Britney Rules the Pop Charts, But Where's Michael？
LOS ANGELES （Reuters） - Pop princess Britney Spears, aided by a publicity blitzkrieg, steamrollered to number one on the music charts on Wednesday, while a new album by scandal-plagued Michael Jackson failed to make the Top 10, the Nielsen Soundscan sales tracking service said.
洛杉矶（路透社）――流行天后“小甜甜”布莱尼,闪电般推出自己的新专辑,一举就夺得周三音乐排行榜的首位而饱受丑闻困扰的流行天王迈克尔。杰克逊的新专辑竟然没打入十强。这是尼尔森唱片销量调查机构公布的结果。
The release of Spears' new album, "In the Zone," has been carefully aided by a publicity barrage which helped foster Spears' fourth consecutive No. 1 debut. But the album's sales fell short of the pop star's previous efforts, continuing her downward sales trajectory in recent years.
布莱尼新专辑《在这里》的发行得益于成功的宣传,这也使得她连续四年的唱片首发都夺得销量第一。但是今年的销量不如往年,也延续了她近几年星路不畅的命运。
To promote the album, the 21-year-old Spears has seemed omnipresent recently, posing scantily clad for magazine covers, appearing in several television interviews and causing a major stir by kissing Madonna during the MTV Video Music Awards.
为了宣传这张新专辑,21岁的“小甜甜'最近可以说是无处不见,为杂志封面拍摄艳照,参加电视访谈类节目,还在MTV颁奖礼上作出了亲吻麦当娜的大胆之举。
For the week ended Nov 23, "In the Zone," released by Jive, a unit of Bertelsmann AG's BMG, sold an estimated 609,000 units, the fourth highest opening in 2003, behind efforts by rapper 50 Cent, Linkin Park and Clay Aiken.
到11月23日截止,贝塔斯曼集团手下的宝利金唱片公司负责发行的小甜甜的新专辑《在这里》共计售出609000张,这也是2003第四高首发销售量,排在流星乐合唱团'五角'联合公园'和克莱依之后。
It fell below earlier CDs like "Britney," which debuted in 2001 with 746,000 units, and "Oops！……I Did It Again," which sold 1.3 million units in its opening week in 2000.
这张专辑的成绩也追不上她前几张专辑的销量,如她较早前的《小甜甜》,在2001年首发就售出746000张,而另外一张《哇,真棒》在2000发行的第一个星期就售出了130万张。
Nevertheless, retailers said they expected the star to have staying power in coming weeks, helped by holiday shopping.
唱片商们可希望小甜甜的新专辑销量最好是居高不下,因为圣诞购物季节很快就要到了。
"Everybody's buying Britney. Certainly the TV blitz helped to get greater exposure and I think Britney will sustain the sales pace in her second week," said Sue Bryan, general manager for J&R Music Store in lower Manhattan.
下曼哈顿地区J&R唱片店总经理布赖恩说:“大家都来买布莱尼的唱片,特别是最近电视上布莱尼的曝光率也很高,我想下一周她的新专辑销量照样好。”
Meanwhile, publicity of a different nature haunted Jackson. His "Number Ones" album was rolled out to stores last Tuesday as police combed the pop star's Neverland Ranch in response to child sexual molestation charges.
与此同时,杰克逊却饱受丑闻的煎熬困扰。他的新专辑《永远的第一》上个星期二被禁止在商店销售,因为警方就其对儿童进行性骚扰一案对其住宅进行了搜查。
The album ranked at No. 13 on the sales charts, selling nearly 122,000 units, a far cry from Jackson's superstardom days, but better than the 100,000 units that was forecast.
他的这张新专辑在销量排行榜上仅列13位,售出122000张,这一销量远不及其最红的时候的成绩,但是比预期的100000张要好。
Jackson flew from Las Vegas to Santa Barbara, California last Thursday just long enough to be arrested on suspicion of molesting a young boy, before posting $3 million bail and leaving town again.
杰克逊上个星期二从拉斯维加斯飞回圣巴巴拉,并且立刻带往警局回应对其性骚扰儿童的指控,但是很快在交了300万保释金后,离开了该郡。
When the scandal broke, Jackson claimed the allegations were timed just as his album was being released.丑闻发生时,杰克逊指出这些诬告都是故意安排在他新专辑发行之际。
