Billboard: Garth Brooks Takes Top Spot, Britney Spears Debuts at No. 4
Credit: RCA Records
It's good news for Garth Brooks and disappointing news for Britney Spears.
Brooks earned his ninth No. 1 album with his new boxed set, Blame It All on My Roots: Five Decades of Influences, which has jumped from No. 3 to No. 1 in its second week. It is Brooks' second boxed set to claim the top spot after the six-CD collection The Limited Series in 1998. This ties Brooks with Barbara Streisand and The Rolling Stones for scoring nine No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200. However, they're still below Elvis Presley and Bruce Springsteen (with 10 No. 1s each), Jay Z (with 13) and The Beatles (with a massive 19 No. 1 albums).
But the news wasn't nearly as good for Britney Spears, whose long-anticipated Britney Jean turned out to be unable to transfer the buzz into album sales. The pop album debuted at No. 4 with 121,000 copies sold, the lowest sales debut for Spears studio album. The lead single off of the record, "Work Bitch!", topped out at No. 14 on the Mainstream Top 40 after eight weeks on the list, marking the lowest-charting lead single from a Spears album since 2001's "I'm a Slave 4 U", which peaked at No. 15.
However, there does appear to be a good explanation for the underwhelming chart performance: Britney Jean is the first Spears album in which the marketing campaign did not include either a live performance on TV or a live gig. The singer has done interviews in support of the album on TV and radio, in addition to print media. But this hasn't been enough to elevate album sales to match projections for 115,000-120,000 debut. Of course, it's not as if the singer doesn't have a fallback. Britney has been in rehearsals for her upcoming concert residency at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas, a lucrative two-year residency that will include 50 shows each in 2014 and 2015. The first show is set for Dec. 27, and tickets for 36 other performances through August 2014 are currently on sale at major ticket retailers.
As for the rest of the top 10 this week, Midnight Memories from One Direction drops from No. 1 to No. 2 with 117,000 copies sold, a 79% drop in week two. Meanwhile, Wrapped In Red from Kelly Clarkson remains strong, returning to its peak position at No. 3 with 112,000 copies sold. It's the highest-ranking of the five (yes, FIVE) Christmas albums in the top 10 this week: The Robertsons' Duck the Halls: A Robertson Family Christmas claims the No. 5 spot with 105,000 copies sold, while Pentatonix takes the No. 7 spot with PTXmas, which sold 60,000 copies. The album's jump from No. 29 represents an increase of 119%. It's a huge increase matched only by Michael Bublé's leap from No. 16 to No. 8, as Christmas sold 57,000 copies. Closing out the Christmas surge is Mary J. Blige, whose A Mary Christmas sold 51,000 copies to earn the No. 10 slot.
You can check out the full top 10 below:
1. Blame It All on My Roots: Five Decades of Influences, Garth Brooks (146,000 copies sold)
2. Midnight Memories, One Direction (117,000 copies sold)
3. Wrapped In Red, Kelly Clarkson (112,000 copies sold)
4. Britney Jean, Britney Spears (107,000 copies sold)
5. Duck the Halls: A Robertson Family Christmas, The Robertsons (105,000 copies sold)
6. The Marshall Mathews LP 2, Eminem (84,000 copies sold)
7. PTXmas, Pentatonix (60,000 copies sold)
8. Christmas, Michael Bublé (57,000 copies sold)
9. PRISM, Katy Perry (51,000 copies sold)
10. A Mary Christmas, Mary J. Blige (51,000 copies sold)
Via: Billboard