How to ‘splain it? Garth Brooks sold more albums than Elvis Presley, more than Led Zeppelin, more than the Eagles, even more than Michael Jackson. Wha? Well, them changes seems to be the answer: growth in population and in the music-buying public, new and more convenient (if not better sound quality) packaging when CDs replaced vinyl records, and the cross-over potential of an artist from one venue to another thanks to barriers freeform radio broke down. Brooks was huge in country music, but in the pop charts, as well, and was big internationally, too.
“This is the best answer - album sales not only hit a peak in the '90's, but such a large peak that CD sales in the late 90's were double the total sales for all formats in the '80s. So of course one of the top selling artists during the era when the most music is sold will outsell most of the most popular artists in decades where people didn't buy as much.” (so says bloodyell76 on reddit.com some 6 years ago at the time of this survey). With all his other strengths, Brooks benefitted from timing.
Being huge in the Nineties racked up more sales than being huge in the previous three decades, as were the Beatles, Elvis (four decades, actually), Led Zeppelin, and the Rolling Stones, along with those already mentioned. Album sales reached its apex just before streaming laid waste to that model. Timing, as we all know, is a big part of success, and Garth Brooks clearly nailed it.
Eagles c. 1980s - credit: salon.com
What is the greatest selling album of all time? The debate is pretty much between Michael Jackson’s Thriller, which usually is named the best selling album in historyinternationally, and the Eagles Their Greatest Hits as the biggest seller in the U.S. Their album Hotel California is in the top five, as well, whereas worldwide Hits ranks number five and Hotel number seven (HERE). This is the most recent list we found.
That said, it’s worth mentioning that these lists change over time, not just because of additional sales, but because old information is reevaluated and sales recalculated. If we want a hard and fast answer, well, it’s complicated. As an example a few years back suggests, if the question is: Who’s Number One? The answer is: Says Who? (HERE). With an additional 9 million sales uncovered for Their Greatest Hits, one supposes the boys in the band and the producers have a hefty check coming.
Regardless of how it’s computed, these artists sold a helluva lot of tunes to their fans. What’s as interesting is the performers who are found far down the list, or maybe not at all. Sgt. Pepper’s comes in at number 29 and Abbey Road number 30. The Rolling Stones are nowhere to be found. Neither is Bob Dylan. If we talked about the most influential albums, though, it would be an entirely different list.
Columbia Records - credit: juxtapoz.com
This album by Bob Dylan was the second of three he released in the mid-Sixties that changed popular music, the music business, and led the charge to break the Top 40 stranglehold on radio. Among other stunning tunes, it contained Like A Rolling Stone, often cited as the greatest rock song ever. It was like nothing any of us had heard before, which in fact was true of all three of those albums. And others to come.
The third of them, Blonde On Blonde, was one of four albums by different artists that were released from May to August of 1966 and nothing in the music business or radio was ever the same again. First was Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys, then Freak Out by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, Blonde in July, and then East-West by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. None of them make the Best-Seller lists, although they sold pretty well, but whatever their resonance with the buying public, musicians everywhere were listening, learning, and imagining what was possible.
Each of them was distinctly different and the same only in one respect: they were about the art and not the charts. The songs weren’t those crisp little tunes that fit the Top 40 format. They ran five, six, even thirteen minutes and Top 40 be damned, they were great. People wanted to hear them. They opened the flood gates and one year later, Freeform Radio was born. Now there were stations that played the music the way the musicians wanted it to be heard. The Classic Era of Rock Music was born.
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