Taylor Swift tops album chart for 4th week
January 1st, 2009
Teen country star Taylor Swift led the U.S. pop album chart for a fourth week on Wednesday, while Beyonce rebounded three places to No. 2 with her former chart-topper.
Swift's second album, "Fearless," sold 262,000 copies during the week ended December 28. In its five weeks of release, it has sold 2.11 million copies, making it the third-biggest seller of the year, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Beyonce's "I Am ... Sasha Fierce" sold 211,000 copies last week. Britney Spears' "Circus" was up one to No. 3 with 203,000. Nickelback's "Dark Horse" rose two to No. 4 with 177,000 copies. Kanye West's "808s and Heartbreak" jumped six to No. 5 with 165,000 units.
The soundtrack to "Twilight" was up one to No. 6 with 148,000 copies. After a No. 2 debut last week, Keyshia Cole's "A Different Me" slid to No. 7 with 127,000. Jamie Foxx's "Intuition," also in its second week, plunged to No. 9 with 105,000.
The 29th volume of the multiartist "Now!" hits compilation rose two to No. 8 with 122,000. "American Idol" champ David Cook's self-titled major-label debut rose three to No. 10 with 101,000.
In this last chart week of 2008, sales totaled 17.02 million, up 17% compared with the final week of 2007. However, the week ending December 28, 2008 included three full days of pre-Christmas shopping. The final week of 2007 ended December 30, and only contained one day of last minute holiday shopping.
There were 428.4 million albums sold this year, down 14.4% compared with 2007's 500.5 million. Lil Wayne's "Tha Carter III" was the top seller of the year with 2.87 million copies, followed by Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" with 2.14 million.
