Britney Spears’ Second Album Makes History

With no end in sight to the youth-pop craze, Britney Spears’ new album, “Oops! . . . I Did It Again,” sold 1.3 million copies in its first week, giving the teen queen what is believed to be the best debut week by any female artist in music history.

Only ‘N Sync’s “No Strings Attached”--which sold 2.4 million copies in its debut week in March--has sold more copies in its first week, but Spears may not hold that second-place spot for long: One major retail chain’s early projections show that rapper Eminem’s “The Marshall Mathers LP” could debut next week with about 1.5 million copies sold.

“Right on the heels of Britney’s huge sales last week, we had Eminem arrive Tuesday and have the best single day of sales in the history of our chain,” says Gary Arnold, senior vice president of merchandising for Best Buy. “It speaks to the size of the opportunity today with this huge demographic mass of the baby boomers’ children . . . [and] it speaks to a new young music consumer looking for its heroes to court.”

While Eminem may deny Spears more than one week at No. 1, the 18-year-old’s historic showing this week caps an incredible year for her label, Jive Records.

Jive artists have now scored the three biggest debut-week sales totals during the nine years that SoundScan has been tracking U.S. music sales (and presumably in music history because of the size of today’s marketplace): ‘N Sync, Spears and the Backstreet Boys, who sold 1.1 million copies of “Millennium” one year ago this week.

“Oops!” sales are also a victory for Spears, whom some industry observers had dismissed as a likely one-hit wonder. “Oops!” is Spears’ follow-up to her debut album, “ . . . Baby One More Time,” which has sold 9.3 million copies since its release 17 months ago and sits at No. 53 on this week’s chart. “Oops!” led a half-dozen new releases that debut in this week’s Top 20.

Pearl Jam marked its return to the music scene with the grunge band’s sixth studio album, “Binaural,” selling 226,000 copies to debut at a distant No. 2.

The Big Tymers debut at No. 3 with their sophomore effort, “I Got That Work.” The group teams two leaders of Cash Money Records: producer Mannie Fresh (who guided Juvenile’s “400 Degreez”) and the label’s chief executive, Bryan “Baby” Williams. The New Orleans duo saw its disc debut with 187,000 copies sold.

Other debuts include Whitney Houston’s “Greatest Hits,” a two-disc set, at No. 5; Phish’s “Farmhouse” at No. 12; DJ Quik’s “Balance & Options” at No. 18; and Carly Simon’s “Bedroom Tapes” at No. 90.