Morgan Wallen tops Billboard 200 for eighth consecutive week

Album continues to break records

Morgan Wallen continues to reign over the Billboard Top 200 chart as his sophomore effort Dangerous: The Double Album tops the chart for the eighth consecutive week, making it the only country album to spend its first eight weeks at No. 1. Dangerous is the latest of six albums to have spent at least eight weeks total at No. 1, according to Billboard.

The album racks another 82k equivalent album sales in the U.S. for the week ending March 4th. That number is down seven percent from the 89k it earned the previous week with 103.33 million on-demand streams.

Dangerous ties Taylor Swift’s Folklore for the second-most weeks at the top spot in the past five years with Drake’s Views spending the most weeks with 13 nonconsecutive.

Wallen continues to reign as the best selling artist of 2021, despite being blacklisted by the industry last month after video surfaced of him using a racial slur. The album debuted atop the Billboard list seven weeks ago and set the bar for country records by shattering first-week streams and on-demand Alexa requests. Upon its release, Wallen demolished first day streaming records, becoming Spotify’s biggest all-time first day stream record for a country album and setting the record for the biggest first day and biggest first week for a country album of all-time at Apple Music in just two days.

Two-thirds of the chart-topping weeks have been without the help any promotion after major radio chains, video channels, and online outlets pulled his music from its rotations and his label “made the decision to suspend Morgan Wallen’s recording contract indefinitely” after the video surfaced on TMZ. Many of the stations, including several we spoke with, do not have a timeline on restoring his music to its playlists, despite sharing a five minute video apology a week after the incident surfaced. However, last week one radio station in his hometown of Knoxville reinstated his music after polling its listeners.

Wallen’s music surged by more than 300% in the wake of the controversy as fans clap back at cancel culture. Diehards have defended flocked to iTunes and other streaming outlets to backlash radio for its stance with many even defending his use of the slur. The album continues to dominate even after Wallen himself asks that fans not support him during this time.

Buddy Iahn
Buddy Iahn

Buddy Iahn founded The Music Universe when he decided to juxtapose his love of web design and music. As a lifelong drummer, he decided to take a hiatus from playing music to report it. The website began as a fun project in 2013 to one of the top independent news sites. Email: info@themusicuniverse.com