‘American Idol’ winner and country music star Carrie Underwood topped the Billboard 200 chart with her fourth studio album ‘Blown Away’, while the Beastie Boys returned after the death last week of Adam ‘MCA’ Yauch. ‘Blown Away’ sold 267,000 copies in its first week according to Nielsen SoundScan, coming only second to Madonna’s ‘MDNA’ earlier this year. This is Underwood’s third album to debut at number one on the chart. The death of Beastie Boys’ Yauch last week led to a rise in sales of the band’s catalog of albums, as their 1986 record ‘Licensed To Ill’ re-entered the Billboard 200 at number 18. Six other Beastie Boys albums also re-entered the Billboard 200 chart, in the two days following Yauch’s death last Friday. Grammy-winning blues singer Norah Jones’ fifth studio album, ‘Little Broken Hearts’, entered the Billboard 200 at number two, while the new ‘Now 42’ music compilation of current hits including those by Kelly Clarkson, Chris Brown and Gotye, entered the chart at number three. Rapper B.o.B.’s second album, ‘Strange Clouds’, debuted at number five, leaving Adele’s Grammy-winning ‘21’ at number four, the only non-new entry in the top five this week. Two more new albums entered the top 10, with the soundtrack from hit TV musical ‘Smash’ at number nine and gothic rocker Marilyn Manson’s tenth studio album ‘Born Villain’ debuted at number 10. Last week’s chart-topper, Jack White’s ‘Blunderbuss’, fell to number seven this week. Gotye continues to lead an unchanged top five on Billboard’s Digital Songs chart with ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’ featuring Kimbra. Maroon 5’s ‘Payphone’ featuring Wiz Khalifa, Carly Rae Jepsen’s ‘Call Me Maybe’, Fun.’s ‘We Are Young’ and Justin Bieber’s ‘Boyfriend’ fill the number two to number five positions respectively.
