At the moment, this is Britney Spears' popular music nation.

The 17-year-old teen-pop singer returned to #1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart

this week after a one-month hiatus. ... Baby One More Time sold 167,900 copies

for the week ending March 28, according to sales tracker SoundScan.

It is the album's third stint in the top position; Spears' debut has never fallen lower than

#5 since its release three months ago. Spears -- along with controversial Teletubby

Tinky Winky -- appears on the cover of the newest Rolling Stone magazine and

the video for her album's

music/Spears,_Britney/Baby_One_More_Time.ram">title track (RealAudio

excerpt) continues to receive heavy airplay on MTV.

Spears unseated hip-hop girl group TLC from the top position. TLC's Fan Mail

ended its month-long stay at #1, falling to #3. The album, which features

href="http://media.addict.com/atn-bin/get-music/TLC/Silly_Ho.ram">"Silly Ho"

(RealAudio excerpt), has sold slightly more than 1 million copies to date.

Rapper Eminem stood between the two -- at #2 -- staying there for a second week with

The Slim Shady LP, his major-label debut. The artist, known for his on-mic

persona and for his suggestive lyrics, defended the album's tone last month.

"There's a deeper meaning behind everything I say, making fun of all the f---ed-up sh-- in

the world," he said. "It's comical sh--, but people will see that it is really political. I'm not a

baby sitter or a role model. I never claimed to be any of that stuff."

The Slim Shady LP sold 161,808 units last week.

The week's highest debuts came from all-male soul groups -- Blackstreet at #9 with

Finally and Silk at #21 with Tonight. The Blackstreet album stood one spot

above fellow soul practitioner Ginuwine, whose 100% Ginuwine dropped five

places to #10 after debuting last week.

Brit-pop band Blur's 13, their first album since their breakthrough self-titled 1997

effort, debuted at #80. The band played 11 songs from the album, in running order,

during a concert Tuesday at the Roseland Ballroom in New York.

The album was at #3 on the top 25 at Tower Records in Greenwich Village last week.

Despite that showing, and the continuing sales activity of Hill and Eminem, store general

manager Hedi Kim lamented what she called sluggish first-quarter sales.

Indeed, most weeks of the first quarter have seen only a handful of artists earn six-figure

sales of their albums, while the bottom entry of the Billboard 200 has rarely

exceeded 6,000 copies.

Kim blamed part of the slow winter on the late-1998 merger of Universal Records and

Polygram NV, which created the world's largest record company but also a large

promotional headache.

"I think the timing was lousy," she said. "A lot of their promotions were put on hold and so

were a lot of big releases." Albums by Philadelphia hip-hop group the Roots, Eminem

and Blackstreet were the only Universal Music Group releases with built-in star power

this year so far, in Kim's view.

This week's most surprising debut, perhaps, came from former Van Halen singer Sammy

Hagar, whose Red Voodoo, his second effort since his ouster from the superstar

rock group, debuted at #22.

Some acts continued to rise: Rapper Busta Rhymes kept his recent momentum, as

E.L.E.: Extinction Level Event -- The Final World Front climbed eight spots to #23.

B*Witched's self-titled debut album moved up 20 positions to #18. Australian film director

Baz Luhrmann, meanwhile, jumped 28 positions with Something for Everybody, a

year-old album propelled by "Everyone's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)," a spoken rendition

of a bogus graduation speech by author Kurt Vonnegut that appeared on the Internet in

1997.

Others plunged: C-Murder dropped 21 spots, from #12 to #33, with Bossalinie,

while Blondie's No Exit dropped from #17 to #75.

Rounding out the top 10 were Grammy-winning singer Lauryn Hill at #4 with The

Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, country singer Shania Twain at #5 with Come On

Over, punk-rockers the Offspring on the gradual rebound at #6 with

Americana, Cher at #7 with Believe and country trio the Dixie Chicks at #8

with Wide Open Spaces.

Everlast evidently loves the number 11 -- he seems to have set up permanent residency

there. For the fifth time in two months, his Whitey Ford Sings the Blues landed at

that ranking. The album's first single, "What It's Like," is still rising after eight months of

release, last week appearing at #30 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

From the He Ain't Exactly Hangin' Tough department: Former New Kid on the Block Joey

McIntyre, after debuting at #49 last week with Stay the Same, plummeted this

week to #84 with a sales decline of 11,000 copies.

McIntyre was not alone. College-oriented rock, in particular, took a hit, as reflected in the

plunging numbers of Alanis Morissette's Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie

(#77 to #97), Dave Matthews Band's Before These Crowded Streets (#88 to

#100), Silverchair's Neon Ballroom (#50 to #91), Everclear's So Much for the

Afterglow (#81 to #103), Beth's Orton's Central Reservation (#128 to #148)

and Wilco's Summer Teeth (#126 to #173).

At least those albums can point to a legitimate hope for salvation in their midst. Pope

John Paul II is now a pop star. The album Abba Pater debuted at #198, as 6,779

people purchased the collection of speeches and chants by the Pope set to a world

music and ambient accompaniment.