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Stats: 20/20: all-time biggest one-week sales for a male pop artist
Member Since: 3/30/2009
Posts: 79,408
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20/20: all-time biggest one-week sales for a male pop artist
Timberlake Sets Male Pop Record
Justin Timberlake’s third solo album, The 20/20 Experience, enters The Billboard 200 at #1 with first-week sales of 968K. That’s the biggest one-week sales tally since Taylor Swift’s Red sold 1,208,000 copies in its first week in October. It’s the biggest one-week tally by a male artist since Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter III opened with sales of 1,006,000 in September 2008. It’s the biggest one-week tally in the first quarter of the year (when sales are generally slower) since 50 Cent’s The Massacre opened with sales of 1,141,000 in March 2005. It’s Timberlake’s seventh top 10 album counting four albums with *NSYNC.
The 20/20 Experience also set a new record for the biggest one-week sales tally for an album by a male pop artist since 1991, when Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales for Billboard. This stat excludes R&B (Usher), country (Garth Brooks) and rap (Eminem, 50 Cent and Lil Wayne). Who held the previous record? Try and guess. Details below.
First-week sales projections for Timberlake’s album were revised upward several times, from the initial forecast of 500K on March 11. About the only disappointment for Timberlake is that 20/20 just missed becoming the 19th album to sell 1 million copies in a week since 1991. No album has ever come so close to the magic 1M mark without quite reaching it.
Each of Timberlake’s three solo albums has sold more copies in its first week than the one that preceded it. Justified sold 439K copies in its first week in November 2002. FutureSex/LoveSounds sold 684K copies in its first week in September 2006.
Timberlake took a huge risk going 6-1/2 years between studio albums. That’s a lifetime in pop music. Swift, Lady Gaga, Adele and Justin Bieber are just a few of the artists who have debuted since Timberlake released his last album. You could say that Timberlake’s faith in his fans to remain loyal while he was off doing other things was Justified.
After just one week, The 20/20 Experience is already the best-selling album so far in 2013. The runner-up is Mumford & Sons’ Babel, which has sold 658K copies in this calendar year. Babel won a Grammy for Album of the Year in February. The 20/20 Experience is likely to be nominated for that award next February. Timberlake’s first two solo albums were both finalists for the award.
Timberlake has now had as many #1 albums on his own as he did with *NSYNC. That boy band topped the chart with 2000’s No Strings Attached and 2001’s Celebrity. It’s easy now to take Timberlake’s emergence from that group for granted, but it was a remarkable feat. Very few members of boy bands have gone on to successful careers as solo artists.
The 20/20 Experience is the 23rd album since 1991 to sell 900K or more copies in one week. Timberlake has three of them counting the two aforementioned *NSYNC albums. No other artist has topped 900K in weekly sales with three albums. (Trailing with two albums at or above 900K are, in addition to *NSYNC, Eminem, Backstreet Boys, Taylor Swift, Garth Brooks and Lil Wayne).
Timberlake has been a pop star for nearly 15 years (*NSYNC’s first album hit the chart in April 1998). It’s very rare for an artist who has been around this long to sell as many albums in one week as Timberlake did this week. In fact, only one act has ever done it before. The Beatles had been famous nearly 37 years when their hits compilation 1 sold 1,259,000 copies during Christmas week 2000.
This week’s debut also gives Timberlake back his title as pop’s reigning Justin. Justin Bieber’s biggest first-week total is 374K for Believe in June 2011.
The 20/20 Experience also set a new record for the biggest one-week sales tally for a digital album by a male artist. The sales tally for The 20/20 Experience includes 452K digital copies. Only two albums have sold this many digital copies in one week. Lady Gaga’s Born This Way sold 662K digital copies in its first week in May 2011. (For the record, an estimated 400K of those albums were sold for 99 cents at Amazon MP3). Taylor Swift’s Red sold 465K digital copies in its first week in October.
As a sign of how much the digital album market has grown, FutureSex/LoveSounds sold just 67K digital copies in its first week. And that now-modest tally constituted a new one-week sales record at the time. (FutureSex took the title from Coldplay’s X&Y.)
The 20/20 Experience also debuts at #1 on the Official U.K. chart. All three of Timberlake’s solo albums have reached #1 in the U.K.
“Suit & Tie,” Timberlake’s snazzy collabo with Jay-Z, has climbed as high as #4 on the Hot 100. The follow-up, “Mirrors,” is approaching the top 20. “Suit & Tie” has held up well under sustained airplay, which is the ultimate test of a hit single.
