Coldplay’s Viva La Vida, Or Death And All His Friends was the top-selling album of 2008 worldwide, selling 6.8 million copies, according to data released today by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, which represents some 1,400 record companies around the globe. Coming in behind Coldplay were AC/DC’s Black Ice; the soundtrack to the movie version of Mamma Mia!; Duffy’s Rockferry; and Metallica’s Death Magnetic. The top 20 albums and top 10 digital songs after the jump. (I swear this is going to be the last 2008 wrapup we run.)
THE GOOD: Viva La Vida sold more copies than the previous year’s No. 1 album, the soundtrack to High School Musical 2. Hey, these days, it’s any port in a storm, right?
THE BAD: People around the world sure do love operatic boy band Il Divo, whose The Promise sold more around the world than recent efforts by the Jonas Brothers and Taylor Swift.
THE WHAAAA? The soporific “Apologize”—No. 5 on the global tracks chart—was credited to Timbaland, with nary a mention of OneRepublic, a.k.a. the band that actually crafted the song that housed his occasional “ay”-ing. Good thing Ryan Tedder has that prolific songwriting career!
The top 20 albums:
1. Coldplay, Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends
2. AC/DC, Black Ice
3. Various Artists, Mamma Mia! The Movie Soundtrack
4. Duffy, Rockferry
5. Metallica, Death Magnetic
6. Leona Lewis, Spirit
7. Amy Winehouse, Back To Black
8. Various Artists, High School Musical 3: Senior Year
9. Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III
10. Rihanna, Good Girl Gone Bad
11. Madonna, Hard Candy
12. Beyonce, I Am… Sasha Fierce
13. P!nk, Funhouse
14. Guns N’ Roses, Chinese Democracy
15. Britney Spears, Circus
16. Jack Johnson, Sleep Through The Static
17. Il Divo, The Promise
18. Taylor Swift, Fearless
19. Jonas Brothers, A Little Bit Longer
20. Various Artists, Camp Rock OST
The top 10 tracks:
1. Lil Wayne, “Lollipop”
2. Thelma Aoyama, “Sobaniirune”
3. Flo Rida feat. T-Pain, “Low”
4. Leona Lewis, “Bleeding Love”
5. Timbaland, “Apologize”
6. Greeeen, “Kiseki”
7. Katy Perry, “I Kissed A Girl”
8. Alicia Keys, “No One”
9. Usher feat. Young Jeezy, “Love In This Club”
10. Chris Brown, “With You”
After all of the screaming, I LOVE that GNR outsold the Jonas Mannequins, Taylor Swift and Britney. There is some sort of poetic justice at work there.
After all of the screaming, I LOVE that GNR outsold the Jonas Mannequins, Taylor Swift and Britney. There is some sort of poetic justice at work there.
Question: Has there even been a worse top 20? Not to be a hater, but seriously. I’d be curious to see a year with more crap-tastic top-selling albums. Maybe somewhere in the late ’90s?
Question: Has there even been a worse top 20? Not to be a hater, but seriously. I’d be curious to see a year with more crap-tastic top-selling albums. Maybe somewhere in the late ’90s?
Wow, Sobaniirune is a big coup for the burgeoning Microsoft Songsmith genre. I hope.
No mention in “THE WHAAAA?” for the world’s seventh-best selling album in 2008?
@T’Challa: i’m only finding ifpi charts back to 2001, but that year was pretty craptastic.
1 LINKIN PARK HYBRID THEORY Warner
2 Dido No Angel BMG
3 Destiny’s Child Survivor Sony
4 Shaggy Hot Shot Universal
5 ENYA A DAY WITHOUT RAIN Warner
6 Jennifer Lopez J Lo Sony
7 Alicia Keys Songs In A Minor BMG
8 STAIND BREAK THE CYCLE Warner
9 Michael Jackson Invincible Sony
10 UTADA, HIKARU DISTANCE EMI
11 JACKSON, JANET ALL FOR YOU EMI
12 MADONNA GHV2 Warner
13 PINK FLOYD ECHOES - THE BEST OF PINK FLOYD EMI
14 WILLIAMS, ROBB SWING WHEN YOU’RE WINNING EMI
15 Usher 8701 BMG
16 Ost. O Brother, Where Art Thou? Universal
17 Enrique Iglesias Escape Universal
18 GORILLAZ GORILLAZ EMI
19 BROOKS, GARTH THE SCARECROW EMI
20 Nelly Furtado Whoa, Nelly! Universal
21 VARIOUS ARTIST NOW - THAT’S WHAT I CALL MUSIC! 8 EMI
22 Limp Bizkit Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water Universal
23 Andrea Bocelli Cieli Di Toscana Universal
24 VARIOUS ARTIST NOW - THAT’S WHAT I CALL MUSIC! 7 EMI
25 Ost. Moulin Rouge Universal
never forget?
@Rob Murphy: no, it’s not surprising to me at all. the grammys were in february, and sales in general were pretty crappy.
I wonder if there’s anyone in the world who was not actually present in Santa Barbara during Michael Jackson’s latest trial, who has played their copy of “Invincible” more than 3 times.
@Maura Johnston: Ooh. That made me mildly ill. Garth Brooks, Linkin Park AND Staind? Ech.
@Thesemodernsocks: AND Limp Bizkit. “Easy, stomach . . .”–Daffy Duck on meeting Fred Durst.
@Thesemodernsocks: AND Limp Bizkit too??
I had all three of those — Staind, Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park — and I saw the latter two perform live. Though my tastes have changed somewhat, I regret nothing. Now I know some of ya’ll were into at least a song or two from these bands back then and are just putting up a strong front, but it’s all good in the hood.
Extra props go to Rihanna and Leona Lewis (albums released in 2007) and especially Amy Winehouse (released 2006).
The IFPI tracks chart includes ringtones etc so isn’t a true reflection of best selling singles (some songs being much easier to Nokiarize to the 15-second attention span masses e.g. Lollipop gains massively from this).