Vampire Weekendâ€™s â€˜Contraâ€™ becomes Billboard 200 No. 1, sells more than 100,000

Hooray for indies

By Katie Hasty Wednesday, Jan 20, 2010 8:59 PM

Vampire Weekend

Credit: XL

It’s a rare instance that an independently released album caps the Billboard 200 album chart, but Vampire Weekend’s “Contra” does just that. The XL release is the band’s second album, and its first No. 1, moving 124,000 copies in its first week on sale.

Since Nielsen SoundScan started keeping album sales data in 1991, only 12 independent albums have achieved this feat. The last was Pearl Jam’s “Backspacer” in October last year.

Listen to “Contra” in its entirety here.

It’s the only new album to debut in the top 10 of the chart this week.

Susan Boyle's "I Dreamed a Dream" sits at No. 2 (77,000 -18%), but you can count on an increase in sales next week, post-“Oprah.” Ke$ha's "Animal" slips 1-3 (67,000, -56%), Lady Gaga's "The Fame" falls 3-4 (64,000, -3%), Alicia Keys’ “The Element of Freedom” descends 4-5 (48,000, -23%) and GaGa’s “The Fame Monster” EP climbs 10-6 (36,000, +14%) on account of help from her own “Oprah” appearance.

Mary J. Blige's "Stronger With Each Tear" moves 5-7 (35,000, -26%), Taylor Swift's "Fearless" drops 7-8 (33,000, -12%), "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" takes off 6-9 (also 33,000, -12%) and Black Eyed Peas' "The E.N.D.," caps of the chart 8-10 (32,000, -10%).

Katie Hasty
Managing Editor

After five years as a columnist and editor at Billboard, Katie Hasty joined HitFix in 2009 for music and film reporting out of New York. The Midwest native has worked as a writer, music promoter and in A&R since 1999 and performs with her band Numbers And Letters.