Bestselling albums in Britain this decade

if its for best then its the beatles by default as all the others are the pits.

amy

David Gray - Wide Ladder

Half-good, half-awful. 'Back To Black' is great, I expect the Scissor Sisters is pretty good too though I only know the singles. I don't mind Keane too much, though the production is horrible, and the Coldplay and Leona Lewis ones are probably perfectly acceptable for a list like this. Not sure about "The Beatles". Went for 'Back To Black'.

How on earth did David Gray and Dido ever get to be such big stars?

two Dido entries!? wow

is that in order i.e. is James Blunt no.1 top seller?

David Gray - Wide Ladder

― a gift from your mind in the form of the perfect beat (snoball), Saturday, 17 October 2009 14:44 (17 minutes ago) Bookmark

Ha. Copied verbatim from the Guardian.

Vote however you want.

Yeah, in order.

I own 4 of these ;_; Sorry world.

Voted Life for Rent.

Voted for Scissor sisters. Pretty grim, though, innit.

no worse than 90s equivalent tho

in other words the public always have shitty taste

At the risk of projecting my own gaps of knowledge onto the British pop public, I wouldn't have been able to tell you that that presumably million-selling Leona Lewis album's title if you put a gun to my head

It's a concept album about drinking methylated spirits.

amy winehouse by a miiiile

dido's one good song ("white flag') and leona's one good song ("bleeding love") are very, very good songs. everyone else on the list can fuck off.

I own half of these. Winehouse is way way in front here.

I expect the Scissor Sisters is pretty good too though I only know the singles

The singles are the best tracks, I think. Haven't listened to it for ages though.

The Beatles "1" is pretty good, although it's a comp so maybe it shouldn't count. Out of the ten it's the only one I own, having bought it in a 24hr Tesco Express after falling drunk out of a club at 3 in the morning.

Amy is the best non-Beatles one.

All British artists, I noticed (except for Scissor Sisters, who we've kind of adopted).

They're a bit like Sparks in that respect.

The Beatles is the best on there but I'm not voting for it on principle so it's kind of Winehouse by default really. It's all so fucking BLAND though.

winehouse >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> beatles

would take leona and dido over the beatles too frankly

is Blunt actually the top seller? i think only he and Dido broke 2mil. he is the only one i find 100% completely irredeemable tho.

David Gray is actually worse than James Blunt.

This is like being asked to choose some music to play at my sister's house but with the George Michael option denied. Amy Whitehouse I guess, then Scissor Sisters, then I'm possibly at the stage where I'm taking an axe to the stereo.

impossible, plus he's mates with Orbital so... xp

Funny how, when judged purely on sales, the genders are split 50/50.

That kind of says more than 800 posts on the Pitchfork thread possibly could, doesn't it?

The Beatles is the best on there but I'm not voting for it on principle so it's kind of Winehouse by default really. It's all so fucking BLAND though.

I think Amy Winehouse is closer in quality to The Beatles than you do,(n.1) but otherwise, agreed.

OTM re: "(i)t's all so fucking BLAND though."

_____________________________________
(n.1) It's hard to compare Winehouse to The Beatles. Different eras, different genres, so much of The Beatles significance comes from the fact that they were trailblazers and occupied such a singular place in the public's mind, whereas Winehouse did great work in an established genre and is merely one of this era's bigger pop acts (certainly willing to be shown otherwise on this, tho).

Lowest common denominator stuff in being BLAND shocker. I'm honestly surprised there's not more reality show winners on this, though.

Scissor Sisters isn't so bland, to be fair. "Sassy," almost!

(Actually, only the singles are memorable, now that I think about it. The rest was kinda bland)

scissor sisters easily

I misread the second option as Dio and had a fleeting moment of goodwill towards my fellow man.

Scissor Sisters is pretty much the walking definition of Botox Disco as far as I'm concerned. I hated the production on that record so much. Can't vote for the Beatles out of sheer principle, so out of the rest, erm, Amy Winehouse.

Scissor Sisters. I have no particular love for them but Beatles - 1 would be cheating and the rest horrify me.

Funny how, when judged purely on sales, the genders are split 50/50.

That is quite interesting, actually. Does it hold up across eras?

dunno bout of other decades but here is
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_albums_by_year_%28UK%29

Scissor Sisters by a mile. not even a second thought here.

Again, that's a pretty even split. Maybe it's just nerdy, anorak rock that is dominated by boys. Whoda thunk it?

haven't listened to 1, but tbrr, I've bumped the Amy Winehouse more than any particular Beatles album

The Dido album is a nice album.

