Album continues to break records
Morgan Wallen continues to rise against cancel culture as his record-shattering Dangerous: The Double Album has topped the Billboard 200 albums chart for the sixth straight week, dated February 27th. Billboard reports Dangerous earned 93,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending February 18th, which is down 38% from the previous week. It makes Wallen the best selling artist of 2021.
The album continues to make history as Wallen is the first male to spend the most weeks atop of the Billboard 200 since Drake’s Views in 2016 with 13 nonconsecutive weeks. It’s the third to spend five weeks at No. 1 in the past year, following Taylor Swift’s Folklore with eight and Lil Baby’s My Turn at five.
Wallen is also the first country male to debut at six weeks since Garth Brooks ruled for eight with The Hits in 1995 and three years prior for seven with The Chase in 1992.
The album debuted atop the Billboard list five 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.
Half 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 video surfaced of him using a racial slur in early February. 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 nearly two weeks ago on social media.
His music surged by more than 300% in the wake of the controversy as fans campaigned to put an end to him being the latest high-profile case of 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.
