Taylor Swift Reigns Again On Billboard 200
Taylor Swift
December 31, 2008 11:55 AM ET
Katie Hasty, N.Y.

Taylor Swift's sophomore Big Machine album "Fearless" tops The Billboard 200 for a fourth non-consecutive week after selling 262,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, a 21% sales decline from last week.

With the continued success of her track "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", Beyonce's "I Am ... Sasha Fierce" (Music World/Columbia) leaps up 5-2 on a 7% sales boost to 211,000. Britney Spears' Jive set "Circus" rebounds 4-3 with 203,000 (+4%), while Nickelback's "Dark Horse" (Roadrunner) climbs 6-4 with 177,000 (-9%).

Re-entering the top tier with an 11-5 move is Kanye West's "808s and Heartbreak" (Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam), on a 16% jump in sales to 165,000 units. The Chop Shop/Atlantic soundtrack to "Twilight" moves 148,000 copies (-5%) and ascends a notch 7-6.

After a No. 2 debut last week, Keyshia Cole's "A Different Me" (Geffen) takes a 61% sales plunge to 127,000, moving the set down to No. 7. Similarly, Jamie Foxx's "Intuition" (J) experiences the same decline in its second week to 105,000 and slips 3-9.

The 29th volume of the multi-label "Now!" hits compilation climbs 10-8 on a 12% decline to 122,000. David Cook rounds out the top 10 with his self-titled 19 Recordings/RCA debut, ascending 13-10 with 101,000 (-22%).

In this last chart week of 2008, sales totaled 17.02 million, up 17% compared to the final week of 2007. However, the week ending Dec. 28, 2008 included three full days of pre-Christmas shopping. The final week of 2007 ended on Dec. 30, and only contained one day of last minute holiday shopping.)

There were 428.4 million albums sold this year, down 14.4% compared to 2007's 500.5 million. Lil Wayne's "Tha Carter III" (Cash Money/Universal) was the top seller of the year with 2.88 million copies.

Taylor Swift Retakes Top Billboard Spot As Britney Spears Slips To #2
New albums by Common and Brandy fail to break the top 10.


The deck has been shuffled at the top of the Billboard albums chart, but the ladies will still rule next week as the year comes to an estrogen-fueled close. After Britney Spears debuted at #1 last week with Circus, her sales plunged 60 percent and she slips to #2, making way for Taylor Swift to regain the top position, according to Nielsen Soundscan.

Swift's Fearless was able to leapfrog Spears with sales of 248,800, while Circus took a tumble from its half-million debut to 200,100. And hanging tough at #3 is Beyoncé's I Am ... Sasha Fierce, which saw sales hold relatively unchanged at 159,200 copies.

With few other major releases for the week, the rest of the top 10 looks quite familiar. Nickelback's Dark Horse moves up one spot to #5 on sales of 156,100, followed by the "Twilight" soundtrack with 131,800. Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak slips two spots to #6 (with 126,800 hearts broken), followed by the Now That's What I Call Music 29 compilation, AC/DC's Wal-Mart exclusive Black Ice (which shifted 110,100 units) and the soundtrack to "High School Musical 3: Senior Year" (with 107,200 in sales). "American Idol" winner David Cook rounds out the top 10 with 103,500 converts to his self-titled debut.

The news was not so great for a couple of other big names, as Akon's Freedom plunged from #7 to #18 in its second week on the charts, and Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy continued its backward march, falling from #18 to #29 on sales of 47,200 copies.

The only major debuts of the week appear a bit further down on the charts. Musiq Soulchild clocks in at #11 with On My Radio, which sold 91,500 copies, followed by Common's electro-funky Universal Mind Control with 81,700 in sales. Brandy's fifth album, Human, makes it into the top 20 at #15 with 72,800.

Other notable debuts include Avant's self-titled album at #26, thanks to sales of 52,000, and Maroon 5's remix album, Call & Response — featuring reimaginings by Swizz Beatz, David Banner, Mark Ronson and Deerhoof — crawling onto the charts at #73.

Maybe it's the Christmas season, but indie rock appears to be in the air. The self-titled full-length debut from pastoral indie folk darlings Fleet Foxes claws back to #181 on sales of 5,900, two months after achieving their highest position to date at #67. Vampire Weekend's self-titled debut also made its way back onto the charts for the first time in two months at #189 with 5,400 units snapped up. And Bon Iver's For Emma Forever Ago slips under the wire at #198 thanks to 5,200 units moved, its strongest sales to date after debuting at #181 back in February.

Next week, the top spots could get shaken up when Fall Out Boy's Folie à Deux finally crashes the charts, along with Jamie Foxx's Intuition.

Kanye Edges GNR, Ludacris For No. 1 Debut
Kanye West
December 03, 2008 11:16 AM ET
Katie Hasty, N.Y.
Kanye West earns his third straight No. 1 on The Billboard 200 as "808s & Heartbreak" bows in the top slot. The Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam set moved 450,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan, the artist's lowest debut sales frame since his first album, "The College Dropout," bowed with 441,000 in 2004.

His last release, "Graduation," began with 957,000 at No. 1 last year, while sophomore set "Late Registration" checked in with 860,000 at No. 1 in 2005.

With the help of Thanksgiving sale prices and a performance from the singer at the Nov. 23 American Music Awards, sales for Taylor Swift's Big Machine album "Fearless" increase 23% to 267,000, pushing the set up 4-2.

At No. 3 with 261,000 is Guns N' Roses' Best Buy exclusive "Chinese Democracy" (Black Frog/Geffen), the first studio album of original material from the group since 1991. GNR's last studio efforts, "Use Your Illusion I" and "Use Your Illusion II," debuted at Nos. 2 and 1 respectively, with 685,000 and 770,000 after being released on the same day in 1991.

Since then, the act has charted with a covers set (1993's "The Spaghetti Incident?" with a 190,000 debut), a live effort (1999's "Live Era '87 - '93;" 60,000) and the 2004 "Greatest Hits" package (169,000).

Beyonce's "I Am ... Sasha Fierce" (Music World/Columbia) declines by 47% in its second week, dropping 1-4 with 257,000. Debuting right behind at No. 5 is Ludacris' "Theater of the Mind" (DTP/Def Jam) with 213,000. It's the first time one of the rapper's albums debuted anywhere but No. 1 since 2001's "Word of Mouf" bowed and peaked at No. 3.

The Killers' third album, "Day & Age" (Island) enters at No. 6 with 193,000. Its 2006 predecessor, "Sam's Town," bowed at No. 2 with 315,000.

After debuting at No. 2 last week, Nickelback's "Dark Horse" (Roadrunner) slips to No. 7 on a 46% decline to 178,000. Chop Shop/Atlantic's soundtrack to the runaway hit film "Twilight" falls 6-8 with 162,000 (+29%) while the multi-label "Now 29" hits compilation earns a 26% sales increase to 145,000, slipping 7-9. David Cook's self-titled 19 Recordings/RCA debut rounds out the top tier, descending 3-10 with 112,000 (-60%).

Other debuts this week include Barry Manilow's "Greatest Songs of the Eighties" (Arista) at No. 14 with 78,000, the Coldplay EP "Prospekt's March" (Capitol) at No. 15 with 77,000, Trace Adkins' "X: Ten" (Capitol Nashville) at No. 32 with 37,000, Jeremy Camp's "Speaking Louder Than Words" (Tooth & Nail) at No. 38 with 32,000 and Linkin Park's "Road to Revolution" (Warner Bros.) at No. 41 with 31,000.

At 12.15 million units, sales this week are up 29% compared to last week's sum, but down 0.7% compared to the same sales week last year.