Alright so Justin Timberlake may have been shut out in the marquee categories at the Grammys, but he cleaned up on the music charts.
The multi-media star has the year’s best-selling album, “The 20/20 Experience.” And he’s the only artist with two albums in the year-end top 20. (The sequel, “2 of 2,” ranks #20.)
Also, he’s the only artist with three of the year’s top 20 digital hits: “Mirrors” (# 12), “Suit & Tie” (#17) and “Holy Grail” (#19). (The latter two songs, of course, are collabos with Jay Z, who also has an album in the year’s top 10.)
Timberlake is the first artist in chart history to wind up with the #1 album of the year both as a solo artist and as a group member.
*NSYNC’s No Strings Attached was the #1 album of 2000. Alas, Timberlake’s album sets a new record for the lowest sales tally for the year’s #1 album since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking music sales in 1991. The album sold 2,427,000 copies during the year. The previous low (and the only other year-end #1 to fall below 3 million) was Lil Wayne’s “Tha Carter III,” which was the #1 seller of 2008, despite sales that year of just 2,874,000 copies. Here’s some better news: Timberlake’s album sold 1,026,000 digital copies. It’s only the second album in digital history (following Adele’s “21”) to sell 1 million digital copies in a calendar year.
Another “blue-eyed soul” star, Robin Thicke, has the year’s #1 single, “Blurred Lines.” The song, which features T.I. + Pharrell, sold 6,498,000 copies. This is down from last year’s champ, “Somebody That I Used To Know” by Gotye featuring Kimbra, which sold 6,801,000 during that year.
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis was the only act with two songs in the year-end top 10 of 2013. “Thrift Shop” (featuring Wanz) was #2 (6,148,000 copies sold in 2013, on top of 1,118,000 copies sold in 2012.
“Can’t Hold Us” (featuring Ray Dalton) was #8 (4,260,000, on top of 123K sold in 2012).
Eight songs sold more than 4 million copies each in 2013, more than in any previous year. The old record was five in 2010. The top 10 includes six collaborations, more than in any previous year. Again, the old record was five in 2010.
Imagine Dragons was the only act to appear in the top five on both the year-end albums and singles charts. Florida Georgia Line and Bruno Mars also appear in the top 10 on both charts.
The list of the year’s top 10 albums begins just like the 2000 year-end chart, with Timberlake. (solo now, in a group then)at # 1and Eminem at #2. For Eminem, that was the year of the original “The Marshall Mathers LP.” In 2013, he was represented by the sequel. This is the sixth time that Eminem has placed an album in the year-end top 10. This puts him in a tie with Garth Brooks, Mariah Carey and Beyonce for the most years with an album in the year-end top 10 in the Nielsen SoundScan era.
Beyonce’s “Beyonce” winds up as the eighth-best- selling album of 2013, even though it was available for just the last three weeks of the year. It’s the first album to wind up in the year-end top 10 based on just three weeks of sales availability in the Nielsen SoundScan era. The former record- holder is Garth Brooks’ “Sevens,” which ranked among the top 10 albums of 1997 even though it was available for just the last five weeks of that year. With Beyonce and Jay Z both securing slots in the year-end top 10, this marks the first time in chart history that a husband and wife have separately made the year-end top 10.
This is the fifth time that Timberlake has placed an album in the year-end top 10 (counting his work with *NSYNC.) The Year’s Top 10 Albums we’ve already given you the details about #1, “The 20/20 Experience.” Here’s the rest of the top 10.
Eminem’s “The Marshall Mathers LP 2” is #2 (1,727,000). It’s the year’s top rap album. This marks the fourth time that Eminem has ranked either #1 or #2 on the year-end chart, a first in Nielsen SoundScan history. Luke Bryan’s “Crash My Party” is #3 (1,521,000). It’s the year’s top country album. This is the second year in a row that Bryan has had an album in the year-end top 10.
Imagine Dragons’ “Night Visions” is #4 (1,402,000). It’s the 2013 year’s top rock album, the year’s top debut album and the year’s top album by a group or duo. It’s also the year’s best-selling album that was released in 2012. It sold an additional 417K copies that year.
Bruno Mars’ “Unorthodox Jukebox” is #5 (1,399,000). This sold an additional 480K copies in 2012.
