WEEK IN PREVIEW: IT’S TIME… NOW!!!

Well, guess what might happen on Tuesday, kiddies?

That’s right, tomorrow’s album chart could see NSYNC’s "Celebrity" dethroned by the latest installment of the mind-boggling cash cow "Now" series. This time, the lucky number is "7" and the lucky label is Virgin.

Hey, hypothesize all you want about last week being a "marketing-driven" sales phenomenon. Speculate yourself blue about the impact of a real hit single, and NSYNC’s need for a new one. One thing’s for sure—this ain’t your parents’ music industry.

That said, those younguns are busy this week providing solid chart debuts for Dogg Pound/TVT and Snoop Dogg’s Tha Eastsidaz, which is looking to debut strongly. Also look for impressive bows for Arista’s Blu Cantrell and Def Jam/IDJ’s "Rush Hour 2" soundtrack.

Over in Top 40 land, they’re showing plenty of love for Interscope’s U2 and their new single, "Stuck In The Moment," which is reacting with the highly coveted "young people with attention deficit disorder" demographic.

Our Post Modern prognosticators are forecasting big things for Epic’s Incubus, which is leaking ahead of its impact date, while Island’s Saliva is making PoMo programmers drool.

And as long as we’re feeling heat before official impact dates, howzabout Universal’s Afroman scoring HUGE in Crossover land? Our stem-cell researching Editors are also forecasting big weeks for Priority’s Lil’ Romeo, Arista’s Babyface and Interscope’s Jadakiss.

So, in an industry where a record can sell 1.9 million in one week, and then possibly fall to #2 the following week, is it too much to expect Usher’s new album to top NEXT week's chart?

Maybe for now, it is.