Artists Who Sold A Million Albums In One Week
Despite her fair share of cultural appropriation and an infamous run-in with Kanye West at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, Country/Pop singer Taylor Swift is poised to release one of 2014’s only platinum-selling albums.
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The Hollywood Reporter cites industry forecasts that have Swift’s 1989 album selling 1.3 million copies during its first week of release. When the Nielsen SoundScan reports are public early Wednesday morning, Taylor Swift will likely find herself among esteemed company. Just who will she be joining? Check the following pages and see other artists who sold a million albums in one week.
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Photo: WENN
photo: WENN
Time hasn’t been kind to the catalogue of Limp Bizkit, but it’s entirely possible they’re laughing all the way to the bank despite what people think. The Rap/Rock band’s oddly titled 2000 album Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water earned them a quick platinum plaque with first-week sales of 1,055,000.
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There’s a reason Eminem is one of the most commercially successful artists in modern music. He’s managed to go platinum within a week on at least two separate occasions including the 1,322,000 albums sold in 2002 when he released The Eminem Show.
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While 2003’s Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ serves as what may arguably be his greatest cohesive body of work, 50 Cent kept the cash registers ringing with 1,141,000 in first-week sales for his 2005 album, The Massacre.
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It really was “A Milli” for Lil Wayne in 2008, as his album Tha Carter III bowed with 1,005,545 in domestic sales, guaranteeing him a platinum plaque in seven days.
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After its June 1, 2000 release, it didn’t take long for Eminem’s The Marshall Mathers LP to be embraced by the general public. After its first week on shelves, the original MMLP tallied sales of 1,760,000.
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Sales and being able to publicly admit to buying an album don’t go hand-in-hand. If so, a lot of ‘NSync fans would have to admit shelling out hard earned dough for their 2000 album No Strings Attached. They smashed any so-called competition in terms of albums sales by moving 2,416,000 copies of the album in a week.
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Norah Jones doesn’t appear to be the type of artist that dominates the charts to the untrained eye. But such eyes probably weren’t paying attention when Jones shut down the industry in 2004 with 1,022,000 in sales in a week with her second solo set, Feels Like Home.
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Controversy sells. Usher’s 2004 album, Confessions, sold 1.1 million copies during its first week and sparked plenty of gossip about Mr. Raymond possibly impregnating his sidepiece with the title track. To date, Confessions has sold over 10 million copies.
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The “Little Monsters” came out in support of Lady Gaga by opening their wallets and taking advantage of a bunch of special promotions. Partly fueled by an Amazon MP3 sale offering the entire album for $.99, Lady Gaga moved 1,108,000 million units of 2011’s Born This Way.
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The unfortunate circumstances of her later years and 2012 death don’t diminish the raw numbers behind Whitney Houston’s commercial dominance. The Bodyguard Soundtrack sold 1,061,000 copies in 1992 during its sixth week of release after a modest debut week of 292,000 copies sold.
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Britney Spears cemented her grip on the purse strings of tweens and adults alike when her Oops!…I Did it Again sold 1,319,000 copies during the week of June 3, 2000.
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The combination of boy band tween appeal and a booming economy couldn’t have hurt the Backstreet Boys. The Pop quintet joined the million-seller club in 2000, when their Black & Blue album sold 1,591,000 right out of the gate.
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No list of mainstream chart domination is complete without mentioning Country rocker Garth Brooks. In 1998 Brooks’ Double Live album sold an impressive 1,085,000 copies during its first week of release before eventually earning the distinction of the sixth best selling album in SoundScan history.
