Hard Twerk Pays Off: Miley Has the Year's Biggest Debut for a Woman

The music industry has changed, but apparently people still buy albums. And Miley’s “Bangerz” has officially had the year’s biggest sales week for a woman.

As Billboard reports:

“Bangerz” debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, selling 270,000 copies according to Nielsen SoundScan. Among pop sets, only Daft Punk’s “Random Access Memories” had a larger frame this year, when it debuted with 339,000. (While other albums have logged bigger weeks this year, all were R&B, rap or country efforts.)

While Miley’s number is decent, she still has a ways to go before making any RIAA certifications. An album goes “gold” when you sell 500,000 copies; platinum when you sell a million, and diamond when you sell ten million. (Adele went diamond in 2011; Britney Spears went diamond in 2000.)

In addition, Billboard points out that Miley has some stiff competition. Drake’s new album sold 658,000 copies in its first week of release. And women are not doing that well this year (emphasis mine):

Proving that this year has been one for the boys, of the 50 frames where an album has sold 100,000-plus, only five were by solo women (and all were debut weeks): Cyrus, Grande, Lorde, Tamar Braxton and Demi Lovato. (A couple of those 100,000-plus weeks include the same album multiple times, like Justin Timberlake’s “The 20/20 Experience,” for example. It debuted with 968,000, and then sold more than 100,000 in two additional weeks.)

Still, the promotional push for Bangerz was huge — MTV Awards, Today Show, SNL, etc. — and when any artist can get people to pay actual money for music in this day and age, it’s notable. And since Ariana Grande — who technically has a better voice than Miley — had her album, “Yours Truly,” debut at 138,000, if there’s one thing we’ve learned, it’s that twerking pays.