Michael Jackson dies, rules iTunes

The surprising death of Michael Jackson has sent shockwaves through society on a number of levels. Television news networks were airing his music videos in amongst their live coverage, Twitter quickly crashed, and the surge of search requests to Google News reportedly led the search engine to believe it was under digital attack. But any musician would ostensibly want to remembered first and foremost for his music, and so perhaps the most fitting phenomenon is this one today from the iTunes Store:

The trend of Michael Jackson’s albums climbing the iTunes charts began immediately after news of his death on Thursday afternoon, and by mid-Friday his albums occupied eight of the top ten spots on the overall iTunes sales charts. with only the new Black Eyed Peas album sneaking in at number nine. It’s rare that even as many as two different albums from the same artist would simultaneously appear in the top ten in iTunes sales; the overwhelming chart dominance by Michael Jackson is unprecedented in digital music history.