Straight outta Nashville? Luke Bryan tops Dr. Dre’s ‘Compton’ on Billboard chart
Country singer Luke Bryan performs at the Stagecoach Country Music Festival in Indio, Calif., on April 27, 2014.
It dominated the pop-cultural conversation last week and helped drive its companion movie to a No. 1 showing at the weekend box office.
But on the Billboard 200 album chart, at least, Dr. Dre’s “Compton: A Soundtrack” was no match for “Kill the Lights,” the latest effort from country star Luke Bryan.
“Kill the Lights” entered the tally at No. 1, Billboard reported late Sunday, with 345,000 equivalent album units, the trade magazine’s term for a figure that combines sales of physical and digital albums and streams on services such as Spotify and Apple Music.
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As Billboard’s Keith Caulfield noted, that’s the third-biggest opening so far in 2015, behind only Drake’s “If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late” (which moved 535,000 units in February) and Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp a Butterfly” (363,000 in March).
“Compton” -- which Dr. Dre has said was inspired by “Straight Outta Compton,” the hit biopic about his influential late-’80s rap group, N.W.A -- came in at No. 2 on the new chart with just under 295,000 equivalent album units.
FULL COVERAGE: ‘Straight Outta Compton’ and N.W.A’s legacy
The West Coast veteran’s first album since 1999, “Compton” was available last week only from Apple, either to download through the iTunes Store or to stream on Apple Music; that arrangement will continue through the end of this week, when “Compton” will go into wider release.
Apple said the album was streamed 25 million times in its first week on the service, according to the New York Times -- fewer than either the Drake or Lamar albums, both of which were available to stream on Spotify, Apple Music’s main competitor.
Twitter: @mikaelwood
MORE:
Luke Bryan on ‘Kill the Lights’: A drunk texter with mortality on his mind
Review: N.W.A film ‘Straight Outta Compton’ starts fast but runs out of gas
Highlights of The Times’ early coverage of N.W.A
N.W.A’s MC Ren hates the official trailer for ‘Straight Outta Compton’
Suge Knight’s arrest foreshadowed in ‘Straight Outta Compton’ scene
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