12 Extremely Disappointing Facts About Popular Music - By Buzzfeed's Dave Stopera This is the saddest thing you'll read all day. 1. Creed has sold more records in the US than Jimi Hendrix 2. Led Zeppelin, REM, and Depeche Mode have never had a number one single, Rihanna has 10 3. Ke$ha's “Tik-Tok” sold more copies than ANY Beatles single 4. Flo Rida's “Low” has sold 8 million copies – the same as The Beatles' “Hey Jude” 5. The Black Eyed Peas' “I Gotta Feeling” is more popular than any Elvis or Simon & Garfunkel song 6. Celine Dion's “Falling Into You” sold more copies than any Queen, Nirvana, or Bruce Springsteen record 7. Same with Shania Twain's “Come On Over” 8. Katy Perry holds the same record as Michael Jackson for most number one singles from an album 9. Barbra Streisand has sold more records (140 million) than Pearl Jam, Johnny Cash, and Tom Petty combined 10. People actually bought Billy Ray Cyrus' album “Some Gave All…” 20 million people. More than any Bob Marley album 11. The cast of “Glee” has had more songs chart than the Beatles 12. This guy exists. [ing]http://s3-ak.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/terminal01/2011/10/11/17/enhanced-buzz-11955-1318369817-5.jpg[/img] That is all.
I thought about editing your post so we could see the image on #12, but the public shouldn't have to see that.
Those claims are obviously counting digital sales of individual songs. In which case nothing there is really shocking about 3, 4, or 5. I think #8 is wrong. Katy Perry doesn't even have 7 singles. At least I don't think. #9 is a damn shame but it doesn't surprise me. Some people love Barbara Streisand. #10 is okay because Billy Ray Cyrus had the sweet mullet ever. #11 when they write "songs chart", what does that mean? #6 is very very unfortunate indeed. #7 at least gave me wood. Regarding #2: REM and Depeche Mode are alternative rock bands. What the hell did you expect? Surprised to hear that Zep never had a number one. I'm a big fan. #1 is the most unfortunate of the lot. Only thing worse than Creed is Nickelback.
Other than Streisand, what's the common theme here? They are all artists (I use that loosely) that 12-18 year old girls typically like/liked. Further evidence that TRL was indeed, the death to good music.
Katy Perry has had a shit ton of singles the last year or so. I've heard that record of hers and Jackson's in the news somewhere.
You could make an equally sickening list about literature, or cinema, or just about any other artistic medium you choose. Popularity is not necessarily based on merit, which is OK.
Yeah and a lot of the coolness factor of some those lesser known acts seems to mysteriously disappear if they make it big.
The marketing of the music industry has changed drastically since the 60's and 70's. And there are more people alive now than there were then to buy todays music. It's not about quality, it's about quantity. I can't explain the Streisand thing. That's awful.
That's part of it, but I still think a lot of it has to do with mass consumption as a poor barometer of artistic quality. To use my literature example, The Divinci Code has outsold the Catcher in the Rye, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has outstripped To Kill a Mockingbird, and the list of best selling American includes Harold Robbins, Danielle Steele,and Dean Koontz but not F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain, or Herman Melville.
Thanks for depressing the hell out of me!! Just another indicator of the dumbing down of the population. Give us flash and a sexy body with a pretty face over actual talent and substance. Then reject them for the newest and even less talented one to come along because those who decide say they should. I was going to say what Ron did, plus it is easy to "buy" via internet download for a buck or two. To "chart a song" means a song makes a published ranking.