Both of them, yes. Agree with Lex that "White Flag" is head and shoulders her best song but there is a lot of good and interesting stuff going on under that "lol girls and people who like popular music" exterior. Still, hey ho, thread of keeping it punk etc.

Back to Black and especially Spirit must have been heavily helped by the deluxe editions a year after release. Without that there might be nothing from the second half of the decade at all, although I suppose that is more reflective of the slow build up of sales of some of the others than anything.

As much as I hate voting for a compilation "1" is still in a league of its own here. In SPITE of the Keane and Coldplay ones also being great.

wow amy winehouse, coldplay, scissor sisters.. ? that's a pretty good list. beats the arse off of the 1990s one i'll bet.

I misread the second option as Dio and had a fleeting moment of goodwill towards my fellow man.

― Alex in NYC, Saturday, October 17, 2009 6:32 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol me too!

yeah i guess it's the beatles if it's just quality, but winehouse if it's an album.

not that you could pay me to listen to half of that shit, which i haven't

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Also voted Life For Rent. That simple warmth and intimacy in her voice gets me every time. She sings about the things real people think about, and she sings about them in a touching and honest way. Nothing wrong with that, far as I can tell.

I stopped hating on "White Flag" when it came on the radio and my friend started talking about how great Sade is and me and my friend corrected him that it was Dido, after which it occured to me that I'd probably really like it if it came with Sade's name attached to it.

slightly alarmed that the only one of these i like a single song on is the keane one

You are either overlooking the Beatles or hardchalloping.

uh huh

Beatles doesn't count, liked some of the Scissor Sisters singles, Winehouse is the only other actual good record. She's going to romp it home unless a million lurkers blindly click Beatles.

Still one more who thinks choosing Beatles is cheating so Amy Winehouse it is, if only for the wicked Daptones arrangements. The rest of the albums of the list prove my theory that the only people who are really buying records nowadays are those below 12 and those above 34.

That is a shockingly unterrible list of albums.. With the exception of James Blunt, I don't really find any of these to be all that offensive.

Normally, The Beatles wouldn't count, but they are so much better than the other crowd to overlook. Well, might have gone for Keane of course. "Hopes And Fears" is one of the best debut albums ever.

that is a shockingly terrible list of albums.. with the exception of the beatles and winehouse, I really find all of them to be all thoroughly offensive.

(but yes, beatles is cheating)

Keane are amazing and by no means "offensive". In fact, I guess that's the problem about them for some people, that they aren't "offensive" enough musically.

And, yes, Coldplay too, of course. Although that one is the weakest out of their four albums.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

The Beatles should not have been in this poll. If they hadn't been Winehouse would have won. The anti-Winehouse vote would have been split three ways between Scissor Sisters, Coldplay and Keane.

does anyone have similar stats for the US?

according to wikip

2000s

The best-selling album of 2000 was No Strings Attached, by *NSYNC.[41]
The best-selling album of 2001 was Hybrid Theory, by Linkin Park.[41]
The best-selling album of 2002 was The Eminem Show, by Eminem.[42]
The best-selling album of 2003 was Get Rich or Die Tryin', by 50 Cent.[43]
The best-selling album of 2004 was Confessions, by Usher.[44]
The best-selling album of 2005 was The Emancipation of Mimi, by Mariah Carey.[39]
The best-selling album of 2006 was High School Musical Soundtrack.[38]
The best-selling album of 2007 was Noel, by Josh Groban.[45]
The best-selling album of 2008 was Tha Carter III, by Lil Wayne.[46]

was all 'who the fuck is Groban' but then remembered he was that guy i'd never heard of (and never want to hear) on Never Mind The Buzzcocks last year

I'll say who the fuck is Groban then

oh, was this by year? I thought it was just the 10 albums with the most cumulative sales

josh groban is cool imo

it's by year but there's probably not much difference re cumulative sales altho e.g. Snow Patrol's 'Eyes Open' probably sold more than a couple of these over a 2 year period

This poll isn't by year iirc, it's the bestselling over the decade. Snow Patrol most probably came 11th but the info I had involved The Beatles and no 11th place. Plus, Snow Patrol suck dick and The Beatles are awesome.

much better albums in the US list than the UK list

IMHO, the UK list has nothing as bad as High School Musical or Linkin Park.

i would listen to the linkin park album 100 times before i listened to the james blunt album 10 times

Blunt being the exception xpost

I think I'd just listen to something else when given the opportunity for either. :P

Beatles doesn't count, liked some of the Scissor Sisters singles, Winehouse is the only other actual good record. She's going to romp it home unless a million lurkers blindly click Beatles.

this guy knows what's up