Taylor, Beyoncé Open 2009 on Top

In the early days of the new year, music artists have nothing to fear but Fearless itself

By David Jenison Jan 07, 2009 6:05 PMTags
Taylor Swift JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images

Taylor Swift haters have nothing to fear but Fearless itself.

Nashville's teen queen just notched her fourth straight week at No. 1, selling another 90,000 for the week ended Sunday, per Nielsen SoundScan. Beyoncé Knowles' I Am…Sasha Fierce moved 77,000 at No. 2.

With no major releases slated for the immediate future, Fearless will likely dominate the coming charts. Beyoncé, who currently tops the Hot 100 with "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)," will remain Swift's main competition.

Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak, which reentered the Top 10 last week, climbed another two spots to No. 3 on 71,000 thanks to major radio play for the current single, "Heartless."

Ironically, the post-Yule week's biggest jumper is actually a holiday album. All Wrapped Up—a Target exclusive featuring holiday songs by such friends of Mickey as Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato and the Jonas Brothers—jumped 78 spots to No. 10. The album sold 40,000 for the week after the retailer slashed the price after Christmas.

Other discounted holiday albums experienced similar jumps. Julianne Hough's Sounds of the Season bounced 58 spots to No. 24; Disney's Fairy Tale Holiday was up 81 to No. 34; and Nat King Cole's NBC Sounds of the Season leapt a stunning 120 spots to No. 44.

Score one for Ludwig as The 99 Most Essential Beethoven Masterpieces led all debuts by selling 21,000 copies at No. 29. Similar to the holiday releases, the 19th-century master benefited from discount pricing—just $1.99 as an MP3 on Amazon.com—which also made it No. 2 on the Digital Albums chart, behind the Twilight soundtrack.

Thanks to a traditionally slow January sales week, newbie rockers Thriving Ivory jumped onto the Billboard 200 with their self-titled debut selling 6,000 at No. 124.

Over on the Digital Tracks chart, Lady GaGa held the No. 1 spot with "Just Dance" selling another 279,000 downloads, while West, Britney Spears and Knowles remarkably dominated six of the other Top 10 spots.

While down a crushing 55 percent from the previous week, overall sales were off just 14 percent compared to 2008's kickoff week, when Mary J. Blige's Growing Pains ruled the charts.

Here's a rundown of the Top 10:

1. Fearless, Taylor Swift
2. I Am…Sasha Fierce, Beyoncé
3. 808s & Heartbreak, Kanye West
4. Twilight soundtrack, various
5. Dark Horse, Nickelback
6. Circus, Britney Spears
7. A Different Me, Keyshia Cole
8. Intuition, Jamie Foxx
9. Now That's What I Call Music! 29, various
10. All Wrapped Up, various