Justin Timberlake did what everyone thought: He rode "The 20/20 Experience" to the top of the Billboard Hot 200 Albums chart.
The Timbaland-produced disc moved 968,000 units to end the week on top. It's the 19th highest debut in Nielsen SoundScan's 22-year history.
It's certainly an accomplishment, especially given that Timberlake eschewed radio jingles for a cohesive project that featured eight songs over six minutes in length. But plenty of artists have released albums that have gone platinum in a week. (He's also actually sold a million in a week before: 'N SYNC's 2000 album "No Strings Attached" sold 2.4 million copies, an effort they followed up with 2001's "Celebrity," which sold 1.88 million copies.)
Just last year, Taylor Swift's "Red" moved 1.2 million copies in the seven days after its release. Timberlake and Swift deal extensively in corporate sponsorships; both singers have worked with Target, and Timberlake does the dance with Bud Light (Platinum, for what it's worth) while Swift lights up the displays of pretty much every neighborhood Walgreens.
Swift also sold 1.047 million copies of "Speak Now" in the first week of its 2010 debut. She's the only female artists with two one-week platinum hitters. In May 2011, Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" cleared the hump with 1.1 million records sold in its release week.
Lil Wayne, he of ailing health and a lackluster new album, also topped a milli with with 2008's "Tha Carter III." The disc included "A Millie" and marched to a triumphant 1.006 million units in its first week.
Some other artists who recently moved a million in a week: Whitney Houston ("The Bodyguard" soundtrack, 1992), Backstreet Boys ("Millenium," 1999), Britney Spears ("Oops!... I Did It Again," 2000), Eminem ("The Marshall Mathers LP," 2000 and "The Eminem Show," 2002), Norah Jones ("Feels Like Home," 2004), Usher ("Confessions," 2004), 50 Cent ("The Massacre," 2005)."
Justin Timberlake, Then and Now
CORRECTION: A previous version of this article identified the wrong "Carter" album as the one that went platinum in one week.