What album by a male pop artist held the previous one-week sales record? Timberlake’s previous album FutureSex/LoveSounds (684K).
Incidentally, FutureSex/LoveSounds rebounds from #98 to #37 on The Billboard 200. That puts it at #1 on the Top Catalog Albums chart for the first time.
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Member Since: 6/1/2010
Posts: 65,177
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He's pop when it's convenient I see.
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Member Since: 10/27/2007
Posts: 7,915
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Quote:
Originally posted by Cap10Planet
He's pop when it's convenient I see.
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Was about to say that.
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ATRL Contributor
Member Since: 11/5/2011
Posts: 6,204
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Lol the album isn't Pop, so no.
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Member Since: 5/18/2012
Posts: 27,141
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Member Since: 11/18/2011
Posts: 7,791
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If he was black they'd call it r&b. Im so over the music industry and these RIDICULOUS double standards 
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Member Since: 9/16/2009
Posts: 14,616
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Great for Justin !!!!!!
Wayne still in history books 
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Member Since: 8/3/2012
Posts: 19,910
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But I thought he was doing R&B ever since he left NSync 
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Member Since: 6/19/2011
Posts: 4,294
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Quote:
Originally posted by Cap10Planet
He's pop when it's convenient I see.
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LMAO
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Member Since: 2/28/2012
Posts: 19,176
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Quote:
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Lady Gaga’s Born This Way sold 662K digital copies in its first week in May 2011.
(For the record, an estimated 400K of those albums were sold for 99 cents at Amazon MP3).
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congrats jt.
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Member Since: 9/15/2011
Posts: 2,389
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The Lady GaGa and Justin Bieber shade in this article. 
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Member Since: 3/18/2008
Posts: 40,057
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It's safe to say he's now the biggest male popstar of all time. 
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Member Since: 8/6/2003
Posts: 50,977
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I see many "records" that would fall in the same category as "first black or first white from *insert any city/state* artist to do this or that", but congrats on the couple of REAL records. 
Quote:
Originally posted by Cap10Planet
He's pop when it's convenient I see.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Runway
Was about to say that.
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Quote:
Originally posted by iKatyCats
Lol the album isn't Pop, so no.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Brando
But I thought he was doing R&B ever since he left NSync |
MTE. 
Duca 
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Member Since: 8/22/2011
Posts: 6,816
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Of course they had to make it seem like he broke a record seeing that his album is R&B and Usher still holds that title for all-time biggest one-week sales by a male R&B artist after all the promo.oh well "If at first you don't succeed, dust yourself off and try again"
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Member Since: 4/29/2012
Posts: 15,977
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Quote:
Originally posted by Gui Blackout
It's safe to say he's now the biggest male popstar of all time. |
You're joking right?
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Member Since: 2/16/2010
Posts: 69,775
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He's a pop-r&b hybrid to me. His records do have some big, melodic hooks that are normal in pop, but the majority of 20/20 is r&b.
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Member Since: 8/6/2003
Posts: 50,977
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Quote:
Originally posted by Lucas32
You're joking right? |
There is no other explanation, as I know he is old enough to know about the real stuff.
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Member Since: 8/6/2003
Posts: 50,977
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Quote:
Originally posted by MusicTalker
He's a pop-r&b hybrid to me. His records do have some big, melodic hooks that are normal in pop, but the majority of 20/20 is r&b.
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The joke and irony in this thread is that, when it comes to "brag" and "praise" JT for not being another "manufactured Pop artist", Duca and the other couple (?) of JT stans at ATRL enjoy saying he's an R&B singer. 
I also think most of his songs are still Pop oriented, but that's me, if you know what I mean.
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Banned
Member Since: 6/25/2011
Posts: 37,192
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Because pop & R&B have never, can never, and will never have ANY overlap
EVER!
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Member Since: 7/11/2010
Posts: 1,550
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Quote:
Originally posted by RIHDRAKEBRITUSH
Of course they had to make it seem like he broke a record seeing that his album is R&B and Usher still holds that title for all-time biggest one-week sales by a male R&B artist after all the promo.oh well "If at first you don't succeed, dust yourself off and try again"
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they are calling it pop now cause he couldn't break Confessions record lol (best 1st week sales for an R&B artist).
The funniest part is that Jay Z & him were bragging about popping bottles for his 1 million selling record but it never happened 
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