People Still Buy Music: Van Halen debuts strong but doesn't prevent Adele from scoring 20th week at No. 1
Van Halen's first album in 14 years debuted strong this week, selling 187,000 copies after garnering generally positive reviews. But A Different Kind Of Truth was no match for the same old truth of the Billboard albums chart: Adele's 21 cannot be killed. In fact, in the lead up to the Grammys, it only gained strength, nearly doubling its sales from the previous week with 237,000. 21 has now spent 20 weeks at No. 1, the longest run since The Bodyguard soundtrack in 1992-93. And now that 21 is due for a post-Grammys sales push, it's likely that Adele will sail easily to 21 weeks at No. 1 and beyond. Even her 2008 debut, 19, re-entered the Top 10 to land at No. 9 with 36,000 sold.