American rock band Creed has sold more records in their home country than Jimi Hendrix. Who even remembers Creed? The legend of Jimi on a guitar will forever be remembered, and he’s arguably the greatest guitarist of all time. His feel for the music was something no one has rivaled since.
Ke$ha‘s single “Tik-Tok” has sold more copies than any Beatles single. Many wouldn’t even call “Tik-Tok” music, but obviously enough people went out to buy it for it to overtake sales of any Beatles song.
Led Zeppelin, REM and Depeche Mode never had a number one single, but Rhianna has 10. These classic bands have stood the test of time, all with huge fan bases, but nothing translated into a number one single among the masses. What a shame.
“Low’ by Flo Rida has sold over 8 million copies — more than “Hey Jude” by The Beatles. While we’re on The Beatles, its again shocking that a mediocre party track such as “Low” has had more success in sales than one of the most iconic rock songs of all time.
“Falling Into You” by Celine Dion has sold more copies than any album by Nirvana or Queen. I knew Celine had a following, but I thought followers of Nirvana and Queen were just as strong. Sales indicate otherwise, which is disrespectful to the memory of Kurt Cobain and Freddie Mercury.
Katy Perry and Michael Jackson share the record for the most number one singles off a single album. Perhaps MJ should have released more songs off some of his albums, to prevent situations like this coming about.
“I Gotta Feeling” by The Black Eyed Peas has sold more copies than any Elvis Presley single. Elvis Presley was a phenomenon, but obviously the Black Eyed Peas are too. I think the world just forgot to tell me that they were the new Elvis.
Shania Twain‘s “Come On Over” album has sold over 40 million copies, making it one of the biggest selling albums EVER. When you look at the list of best selling albums ever there is a lot of credible music. “The Dark Side of the Moon”, “Saturday Night Fever”, “Back in Black” etc. Sitting in at number 10 though is Shania. How did this happen? Don’t ask me! I didn’t buy it! I promise!
20 million people have bought an album by Billy Ray Cyrus, that’s more than any Bob Marley album. Who remembers Billy Ray? Let me rephrase this. Who wants to remember him? Bob Marley is the opposite though, as a recent biopic (Marley) aims to ensure his name lives on forever. Unfortunately so will this fact.
The Glee cast has had more songs in the charts than The Beatles. The Glee cast has sprinkled its “magic” over so many tracks that it’s hard to avoid their happy and often annoying brand of cover music. It’s a shame they have tainted the success of The Beatles with theirs.
Justin Bieber has over 22 million followers on Twitter, more than just about anyone else. Apart from Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber has the second largest Twitter followers, made up from a large number of die-hard fans known as “Beliebers” making the Bieber the most influential person online with the highest Klout score.
Educational article but what do the statistics look like when they are normalized by the world population at the album or single release dates?
More sales might simply mean a larger buying market.
What an arrogant article. Musical taste, more than any other art form, is subjective.
Believe it or not, lots of rational people hate classic rock. I like the Beatles, but hate Zeppelin.
Most women would rather listen to Celine Dione than Hendrix. So what?
Kind of tired of writers trying to compare the Beatles to any modern group in terms of sales or radio plays. Please remember that there was no Internet to popularize music back then, no email, no MTV or video and the population of the earth was 2.5 billion people less.
Unfair comparison.
Excuse me but Nirvana is not a classic band, they are NOT on par with Zep or any other classic legendary band. They ushered in plaid wearing, faux-punk, bs rock that many fools, already set up to like anything MTV sold them at the time along with gangsta rap, etc., that we’re still effing suffering from today.
I’m sorry but no. Do not talk Zep, Marley on the same level as Nircaca.
Everything that’s new is old someday.
It is crazy to me that all the old time bands, do not get the recognition they deserve. I understand that the generations have changes but do you hear some of this music that is popular among people now. It’s sad but true that these generations today are so scared to stand out from everyone else that they need to stay stuck in the new trends and new music that they are missing out on some amazing music from back in the day. I am a fan of all the old school music and that will never change! I believe that the songs by Bob Marley, Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, and so on deserve to be given the recognition that they deserve. I believe that this generation does not realize the music they are missing out on….Just my thoughts!!!!!
Really, these stats don’t surprise or dismay me. It doesn’t take into account population growth, the new ability for people to buy downloads (no one ever downloaded Elvis at the height of his popularity), and the fact that the people most interested in twitter are Justin Bieber’s target market.
“Moral decadence” as one poster says, has nothing to do with it. Perhaps the breakdown of the systems that use to control media ownership to give Clearchannel a monopoly has a great deal to do with it.
But these statististics are skewed by factors such as demographics and technology. The number of people downloading Gaga on itunes an entirely different animal from those walking into a record store and purchasing Elvis on vinyl. It’s apples and oranges at this point. You can buy singles now for less than a dollar, which adjusted for inflation, would have been untenably cheap for physical media like vinyl, casette, or even CD. Since consumers don’t have to leave home to buy music, purchasing is a much more casual choice than it once was. I remember going to a record store with a specific mission in mind, and coming home empty-handed if they lacked what I sought to purchase. I don’t think there’s an analagous situation today. In other words, the notion that these numbers are disappointing or surprising shows a lack of thought about technology, and not a small amount of curmudgeonly nostalgia.
Please keep in mind, “nostalgia isn’t what it used to be.”
Hey, but you can’t gauge popularity by number of records sold/number of likes on Facebook.
No offence but pop is mostly listened to by the younger generation, we buy cds, access networking sites and would like to say what their likes and dislikes are.
Rock is a genre which has followers from the age of 15 to may be 70! And elder the folks, lesser the want to hit ‘likes’ on social networking sites. Some don’t buy stuff, they copy/download(though this is really sad), but oh well!
Spelling Freddie with a Y is pretty disrespectful too… jeez that’s like a whole five seconds of research time required
moral decadence has brought about the dearth of good music. this is much evident in the Hiphop world, where conscious emcees/rappers seldom get grammy or BET Awards. they r usually referred to as ‘underground rapperz’. & when such a rapper starts making secular/popular music, so he could sell millions, he is described as a ‘sell_out’.