American Songwriter Reads The Charts: So Long, Bobby!

Small sales, but a big splash.

With her sophomore album, Epiphany, R&B singer-songwriter Chrisette Michele has topped this week’s Billboard 200 album charts, dethroning none other than Bob Dylan, who’s Together Through Life drops to #5 (don’t think twice, it’s alright). Michele, who won a Grammy this year for “Be Ok,” a duet with Black Eyed Peas, records for Def Jam and has guested on albums by Jay-Z, Nas, and the Roots.

According to Billboard, Epiphany’s sales tally, which reached 83,000, represents the lowest number of records sold in Nielsen SoundScan’s 18 year history of tabulating sales. However, she’s in some good company there — the only other two artists to debut at #1 with sales lower than 100,000 were Biggie Smalls (with #1’s), and Johnny Cash (with American V: The Man Comes Around.)

Mother’s Day meant a big boost in CD sales — Taylor Swift’s Fearless, which dominated the chart in the beginning of the year, saw a 42% increase this week, proving what we already suspected: moms love Taylor Swift.

Debuting this week are albums by Ben Harper (White Lies for Dark Times, #9 with 34,000 copies sold), Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band’s Outer South at #40, and Yusuf Islam’s Roadsinger at #41.

The Skinny:

Overall album sales hit 6.51 million units this week, up 5.4% compared last week (6.17 million), and down 19.8% compared the same week last year (8.12 million). Total album sales for this year have reached 130.5 million, down 12.9% compared to this point last year (149.9 million).

The top 10 albums in the country this week:

1. Chrisette Michele – Epiphany
2. Hannah Montana: the Movie
3. Ciara – Fantasy Ride
4. Rascal Flatts – Unstoppable
5. Bob Dylan –Together Through Life
6. Lady GaGa – The Fame
7. Taylor Swift – Fearless
8. Rick Ross – Deeper Than Rap
9. Ben Harper and Relentless7 – White Lies for Dark Times
10. Twilight – soundtrack