TOP 50: PARTY LIKE A ROCK-STAR

JYP/Imperial/Republic’s Stray Kids secure their second #1 on the HITS Top 50 in 2023 with the debut of ROCK-STAR, which opens with 227k. The octet is the only K-pop act to bow with activity above 200k this year, having done so twice (their 5-STAR, which dropped in June, did 250k in its debut week). With Taylor Swift (#2), OVO’s Drake (#4) and Big Loud/Mercury’s Morgan Wallen (#5), House Lipman holds four of the Top 5. Rumors that Monte was asking on a Zoom why it didn’t have all five couldn’t be confirmed at press time.

Chris Stapleton also scores a Top 5 bow, with Higher (Mercury Nashville), his fifth set, which enters at #3 with 87k. Other noteworthy debuts come from RCA’s Chris Brown at #9, Motown/NBA’s YoungBoy Never Broke Again at #17, MMG/gamma.’s Rick Ross & Meek Mill at #21, Columbia’s The Kid LAROI at #25 and Mercury’s AJR at #27.

The Beatles’ compilations 1967-1970 (The Blue Album) and 1962-1966 (The Red Album) (Apple/Capitol/UMe) re-enter the chart at #15 and #20, respectively.

Last season’s top holiday seller, Michael Bublé’s Christmas (Reprise), sends the aroma of holiday cookies wafting up this pre-Thanksgiving chart at #38.

Streeting this week are new titles by Butterfly/Big Machine’s Dolly Parton (whose Rockstar is not to be confused with ROCK-STAR), Alamo’s Lil Durk & OTF, Sony Latin’s Ozuna, Epic’s André 3000, Def Jam’s 2 Chainz & Lil Wayne and Capitol’s Queen Naija, as well as Drake’s For All the Dogs: Scary Hours Edition and Lions Gate/Geffen’s The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes soundtrack.