To nobody’s surprise, One Direction have another number one album with their latest, Four.
The group’s fourth album (hence the title) comes in at number one with 387,000 sold, giving them the second best sales frame of 2014. It also marks the biggest week for a group since their last album, Midnight Memories, which sold over 500,000 copies last December. One Direction may have the best sales week right now, but long-awaited new albums from the likes of Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, and a handful of others could come close to taking that from 1D if they play their cards right.
With this latest milestone in what is already an incredibly impressive career, One Direction find themselves making history in a few ways. Since Four started at number one, they become the first group to see their first four albums (their entire output to date)—Up All Night, Take Me Home, Midnight Memories, and now Four—debut in the top slot. They are besting themselves on this one, as last year they became the only group to have their first three albums debut at number one.
Four is also their fourth number one in less than three years, which is truly an amazing feat. When it comes to all acts (including solo artists), One Direction are the fourth in charting history to have their first four records debut at number one. They follow in the footsteps of Britney Spears, DMX, and Beyonce, the latter two of which saw five CDs start in first place.
While they are the first band or group in history to have their first four albums debut ahead of everybody else, they aren’t actually the first to have their first four albums end up at number one. Both The Monkees and The Kingston Trio saw their albums reach the pinnacle of the charts, but some of those albums didn’t start off there. Pretty technical, but you have to give credit where it’s due (especially to legends like The Monkees and The Kingston Trio).
The British boy banders dethrone Taylor Swift, who enjoyed three weeks at the top spot and slides to number two. Swift easily keeps her hold on the largest single week sales figure this year, having moved 1.287 million copies of her latest album 1989. If anyone is counting, that’s almost three and a half times the size of One Direction’s achievement. In the runner up slot, Swift moved another 214,000, which brings her four week total to 2.21 million. She currently sits behind only the Frozen soundtrack in terms of most copies sold in 2014.
