Janet Takes Control of Chart

What a difference a single can make. Thanks in no small part to "All for You" saturating the airwaves, Janet Jackson's album of the same name is the nation's Number One album, moving a whopping 605,128 copies its first week in stores, according to SoundScan. That figure is higher than the total of her first-week sales of her previous two albums -- 202,000 for 1997's The Velvet Rope, and 350,000 for 1993's Janet, both of which also debuted at Number One -- combined.

Were it not for Miss Jackson's bit of chart nastiness, the hits collection, Now That's What I Call Music! 6 would still have had its three-week run in the top spot eliminated, as Tim McGraw's Set This Circus Down threw some early-season heat, scanning 223,400 copies to come in at Number Two. R&B singer Case dropped his Open Letter> into the Number Five slot with sales just shy of the 100,000 mark.

Aside from the trifecta of newcomers, the remainder of the chart showed continued signs of sluggishness. The Bee Gees' This Is Where I Came (Number Sixteen), Fear Factory's Digimortal (Number Thirty-two), Ally McBeal: Songs of the Heart (Number Thirty-four) and KRS-One's> Sneak Attack (Number Forty-three) all mustered top fifty debuts, but only five albums in the top 100 managed to eke out increased sales from the previous week.

In other sales milestones, 2Pac's Until the End of Time clicked past the 1 million copies sold mark in its fifth week of release, while Mystikal's Let's Get Ready pushed beyond 2 million.

Next week promises a chart showdown between a gaggle of scrapping divas, as Destiny's Child try to find the eye of the tiger with Survivor and leave Janet with a sole week as champ.

This week's Top Ten: Janet Jackson's All For You (605,128 copies sold); Tim McGraw's Set This Circus Down (223,400); Now That's What I Call Music! 6 (203,042); 2Pac's Until the End of Time (110,125); Case's Open Letter (92,856); Shaggy's Hotshot (89,700); Uncle Kracker's Double Wide (67,325); Lifehouse's No Name Face (66,832); Dido's No Angel (62,250); and Nelly's Country Grammar (61,155).

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Song Stories

“Youth Knows No Pain”

Lykke Li | 2011

“Like on 'Youth Knows No Pain' — we are the ones that should demonstrate, because we can take it,” Likke Li said. “We can pierce ourselves, take Ecstasy, dance all night and still go to work at our McDonald's jobs.” Despite the hedonistic sentiment in the song, the Swedish singer also admitted in hindsight her youth had repercussions. “I remember when I was 18-19 and feeling that I know it all,” Li said. “I always feel that I know it all. But that song is about realizing you don’t, and reflecting, ‘Boy, if I only knew what would follow.’”

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