August 2, 2001
By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
Poor 'N Sync. Their latest
album "Celebrity" sold just 1.88 million copies in its first week of release.
Ordinarily, this kind of
figure would spur groups and their managers to flip cartwheels of joy.
But the world's most popular boy band was outdone by, well, itself.
Last year, 'N Sync's "No
Strings Attached" broke records by selling 2.4 million copies in seven
days. Previously the record had been held by the Backstreet Boys, who sold
1.1 million copies of "Millennium" in 1999.
"No one's feeling too sorry
for 'N Sync right now," says Geoff Mayfield, director of charts at Billboard
magazine. "They have the two biggest sales weeks we've ever seen in that
period. They have no reason to be disappointed. I don't think anyone expected
this album to replicate what the last album did in terms of sales."
A publicist for the group
declined to comment except to say the five members are pleased with how
well "Celebrity" is doing.
Locally, stores are reporting
that sales are as brisk for "Celebrity" as "No Strings Attached" was last
year.
"It's doing almost exactly
the same as 'No Strings Attached' did," says Ryan Reynolds, record sales
manager for Tower Records on North Clark. "They both sold about 200 units
during the first day of release and then another 50 the rest of the week.
I was a little surprised at how well it did here because there didn't seem
to be as much excitement about this record as there was for the last one.
'N Sync consistently does better at our store than the Backstreet Boys
or Britney Spears, but Radiohead sold twice as much--600 copies in its
first week."
Once viewed as Backstreet
Boys wannabes, 'N Sync has surpassed its competitors and label mates at
Jive Records. Besides superior record sales, 'N Sync's summer tour of stadiums
such as Soldier Field was sold out. Meanwhile, plenty of tickets remain
for the Backstreet Boys' tour, now suspended, of smaller arenas like the
Tweeter Center. Whether the decline in the Boys' popularity has to do with
their music or the fact that two of the Boys are married men is debatable.
Other acts to achieve first-week
sales of 1 million or more include Britney Spears (who is dating 'N Sync's
Justin Timberlake), Limp Bizkit, Eminem and Garth Brooks. "The Bodyguard"
soundtrack also sold more than 1 million units in its first week of release.
Read more about 'N Sync
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