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For the sixth week in a row, teen idols
’N Sync retained the top spot on the national music charts as No
Strings Attached (Jive) sold more than 248,000 copies, according to sales
data released last week.
Sales of the disc for the week ending April 30 were roughly 49,000 copies,
greater than those for Toni Braxton’s first album in four years,
Heat (LaFace), which debuted at No. 2 with 199,000 copies. Its performance
gives LaFace co-president Antonio ‘L.A.’ Reid something extra
to smile about this week as he prepares to take over the reins at LaFace’s
Arista parent.
Hemp-hoppers Cypress Hill’s fifth album, Skull & Bones (Columbia),
shifted more than 139,000 units and debuted at No. 5. The other hot film
soundtrack is the various artists’ Romeo Must Die (Blackground/Virgin),
which topped 74,000 units and retained the No. 14 spot on the charts,
thanks to the continuing power of R&B diva-actress Aaliyah’s
single Try Again. Industry heavyweight Universal took home the lion’s
share of the week’s current album market, 26.2%, followed by BMG,
21.9%; Sony, 17.8%; Warner, 12.9%; and EMI, 7.5%.
...And ’N Sync to Hit the Silver Screen
Boy band sensation ’N Sync, which smashed U.S. sales records with
its latest album, has struck a deal to star in its own movie, but the
plot is being kept a trade secret until next month’s Cannes Film
Festival. Details of the film, including story line and title, will be
unveiled on May 16 at Cannes, where the group is due to make an appearance,
according to the production company behind the project.
“’N Sync’s an international musical treasure,” Total
Film Group Chairman and Chief Executive Gerald Green said, “By turning
to film, they will give their fans around the world a new medium in which
to enjoy their remarkable talents.”
A spokesman for Total Film said the ’N Sync movie is separate from
a previously announced film project involving Tom Hanks’ production
company that is set to shoot in August and September.
The Total Film project is slated to begin shooting in early 2001, and
will feature all five members of ’N Sync group — Chris Kirkpatrick,
Joey Fatone, J.C. Chasez, Lance Bass, and Justin Timberlake. The band,
which started up in the mid-1990s in Orlando, Fla., recently set two major
U.S. sales records with its new release, No Strings Attached —- selling
the most copies ever in a single day, and the most of any album in its
first week in release.
The album sold a million copies in its first day of release in late March,
and 2.42 million albums in its first week, thus making it the biggest
album release of all time, and validating the power of teen dollars in
the music business. l
Sudipto Dey