Music Charts: Budding Vine king Shawn Mendes debuts at No. 1, seasoned boss Bruce Springsteen enters at No. 5

Shawn Mendes is on a roll with his second No. 1 album in a row.

By Randall Roberts

Oct. 3, 2016 12:35 PM PT

The three top 10 debut albums on this week’s Billboard Top 200 album chart involve a trio of dudes who’ve earned their success three different ways.

Social media star Shawn Mendes roared to No. 1 with “Illuminate,” his second straight record to hit the top. The singer, who built the foundations of his fanbase through quickie posts on Vine, has jumped platforms to become the rare artist with back-to-back No. 1 albums.

Mendes accomplished the feat through an impressive volume of streams. “Illuminate” accrued more than 24 million spins, which, combined with 120,000 downloads and physical sales, resulted in a total of 145,000 album equivalent units, according to Nielsen Music.

A mere 18, Mendes has charted an impressive course over the last two years. As Billboard notes, the artist joins a rarefied roster of superstars who have earned two No. 1 albums by that age, including Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus.

Bro-country superstar Luke Bryan’s “Farm Tour … Here’s to the Farmer” entered the Top 200 at No. 4 with a relatively paltry 34,000 album equivalent units sold. That number includes the album’s 888,000 streams and 32,000 album sales. Bryan earned the numbers through his dominance of country radio, where his sing-along odes to beer, love, partying and fishing have earned him fans across generations.

Entering at No. 5 is rocker-turned-author Bruce Springsteen, who for the last four decades has convened his fanbase the old-fashioned way: on the road and in the studio. The Boss’ newest record, “Chapter and Verse,” is a companion to his just-published autobiography, “Born to Run.” Springsteen’s fans streamed the album more than 1.2 million times and bought 27,000 albums, according to Nielsen Music.

Also continuing to accrue numbers is Drake’s chartbuster “Views,” which was bumped out of the top spot by Mendes but sits at No. 2 with just over 50,000 album equivalent units sold. (The album recently surpassed 1 billion streams on Apple Music.) At No. 3, is the soundtrack to “Suicide Squad,” which tallied 42,000 album equivalent sales.

On the singles charts, the Chainsmokers’ “Closer,” featuring Halsey, hit No. 1 with a total of 37 million streams, followed at No. 2 by the Weeknd’s new track with Daft Punk, “Starboy,” which was played 22.5 million times.

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