Harry Styles’ Fine Line (Columbia)—which bowed at #1 in more than 20 countries—is the star that has topped off the year in music, lighting up the stat line in numerous categories.
The 476k debut in the U.S. is the biggest total for a solo U.K. male since retail began scanning units in 1991, and the vinyl album is the fourth-best-seller of the last 28 years as well. At the other end of the consumption spectrum, tracks from Fine Line were streamed more than 100 million times during that first week—that’s the third-biggest debut week for any artist this year, and the biggest week for a pop album by a male artist in four years. The 386k traditional units the album moved in the U.S. make it the sixth-best-seller of 2019 in that category. What’s more, Harry is now the first U.K. male artist to debut at #1 with his first two albums, as Fine Line more than doubled the first-week numbers of his self-titled 2017 debut album.
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NOW WHAT?
We have no fucking idea.
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