U2's 'Pop' Pops Off to a Good Start

Los Angeles Times, March 13, 1997

U2's 'Pop' Pops Off to a Good Start

U2's much-anticipated "Pop" album on Island Records is off to an encouraging start, entering the national sales chart at No. 1 by selling nearly 350,000 copies last week, according to SoundScan.

That's the highest single-week total this year and the biggest opening-week figure since the 479,000 copies generated by Snoop Doggy Dogg's "Tha Doggfather" last November. The results surely led to a sigh of relief in the record industry, which had seen several of its rock superstars, including Pearl Jam and R.E.M., come in with relatively disappointing opening-week figures -- a trend in recent months that has greatly troubled the $12-billion-a-year industry, whose sales have been flat for two years.

"It's a very healthy first week," said Geoff Mayfield, charts editor of Billboard magazine. "It's a very respectable start."

U2's last two albums, 1991's "Achtung Baby" and 1993's "Zoo-ropa," sold an estimated 275,000 and 377,000 copies in their first weeks. The albums went on to sell 5 million and 2 million, respectively.

Meanwhile, however, ticket sales for the Irish rock group's lavish world tour, which begins April 25 in Las Vegas, have been mixed. While shows have sold out and dates have been added in some cities, including New York and Chicago, Amusement Business magazine reported that only about 20,000 tickets have been sold in San Diego and Tempe, Ariz.

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