Taylor Swift Holds On at No. 1

Sales of Taylor Swift's new album may have dropped 72 percent in its second week out, but that first week was so big that the album comfortably held its position at No. 1, selling more than twice as many copies as its nearest competitor.

Ms. Swift's album, “Red” (Big Machine), which had 1.2 million sales in its first week - the biggest opening take for an album in a decade - sold 344,000 copies in its second week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. “Red” has already sold more than 1.5 million copies in the United States, making it the second-best seller of the year, after Adele's blockbuster hit “21.” (“21” has a big head start, with 4.1 million sales in the United States this year and almost 10 million since it came out in early 2011.)

In second place this week is “Dreams & Nightmares” (Maybach/Warner Brothers), the debut studio album by Meek Mill, a rapper from Philadelphia, which sold 165,000 copies. Among the other high-charting new release s this week are Rod Stewart's “Merry Christmas, Baby” (Verve), at No. 3 with 89,000 sales; Toby Keith's “Hope on the Rocks” (Show Dog/Universal), at No. 6 with 48,000; and Neil Young and Crazy Horse's “Psychedelic Pill” (Reprise), at No. 8 with 34,000.

Also this week, “Night Train” (Broken Bow) by the country singer Jason Aldean, fell one spot to No. 4 in its third week out with 71,000 sales; Lamar Kendrick's “good kid, m.A.A.d. city” (TDE/Aftermath/Interscope) is No. 5 with 63,000; and Mumford & Sons' “Babel” (Glassnote) dropped three spots to No. 7 with 44,000 sales, bringing its six-week total to just over 1 million.