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Depressing rock facts


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Evening Standard Hulton Archive / Jason Smith, Getty Images

Ready for a bum out, rock fans? We’ve got a whole mess of facts regarding rock band record sales in relation to pop stars and acts that’ll have you hurtling towards the medicine cabinet for some Prozac if you are a diehard. Here’s the first stat: Guitar deity Jimi Hendrix has sold less records than bombastic rock band Creed. Not enough to sink your mood? Wait, there’s more.

The Beatles share a distinction with raper Flo Rida. His hit single ‘Low,’ a club banger, if you will, sold as many copies as ‘Hey Jude,’ which is not a club banger but one of the most revered songs in the rock canon. But it sold the same amount of copies of a song that was very of the moment. Hiding under the covers with the shades down due to full scale depression yet?

There’s even more, courtesy of Buzzfeed’s list.

Led Zeppelin have never had a No. 1 single but Rihanna has had 10. Actually, it’s 11 now, since her new tune ‘We Found Love’ landed at the top of the pop charts. We know, we just drove the stake even further into rock’s heart but we had to do so in favor of factual correctness and in light of new information.

Kesha‘s sassy (and sorta phonetically spelled) single ‘Tik Tok’ has sold more than any Beatles single. Ever. We’ll give her a pass, since she rocks out with Alice Cooper and has cred courtesy of that association.

Single albums by Shania Twain and Celine Dion have outsold any Queen or Bruce Springsteen album.

We’re sorry if we ruined your day, rock fans. However, it’s called pop music for a reason – because it’s popular and digestible by the masses who aren’t as discerning with their music choices, which is an okay way to be. However, rock music prevails and has a canon that endures is studied, respected and understood by its fans. Being a tried ‘n’ true rock fan is like earning membership in an elite fraternity. So don’t be too bummed by these facts.

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It takes less and less copies sold for an album to land at the charts today. In Spain, for instance, it takes only 75 units to appear in an official chart.

On the other hand, how many of these singles are physical versus digital units?

Add to this the natural population growth and sales of albums in the sixties are not comparable to today's sales.

There was no itunes in the sixties and other criteria were used for an album to chart,

We would need to take a closer looks at the statistical methods used.

I do share the pessimism, however.

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It takes less and less copies sold for an album to land at the charts today. In Spain, for instance, it takes only 75 units to appear in an official chart.

On the other hand, how many of these singles are physical versus digital units?

Here's some good news on that front:

'Billboard' Will No Longer Include Deep-Discounted Releases on Charts

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The Evening Standard needs to raise their STANDARDS...that article was pointless, clueless, ignorant of context, and a complete waste of time.

:zzz:

^^^ BOTH OF THESE ^^^

It assumes people who like rock music dislike ANY other genre of music.

#narrowminded

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As dazedcat said this is nothing new. Pat Boone sold more records than Little Richard ever did in the 50's, those records being songs that Pat Boone covered from the Little Richard originals. American society loves diluted crap, always has & always will. I imagine Great Britain isn't that much different either.

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I was thinking of Bobby Sherman when I made my original post. He was "the" pop idol during the classic rock age and sold boatloads of singles and albums. Like I said, this is nothing new.........watered down pop crap has always existed.

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