People Still Buy Music: Justin Bieber sets some meaningless chart records with his new Christmas album

By Steven Hyden  |  November 9, 2011 | 8:27pm
Aux Features Music

Everybody knows Justin Bieber is popular. He is so popular, he could sell Christmas music to Satanists—or their horny mothers, at least. But just in case Bieber's debut at No. 1 on the Billboard albums chart for Under The Mistletoe doesn't impress you, how about this: It is the first Christmas album by a male artist to debut at No. 1. Take that, ladies! It's also Bieber's third No. 1, which makes him the first solo artist (of either gender!) to have three No. 1 albums before their 18th birthday. Hopefully Bieber still has some space left over on his special mantle set aside for meaningless achievements.

With 210,000 copies sold, Bieber easily won this week's chart contest, which was thick with debuts. There were six of them in all, including the entire top four. Rapper Wale landed at No. 2 with his sophomore record, Ambition, which sold 164,000. Next came Miranda Lambert's Four The Record (No. 3, 133,000) and Susan Boyle's Someone To Watch Over Me (No. 4, 132,000). For Wale and Lambert, this represents their best-ever one-week sales and highest chart performances.

The other debuts this week were Florence + The Machine's Ceremonials (No. 6, 105,000) and Tyrese's Open Invitation (No. 9, 76,000).

Rounding out the Top 10 are Adele's 21 (No. 5, 108,000), which fell out of the top four for the first time ever while slightly increasing its sale numbers from the previous week; Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto (No. 8, 89,000); and Kelly Clarkson's Stronger (No. 10, 51,000). [via Billboard]

 
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