THE BEST ALBUMS IN CORPORATE AMERICA (2009 ANNUAL REPORT)

[defrog]

Congratulations, America – Taylor Swift is yr new favorite President of the United States!



And then there’s this:



And this:



Which makes Lady Gaga Vice President, Black-Eyed Peas Secretary Of State and Nickelback the Pentagon.

PRODUCTION NOTE: I’d have posted this sooner, but Nielsen SoundScan used to wait until the end of the year to publish these numbers, so I usually don't start tracking them down until then. Evidently the SoundScan year ends in November.

BACKGROUND: A long time ago when I was doing the “Go To Hell” zine, I would publish annual SoundScan data as a sort of satirical tribute to the idea that people – mainly record label executives, but also a lot of music fans I’ve met – measure how good an album is by how many units it sells. Because if it wasn’t “good” music, no one would buy it. Right?

Then I would break down the numbers to compare the Top Ten with the number of Top Ten albums I bought that year, or the number of Top Ten artists that I owned any records by at all, etc. The number in either category was typically less than two (2).

This year it’s zero.

The same, incidentally, applies to Nielsen/SoundScan’s Top Ten Albums/Singles Of The 00s as well (though I do own a lot of Beatles albums – just not that one).

Not that it matters. I just enjoy pointing this out.

BONUS TRACK: Incidentally, I've just been informed that Metallica has officially outsold Shania Twain in the SoundScan universe – by 3,000 units!

Vox unpopuli,

This is dF

Comments

[bedsitter23.livejournal.com]

As a long-time reader, I agree. There used to be at least one or two good albums on the list. Taste is subjective, I know. Still, this is a pretty good argument that rock is dead (and while we are at, singer-songwriters, too). I don't mind Kanye and truth, be told, Gaga either, but yikes, apparently, music doesn't get any better in a recession.

[def-fr0g-42.livejournal.com]

Looking back at the old GTH issues (and remembering I started doing these in 1997), you could sometimes find as many as three (3) rock albums in the Top 10, one of which was either by Linkin Park or Coldplay. But it usually had to be an Outkast album or a Coen Brothers soundtrack for me to be likely to have a copy. And it says a lot when the biggest rock act in the business is Nickelback.

I also find it interesting that Eminem is the biggest selling artist of the 00s. The metaphors write themselves, really.

Incidentally, the top album of 1997? Yr Spice Girls.

[bedsitter23.livejournal.com]

The Twilight soundtrack is sort of alternative-ish (Muse, Perry Farrell, Iron & Wine), though that is more attributable to Franchise fans as opposed to indie rock completists.

Surely, you could go back to the early 90s, and get some Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Metallica, but even then it is likely "it was all better in the old days" syndrome as I imagine you would find that acts like Color Me Badd and Richard Marx would have sold more units than all those bands.

[(Anonymous)]

I feel a shotgun rampage coming on...

I have been wanting to write a big post about the return of rock, but right now I would rather smell the acrid reek of cordite, taste the sticky tang of blood.

Fie on Soundscan.

-- JF

[thelastaerie.livejournal.com]

I suppose the album title of Black Eyed "Wee'd" sums up the state of affairs? It's frightening to think that I would rather see Coldplay up there than this list.