Charts analysis: Adele's 30 debuts at summit with 262,000 sales

Adele recorded the highest weekly sale not just of the 2010s but of all-time, when her third album, 25, sold a staggering 800,307 copies on its first week on release in 2015. Exactly six years on, follow-up, 30, sets the pace for the 2020s, opening its account with an introductory tally of 261,856 sales – the best of the 100 weeks that have elapsed in the decade to date, surpassing the 203,909 set by ABBA’s Voyage a mere fortnight ago. All four of Adele’s albums to date have debuted at No.1, and have gone on to enjoy lengthy chart careers and multi-platinum sales. All are in the Top 40 this week to welcome 30. First album 19, from 2008, rallies 39-31 (3,714 sales) on its 190th Top 75 appearance. Second album 21, from 2011, climbs 23-18 (5,463 sales) on its 223rd chart week. And third album 25’s 144th appearance on the chart see it fall 13-15 (7,699 sales). 21 remains the 21st century’s biggest seller (5,318,918 sales), while 25 ranks fourth (3,747,797 sales) and 19 is 30th (2,518,168 sales). With 19 spending one week at No.1, 21 spending 23 weeks at No.1 and 25 spending 13 weeks at No.1, 30’s coronation brings Adele her 38th week in pole position – well short of The Beatles’ record of 176 weeks at No.1, but the second most of any artist in the 21st century, trailing only Ed Sheeran, with 42 weeks. Sheeran’s latest album =, itself No.1 three weeks ago, is 30’s nearest challenger this week rising 3-2, although its total of 32,789 sales mean that 30 outsold it by a margin of almost eight to one. 30 also sold more copies than the rest of the Top 20 combined. A new album by Oasis - whose 1997 release Be Here Now held the record for highest weekly sale before 25 – would doubtless have given Adele a stern test this week. But the defunct band’s new live set Knebworth 1996, consisting of 20 recordings from two nights at the legendary festival a quarter of a century ago, opens at No.4 (26,720 sales). It is their 12th Top 10 entry. An earlier live album, Familiar To Millions, debuted and peaked at No.5 (58,877 sales) in 2000, and has gone on to sell 362,368 copies. Fourteen years after their first collaboration, Raising Sand, peaked at No.2 behind Scouting For Girls’ eponymous debut, former Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant and bluegrass legend Alison Krauss debut at No.5 (21,120 sales) with a second selection of covers, Raise The Roof. Raising Sand has sold 744,081 copies. London hip-hop collective D-Block Europe secure their fifth Top 10 album with Home Alone 2 (No.6, 15,478 sales) in the same week that one of its tracks, Overseas, finally secures them their first Top 10 single. There are also Top 10 debuts for: Flying Dream 1 (No.7, 13,589 sales), the eighth Top 10 album for Elbow; and The Stars Beneath My Feet (2004-2021) (No.9, 10,710 sales), a compilation with four new tracks that provides the seventh Top 10 album for James Blunt. The rest of the Top 10: Voyage (2-3, 29,963 sales) by ABBA, Red (Taylor’s Version) (1-8, 11,754 sales) by Taylor Swift and Between Us (4-10, 9,497 sales) by Little Mix. Dipping out of the Top 10: The Tears Of Hercules (5-13, 8,427 sales) by Rod Stewart, An Evening With (9-23, 4,773 sales) by Silk Sonic, Crawler (6-48, 2,470 sales) by Idles. Disco (10-71, 1,880 sales) by Kylie Minogue, The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows (7-94, 1,555 sales) by Damon Albarn and Most Wanted: The Greatest Hits by The Wanted (8-118, 1,274 sales). Falling just short of becoming his 23rd Top 10 album, The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concert (No.11, 8,843 sales) is the 39th Top 75 album for Bruce Springsteen. After first grazing the chart in 2000 – reaching No.51 with Celebration! - it was a further 10 years before Andre Rieu returned, but he has made up for lost time and secures his 25th Top 75 album this week with Happy Together (No.12, 8,566 sales), with regular collaborators The Johann Strauss Orchestra. Dubbed the “world’s first classical superstar” and “the king of the waltz”, the Dutch violinist and bandleader is 72. Also new to the chart: Motorheart (No.16, 5,708 sales), the eighth chart album for The Darkness; Motown: A Symphony Of Soul (No.21, 5,058 sales), the latest after-the-fact orchestrating of recordings via the addition of new strings from The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; and The Bridge (No.27, 4,079 sales), Sting’s 32nd chart entry (including 11 with The Police). There are returns to the chart for Scared And Icy (No.41, 2,744 sales), Twenty One Pilots’ latest album, which reached No.3 in June and has belatedly been issued on vinyl; and U2’s Achtung Baby (No.34, 3,419 sales), a 1991 chart-topper that benefits from a 30th anniversary expanded edition, and that last charted in 2011 (No.35) on the release of a 20th anniversary edition. Michael Buble’s Christmas enters the Top 20 for the 11th year in a row, advancing 56-17 (5,542 sales). Overall album sales are up 9.09% week-on-week at 2,334,124, their highest level of the year and 17.01% above same week 2020 sales of 1,994,727. Physical product accounted for 766,703 sales, 32.85% of the total. * Every one of the acts who have debuted at No.1 in the last six weeks has had at least three prior chart-toppers – a sequence unmatched in chart history. The acts in question - Coldplay, Elton John, Ed Sheeran, ABBA, Taylor Swift and Adele – had eight, seven, four, nine, seven and three prior No.1s respectively. Their popularity means that the average sale for a No.1 so far in the 2020s is 32,086, up from just 25,527 six weeks ago. Let’s not get carried away, however…the first 100 weeks of the 2000s yielded a No.1 average of 101,368, and the first 100 weeks of the 2010s a No.1 average of 93,993. Subscribers can access all the latest charts here.

