ARTSETC.
‘King of Pop’ Michael Jackson loses sizzle
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Wednesday, October 31, 2001
LOS ANGELES (REUTERS) — Michael Jackson, the self-proclaimed “King of Pop,” may top sales charts this week if estimates for “Invincible,” his first album of original music in six years, are right, but all the King’s horses won’t restore him to his 1980s heyday.
“I think it’s going to be my next No. 1, album and it will start somewhere north of (sales of) 300,000 units,” said Geoff Mayfield, director of charts for music-industry trade publication Billboard Magazine.
He said his estimate is “darn respectable,” although it pales against other recent No. 1 debuts. The current chart-topping album by rapper DMX sold 440,000 units in its first week. Jackson’s kid sister, Janet, shifted 605,000 copies of her latest album last April. The record for first week sales is 2.4 million units, achieved by boy-band ‘N Sync last year.
Jackson’s last album, HIStory, a double CD with hits and new songs, opened with 391,000 units in 1995 and ended up selling a meager 2.1 million copies.
Sony Corp’s Epic Records label, which released Invincible across the United States Tuesday after spending a reported $30 million to make it, had no immediate comment.
Retailers throughout the country said they were experiencing a pretty strong start for Invincible, despite lukewarm reviews and years of accumulated bad publicity surrounding the singer.
“It’s doing really well. I think it is probably due to a combination of specials on both MTV and VH1 leading up to the release that is driving sales,” said Doug Smith, senior buyer for National Record Mart Inc., which operates a chain of about 110 stores.
ERODING POPULARITY
A sales clerk for Tower Records in Manhattan said about 300 albums had sold since Tuesday. “It’s selling pretty strongly today,” the clerk said, adding it easily surpassed another Oct. 31 release, by sexy crooner Enrique Iglesias.
In the past few months, Jackson has reappeared on the publicity radar screens, promoting the album with several high-profile concerts, appearances and television specials.
But his eroding popularity, combined with the music market’s general malaise, makes it hard to imagine he will even approach the heights of his 1982 opus Thriller, the biggest selling album in history with sales of more than 40 million units worldwide.
Scandals also made the 43-year-old eccentric star a popular tabloid subject since the 1990s. Critics have been unenthusiastic. Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times wrote, ”The music itself is anything but invincible.”
The Backstreet Boys this week also released another new album, The Hits — Chapter One, although preliminary estimates indicate the album is running close behind ”Invincible” and might fall just short of 300,000 units.
A spokeswoman for the band’s Jive Records label, said they had no concrete data yet. The Iglesias record will probably clock in with about 200,000 units, industry sources said.
