"Fearless" proved to be a very inspired album name choice for Taylor Swift who managed to hold off Beyonce's "I Am... Sasha Fierce," which finished the week at No. 2 and Kanye West's "808s and Heartbreak," which rose two places to No. 3 with 71,000. The "Twilight" soundtrack was also up two places, to No. 4, with 66,000. Rounding up the top five was Nickleback's "Dark Horse" with 64,000 records.

 

With U.S. album sales down 6.2 percent from the first week of 2008, this week marked the first time in 11 months that a No. 1 album has failed to top 100,000 sold in a week. About 8.5 million units were sold during the week ended January 4, down from almost 9.1 million this time last year, and also down 50 percent from the holiday-boosted previous week, Reuters reported.

 

Aside from the figures, the young country music star said recently she is still taken aback by her sudden success. She was 2008's overall top-selling artist, with 4 million in total sales and two albums in the all-genre top 10, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

 

"I'm so proud of this album and spent two years making it and wanted it to be as good as it possibly could be. The fact that people are liking it enough to buy it? It just blows my mind. Honestly, I can't believe that it is still up there at the top," Swift said recently, adding that she thought 1 million sold records was "as good as it gets."