Big debuts power artist album sales.(The Market)

With six debuts in the Top 10 and 16 debuts in the Top 75--the most since 24 November 2001 and 30 November 2002 respectively--and massive clearance sales commencing in Virgin, HMV and Woolworths, artist album sales exploded by nearly 40% last week to 2,354,588. That is their fourth highest tally of the year, although it is nearly 104,000 less than in the comparative week last year, which saw an even bigger surge.

The compilation sector was much quieter, with only the Mobo album selling enough to make a Top 40 debut. Consequently, despite sales clearances, compilation sales overall were up just 5%, while compilations' share of the overall album market dipped to 17.3%, their lowest share in any of the 195 chart weeks thus far in the 21st Century, beating the 17.6% share they registered 50 weeks ago.

The recent resurgence of interest in rock reached a new peak with sex of the top seven artist albums from the genre. Only R Kelly's inelegantly titled The R In R&B Greatest Hits--Volume 1, which debuts at number four, prevents rock from enjoying a clean sweep of the top six.

Surprisingly, there is no room in the Top 10 for Gareth Gates, whose second album Go Your Own Way opens at number 11. Gates's debut set What My Heart Wants To Say debuted at number two last October with first-week ...