Taylor Swift’s '1989' Has a Boffo Week Two

Taylor Swift's 1989 sold 402K copies in its second week, which tops the first-week sales of every other album so far this year. (Swift’s closest competition is Coldplay's Ghost Stories, which sold 383K copies in its first week in May.)

1989 has sold 1,689,000 copies in its first two weeks. It’s the first album to reach 1.6 million in just two weeks since 50 Cent’s The Massacre blew through 1,912,000 copies in its first two weeks in March 2005 (when the album sales market was much stronger). It’s the first album by a female artist to reach 1.6 million in just two weeks since Britney Spears's Oops!…I Did It Again sold 1,931,000 copies in its first two weeks in May 2000.

In case you’re wondering, the all-time record for an album after two weeks was set by *NSYNC's No Strings Attached, which sold 3,227,000 copies in its first two weeks in the spring of 2000.

Swift’s previous album, Red, sold 1,552,000 copies in its first two weeks. Her album before that, Speak Now, sold 1,367,000 copies in its first two weeks. Her album before that, Fearless, sold 810K copies in its first two weeks. (Thus, 1989 has sold more than twice as many copies in its first two weeks as Fearless did.)

1989 is just the second album by any artist to spend two weeks at #1 so far in 2014. It follows Ghost Stories, which spent its first two weeks on top in late spring. The two other albums to spend multiple frames at #1 in 2014 (Frozen and Guardians Of The Galaxy) are movie soundtracks.

1989 is Swift’s third studio album in a row to spend its first two weeks at #1. Speak Now spent its first two weeks on top in 2010. Red spent its first three weeks on top in 2012. Swift’s 2008 album Fearless debuted at #1, but was displaced in its second week by Beyonce's I Am…Sasha Fierce. (Swift took revenge 14 months later when Fearless beat I Am…Sasha Fierce for the Grammy for Album of the Year.)

Swift’s album came out too late to be eligible for the upcoming Grammys, but its lead single, “Shake It Off,” is eligible. The zesty smash has a good chance of receiving nominations in three categories: Record and Song Of The Year and Best Pop Solo Performance. Such varied artists as Kelly Clarkson and Kendrick Lamar have sung the song in recent weeks.

One Final Note: In addition to the many other records she set last week, Swift set a record as the artist with the longest span of albums that sold 1 million copies in a week. Swift’s million-unit-week albums span four years. The old record was held by Eminem, whose million-unit-week albums spanned two years, from The Marshall Mathers LP in May 2000 to The Eminem Show in June 2002. Backstreet Boys are third (a span of one year and six months). *NSYNC is fourth (a span of one year and four months).

Follow Paul on Google+