With Carrie Underwood’s Blown Away leading the way, six Top 20 albums, eight in the Top 25. Yep, Country Music still sells CDs.
There was never a doubt that Carrie Underwood, one of the biggest stars in the USA, would land herself her latest #1 album. Each of her albums has hit #1 on both the Country and SoundScan Top 200 but her best-selling debut Some Hearts failed to debut at #1 on the SoundScan tally. If there’s any ‘negative’ to gleam from Blown Away’s debut it is that it’s her smallest opening week debut since Some Hearts. Carrie’s sophomore album Carnival Ridesold an impressive 539,000 its first week in 2007, which was a vastly different sales market than the singles-driven market of 2012. Still it’s a remarkable number from an artist which has seen all of her country singles hit either #1 or #2 at Billboard and Mediabase. Blown Away sold 268,000 copies this week.
Lionel Richie’s Tuskegee Certified Platinum
Lionel Richie’s comeback has hit another milestone as Tuskegee was certified Platinum by the RIAA for shipments of over 1,000,000 copies to stores (where the album is selling rapidly). Tuskegee’s scanned numbers from the Top 200 Current SoundScan chart show the superstar at 679,000 scanned in just five weeks on the charts. Underwood’s Blown Away will likely eventually pass Tuskegee but the Richie Project remains 2012’s most pleasant of surprises. Luke Bryan’s platinum party album tailgates & tanlines continues to find audiences and gained 13% in sales increases this week while “Drunk On You” moves its way up the singles chart. Last week’s newcomers Lee Brice and Kip Moore, with their albums Hard 2 Love and Up All Night,respectively, round out the Top 5 with ..." of the Top 16 at Soundscan belonging to country music artists.
Eric Church: Chief of Second Half of Top Country Albums Chart
Chief is soon to become the latest country album to hit the Platinum sales mark as country music’s rising icon Eric Church continues to pack venues across the country. Jason Aldean’s My Kinda Party finds the superstar rising back up the charts and nipping at the heels of Church. Aldean’s scheduled to release a new album sometime this fall but that shouldn’t stop catalog sales for My Kinda Party. Rascal Flatts hit #1 last week with “Banjo” and are well on their way to another Gold album but their reign as country’s biggest band appears to be all but over with Zac Brown Band and Lady Antebellum having dominated award shows through the years. The veteran trio (which still pack houses on tour) have the #8 album this week, ahead of Lady Antebellum’s 1.6 million-scanned Own The Night. Blake Shelton’s Red River Blue, last week’s #6 album, slides down to #10 this week.
Brantley Gilbert, Scotty McCreery, Hunter Hayes Lead Notables
The Gold-selling Halfway To Heaven continues to sell for Brantley Gilbert (remaining the #11 best-selling country album this week). Right behind him on the notable rundown is Scotty McCreery with Clear As Day. The album has now sold just shy of 1.05 million copies while last week’s #5 album Small Town Family Dream from Texas country indie band Josh Abbott Band lands ther 16 slot on the SoundScan Top Current Country Albums chart. Hunter Hayes breaks into the Top 20 of the same chart for the first time since the first few weeks that Hunter Hayes was in stores. The powerful ballad “Wanted” is driving the train here (it’s one of the top-selling digital singles) and album sales now stand at 120k and growing. Rounding our rundown this week is Rodney Atkins’ Take A Back Road, the album recorded a remarkable sales increase of 38 slots on the Top 200 Current Albums chart. Sales now sit at 172,000 as the singer looks to release the third single from the album.
Other notable albums this week include Miranda Lambert’s Four The Record (7,000 sold this week) Toby Keith’s Clancy’s Tavern (5,000), Taylor Swift’sSpeak Now (5,000), Eli Young Band’s Life At Best (3,000), Jake Owen’s Barefoot Blue Jean Night (3,000), and Dierks Bentley’s Home (3,000).
Top 10 Country Albums for This Week with Six Notable Albums (SoundScan Top 200 Current Albums Chart Placement)*
#1 - Carrie Underwood - Blown Away 268k (268,000)
#6 - Lionel Richie – Tuskegee 64k (679,000)
#13 – Luke Bryan – tailgates & tanlines 26k (1,031,000)
#14 - Lee Brice - Hard 2 Love 24k (70,000)
#16 - Kip Moore - Up All Night 21k (58,000)
#18 – Eric Church – Chief 19k (775,000)
#21 – Jason Aldean – My Kinda Party 16k (2,559,000)
#23 - Rascal Flatts - Changed 15k (227,000)
#36 – Lady Antebellum – Own The Night 11k (1,598,000)
#39 – Blake Shelton – Red River Blue 10k (675,000)
#44 – Brantley Gilbert - Halfway To Heaven 9k (558,000)
#73 – Scotty McCreery – Clear As Day 6k (1,041,000)
#15 - Josh Abbott Band - Small Town Family Dream 5k (27,000)
#122 – Hunter Hayes – Hunter Hayes 4K (114,000)
#72 – Rodney Atkins – Take A Back Road 3k (172,000)
This coming week will find out how far Carrie Underwood falls from her first week sales or if she can hold onto #1 for a few weeks.
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