Taylor Swift Continues To Be "Fearless" on the Charts

After a pair of weeks out of the top spot on the Hot 200 Albums chart, Neilsen SondScan has reported that Taylor Swift has not only returned to number one on the charts but she did so in dramatic fashion as her album “Fearless” gained 66% in sales while "Love Story" offically topped the Pop singles chart, giving Taylor her first Pop Number One hit.  The album which saw the most significant growth was the 68 position, 715% leap in sales was the Grammy Winner for album of the year; “Raising Sand” by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss.   Grammy actually has contributed to the two best weeks this year as last week and this week most of the albums on the chart gained sales over previous weeks.

On the country side, after Swift and the Plant and Krauss album, Dierks Bentley is at 22 with “Feel That Fire,” a record which has shifted over 100,000 copies in its two weeks on the charts.  Sugarland’s “Love On The Inside” was the 33rd most popular album sold last week with a 91% sales gain.  Rounding out the top five country albums on the chart is Swift’s nearly two and a half year-old self-titled album.  “Taylor Swift” sold another 20,410 to give it a total of 3,954,458 in 121 weeks.  In another few weeks, Swift will likely find herself with over 7 million albums sold totally as Fearless” is nearing the 3,000,000 mark as well.

Darius Rucker’s just-certified Gold album “Learn To Live” is right behind Swift’s debut on the charts.  The album has been out for five months and already has hit the Gold standard, which proves that Country will accept crossovers if they truly seem genuine as Rucker’s crossover does.  Rounding out the Top 10 country albums on the hot 200 are Zac Brown Band’s “Foundation,” an album which has now moved 285,193 albums in just 13 weeks on the charts. Jamey Johnson now has sold 300,000 copies of “That Lonesome Song” while Lady Antebellum and George Strait both saw Grammy boosts as well with their albums landing 9th and 10th on the charts, respectively.

Interesting chart numbers include Miranda Lambert’s “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” an album which has now moved over 700,000 albums in 21 months on the charts while Joey+Rory’s “The Life Of A Song” continues to sell well for an independent label album with only a Top 30 hit.  The album has now moved inside the Top 100 albums and continues to sell about 7,000 albums a week which means that next week the album will move over the 100,000 albums sold barrier.  Willie Nelson and Asleep At The Wheel’s “Willie & The Wheel” album has now sold 14,756 for the small Bismeaux Records label.  Pat Green’s album continues its plummet from the Hot 200 chart as in it’s third week the record placed 122nd on the chart with only 6,075 albums sold with total sales just exceeding the 33,000 mark.  Blake Shelton’s “Startin’ Fires” is right behind him and despite containing a Number One single in “She Wouldn’t Be Gone,” the album has moved a disappointing 120,351 in its three months on the charts.