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Britney Spears
Photo: Jive |
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The most adult Britney
Spears album to date, In the Zone, arrived with an ecstatic moan to
nab the top spot on the latest Billboard albums chart, selling more
than 609,000 copies in its first week, according to SoundScan figures
released
Wednesday (November 26).
On
2001's
Britney, Spears proclaimed "I'm not a girl, not yet a
woman." Now she's all woman, and her rite of passage was a very public
event. Long before its release, the tastefully risqué pop star sucked face
with Madonna (see "Madonna Smooches With Britney And Christina; Justin, Coldplay Win Big At
VMAs"), discovered low-cut pelvis-revealing pants and posed almost naked
for various magazines, all of which whet people's appetites enough to keep
her in the public eye.
In the Zone is the third-strongest debut of the
year, behind
"American Idol" runner-up Clay Aiken's Measure of a Man, which
entered the chart in October selling almost 613,000 units, and 50 Cent, who
debuted in February with 872,000 in sales. Britney's first-week figures are
more than respectable, but the numbers might be perceived as disappointing
compared to her last two releases, 2000's Oops! ... I Did It Again,
which sold a whopping 1,319,000 copies its first week, and 2001's
Britney, which moved almost 746,000 units.
Placing a distant second behind Britney is G-Unit's Beg for Mercy,
which climbs one slot after selling more than 327,000 copies in its second
week. That gives the Unit a strong two-week total of around 704,000, just
behind Jay-Z's The Black Album, which has sold more than 750,000
copies and drops from #1 to #4 on second-week sales of just over 288,000.
Sandwiched
between G-Unit
and
Jay-Z
is
poppy punk group Blink-182, whose
untitled fifth album sold more than 313,000 copies in its first week. The
Beatles nab #5 with Let It Be ... Naked, which debuts with over
280,000 in sales. The disc is a stripped-down version of the band's final
album, Let It Be, which came out in 1970.
The #6 slot goes to Josh Groban's Closer (196,000), while Tupac's
posthumous Resurrection drops five in its second week to #7 (180,000)
and Now That's What I Call Music! 14 takes #8 (174,000). The top 10
is rounded out by Toby Keith's Shock'n Y'all (164,000) and Outkast's
Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (145,000).
After just three days on the shelf, Korn's sixth album, Take a Look in
the Mirror, sold 96,000 units to land at #19. The album's release date
was pushed forward four days after it leaked online (see "Korn
Releasing Take a Look in the Mirror Due To Leak").
It was a big week for holiday-season best-of collections and concert albums,
nine of which entered in the top 50. The strongest was Sheryl Crow's The
Very Best of Sheryl Crow at #12 (138,000). Sales of Michael Jackson's
Number Ones, which hit shelves as his latest child-molestation
allegations made headlines (see "Michael Jackson Wanted On Multiple Counts Of Child Molestation"), were
likely damaged by the bad press. The record sold just over 120,000 copies to
land at #13. The Dave Matthews Band's Central Park Concert takes #14
(111,000); Alan Jackson's Vol. II — Greatest Hits is #16 (101,000);
Red Hot Chili Peppers' Greatest Hits earns a #21 spot (92,000); and
Linkin Park's Live in Texas CD/DVD package lands at #23 (90,000).
Several Christmas albums saw healthy gains. "American Idol"'s Great
Holiday Classics jumped 97 percent to land at #45, Harry Connick Jr.'s
Harry for the Holidays springboarded 54 percent to take #30, and
That's What I Call Christmas' Signature Collection rose 47 percent to
nab the #31 slot.
A few albums took a significant second-week sales plummet, including Tupac,
whose Resurrection debuted high but dropped 58 percent last second
week. It was almost as dramatic as sales of Kid Rock's disc, which suffered
a 50 percent decline to land at #20. Pink's Try This sank 51 percent
to take #26.
