Top Ten Albums of the SoundScan Era

It was the best of times....

metallica have the best-selling album since 91?

Alanis. The only one of those I've ever owned.

Apparently!

xpost

voted alanis. shania to place.

i'll vote santana on the "only one i've ever owned" criterion

there should be a separate thread for the bodyguard soundtrack. i barely know it. tell me what's good aside from the big hits!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bodyguard:_Original_Soundtrack_Album

Nick Lowe became a millionaire thanks to Curtis Stigers.

so Soundscan has its benefits.

Nick Lowe became a millionaire thanks to Curtis Stigers.

and most people still haven't heard of either of them

based on an informal poll of the friends inside my head

Has there been a thread for cover song windfalls? Like Stigers covering Lowe, REM covering Wire, Moby covering Burma ...

kinda amped out the possibility of an ILM poll that The Black Album might actually win

out=about

Good idea!

xxpost

is there a longer list? I'm curious whats the highest selling album on the list i've owned

Eric Harvey on this phenom:

I feel like I go on about this all the time, but this is the definition of A BUBBLE. Records sold like this—millions of copies of in a very short period of time—because of technological and economic factors.* The recording industry had a lock on the technologies of distribution, radio promotion and MTV still existed (especially for rock music, which has died without them), the 90s were generally a positive economic climate with people investing money in speculative ventures (like signing bands for lots of money and promoting the fuck out of them). This started in the early 80s of course, but really peaked in the mid-to-late 90s, when the recording industry did away with singles and doubled-down on LPs. There’s something to be said for a period when you couldn’t hear a single in your own home, on your own terms (i.e. not waiting for radio to play it), without dropping nearly $20 for maybe 2 more singles and 14 other filler tracks.

metallica have the best-selling album since 91?

I love knowing that the band everybody loves to hate on is like "yeah...whatever...just sitting here four slots above the Beatles, unable to keep time without ProTools & straight up not giving a shit"

voted metallica

Voted Shania. Harvey's wrong about that album: every song was conceived as a single, and more than half of them were.

I voted for Creed just to be a dick and it felt so great

This is ILM, I'll be shocked if The Beatles don't win what with all the lurker votes.

Metallica - Metallica [1991] (15,735,000)
Metallica - Lulu [2011] (15,735)

the first three songs on Come on Over are terrific then it nosedives for me. i think 1 is the only one (1) that tempts me here

i think i had a copy of 'jagged little pill' but maybe not. there are some p great singles on a bunch of these tbh but i cant think of one id like to sit down and listen to

If I confess that the Beatles album is the only one I've ever owned, am I gonna get mentioned on that fucking 77 thread?

haha

i think 1 was the first Beatles album i had on my iPod (although not the first i heard), before i started collecting the new reissues a couple years ago

ha I wanted to talk shit about "Any Man of Mine" but apparently that's on another Shania Twain album

That Creed is the best selling grunge album says something dark about humanity.

does it say that they like the band creed too much?

Yes

I love knowing that the band everybody loves to hate on is like "yeah...whatever...just sitting here four slots above the Beatles, unable to keep time without ProTools & straight up not giving a shit"

― unlistenable in philly (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Thursday, January 5, 2012 4:57 PM Bookmark

lol i don't care enough about metallica to hate on them, just v genuinely surprised they were that popular

im not, im just surprised that they are still popular. how many did the last 2 atrocities sell? not to mention lulu!

St. Anger and Death Magnetic each sold 2 mil in the US alone, and Lulu is the first Metallica album ever to sell any less than that. those guys move fucking units.

yeah total bankers alongside U2,RHCP and the like

i think it's a small miracle that an album as bizarre as lulu sold 15K

i dunno, i would have expected u2 and probably rhcp to have sold way more records than metallica

u crazy if you think rhcp sell more than 'tallica bro

maybe. i think i've heard metallica songs maybe like 10 times ever tho and rhcp have been way harder to avoid.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII'M EVERY WO-MAHN

The Black Album it is.

remember lisa stansfield? her track + im every woman are what's good on the bodyguard sdtk

chris kirkpatrick you can get your ass kicked

i'm curious about baby one more time and nevermind. more than 10m both i think?

nevermind 9.6

the NEXT ten prob a much better list

some recent stats are here: http://music.yahoo.com/blogs/chart-watch/week-ending-oct-2-2010-albums-rookie-bumps-a-legend.html

I assumed Marshall Mathers LP would be in the top 10.

