Pop Charts: The Weeknd Dawns at Number 1 with New Album, Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours” Won’t Go Away
The top albums chart for the week is a mix of the old and the new.
New is number 1– “Dawn FM” from The Weeknd sold 154,000 copies, the bulk of them from streaming. “Dawn FM” sold only 14,739 paid downloads and CDs. Yikes.
Adele’s “30” dropped to number 4 and sold a total of 46,000 copies, but 19,288 were a mix of CDs, LPs, and downloads. So she actually wins.
But then again. The Weekend also sold 36,000 streaming equivalent copies of his greatest hits. So maybe he wins.
Then there’s Morgan Wallen, who managed to unload 42,322 of his “Dangerous” double album. Doesn’t everyone in the world have this thing already? And is no one embarrassed buying it, all things considered? Evidently not. Plus Wallen sold 13,000 copies of his previous album. So maybe he won.
But the real winner was Fleetwood Mac, a group I read about from the 70s. Their 1977 album. “Rumours,” won’t go away. It sold almost 16K copies, nearly two thirds streaming equivalent. Go figure. This thing was the bane of my existence in 1977 when Elvis Costello, the Ramones, the Clash, The Jam, Talking Heads, and Blondie were trying to kick its ass. It took Michael Jackson in 1979 with “Off the Wall” to do the trick. And now it’s back! Why? It must be discounted down to like 3 bucks or something. Who knows?
