poll: the fastest selling albums in U.S. history

:/

I voted for the one I own.

the ones i bought when they were brand new and got caught up in the hype of were just the last 3 (Vs., Graduation, Carter III), and they all feel like unremarkable albums and among the artists' weakest releases now. enjoyed Confessions and the N Sync albums whenever i heard them but never owned them. the Limp Bizkit album is pretty damn entertaining and easily their peak, though, so that, unlikely as it is.

So remarkable that Black and Blue sold so many millions yet the Boys were already eclipsed in every way by 'N Sync.

I went for The Marshall Mathers LP over Graduation.

the turn of the century must've been pretty awesome for record labels

wow, Celebrity was really front-loaded.

yeah it's amazing how Black & Blue sold 8 million with only one successful single and the group getting saddled with also-ran status

I voted for the one I own.

Ah, Chocolate Starfish... I knew it'd get at least one vote.

The Beatles one is kinda weird. Like were people camped out at record stores to buy a GH comp?

'1' was a big fuckin' deal when it came out

wow, Carter III did 1/3rd of it's total sales the first week? that's kinda sad....

it's actually kind of awesome

for me it would be

1 confessions
2 the massacre
3 carter III
4 marshall mathers lp
5 graduation

caveats that i've never heard an nysnc/bsb album in full -- i'm sure i would dig the two n sync albums if i ever listened to them

<3 Confessions and Graduation 4eva but prob drop the Ursh more nowadays

yeah 'confessions' is crazy good

I couldn't listen to it for a few years because my sister blasted it at high volume every morning for like a year straight

usually when I was trying to sleep in

Then again at the peak of my Graduation love I was spinning it about 3 times a day

The year it came out, I pulled a copy of Black & Blue out of my xmas stocking and rudely protested to my mom who was like "I couldn't remember which one of you liked the Backstreet Boys." I was kind of astounded that she couldn't figure out that it was the 10-year-old girl, not the 14-year-old burgeoning hiphop geek.

wow, Carter III did 1/3rd of it's total sales the first week? that's kinda sad....

― If You Ain't Gonna Wash It, I Ain't Gonna Eat It (Cattle Grind), Monday, May 3, 2010 7:19 PM (20 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

the list here is full of releases that were freaks in one sense or another, but most of the time it's pretty normal for a release with a big debut to do 1/3rd or 14th of its total sales the first week, unless there's a runaway hit single later in the cycle or something

I feel like I only have 2 choices, Pearl Jam and The Beatles. Easy to choose from there

the turn of the century must've been pretty awesome for record labels

if they had invested their earnings in, say, real estate, they could have done really nicely for themselves.

my top 5 (not counting 1):

Chocolate Starfish
The Massacre
Confessions
Marshall Mathers LP
Graduation

chances that list will ever change?

britney album is prb the best but i mean

chances that list will ever change?

Very slim. Speakerboxx/The Love Below might even be the last contemporary diamond album.

yeah, i don't really see it changing either -- the numbers for Carter III are crazy, but, i mean, could even something like a really solid second record by Lady Gaga come close?

is there an easy for ppl w/o access to special databases to look up sales numbers for random records?

an easy way, obv

wikipedia

man, the numbers on indie records always remind me that, even if something's popular on P4k/ILM/wherever, most of the world doesn't even know it exists

www.riaa.com

thanks, there's a lot of stuff there, actually! wish i had access to SoundScan though

"1"

The majority of these suggest that, often, record buyers are a bit too fast....

Are these also the top 17 albums easiest to find in Used bins?

Pretty sure "1" isn't all that easy to find in Used bins, although most of the individual Beatles albums (in their non-remastered editions) are pretty frequent there nowadays....

I still consider "1" the worst Beatles album and the laziest Beatles comp to date...

For me this is Vs. vs. Tha Carter III and I voted for Vs. because I'm pretty sure no one else will. And also "Go" and "Dissident" make me very nostalgic, and it's the only one of these 17 where I actually contributed during the 1st week.

"1" is not the worst Beatles album, but I do agree it is a lazy compilation. And "2" would have been much better, had it included the rest of their UK and US singles plus the occasional classic album track and b-side.

The top 6 all have some brilliant singles, and in most cases MAYBE 2 stand-out album tracks.

Nothing tops the Red and Blue albums! xpost

Most of these are mostly about singles. I still reckon "Feels Like Home" is a good album though, even if not quite as good as its predecessor.

X-Post the problem about the red and blue albums is that they are not at all adjusted to the CD age. The playtime is way too short. Plus it underrates "Revolver" considerably - having just the two single sides included from "Revolver" is a joke.

well this thread was fun

i'm torn between n'sync no strings attached and n'sync celebrity.

Haven't heard this in like 8 years...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js2MHfO_IWI

you dont'...wanna fuck with shady...cuz shady, will fuckin' kill you.

btw i learned that doing "who knew" at karaoke night gets strange looks from people not as familiar with Eminem's not so well known works....

