King of Pop Officially Has Second Best Selling Album of 2009
The Once and Future King of Pop continues his reign at the Top of the Pops, as he is currently perched atop the Billboard charts with the best selling album overall on the Billboard Comprehensive Chart. Michael Joseph Jackson is just under 130,000 copies short of having the best selling album of 2009 so far:
Rapper Fabolous ruled the Billboard 200 album chart for the first time in his career on Wednesday, but a Michael Jackson‘s hits collection sold more copies and becomes the year‘s second-best selling album.
Since Jackson’s “Number Ones” came out more than 18 months ago — in 2003, to be exact — it is ineligible for the Billboard 200, and instead leads the Comprehensive Albums chart, which combines catalog and current releases.
It sold 114,000 copies during the week ended August 2, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Its total for the year now adds up to 1,370,000 copies, moving it past the “Hannah Montana” movie soundtrack (1,338,000) and Eminem’s “Relapse” (1,319,000). Only Taylor Swift‘s “Fearless” (with 1,499,000) stands in Jackson‘s way as 2009‘s top seller.
The King of Pop has now held the best-selling album in the U.S. for five out of the past six weeks. “Number Ones” stepped aside only when Daughtry’s “Leave This Town” bowed with 269,000 two weeks ago.
Back on the Billboard 200, Fabolous’ “Loso‘s Way” sold 99,000 copies. The New York rapper charted as high as No. 2 when 2007′s “From Nothin‘ to Somethin‘” shifted 159,000 in its first week.
There is of course another big story hidden beneath this story, the fact that no album in the first eight months of 2009 has managed to sell two million copies. In fact, Taylor Swift’s Fearless is nearly 500,000 copies away from going double platinum. In further saddening Pop music sales news, notice that Fabolos managed to make it to #1 on the Billboard 200 album charts even though Loso’s Way has sold 60,000 fewer copies than 2007′s From Nothin‘ to Somethin‘ which entered the charts at #2.
Michael Jackson, rapper Fabolous lead album charts [Reuters]
View Comments