With the biggest sales week of the year, Rock icons U2 have knocked Country-Pop star Taylor Swift from the pole position on the charts with nearly 500,00 CDs sold last week.  There was a surpise Top 3 appearance from a critically acclaimed indie Alt-Country artist too.

After last week's strong chart numbers, the dismal state of the Hot Album Charts return as the high of the Grammy Awards is officially over.  Still, It's not all bad for some artists, particularly Taylor Swift as she once again dominates the chart, her 10th week on top.

After a remarkable run that tied Usher and his "Confessions" album's chart-topping run of 8 weeks, Taylor Swift saw her "Fearless" album finally dethroned.  It took a legend and is latest release to do it.  What other country albums made the chart this week?

What's that you hear? Is it the sound of another label closing or the sound of traditionalists closing up their instrument cases?  Whatever the sound is, it wasn't good for Country music in 2008.  What can be done in '09 to stop the bleeding? Anything?

With another strong week of sales, Taylor Swift continues to Reign supreme on the album charts with "Fearless."  The album now stands an outside chance of being the biggest selling album released in all of 2008, not bad for a record which only was released 6 weeks ago.

It was another strong sales week for Country-Pop star Taylor Swift as she saw her "Fearless" sell another quarter of a million albums and return to the top of the Top Billboard Albums chart after three weeks away from it.  Did other country artists fare as well as Ms. Swift?