What brings me to this particular conclusion? The fact that Chris Brown’s F.A.M.E. debuts atop the Billboard 200 album chart this week with the second biggest first week sales of his career. Not even a full-on temper tantrum on the set of “Good Morning America” after being confronted with questions regarding his arrest for assault could stop over 270,0o0 fans from purchasing his album. Interestingly enough, F.A.M.E.‘s first week number is also higher than the first week number for any of Rihanna’s five releases. I’m not sure what that means in the grand scheme of things, but…

Brown has one of six debuts in the Top Ten on the album charts. Jennifer Hudson parlays an “American Idol” homecoming and a series of public appearances flaunting her new weight loss into a #2 debut. Her sophomore effort, I Remember Me, starts with a reasonably impressive 165K sold. She’s joined in the Top Ten by The Strokes (#4, 89K), gospel superstar Kirk Franklin (#5, 87K), the iTunes only “Songs for Japan” compilation (68K, #6, after only two days of release), a new one from Panic! At the Disco (people still care about them?!?) (#7, 56K) and former Ludacris protege Bobby V. (#9, 38K). A live set from Green Day debuts in the Top 20, as do new albums from Gucci Mane and Yellowcard. Among album releases from legendary types-Duran Duran’s All You Need is Now starts at #29, while the latest live set from Soundgarden begins at #47.

This marks the sixth straight week that album sales have exceeded the totals of the same week in 2010, promising news for the music industry and maybe proof that things may be plateauing after a solid decade of decreased sales. After a horrid start to the year, music sales have rebounded to the point where there’s only a 5% gap between sales so far this year and sales at the same point last year.

Next week, a fairly large crop of new releases will be doing battle against the week in 2010 when Usher’s Raymond v. Raymond debuted north of 300,000 copies. Britney Spears, Radiohead and Wiz Khalifa are likely to debut 1,2,3 next week (probably in that order, too), while Adele seems to be pretty consistent week-to-week and Brown’s second week drop will likely be less severe than usual, thanks to a much-discussed performance on “Dancing with the Stars”.

Check out this week’s Top 20 after the jump.

1) F.A.M.E., Chris Brown

2) I Remember Me, Jennifer Hudson

3) 21, Adele

4) Angles, The Strokes

5) Hello Fear, Kirk Franklin

6) Songs for Japan, Various Artists

7) Vices & Virtues, Panic! at the Disco

8) Sigh No More, Mumford & Sons

9) Fly on the Wall, Bobby V.

10) Lasers, Lupe Fiasco

11) Never Say Never-The Remixes, Justin Bieber

12) Now That’s What I Call Music 37, Various Artists

13) Greatest Hits So Far!, P!nk

14) Awesome as Fuck, Green Day

15) Glee: The Music Vol. 5, Glee Cast

16) Late Nights & Early Mornings, Marsha Ambrosius

17) Loud, Rihanna

18) Return of Mr. Zone 6, Gucci Mane

19) When You’re Through Thinking, Say Yeah, Yellowcard

20) Pink Friday, Nicki Minaj