The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

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Do they DESERVE it?

1. Michael Jackson: Thriller
12
6%
2. Eagles: Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975
2
1%
3. Eagles: Hotel California
3
1%
4. Shania Twain: Come on Over
0
No votes
5. Led Zeppelin: Led Zeppelin IV
20
10%
6. Whitney Houston & Various Artists: "The Bodyguard" Soundtrack
0
No votes
7. Fleetwood Mac: Rumours
17
8%
8. AC/DC: Back in Black
14
7%
9. Adele: 21
0
No votes
10. Alanis Morissette: Jagged Little Pill
1
0%
11. Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon
18
9%
12. The Beatles: 1
13
6%
13. ABBA: Gold: Greatest Hits
17
8%
14. Bob Marley & The Wailers: Legend
14
7%
15. Guns N’ Roses: Appetite for Destruction
4
2%
16. The Bee Gees & Various Artists: "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack
8
4%
17. Meat Loaf: Bat Out of Hell
5
2%
18. Metallica: Metallica
3
1%
19. Santana: Supernatural
0
No votes
20. Bruce Springsteen: Born in the U.S.A.
3
1%
21. Madonna: The Immaculate Collection
9
4%
22. Celine Dion: Let’s Talk About Love
0
No votes
23. Michael Jackson: Bad
3
1%
24. Pink Floyd: The Wall
4
2%
25. The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
31
15%
 
Total votes: 201

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fange
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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby fange » 19 Sep 2018, 09:15

Eddie Shah environment wrote:
fange wrote:Is it that fucking good, good enough that it deserves to be in the top-25 best-selling popular music albums of all time. Around the world.


So we're voting for our favourites, really, aren't we?


Not necessarily. For me, i love some ABBA, but i wouldn't say i'm a massive fan; when i try to be objective about these things though, i do think they were also one of the greatest pop singles groups of all time, and a collection like Gold probably belongs here.
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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby fange » 19 Sep 2018, 09:22

Darkness_Fish wrote:The stand out for me is Thriller, but again, that might kinda be self-fulfilling. As a child, I remember the all encompassing ubiquity of Michael Jackson at the time, and there's certainly a lot to admire about tracks like "Billie Jean", but I don't know if I see that as a stand-out because it brilliantly captured the public's imagination, or if it was pretty much foisted there by an immense marketing machine, a couple of well-crafted songs, and the emergence of MTV as a major force in music promotion.


I guess there lies the issue, right? Does the music on Thriller somehow, in as objective a way as you can see, add up to being a set of songs most people wanted to buy and own? Or was it some other set of "lucky" circumstances - unexpected crossover appeal, not much competition, the right thing at the right time, multi-media influences - that made a great/good/average set of music become THAT popular?

Personally, I think Off The Wall is a better set of songs, but objectively 'Billie Jean' amd 'Beat It' etc. had more cross-over appeal, and when you add in the explosion of MJ media hysteria, well, it adds up. But musically? For me, well, i'm not sure
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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby The Modernist » 19 Sep 2018, 09:26

Darkness_Fish wrote:Overall though, I find the very concept of the question strange. Are any of them among my favourite albums? No, obviously. But then is the criteria that they captured something of the zeitgeist and appealed to everyone? If so, that criteria is kind of self-fulfilling.
.


I find the question interesting, fascinating even. Why these artists? Is it just luck? Why AC/DC and not the hundreds of other bands doing what they did? Why Adele and not that Welsh lass (Duffy ?)? Why Metallica and not Megadeth or something. All those people who bought The Wall - what else do they buy? Why aren't the charts full of angst ridden songs with a tasteful, expansive production..or does the formula only work with The Floyd?

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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby fange » 19 Sep 2018, 09:28

The Modernist wrote:
Darkness_Fish wrote:Overall though, I find the very concept of the question strange. Are any of them among my favourite albums? No, obviously. But then is the criteria that they captured something of the zeitgeist and appealed to everyone? If so, that criteria is kind of self-fulfilling.
.


I find the question interesting, fascinating even. Why these artists? Is it just luck? Why AC/DC and not the hundreds of other bands doing what they did? Why Adele and not that Welsh lass (Duffy ?)? Why Metallica and not Megadeth or something. All those people who bought The Wall - what else do they buy? Why aren't the charts full of angst ridden songs with a tasteful, expansive production..or does the formula only work with The Floyd?

Yes! Same here, i'm fascinated by this stuff.
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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby Dayodead » 19 Sep 2018, 09:31

The only one I really like is Sgt. Pepper...Threw a vote for AC/DC, because no matter how you feel about them musically, BiB is one hell of a rebound marketing / sales wise...Lead singer dies..hire a completely different animal to replace him and boom, international hit ! Impressive...Just try to forget the fact they made BiB over and over again for the next 30+ years....

