Luke Bryan Outsells Dr. Dre's 'Compton' on U.S. Album Chart

[August 19, 2015]  By Marianne Zumberge

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) - Country star Luke Bryan's latest album, "Kill the Lights," beat out Dr. Dre's buzzy "Compton," the companion album to "Straight Outta Compton," in the U.S. album sales race for the week ending Aug. 13, according to data from Nielsen Music.

Despite "Straight Outta Compton's" chart-topping performance at the box office in its opening weekend, Dre's album did not hit No. 1. "Compton," the iconic producer's first album in 16 years, moved just shy of 295,000 units in its debut. The collection is available exclusively through Apple and iTunes for its first two weeks in release.

Dre bowed behind Bryan's "Lights," which moved 345,000 units in its opening week. The country set had the third biggest sales debut for a 2015 album, behind Drake's "If You're Reading This It's Too Late" (535,000 units in February) and Kendrick Lamar's "To Pimp a Butterfly" (363,000 units in March).

Coming in at No. 3 is hit compilation "Now 55," which moved close to 76,000 units in its debut. The collection includes cuts from Taylor Swift ("Style") and Ed Sheeran ("Thinking Out Loud") as well as Ellie Goulding, Jason Derulo and Fifth Harmony.

The fourth new album of the time frame finished in fourth place: Christian hip-hop artist TobyMac's "This Is Not a Test" moved nearly 38,000 units in its debut.

Taylor Swift's "1989" leads the popular holdovers on the chart, dropping from No. 3 to No. 5 with 33,000 units moved. Behind Swift is Ed Sheeran with "X," which dropped from fourth to sixth place with just under 33,000 units moved. Sheeran's NBC concert special that aired Sunday fizzled in the TV ratings, pulling in 2.2 million viewers.

Future slid from No. 2 to No. 7 with "DS2," moving 31,000 units. The rap album was down 16 percent in its fourth week of competition, after debuting at No. 1.

Slipping from the top spot to eighth place was the soundtrack to "Descendants," Disney Channel's TV movie musical about the spawn of classic Disney villains. The album moved 30,000 units, down 27 percent from its No. 1 debut.

Bringing up the caboose on this week's chart is Sam Hunt's "Montevallo," which nabbed No. 9 with 27,000 units moved (up 1%), and Drake's "If You're Reading This It's Too Late," down 7 percent with 21,000 units moved, good for tenth place.

[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.