Independent albums charting at #1

articles cite Vampire Weekend's 'Contra' as the 12th independent album to earn a US number one on da billboard charts since soundscan started keeping track sometime around 1991..
the only other two i saw mention of were Pearl Jam's 'Backspacer' and Paula Abdul's 'Spellbound' (on Virgin)

so what were the other nine ?

uh..Virgin?

prettty sure that's not an indie

Contra, the band's second album, sold close to 124,000 copies in its first week to debut at #1, besting runner-up Susan Boyle's I Dreamed a Dream by nearly 50,000 albums. Released on XL Recordings, Contra is the first independent album to debut at #1 since Pearl Jam's Backspacer bowed at the top of the charts back in September (that album was released on the band's own Monkeywrench label but sold exclusively through mega-retailer Target, independent stores and online). Contra is also the highest indie-rock debut since both the Shins and the Arcade Fire released albums — Wincing the Night Away and Neon Bible — that opened at #2 back in 2007. It's the first #1 album in XL's 20-year history, not to mention the label's highest debut since Thom Yorke's The Eraser bowed at #2 in 2006.

The first three Britney Spears records probably are being counted. Jive was technically an independently run label at the time.

Radiohead's In Rainbows..ATO is probably technically an indie too.

virgin was an indie when it released spellbound..
it was bought by emi or someshit the following year..

How far back do you have to go for Columbia to be an indie.

Virgin had been distributed by Atlantic, Columbia or WEA in the States since the late '70s though, right? So, probably depends how you define "indie."

Jive's apparently also been distibuted by majors (Arista, then RCA, then Sony) since the '80s, fwiw.

during the nsync/justin/britney years jive/zomba only had 20% minority stake by BMG... scottpl is on the right track with "technically" indie.

All those Nickelback albums were on Roadrunner

Major labels generally own their own distribution, thats a good way to tell the difference.

And all those Creed albums were Wind-Up

Slipknot was Roadrunner too

sorry the real answer is so boring

still not really sure what the real answer is.. if there is one...
wading through wikipedia turns up around 15 records since 1991:

paula abdul on pre-emi virgin
nickelback had two on roadrunner before it was bought by warner in 2006
(slipknot didn't make #1 til 2008)
creed had two albums on wind-up (still independent? but distributed by sony)
jive gets seven to #1 with britney/n sync/backstreet boys before bmg buys in 2002
pearl jam and radiohead round it out with their two self-released albums

maybe the two creed records are discounted ? and in rainbows is not technically on any label ? but licensed to (probably major) labels for physical release..
i dont know

well here is another take

Indie Chart Toppers
By Jake Brown
January 25, 2010

Last week, when Vampire Weekend's sophomore effort was the top selling album in America, Billboard announced that Contra was "only the 12th independently distributed album to top the Billboard 200 chart since SoundScan began powering the list in May of 1991." Curious what the other eleven were? Here they are:

1991 - N.W.A. - "EFIL4ZAGGIN" (Ruthless/Priority)
1992 - Ice Cube - "The Predator" (Priority)
1994 - "The Lion King" (Walt Disney)
1995 - "Friday" soundtrack (Priority)
1995 - "Pocahontas" (Walt Disney)
1995 - Bone Thugs-N-Harmony - "E. 1999 Eternal" (Priority)
1995 - Tha Dogg Pound - "Dogg Food" (Death Row/Priority)
1997 - Bone Thugs-N-Harmony - "The Art of War" (Priority)
2007 - Eagles - "Long Road Out of Eden" (self released/Wal-Mart)
2008 - Radiohead - "In Rainbows" (TBD/ATO/RED)
2009 - Pearl Jam - "Backspacer" (self released/Target)
2010 - Vampire Weekend - "Contra" (XL/ADA)

Not a lot of what you'd really think of as "indie," is there? That's because Billboard defines an independent album based on the title's distribution:

If an album is sold by an indie distributor (or, one of the major label's indie distribution arms), it is classified as an independent title and can chart on our Top Independent Albums tally. Classification is not based on a label's ownership, or if an act is signed to an independent label.
In the mid-90s Priority Records was sold to EMI and Walt Disney Records switched to Universal Music Group Distribution, which led to a ten-year absence of indie releases at the top of the album chart until the Eagles came along and changed everything!

can we just say this was the first non-disney whiteboy band that wasn't on a major, and had never been on a major, to debut at #1

what a tragedy for independence