Wrecking ball Garth Brooks knocks Britney Spears from top spot on the Billboard 200; Eminem and Rihanna are “lords” of the Hot 100 this week

Garth Brooks came in like a wrecking ball this week as the country singer dumped his new box set Blame It All On My Roots: Five Decades of Influences into Walmarts across the country. The mammoth six-disc (plus DVD) collection, exclusive to Walmart, sold 146,000 copies in the week ending December 8, according to data from Nielsen SoundScan. This was not a debut week for the box set; last week it bowed at number 3 with 164,000 copies sold. Sale price for the set is $29.98, but sold for $24.96 during Thanksgiving/Black Friday specials. Blame It All On My Roots isn’t the first box set from Brooks to top the Billboard 200; The Limited Series did so in 1998.

So where did Britney Spears‘s new pop album, Britney Jean, debut? Somewhere below One Direction‘s Midnight Memories and Kelly Clarkson‘s holiday album (Wrapped in Red). Those discs were found at number 2 and 3 respectively. Spears’s effort, selling 107,000 copies, comes in at number 4. The number is much smaller than what analysts originally predicted and also under performed when compared with her last full-length album, Femme Fatale (276,000 on debut week). Sadly, it is her lowest sales debut for a studio album – even lower than the numbers of her 1999 debut album …Baby One More Time (121,000).

The lack of major live TV performances to support the album’s promotional tour may be part of the blame of the low sales, even though music critics lambasted the disc prior to its release. Her lead single, “Work Bitch,” isn’t performing like it should either. So far it has only managed to climb to number 14 on the Pop Songs airplay chart, becoming her lowest performed lead single since 2001. She’s hoping her upcoming Vegas residency at Planet Hollywood and “Perfume,” her next single, will help push her back to diva status.

Other albums that made the grade this week include sets from the Duck Dynasty crew (Duck the Halls: A Robertson Family Christmas; No. 5), Eminem (The Marshall Mathers LP 2; No. 6) and a digital-only EP from capella group Pentatonix (PTXmas; No. 7).

Meanwhile, Eminem makes his leap to the very top of the Hot 100 with “The Monster,” featuring a duet with Rihanna. The song dethroned Miley Cyrus‘s “Wrecking Ball,” which returned to the top of that chart last week for a third cumulative week at No. 1. It also jumped 4-1 on the Radio Songs survey. The achievement gives the pop/R&B diva something extra to celebrate, as she ties with Michael Jackson for the third in having the most entries on the Hot 100. Sitting at number 13, she passes Madonna and the Supremes, each with 12. Mariah Carey and the Beatles are two other acts to beat.

Eminem also earns a special spot in Billboard history for tying with Diddy and Ludacris for the most No. 1’s on the Hot 100. All three acts have five No. 1’s to their name.

In other hit single news, Pitbull‘s “Timber,” featuring Ke$ha, jumps 4-2 on the Hot 100, pushing Lorde‘s “Royals” down to 3-4. OneRepublic‘s “Counting Stars” gains some points as it climbs 5-3.

As for “Wrecking Ball,” it falls 1-5, marking the steepest slide from the summit since Katy Perry’s “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)” made the same move back in 2011. Songs by Avicii (“Wake Me Up”), Imagine Dragons (“Demons”), A Great Big World & Christina Aguilera (“Say Something”), Passenger (“Let Her Go”) and Drake (“Hold On, We’re Going Home”) round up the rest of the Top 10.

week of December 21, 2013
(Billboard/Nielsen SoundScan)

Billboard Hot 100

1. Eminem – “The Monster” (feat. Rihanna)
2. Pitbull – Timber (feat. Ke$ha)
3. OneRepublic – “Counting Stars”
4. Lorde – “Royals”
5. Miley Cyrus – “Wrecking Ball”
6. Avicii – “Wake Me Up!”
7. Imagine Dragons – “Demons”
8. A Great Big World & Christina Aguilera – “Say Something”
9. Passenger – “Let Her Go”
10. Drake – “Hold On, We’re Going Home” (feat. Majid Jordan)

Billboard 200

1. Garth Brooks – Blame It All On My Roots: Five Decades of Influences
2. One Direction – Midnight Memories
3. Kelly Clarkson – Wrapped in Red
4. Britney Spears – Britney Jean
5. The Robertsons – Duck the Halls: A Robertson Family Christmas
6. Eminem – The Marshall Mathers LP 2
7. Pentatonix – PTXmas
8. Michael Buble – Christmas
9. Katy Perry – PRISM
10. Mary J. Blige – A Mary Christmas