Fans Refuse to Beat It From Michael Jackson's Music
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Michael Jackson may be gone, but fans obviously can't stop 'til they get enough.
The week after his death, Jackson sold a whopping 800,000 albums—double the week earlier—easily outperforming any new pop releases and accounting for the entire Top 10 of the catalog chart.
Number Ones led the way with 339,000 copies, followed by Thriller with 187,000 for the week ended Sunday—the first full week since his June 25 death—according to the stat-meisters at Nielsen SoundScan.
The closest any new release came was Now That's What I Call Music! Vol. 31, which topped the Billboard 200 chart with sales of 169,000.
Part of the reason behind the sales spike is availability. Most retailers sold out of their existing inventories in the days immediately after Jackson's death, which led to a major shift toward digital sales. This week, with supplies replenished, physical albums made up 82 percent of the overall sales, compared to 43 percent in the previous sales frame.
For the second week in a row, Jackson sold more than 2 million total digital tracks—no other artist has even sold 1 million copies in single frame before.
On the Hot Digital Songs chart, Jackson claimed five of the Top 10, with "Man in the Mirror" leading the way at No. 2 with 159,000 downloads. Only the Black Eyed Peas accounted for more, with 215,000 downloads of the current Hot 100 chart-topper "I Gotta Feeling."
(Jackson fever is so hot that even new Lakers addition Ron Artest is getting into the action, selecting the number 37 for his jersey in honor of Thriller's 37 weeks at No. 1.)
While M.J. dominated, there were a few notable newcomers.
Following Now! 31, Brad Paisley sold 129,000 of American Saturday Night at No. 2, Rob Thomas moved 121,000 of Cradlesong at No. 3 and Wilco's Wilco (The Album) checked in at No. 4 with 98,000.
Also cracking the Top 10 were self-titled albums by Jeremih and Killswitch Engage at Nos. 6 and 7, respectively.
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