Nevermind has sold 8,872,000 copies, which makes it the #29 album of the Nielsen SoundScan era.

3 months ago.. They've all gone up since then obviously

no garth brooks?

I'd like to see Top Ten Singles of the SoundScan era (including iTunes downloads). Wonder how much of a mirror image you'd get decline in album sales vs. increase in singles sales over time.

what about pearl jam's ten? all sources claim that record outsold nevermind during the peak years of grunge. top 20 stuff i guess.

man just the phrase "the SoundScan era" is great - the pre-SoundScan charts were the wild west of payola & weird regional powermongers if I understand it right

Yep. Labels routinely touted albums as having "shipped gold," i.e., 500,000 copies, as if that was the same thing as people actually buying the records. So, for instance, Quadrophenia went "gold in one day!" because MCA shipped that many copies in one day.

...and then there wwere the tales of albums like I'm In You and Tusk that were returned Platinum.

Haha, yeah, that happened to the Kiss solo albums too.

maybe. i think i've heard metallica songs maybe like 10 times ever tho

― The Reverend, Thursday, January 5, 2012 9:02 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

http://1hiphopucit.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/edlover.jpg

Not really sure what I've ever said that would convince you I've spent a lot of time listening to Metallica or even being in situations in which Metallica would be played.

Yep. Labels routinely touted albums as having "shipped gold," i.e., 500,000 copies, as if that was the same thing as people actually buying the records. So, for instance, Quadrophenia went "gold in one day!" because MCA shipped that many copies in one day.

― Let A Man Come In And Do The Cop Porn (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, January 5, 2012 11:18 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

gold and platinum certifications are still given by the RIAA for the amount shipped, not sold, fyi. like Nevermind as noted upthread has sold 8-9 million but it already has a diamond certification for shipping 10 mil.

i have heard one metallica song ever whereas i could probably (and unfortunately) hum at least 5 RHCP songs off the top of my head

voting alanis

yeah alanis was a pretty easy choice here

voted Santana cause probably no one else will and I have had 2 experiences of hearing Maria Maria in the right situation in the last couple years and it sounded improbably great for being '99 Santana and fucking Wyclef

Very tough call between Metallica and Shania. Not sure i can decide.

Haven't heard all of any of the non-Beatles ones, but voted Shania on the strength of the general unlistenableness of the other acts.

"smooth" and "maria, maria" are great pop songs, fuiud

Voted Shania, mostly on the strength of the singles. Alanis is the only other one here that was tempting.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

how was Geir able to vote twelve times??

strange... the order didn't change as much as expected.

5 creed votes?!?

and i didn't even vote in this iirc

what's this life for

Exit light. Enter night.

5 creed votes?!?

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_NYsgMMAenkY/SPn4TCtEegI/AAAAAAAAATg/hahU2EofrVM/s400/HUMAN+CLAY.jpg

^^ a reminder that this album, which exceeded Diamond sales status in the SoundScan era, has a sleeve graphic that looks like a workprint still from The Lawnmower Man emblazoned with the most inept application of a Photoshop dropshadow since your dad's Geocities banner.

tempted to do all the singles from these albums as a poll

except beatles to make it interesting

aside from Enter Sandman i don't know that i've heard ANY Metallica songs. i'm in the Uk mind. i mean i'm serious here.

wha?

tempted to do all the singles from these albums as a poll

tempted to SB you.

go forth & listen to their first three albums post-haste! (u can stop w/ those, tho)

xp

haha alfred are you just pushing back against over-polling or what

yeah, p sure "enter sandman" is the only metallica song i could name and i still always get that confused with "black hole sun"

I think they also have a song called "One."

Wow, Metallica have like 17 top 10 singles in both Norway and Finland.

One of them is of Finnish ancestry or some such thing.

Lars was born in Denmark moved to America when he was 16 or 17