ATYCLB was release on Halloween in the USA....too early to attribute opening weekend numbers to the holidays.
Not really. CD sales really start to pick up in November. Just because some of us wait until Dec. 23rd to shop (guilty) not everyone else does.
But I was really pointing to weeks 3 and after, as those weeks neared Thanksgiving, when clearly the holiday sales would kick in.
They weren't established as the "biggest band in the world" then. A lot of people viewed them to be Dinosaurs, and they certainly weren't as big in 2000 as they are in 2009.
I disagree with everything you wrote.
U2 were established as the "biggest band" well before this decade. They received that moniker back in the 80's with the huge success of JT. As R&H and AB continued that trend, U2 has been the "biggest" for a while.
I also don't recall anything about the "dinosaurs" aspect. In 2000, Bono just turned 40 - hardly a "dinosaur". Other members weren't 40 yet. U2 just had a slip with "Pop" in the U.S. (still sold well around the world), but that's about it.
I recall in 1997, the record industry was looking to U2 to "save it". That's because the past four U2 releases (JT, R&H, AB and "Zooropa") had sold over a combined 25M copies in the U.S.! So they were definitely big back then. And not considered "dinosaurs" in '97 or in '00. Where are you getting this from? In fact, in 2000, I recall reading articles that when clubs played the remix of "Beautiful Day", all the college kids went crazy. Would they have done this if U2 were "dinosaurs"?
Regardless of the market, you'd have to admit, U2 is bigger in stature now. I wasn't expecting HTDAAB numbers, as it was released in the biggest shopping weekend of the year, and had single that was everywhere. To not surpass those ATYCLB opening totals would've been dissapointing.
I do agree with some of this. Two big albums, tons of Grammy and other awards, and some big hit songs helped the band recover from the softer sales of "Pop".
But remember, music is fickle. I've seen Madonna albums really fizzle out fast, only to have her come roaring back with the next album. A song that strikes it big is all that's really needed. Age suddenly becomes irrelevant.
U2 slowed just a bit with "Pop", but even that album generated a Top 10 hit (U2's last one to date) and another Top 30 hit. The album still went Platinum, still debuted at #1 and the first leg of the tour was a huge hit in the U.S. (PopMart only suffered a bit on the last U.S. leg when some smaller markets couldn't support a stadium show). So really, they were still big then.
I would also argue that "Beautiful Day" was a monster single, so ATYCLB actually had rather soft sales in its first week. Granted, it was Halloween and not Thanksgiving, but with that type of single, and given that 2000 was not 2009 (in terms of the economy and illegal downloads), it should have been bigger. Still, at the time this was U2's best week ever in the SoundScan era.
With GOYB being a softer first single, U2 had to rely on HTDAAB - an album released 4.5 years ago! The first week for NLOTH could have been as soft as Springsteen's latest, which he supported with a Super Bowl appearance! Again, fickle music. I'm glad NLOTH is doing well.