When Disney's
High School Musical 2 premiered on television last August 17, it massively drew in 17.2 million viewers. However, the craze just didn't stop there as its made-for-TV soundtrack also sold like hotcakes when it hit the record stores the same week.
The
High School Musical 2 soundtrack, which was recorded in February, contains an 11-track listing, including "Work This Out," "You Are the Music in Me," and "What Time Is It?" It also features the film's ensemble,
Zac Efron (Troy Bolton),
Vanessa Hudgens (Gabriella Montez),
Ashley Tisdale (Sharpay Evans),
Corbin Bleu (Chad Danforth),
Lucas Grabeel (Ryan Evans) and
Monique Coleman (Taylor McKessie).
Upon its release, it snatched up more than 615,000 copies. This earned the album the number one spot on the Billboard top 200 and was even declared as the most downloaded album on iTunes and Amazon.com. Overall, the album sold a total of 683,000 copies worldwide in its initial week.
Moreover, the
High School Musical 2 soundtrack became the second largest first-week take of 2007, next to Linkin Park's
Minutes to Midnight, which currently holds the title of best-performing debut of the year with 623,000 copies sold during its first week of release.
The first soundtrack of
High School Musical, on the other hand, debuted at number 143 on Billboard 200 last summer, selling about 6,500 units, but has since rocketed to about 4.1 million copies sold.
As for other Disney-spawned albums,
Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus also dominated the charts upon its release, ranking at number 2 following
High School Musical 2. Behind
Hannah was a bunch of other new releases, which included
Live at Radio City, the latest from Dave Matthews, the soundtrack of
Hairspray, which also features Efron's voice, Fergie's
The Dutchess and Jonas Brothers' self-titled album, just to name a few.
-Kris De Leon, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: MTV
(Image courtesy of Disney)