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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby Darkness_Fish » 19 Sep 2018, 09:40

Another part of the fascination of this question is: why this album? I know Metallica don't get much love on this site, but does anyone consider their self-titled their greatest moment? Looking at wikipedia:

Metallica sold 16,200,000 copies in the US
Master of Puppets 4,578,000
Ride the Lightning 4,334,000

Not bad sales by any means, but did nearly 12 million people buy that album, and not even consider checking out one of their acknowledged classics? Why? Doesn't make any sense to me. If you check actual music-geek websites like discogs and RYM, the ownership figures & ratings are both definitely skewed in favour of Master of Puppets and Ride the Lightning.
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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby Jumper K » 19 Sep 2018, 09:41

Lord help me I agree with DF. If you take out the compilations what are we left with? A collection of deeply flawed albums with 1 or 2, at the most, memorable tracks. Doesn't make them any good though.

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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby The Modernist » 19 Sep 2018, 09:46

I suppose a lot of this is a study of sheep like behaviour. It becomes stuff people feel they ought to buy.

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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby trans-chigley express » 19 Sep 2018, 09:48

The Modernist wrote:I suppose a lot of this is a study of sheep like behaviour. It becomes stuff people feel they ought to buy.

There's certainly an element of that, some of these albums just became a fashionable must-have item for a while

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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby trans-chigley express » 19 Sep 2018, 09:52

Darkness_Fish wrote:
Not bad sales by any means, but did nearly 12 million people buy that album, and not even consider checking out one of their acknowledged classics? Why? Doesn't make any sense to me.


I often think this too though sometimes a huge selling album does have a knock on effect on the back catalogue. Many of Floyd's older albums sold a lot more copies on the back of DSotM and re-entered the charts

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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby Penk! » 19 Sep 2018, 10:01

Darkness_Fish wrote:Are The Eagles a purely US phenomenon, or do they sell elsewhere around the world? I mean, I know Hotel California, but I couldn't name a single other track by them.


Nor can I.

And nor, I suspect, can many of the 73 million people who bought the records.
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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby trans-chigley express » 19 Sep 2018, 10:04

To be fair The Eagles have lots of famous songs, even as a complete non-fan I can name at least a dozen make that half a dozen songs off the top of my head that I've not been able to escape.
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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby naughty boy » 19 Sep 2018, 10:08

Not many non-fans can name a dozen.

But a fair few can name more than one.

You're both talking shit.
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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby Darkness_Fish » 19 Sep 2018, 10:10

Eddie Shah environment wrote:Not many non-fans can name a dozen.

But a fair few can name more than one.

You're both talking shit.

Without looking it up, I seriously can't think of another Eagles track. I know "Boys of Summer", but that doesn't count.
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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby trans-chigley express » 19 Sep 2018, 10:12

Eddie Shah environment wrote:Not many non-fans can name a dozen.

But a fair few can name more than one.

You're both talking shit.


:lol: I just changed to half a dozen when I attempted a list but you were too quick.

I got:

Hotel California
New Kid in Town
Life in the Fast Lane
One of the Nights
Lyin Eyes
Best of My Love
Take it Easy
Desperado

that's 8. Not bad :D
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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby naughty boy » 19 Sep 2018, 10:13

I hope you're proud of yourself :)
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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby trans-chigley express » 19 Sep 2018, 10:14

I feel ashamed actually :lol:

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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby naughty boy » 19 Sep 2018, 10:24

You should! ;)



I'd probably name the same eight
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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby fange » 19 Sep 2018, 10:27

trans-chigley express wrote:One of the Nights


I'll give you half a point, it's 'One of These Nights'. :D

This is becoming like the musical version of virtue signalling - "Oh, i can't name any Eagles songs! That's how much i hate them!" :lol:

Really, you can't even admit to knowing 'Tequila Sunrise' or 'Witchy Woman'? The gentlemen doth protest too much, methinks. ;)
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Re: The best-selling LPs of all time: do they deserve to be?

Postby Darkness_Fish » 19 Sep 2018, 10:29

fange wrote:
trans-chigley express wrote:One of the Nights


I'll give you half a point, it's 'One of These Nights'. :D

This is becoming like the musical version of virtue signalling - "Oh, i can't name any Eagles songs! That's how much i hate them!" :lol:

Really, you can't even admit to knowing 'Tequila Sunrise' or 'Witchy Woman'? The gentlemen doth protest too much, methinks. ;)

Only "Best of My Love" rings a bell from any listed so far. And I wouldn't have thought that was The Eagles. Going to youtube it now.
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