The industry's brightest new talents tell their stories. This month it's the turn of producer CeeBeaats... What first led you to making beats? “My mum inspired me to make beats and sparked my interest in production from the age of 9. She’s a singer, songwriter and producer. I was always intrigued by her basslines and infectious melodies, which I incorporate into my own music today. I also grew up around a lot of music that has inspired me from the era of the ’70s all the way to the 2000s with artists and producers such as Timbaland, Scott Storch, DJ Premier, J Dilla, Brandy, Mase, The Whispers, 112 and lots more.” How would you describe your journey to this point? How straightforward has it been? “I’ve actually found my journey to be such an amazing experience. My supporters have been nothing but loving and supportive of everything I do. Even when I’ve been in studio sessions with different artists and producers, they’ve been nothing but nice and treated me with respect, so I’ve enjoyed my journey so far. No journey’s ever smooth sailing but I wouldn’t change it for the world.” It’s already being said that you’re paving the way for female producers in the UK, how does it feel to hear things like that? And how important is the job you have to do? “Oh wow, I’m extremely honoured and grateful to know that it’s being said that I’m paving the way for female producers. From the very beginning of my career, it has been immensely important to me to inspire and motivate other women to make beats and be fearless. I also want women as well as men to know that they can do it too. It’s never too late!” It's immensely important to me to inspire and motivate other women to make beats and be fearless CeeBeaats Can you describe what you bring to the table as a producer? What’s your process? “I’m very versatile as a producer. I produce different genres such as pop, Afrobeats, UK rap, drill, trap, R&B, hip-hop, Brazilian funk, lo-fi and more. My process as a producer is to make sure that the beat is infectious, unique and memorable. For example, when I co-produced Woi by Digga D, I wanted the melody to be catchy. I had the same intention when I produced the first beat in AJ Tracey’s Fire in the Booth, Part 3, and these are the combinations I use in all of my beats to make them distinctive and enjoyable.” Now you’re establishing yourself more and more in the business, what have you learned about the industry and what do you want to happen in the future? “I’ve learned that it’s okay to be unique and different and It’s good to experiment with your sounds and not be afraid to stand out. I’m so grateful that I’ve been accepted as a producer in this light. In the future, I want to work with more of my dream artists, have a plethora of the records I make go on to achieve platinum-selling status and to keep on being innovative and pushing boundaries.” Browse the very latest music industry jobs on the Music Week jobs page.

Charts analysis: Adele extends singles reign to five weeks

The No.1 single for the fifth week in a row is Easy On Me (67,102 sales), the introductory single from 30, the new album from Adele, which ...

Analysis

subscribers only

Charts analysis: Taylor Swift lands eighth No.1 album

Swift by name, swift by nature: Taylor Swift racks up her fourth No.1 album of the 2020s, with Red (Taylor’s Version) – a considerably expanded remake of her ...

Analysis

subscribers only

Centre Stage: Mark Davyd

Music Venue Trust CEO Mark Davyd’s monthly deep dive into live music’s biggest issues... I am writing this month’s column fresh off the back of the two incredible ...

Interviews

subscribers only