LONDON, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 06: Taylor Swift switches on the Christmas lights and performs for fans … [+]
Christmas is right around the corner, and with every passing week, more and more holiday-themed albums rise on the Billboard 200. Many have been going strong for several frames now, while others are just arriving, or returning, for the first time in 2021. More than 30 such titles are present at the moment, and that number is sure to climb as the big day approaches.
This week, one especially popular Christmas album bolts back up the Billboard 200, and it seems like it’s headed for even higher reaches. Behind it, some of the most successful rock, pop and hip-hop titles enjoy hitting milestones that not many projects are lucky enough to reach.
Here are five albums that make big moves on the Billboard 200 chart this week.
No. 14 – Mariah Carey – Merry Christmas
As the holiday season jumps into overdrive, Mariah Carey rises on both the Hot 100 and Billboard 200, with the intense buying and streaming of her single “All I Want for Christmas Is You” improving the standing of the full-length it’s featured on, Merry Christmas. The title lifts to No. 14, and chances are in a few days it will find its way back to the top 10. As its annual ascent continues unabated, Carey’s first yuletide collection hits 104 weeks on the chart, or exactly two years.
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No. 121 – Prince – Purple Rain
More often than not, Prince’s Purple Rain soundtrack is present on the Billboard 200. These days, enough of his fans are listening to the set on streaming sites and buying it in record stores that it keeps going, and this frame it celebrates reaching a special milestone. Decades after it was first released, the title has now spent 156 weeks, or three years, on the tally.
No. 127 – Post Malone – Stoney
Post Malone is in the process of preparing his next album, and while details are scarce at the moment, two singles have already been released from the upcoming project. As fans wait for the latest taste of what should be his fourth full-length, they continue streaming the set that made him a star. Stoney has now been present on the Billboard 200 for five years (260 weeks), the entirety of its life. It appears that it hasn’t left the chart since then, proving itself to be a rare steady success.
No. 133 – Taylor Swift – 1989
2021 was huge for Taylor Swift and her fans, as the singer-songwriter delivered quite a bit of music. She dropped two full-lengths, and the pair she shared in 2020 continued to perform well at the same time. While her legion of fans busied themselves tuning into her re-recorded and re-released projects, they still found time to continue consuming her older efforts, and now one of her biggest successes has made it to a notable mark on the ranking. 1989, her first pure-pop title, is up to 364 weeks on the Billboard 200, or seven years. It remains Swift’s only project to hit 300 turns on the tally, at least so far.
No. 168 – Kanye West – Graduation
Three Kanye West albums appear on the current Billboard 200, with one enjoying a celebratory week. Graduation, one of the rapper’s most critically-acclaimed and beloved early projects, has now been present on the all-genre ranking of the most-consumed full-lengths and EPs in the U.S. for 200 frames.
