One Direction makes Billboard history, knocks Swift from No. 1

Published November 27, 2014
One Direction poses backstage with their awards for Favorite Rock/Pop Band/Duo/Group, Artist of the Year and Favorite Rock/Pop Album for ''Midnight Memories'' during the 42nd American Music Awards in Los Angeles, California November 23, 2014. - Reuters
One Direction poses backstage with their awards for Favorite Rock/Pop Band/Duo/Group, Artist of the Year and Favorite Rock/Pop Album for ''Midnight Memories'' during the 42nd American Music Awards in Los Angeles, California November 23, 2014. - Reuters

LOS ANGELES: British boy band One Direction became the only group to score four consecutive No. 1 debuts on the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart on Wednesday, ousting Taylor Swift from her chart-topping reign.

One Direction's latest album, Four, sold 387,000 copies in its first week, according to figures compiled by Nielsen SoundScan.

It follows the band's three previous albums, 2011's Up All Night, 2012's Take Me Home and 2013's Midnight Memories, all of which opened at No. 1 on the Billboard chart.

Sales of Four may have been boosted after One Direction won three times at Sunday's televised American Music Awards, including the night's top place for artist of the year. The group also performed new song 'Night Changes' at the ceremony.

The band also made history on music streaming platform Spotify by scoring the most first-week streams after Four was streamed 11.6 million times in the United States and 30 million times worldwide. The news comes after Swift made a highly publicized move to take her music catalog off the popular service.

Swift's 1989 dropped to No. 2 this week with 214,000 sales. The album became the biggest debut of the year after opening with 1.3 million copies, and held the top spot on the Billboard 200 chart for three consecutive weeks.

1989 has sold more than 2.2 million copies, the second-biggest selling album of 2014, behind only Disney's Frozen soundtrack with 3.6 million copies.

Other new entries in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart this week include Canadian rockers Nickelback at No. 4 with No Fixed Address and metal group In This Moment at No. 8 with Black Widow.

For the week ended Nov. 23, Billboard said a total of 5.5 million albums were sold, up 4 percent from the comparable week in 2013. Year-to-date sales rounded out at 215 million, down 12 percent from the same period last year.

This is the last week Nielsen SoundScan will compile the Billboard 200 album chart from sales figures alone. From next week, the album chart will reflect online streaming and digital track sales to accurately reflect which records were most in demand.

Opinion

Editorial

Plugging the gap
06 May, 2024

Plugging the gap

IN Pakistan, bias begins at birth for the girl child as discriminatory norms, orthodox attitudes and poverty impede...
Terrains of dread
Updated 06 May, 2024

Terrains of dread

Restored faith in the police is unachievable without political commitment and interprovincial support.
Appointment rules
Updated 06 May, 2024

Appointment rules

If the judiciary had the power to self-regulate, it ought to have exercised it instead of involving the legislature.
Hasty transition
Updated 05 May, 2024

Hasty transition

Ostensibly, the aim is to exert greater control over social media and to gain more power to crack down on activists, dissidents and journalists.
One small step…
05 May, 2024

One small step…

THERE is some good news for the nation from the heavens above. On Friday, Pakistan managed to dispatch a lunar...
Not out of the woods
05 May, 2024

Not out of the woods

PAKISTAN’S economic vitals might be showing some signs of improvement, but the country is not yet out of danger....