CHART WATCH

It's been just over a week since the world reeled from the shock loss of the King Of Pop, Michael Jackson. Since then, charts the world over have gone into meltdown, flooded with posthumous Michael Jackson success. Michael's dominance of the Australian singles and albums charts this week have prompted us to do a very special 'MJ Chart Watch' - posting shortly. But for now, here's the rest of the week's chart action!
SINGLES : It's the Black Eyed Peas once again resting comfortably in the No.1 position this week with their track 'I Gotta Feeling'. Though, even with some pretty impressive challenges from a number of Michael Jackson tracks, Lady Gaga is poised to pounce. Black Eyed Peas' previous single 'Boom Boom Pow' was at No.2 this week - this week's it's dropped to No.5. So, 'I Gotta Feeling' notches up a further 13,323 sales to retain No.1, with Lady Gaga now breathing down their necks with 12,449 copies sold of 'Paparazzi'. Linkin Park moves into the No.4 position behind Michael Jackson with their new single 'New Divide' up three (9794 copies). From there down, almost every other artist in the top 50 this week has seen a position drop because of the Jackson chart dominance. Only Green Day was successful in moving up convincingly - bagging a further 3840 copies of their single '21 Guns' to move up from No.44 to No.26. Just outside the top 50, home grown soul superstar Daniel Merriweather benefits from a performance on Rove, with single 'Change' moving up from No.76 to No.61, selling 1732 copies in the process. Had there been no Michael Jackson in front of him, he'd be at No.41! Spare a thought for poor Wes Carr, who's latest single 'Fearless' was sitting just outside the top 50 last week - now he's down to No.99 after just three weeks in.
ALBUMS : Once again, almost everyone else in the top 100 this week suffers a fall in chart placings at the hands of the King Of Pop. Michael's occupying the top three, selling 19,360, 12,394 and 10,651 copies respectively (see our thorough Michael Jackson chart watch posting shortly). Though the Hannah Montana soundtrack bucks the trend, moving up four places to No.8 (6708 sales) and Regina Spektor makes a pretty impressive debut in amongst everything at No.10 with her new album 'Far' (5783 sales). Killswitch Engage the No.12 spot for their first week in (3983 copies), while the Transformers soundtrack thunders up the chart on the back of the film's spectacular success at the local box office. The OST moves up from No.33 last week to No.14 this week with 3732 sales. Michael Buble meets Madison Square Garden met with a decent chart showing, with 2015 sales to hit the No.27 spot, while there were also debuts at No.41 (The Mars Volta's 'Octahedron' - 1508 copies), No.42 (Yves Klein Blue's 'Ragged & Ecstatic' - 1477 copies) and No.50 (Moby's 'Wait For Me' - 1089 copies). Hoobastank's album 'For(N)ever' made a lacklustre entry to the charts at No.88 with just 499 copies sold.

For a comprehensive listing of Michael Jackson's Australian chart placings and sales figures this week, stick around, the very special Michael Jackson chart watch is coming up shortly.

OFFICIAL ARIA CHARTS