MOURNING GLORY

It’s the longstanding reality of the marketplace: The massive press surrounding a tragedy results in huge sales for the artist involved. That said, Virgin/Blackground’s Aaliyah is #1 this week, making an enormous increase over its previous seven days.

"Tragedy in the age of spiraling mass media—this week wasn’t much of a surprise," said Mike Fuller of Hastings.

"Aaliyah," out since July 17, debuted at #2 and fell off significantly afterward, but due to the fast-breaking single "Rock Da Boat"—the video to which the singer died working on—the album had already begun to move back up the chart.

Aaliyah’s sales have partially overshadowed the other monumental sales story this week: UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP HAS SIX DEBUTS IN THE TOP 10.

Helloooooo?

Those six would be MCA’s Mary J. Blige at #2, Roadrunner/IDJ’s Slipknot at #3, Motown’s Brian McKnight at #6, Flawless/Geffen’s Puddle of Mudd at #8, DreamWorks Nashville’s Toby Keith at #9 and Universal’s Afroman at #10.

Um…nice week.

This week’s Top Five is rounded out J’s Alicia Keys at #4 and Columbia’s Maxwell at #5.

"I don’t know if this is indicative of the type of fourth quarter we’ll ultimately have, but for the moment I’ll relish it as an accurate barometer of economic activity as it relates to the music industry," is what Fuller would have said, according to an elitist HITS editor who’s so brain-numb from endless reams of monosyllabic Mike Fuller retail quotes that he felt compelled to WRITE IT HIMSELF. Thank you.