MUSIC Hip-hop albums lead in CD sales

Over all, CD sales were down 13 percent from last year.
By JIM FARBER
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Rap rules.
As 2002 winds into its last weeks, its two biggest albums -- by Eminem and Nelly -- both pledge allegiance to the hip-hop nation.
With sales of 6.9 million so far, "The Eminem Show" left every other album behind, including the No. 2 entry, Nelly's "Nellyville," which made 4.2 million passes through the cash registers.
Eminem and Nelly may have been hot, but the year was cold. Sales of all CDs were down a full 13 percent from 2001. And there were some major downturns at the top of the charts as well.
Though this year's biggest seller outdistanced last year's by 1.9 million copies, total sales of the top 20 this year were far less than for last year's group.
In 2001, combined sales for the top 20 were 68.5 million. This year, the top 20 sold a total of only 51.1 million. Last year, no less than six albums moved more than 4 million copies apiece; this time, just two did.
Trends
The resurgence of hip-hop is one of several trends revealed by comparing Nielsen/Soundscan figures for the biggest releases from the last few years.
Last year, the best-selling rap record (an earlier release from Nelly) managed to bag only the No. 19 slot on the year-end charts. In 2000, the genre snagged three of the year's top 10 slots via work from Eminem, Nelly and Dr. Dre.
"It has to do, in part, with more R & amp;B radio stations skewing back to harder hip-hop this year, as opposed to last year, which went in a more melodic direction," explains Billboard chart expert Geoff Mayfield. "Also, a release by Eminem alone raises the profits of the entire genre."
This year, the Detroit performer put out two, including the "8 Mile" soundtrack (which is at No. 11).
Country succeeds
Country music had a good year, taking three of the year's top 10 entries, and 25 percent of the entire top 20. Credit Alan Jackson's "Drive" (at No. 5), the "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack (No. 7) and "Home," from the Dixie Chicks (No. 9).
Jackson, in particular, was boosted by his big 9/11 song ("Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning), which appealed to a larger audience than just country fans.
By comparison, 2001 saw just one country album in the year's top 10: "O Brother," which sold 3.4 million copies last year compared with 2.6 million copies in 2002. In 2000, there wasn't a single cowpoke in sight.
Even better news for country is coming before year's end. The figures wracked up by Shania Twain in just the first two weeks of release for her new blockbuster, "Up!" (over 1.5 million), suggest she'll barge her way into the year's top 20 by next week.
"Country music is purchased by a slightly older audience," explains Entertainment Weekly music critic David Browne.
"Its success this year attests to the fact that older people are still buying records, as opposed to younger ones who are increasingly snatching them off the Internet."
Things aren't looking nearly so rollicking for rock 'n' roll.
It turns out all those "rock-is-back" stories (based on the bubbling-under success of the Strokes, the Vines and the White Stripes) were just so 1much wishful thinking from a "rockist" press.
Garage rock
In fact, the Strokes' album, "Is This It," with total sales of under 800,000, didn't even make the top 100 of the year's biggest sellers. The Justin Timberlake solo album, "Justified," sold nearly as much in a week and a half (536,000 copies) as the White Stripes' album, "White Blood Cells," did in a year and a half.
Consequently, says Browne, "while the new garage rock is a breath of fresh air, it's not causing fans to stop buying what they were buying before. It's more tremor than earthquake."
Worse for rock, not a single guitar-driven album appears in the entire top 10. The year's largest rock release, "Weathered," by Creed, at No. 12, was a holdover success from 2001.
Compare the genre's paltry success to 2000, when three of the top 10 albums were rock-oriented -- or to 2001, when the No. 1 spot went to a rock act, Linkin Park (though they had to rap a bit to earn the honor). Park's metallic album moved nearly 5 million copies in its winning year.
There's a bear market in R & amp;B, too. While 2001 listed five albums from that genre in its top 20 (including Alicia Keys, Usher and Destiny's Child), this year found just one R & amp;B star in those ranks -- Ashanti, whose self-titled debut was No. 4.
Even so, as Kim Osorio, editor in chief of the Source magazine, points out: "Ashanti has a strong hip-hop connection. She comes out of Murder Inc., and she sang on a big hit with Ja Rule. So she pleased both hip-hop and R & amp;B audiences, which is very important these days."
Teen pop
Teen pop suffered a drop-off this year, but that could be blamed, in part, on the lack of new albums from big acts. *NSync, Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears all took the year off from the recording studio.
As a result, a new brand of teen had a chance to emerge: the young girl-brat. Witness skate punk popper Avril Lavigne (at No. 3 with "Let Go") and the rock-soul star Pink (at No. 6 with "Missundaztood").
To boot, a more radically different young female entered the top ranks: neochanteuse Norah Jones. Her jazzy and sophisticated debut, "Come Away With Me," nailed the No. 13 spot. Hers is the biggest-selling record ever from the important jazz label Blue Note.
Jones is one of four new names to crack the year's top 20, along with Ashanti, Josh Groban and the rock act Puddle of Mudd. Last year three fresh artists stormed those ranks, and four made the grade in 2000 (though none of those made the top 10).
Of the baby acts to break, Jones isn't the only old-style crooner. Groban, who took the No. 17 slot with his self-titled CD, features a mix of show tunes, light opera and schmaltz.
That such a singer, along with a hard rapper like Eminem and a roots-oriented project like "O Brother," can all appear on the same list points to the lack of cohesion in popular sales. Fans increasingly are buying within genres, with fewer albums creating a broad consensus.
The newest niche is for neo-cabaret singers like Jones and Groban. Even though they're both young artists, they appeal to older fans.
As Mayfield explains, "One of this year's most positive themes was proof that it pays to skew old. You had a year where James Taylor had his highest-ranking album ever and Bruce Springsteen had his best sales week in 10 years."
Yet few long-in-the-tooth-types made the final top 20. Just four of this year's entries came from stars over 30. One project features people over 40 (those on the "O Brother" soundtrack).
Likewise, in 2001, four entrants were in their 30s with two in their 40s (Enya and the "O Brother" guys).
In 2000, just two artists in the top 20 were over 30 (The Dixie Chicks plus Santana, who is over 50).
If nothing else, at least this keeps pop forever young.