Jason Aldean Tops Billboard Album Chart

The country singer Jason Aldean has reached the top of the Billboard chart for the first time with his new album, “Night Train” (Broken Bow), which sold 409,000 copies in its first week out, according to the tracking service Nielsen SoundScan.

It follows another impressive debut four weeks ago by the British band Mumford & Sons, which came out of the gate with 600,000 sales of its latest, “Babel” (Glassnote). In a diminished sales market, weekly numbers that high have become rare. But both are likely to be blown out of the water by Taylor Swift, whose new album, released this week, is expected to dominate next week's chart with up to one million sales.

After three weeks at the top, “Babel” fell to No. 2 with 74,000 sales, bringing its four-week total to 938,000. The next three titles on the chart are all new. Brandy's “Two Eleven” (RCA/Chameleon), sold 65,000 copies and reached No. 3, the R&B singer's first time in the Top 10 in eight years. Scotty McCreery, who won “American Idol” in 2011, opened at No. 4 with “Christmas With Scotty McCreery” (19/Interscope), which sold 41,000. And Jamey Johnson, another country singer, placed fifth with 32,000 sales of “Living for a Song: A Tribute to Hank Cochran” (Mercury).

On the singles chart, “Gangnam Style” by the clownish South Korean rapper Psy remains stymied from reaching the ultimate goal of its journey from viral video novelty to genuine mainstream hit. For a fifth week in a row, it is stuck at No. 2, behind Maroon 5's “One More Night.”

“Gangnam Style” is now YouTube's third-most popular video ever, with more than 530 million views, and last week the song sold 229,000 downloads in the United States. But the Hot 100, Billboard's standard pop singles chart, counts radio airplay along with sales and popularity on streaming services. And while Psy's song has been played on some pop stations, so far it still lags far behind English-language hits by acts like Maroon 5 and Ms. Swift.

Speaking of Ms. Swift, her new album, “Red” (Big Machine), was released on Monday and is expected to have a huge opening. Her last record, “Speak Now,” opened just 1,047,000 copies in its first week out, almost exactly two years ago.