's "Hell: the Sequel" falls 6-9 (42,000; down 33%).
Over on the Digital Songs chart, LMFAO's "Party Rock Anthem" (featuring Lauren Bennett & GoonRock) ascends to No. 1 for the first time (rising two spots with 258,000; up 22%), bumping Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" down to No. 2 (206,000; down 9%).
The top debuts on Digital Songs this week belong to "The Voice" winner and runner-up Javier Colon and Dia Frampton, respectively, whose singles "Stitch by Stitch" and "Inventing Shadows" arrive at Nos. 6 and 7 (145,000 and 137,000).
Colon also debuts at No. 24 with his "Man in the Mirror" duet with his "Voice" coach Adam Levine (75,000). Frampton concurrently makes her mark with a second debut, at No. 33: her "I Won't Back Down" collaboration with her coach, Blake Shelton (62,000). Frampton also falls 61-67 with "Heartless" (32,000; up less than 1%), and "Losing My Religion" (28-69 with just under 32,000; down 52%).
Fourth place contestant Beverly McClellan's duet with her coach Christina Aguilera on the latter's own hit "Beautiful" debuts at No. 52 (42,000). One rung lower, third place finisher Vicci Martinez's "Afraid to Sleep" arrives (39,000). Her duet with coach Cee Lo Green on "Love is a Battlefield" misses the 75-position chart, but sold 25,000 downloads.
Pitbull's "Give Me Everything" (featuring Ne-Yo, Afrojack & Nayer), rises 4-3 (192,000; up 2%), Nicki Minaj's "Super Bass" rises 6-4 (169,000; up less than 1%), Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" is steady at No. 5 (152,000; down 11%) and Lil Wayne's "How to Love" climbs 10-8 (128,000; down 1%). Rounding out the top 10 are Hot Chelle Rae's "Tonight Tonight," which holds at No. 9 (a little under 128,000; down 7%) and Jason Aldean's "Dirt Road Anthem," which falls two spots to No. 10 (127,000; down 10%).
Overall album sales in this past chart week (ending July 3) totaled 6.34 million units, up 7% compared to the sum last week (5.92 million) and up 14% compared to the comparable sales week of 2010 (5.54 million). Year to date album sales stand at 155.46 million, up 1% compared to the same total at this point last year (153.96 million). It is the sixth week in a row where year-to-date album volume is greater than the same time in the prior year.
Digital track sales this past week totaled 25.45 million downloads, up 1% compared to last week (25.29 million) and up 18% stacked next to the comparable week of 2010 (21.48 million). Year to date track sales are at 660.80 million, up 11% compared to the same total at this point last year (597.44 million).Next week's Billboard 200 competes with the same week in 2010 when: Eminem's "Recovery" stayed put at No. 1 for a third straight frame, selling another 229,000 (down 27%). Drake's "Thank Me Later" was stationary at No. 2 (74,000; down 30%), while Big Boi's "Sir Lucious Left Foot" was the top debut, arriving at No. 3 (62,000).
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1 Beyonce 310,300 310,600
2 Adele 91,500 2,516,900
3 Big Sean 87,000 87,300
4 Selena Gomez & the Scene 77,900 78,100
5 Jill Scott 54,700 190,300
6 Jason Aldean 47,800 1,449,900
7 David Cook 45,800 45,800
8 Jackie Evancho 43,800 275,600
9 Bad Meets Evil 42,100 275,800
10 Scotty McCreery 40,400 40,400
11 Bon Iver 38,500 142,900
12 Lady Gaga 38,200 1,540,100
13 Justin Moore 30,200 95,700
14 Pitbull 28,300 83,300
15 Various 28,300 28,500
16 Limp Bizkit 27,400 27,500
17 Taking Back Sunday 26,700 26,800
18 Blake Shelton 24,600 334,200
19 Various 24,500 440,100
20 Gillian Welch 22,700 23,000
21 Brad Paisley 22,700 324,600
22 Curren$y 22,500 22,500
23 Mumford & Sons 20,700 1,608,700
24 Lauren Alaina 20,000 20,000
25 Katy Perry 18,700 1,596,700
26 Maroon 5 18,000 517,800
27 Taylor Swift 17,500 3,522,800
28 Zac Brown Band 17,400 1,027,100
29 Bruno Mars 16,700 1,144,000
30 Various 15,900 15,900
31 James Durbin 15,200 15,300
32 Ledisi 15,200 71,300
33 Various 15,100 60,300
34 Eminem 14,200 3,932,200
35 Nicki Minaj 14,200 1,460,600
36 Haley Reinhart 14,100 14,100
37 Florence + The Machine 13,400 688,100
38 Chris Brown 13,300 646,100
39 LMFAO 13,300 40,300
40 The Band Perry 13,200 630,500
41 Wiz Khalifa 12,700 483,900
42 Transformers The Movie 12,100 24,900
43 Rihanna 12,000 1,349,900
44 “Weird AL” Yankovic 11,600 55,700
45 Foster The People 11,300 90,000
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Country Albums :10 6 Jason Aldean My Kinda Party 47,827 1,449,915
NEW 10 Scotty McCreery American Idol 10/Highlights 40,408 40,405
5 13 Justin Moore Outlaws Like Me 30,217 95,782
55 18 Blake Shelton Loaded…Best of Blake… 24,666 334,283
15 21 Brad Paisley This Is Country Music 22,721 324,658
NEW 24 Lauren Alaina American Idol 10/Highlights 20,084 20,084
24 27 Taylor Swift Speak Now 17,573 3,522,836
21 28 Zac Brown Band You Get What You Give 17,437 1,027,137
19 33 Various Now Country IV 15,184 60,374
38 40 The Band Perry The Band Perry 13,255 630,572
NEW 50 Dolly Parton Better Day 10,728 10,724
51 57 Rascal Flatts Nothing Like This 9,096 894,908
35 61 Ronnie Dunn Ronnie Dunn 8,785 86,735
50 62 Lady Anthebellum Need You Now 8,708 3,562,578
57 63 Kenny Chesney Hemingway's Whiskey 8,460 867,540
79 65 Sara Evans Stronger 8,307 237,064
63 79 Tim McGraw Number One Hits 5,801 388,611
84 106 Alison Krauss/Union Station Paper Airplane 5,146 244,932
104 117 Colt Ford Every Chance I Get 4,476 73,300
113 121 Aaron Lewis Town Line 4,155 178,544
New 133 Billy Ray Cyrus I'm American 3,787 3,797
62 138 Cody Canda/Departed This Is Indian Land 3,593 11,437
162 139 Keith Urban Get Closer 3,586 608,406
179 169 Darius Rucker Charleston, SC 166 3,008 486,229
157 183 Brantley Gilbert Halfway To Heaven 2,796 129,126
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