Florida Georgia Line’s “Here’s To The Good Times” is #6 (1,350,000). This sold an additional 181K copies in 2012.
Drake’s “Nothing Was The Same” is #7 (1,344,000). It’s the year’s top album by a foreign-born artist. (Drake was born in Canada.) This is the third time in the past four years that Drake has had an album in the year-end top 10.
Beyonce’s “Beyonce” is #8 (1,301,000). This is the year’s top album by a female artist and the year’s top (non-rap) R&B album. This marks the sixth time that Beyonce has had an album in the year- end top 10 (counting her work with Destiny’s Child).
Blake Shelton’s “Based On A True Story…” is #9 (1,109,000).
Jay Z’s “Magna Carta…Holy Grail” is #10 (1,099,000). This is the third time in the past five years that the rap icon has placed an album in the year-end top 10. Mumford & Sons’ “Babel” (very) narrowly withstood a challenge from One Direction’s “Midnight Memories” to become the year’s top-selling album by a British artist. It’s #11 (1,096,000, on top of 1,463,000 copies sold in 2012).
“Midnight Memories” also sold 1,096,000, to finish #12. “Pitch Perfect” is the year’s top soundtrack. It’s # 19 (793K, on top of 212K in 2012). A sidebar report on the year’s top soundtracks will go up today.
Kelly Clarkson’s “Wrapped In Red” waas the year’s top Christmas album. It’s #22 (763K). A sidebar report on the year’s top Christmas albums will go up today. “Now 45” is highest-ranking album in the long-running “Now” franchise. It’s #48 (492K). That’s the lowest year-end ranking for the year’s top “Now” title since 1998, when the first volume in the series ranked #111 for the year. Top 10 Songs we’ve already told you about #1, “Blurred Lines”; # 2, “Thrift Shop”; and #8, “Can’t Hold Us.” Here’s the rest of the top 10. Imagine Dragons’ “Radioactive” is #3 (5,496,000). This has sold more copies in a calendar year than any other song by a rock act in digital history. This sold an additional 546K copies in 2012. “Cruise” by Florida Georgia Line featuring Nelly is #4 (4,691,000). This has sold more copies in a calendar year than any other song by a country act in digital history. This sold an additional 1,636,000 copies in 2012. Lorde’s “Royals” is #5 (4,415,000). This is the year’s top-selling song by a female artist. (It edges out Katy Perry’s “Roar” by just 5K copies.) Lorde, 17, is the youngest artist to have a song in the year-end top 10 since Miley Cyrus, then also 17, had the #6 song of 2009, “Party In The U.S.A.” Katy Perry’s “Roar” is #6 (4,410,000).Thi s is the fourth time that Perry has had a song in the year- end top 10. “Just Give Me A Reason” by P!nk featuring Nate Ruess is #7 (4,321,000). P!nk had the #10 hit of 2008, “So What.” With fun., Ruess had two songs in the top 10 of 2012. This sold an additional 84K copies in 2012. Bruno Mars’ “When I Was Your Man” is #9 (3,928,000). This is the second time Mars has had a song in the year-end top 10. This sold an additional 195K copies in 2012. “Stay” by Rihanna featuring Mikky Ekko is #10 (3,854,000). This is the third time Rihanna has had a song in the year-end top 10 since 2008 (when Nielsen SoundScan’s songs recap originated). This sold an additional 57K copies in 2012. Miley Cyrus is the only female artist with two songs in the year-end top 20. “We Can’t Stop” is #15. “Wrecking Ball” is #16. Cyrus had two of the year-end top 20 in 2009: “Party In The U.S.A.” at #6 and “The Climb” at #12. (For Cyrus, who spent much of 2013 letting the world know that she is All Grown Up, that must seem like a lifetime ago.) As a featured artist, Pharrell Williams also has two songs in the year’s top 20. In addition to the #1- ranked “Blurred Lines,” he’s featured on Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” (#13). Here are other songs, not already mentioned, that rank in the year-end top 20: #11, Avicii’s “Wake Me Up!”; #14, OneRepublic’s “Counting Stars”; # 18, Fall Out Boy’s “My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light ‘Em Up)”; #20, Taylor Swift’s “I Knew You Were Trouble.”
::Conundrum:: 