You don't wanna fuck with these polls
these polls will fucking kill you

well this thread was fun

― J0rdan S., Monday, May 3, 2010 9:58 PM (16 minutes ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ7d4JVB2Uc

http://www.nisd.net/stevens/departments/international_language/SReginaldo/images/pamplona_bull.jpg

background: geir talking about the bealtes
foreground: me

remember the period where rappers wanted to sound like eminem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jZRpx9aCDg

yeah it's amazing how Black & Blue sold 8 million with only one successful single and the group getting saddled with also-ran status

bought this for the kids I was working w/at the time so they could know what it's like to get an album the day it comes out (they were all from poor families) & we had a big old party with it and it was such special times for me but I am not posting this to get sentimental I am posting to say that they were selling this record for 10 bucks at the megastores when it was new, so I suspect a lot of people who would have balked at a full price saw it on the encap with a big red TEN DOLLARS BACKSTREET and said "hell yeah" or maybe they said "I want it that way" & then I got suggest banned

J0hn 4 the thread redemption

(awesome, awesome story)

I don't remember anything from black & blue except "shape of my heart" and that was boring

how can you say that, that song is sweet, from memory let us sing together: looking back on the things i've done, i was tryin to be someone, play my part, kept you in the dark, now let me show you the shape of my heart

a solid bb jam

ok so dont know what im going to vote for (marshall mathers prob) but ill be fucked if im giving the nod to some posthumous collection of the least interesting things about the beatles.

"heart" = "cock"

I don't own any of these but this thread makes me want to throw down $1 for a copy of Oops...

the numbers for Carter III are crazy, but, i mean, could even something like a really solid second record by Lady Gaga come close?

She already released her second album iirc. And it's really solid. And, no, it's not gonna come close, more than likely. I think her sales are mostly digital/download based, amirite?

Digital sales count.

man, the numbers on indie records always remind me that, even if something's popular on P4k/ILM/wherever, most of the world doesn't even know it exists

― ksh, Monday, May 3, 2010 9:24 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

you're probably right but also sales figures probably aren't the best way to measure name recognition in the 21st century

Fame Monster was really more of a re-release that kind of became its own album somewhat by accident, i don't think its first week sales were looked at as any kind of sign of Gaga's popularity or fanbase size...her next full-length will be the one that'll post huge first week numbers.

you CAN measure name recognition pretty easily by other standards, though, and in those terms mainstream stars still dwarf Pitchfork darlings (2 million Google results for Animal Collective vs. 33 million for Taylor Swift, etc.).

So the only people who still buy records are rap fans? Well fuck you baby boomers who bitch and whine, i own both of the those records, even if the kanye is shit enough to make me never want another kanye record (808 meh).

you're probably right but also sales figures probably aren't the best way to measure name recognition in the 21st century

― congratulations (n/a)

yeah man, i totally agree with you

hip hop isn't nearly as significant a portion of US record sales these days as this list might make it seem -- the difference is rap more than most other genres is way more about getting the new stuff right away, supporting the artist the first week to show the size of their fanbase, etc.

is there any way of telling about mixtape sales btw? other than lol bravado? or do we just assume that absolutely everyone downloads them and a mixtape hasn't been *sold* since 50 cent is the future?

The top 6 all have some brilliant singles, and in most cases MAYBE 2 stand-out album tracks.

― billstevejim, Tuesday, May 4, 2010 10:50 AM (12 hours ago) Bookmark

I admit that I'm an em stan and am looking back w/ rose tinted nostalgia glasses but to me the MMLP is the strongest em album by far and almost every song on it is great

the eminem show otoh

or do we just assume that absolutely everyone downloads them and a mixtape hasn't been *sold* since 50 cent is the future?

― tart w/ a heart (a hoy hoy), Tuesday, May 4, 2010 10:23 AM (38 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest

yeah pretty much -- i mean you could find sales numbers for some of the mixtapes that were sold in stores (wayne mixtapes for instance were in best buy like 6-8 months after the blew up on the net) but it would be really insignificant since almost no mixtapes are available in stores around the country and they're almost 100% downloaded

50 Cent Is the Future was in '02 and mixtape download sites/blogs are a little more recent as a development -- Datpiff didn't even exist until like '05 or '06, and the retail market for bootleg or bar code-less mixtapes probably didn't drop out until a couple years after that.

Hm. I thought one of the GnR albums was on this list.

sure ship i was just using 50cif as a lol ages ago ref

Love how an album can go 8x platinum in less than a week with one of the ugliest covers I have ever seen in my life:

http://991.com/newGallery/Backstreet-Boys-Black--Blue-168136.jpg

Art dept. at Jive is like "Since it's going to sell millions of copies, why should we put any effort into this cover art at all?"

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h101/rudolf55/The%20Rolling%20Stones/BlackAndBlue_resize.jpg

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

13 Limp Bizkit Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water October 17-23, 2000 1,054,511 6x platinum [13] 8

...

more annoyed at geir winning again tbh

pfft Geir wouldn't have been allowed in the Beatles

17 Pearl Jam Vs. October 19-25, 1993 950,378 7x platinum [17]

the amt of albums these guys have sold never fails to amaze me

ok so dont know what im going to vote for (marshall mathers prob) but ill be fucked if im giving the nod to some posthumous collection of the least interesting things about the beatles.

― Matt Daemon (jjjusten), Tuesday, May 4, 2010 5:01 AM (1 week ago)

u guys r all jerks

Wouldn't normally have gone for a collection myself (like "1), but the competition was just too weak here.