Connect with us

Entertainment

Music Greats – the Best Selling Albums of All Time!

Published

on

Many of you will be avid music fans, who have enjoyed reading about your favourite artists elsewhere on this site, including some details of their releases, singles as well as albums, and have wondered just how good they – the artists – and their music is, or was, in terms of popularity in comparison with the music world in general.

The word ‘popularity’ is important, because it is not reflected only in the number of albums sold, or indeed singles in days gone by, so debates will continue to rage, and with good reasons; one is the accuracy of sales figures both past and present, and also because of the cost of buying, now very small through the internet, for example, when compared with vinyl 30 or 40 years ago. Attendances at concerts given by artists – often in conjunction with the promotion of their latest album – are also unreliable, both in absolute figures, and in calculating gate receipts, as ‘promotion’ can refer to the distribution of free tickets too.

Even then, just how ‘popular’ were artists – soloists, choirs, and orchestras for example – prior to the widespread availability of recorded material, including in the days when concerts were largely the province of the relatively wealthy, in the times of what is now referred to as ‘classical music’?

The Best Selling Artists of All Time is the subject of another article, but here we present a list of the top 30 verifiable album sales of all time, worldwide, excluding digital downloads, so only two albums – Adele and The Beatles Compilation – were released in this century. Five artists/bands appear more than once, and all albums sold at least 30 million copies worldwide. Naturally the USA is the biggest market, reflected by most albums’ sales, but it is not confined to American artists. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) – an organisation founded in Italy in the ‘30s, but now registered in Switzerland – attempts to collate the number of sales. In the USA, platinum indicates a million copies sold; several countries have adopted this certification system but many have lesser numbers, usually as something approaching a ratio of the population in comparison with the US.

Rank Artist Albums (millions)
1 The Beatles 265
2 Elvis Presley 210
3 Michael Jackson 175
4 Madonna 166
5 Elton John 162
6 Garth Brooks 145
7 Led Zeppelin 140
8 The Eagles 132
9 Mariah Carey 130
10 Celine Dion 125
11 Pink Floyd 118
12 Eminem 115
13 Whitney Houston 112
14 AC/DC 110
15 Queen 108
16 U2 105
17 The Rolling Stones 102
18 Billy Joel 100
19 Bruce Springsteen 100
20 Barbra Streisand 97
21 Aerosmith 93
22 Metallica 90
23 Phil Collins 85
24 Britney Spears 80
25 Rod Stewart 75

Started with Net Worth Post in September 2014. Before that, Senior Writer at Creative Horizons. Earned a Journalism degree from Northwestern University.

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Entertainment

Entertainment Awards – What, Why, Who?

Published

on

Reading the biography of any successful entertainer – film and television stars, singers and musicians – and you will invariably read of the awards that they have won, and usually a number of others that they were nominated for, which in many cases is a genuine second prize. So how did these awards originate, what are they awarded for, and who decides the nominees and, most importantly, the winners?

The following are lists of the most important awards, which are very often highly prized acknowledgements of the talent displayed by the performer, and valued as such by the individual. Admittedly, some of the award presentation ceremonies may leave you cold – there seem to be so many and come around so quickly that the attitude can be – ‘Oh! No – not another one.’ – but the vast majority are annual only, and they do reward considerable effort as well as talent, on behalf of the individual winners and nominees.

There are 4 Major Film Category Awards: Critics Awards, Festival Awards, Audience Awards, Industry Awards.

CRITICS AWARDS – a noted group of critics vote annually


[one_half]

Intertainments1

[/one_half][one_half_last]

Film Critics Award (FIPRESCI) – founded in 1930, now having members from more than 50 countries, with awards being presented by international film critics at a variety of festivals.

Crystal Globe Award (Globes de Cristal, France) – by the French Press Association, for home art culture, first held in 2006 and now encompassing 15 categories in film and TV productions.

International Indian Film Academy Awards – by the Indian Film Academy, for the Hindi language film industry, first awarded in 2000.

International Online Film Critics’ Poll – film critics from United States, United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Poland, France and Canada. The award was created in 2007 to recognize excellence in film every two years, judged by journalists in addition to film critics.

Advertisement

BAFTA – UK film and television awards first held in 1949 – notionally a charity with around 6,000 members who vote on categories similar to the ‘Oscars’, on any films seen on British TV.

New York Film Critics Circle – awarded since 1935 by NY-based media critics, for worldwide performances in film (several other large US cities have similar Circles).

[/one_half_last]

FESTIVAL AWARDS – to the best film shown at a specific festival


[one_half]

venezija3

[/one_half][one_half_last]

There is a plethora of festivals now, but the most prestigious are recognised as being:

Venice – perhaps the oldest having first been held in 1932, The major awards are Golden Lion to the best film shown, Golden Lion Honorary for outstanding individual contribution to film-making, and Lion of the Future – self-explanatory!

Cannes – also originated in the 1930s, and one of the best known with the Palme d’Or for best film highly prized.

Toronto – since its founding in 1976, it has come to be appreciated for its concentration on independent films from around the world, and involvement of the public in influencing awards.

Advertisement

[/one_half_last]

AUDIENCE AWARDS – which are voted for by the general public


[one_half]

National Television Awards 2014 - Show - London

[/one_half][one_half_last]

People’s Choice Awards – originating in 1975, now the method used is ‘True Reach, Visible Measures deploys a robust and patented set of technologies with the goal of capturing the universe of Internet video viewership data in near real-time.”(“Shoot” – October 2009) Estimates are that around 35 million votes are recorded.

[/one_half_last]

INDUSTRY AWARDS – selected by professionals, peers working in the movie industry


[one_half]

oscarrrr

[/one_half][one_half_last]

Academy Award (Oscars) – first presented in 1929, these are the most prestigious as the voters are themselves invited by the Board of Governors, being ‘stars’ of at least three films, and/or have been nominated for an award; ‘stars’ means leaders of film-making categories ranging from acting through directors, producers and screen-writers to music-score writers and make-up artists, in all nearly 20 categories. The origin of the nickname is disputed, but it was finally adopted in 1939.

Saturn – as for ‘Oscars’, but restricted to science-fiction productions, and first awarded in 1972.

Advertisement

Golden Globe – again as above, voted on by (currently) 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, with separate film (15 categories) and TV (11 categories) awards, and first held in 1944.

Three specific award surveys are conducted by the Directors Guild of America (film, TV and Service and Achievement awards since 1936); Writer’s Guild (film, TV, radio and video games from 1949); and the Screen Actors Guild (film, TV and radio beginning in 1995).

[/one_half_last]

WORLD MUSIC AWARDS

[one_half]

paskutinis awards

[/one_half][one_half_last]

These awards are somewhat simpler to describe, as they are decided by total sales, on-line voting by the general public to assess popularity, and are also distributed by continent.

Record sales to determine the best-selling artists during the past 12 months are decided by the organisation’s research. So the awards demonstrably honour those at the top of their profession in that year.

Awards are for: World’s Best Male Artist, Best Female, Best Group, Best Electronic Dance Music Artist, Best Entertainer of the Year, Best Live Act, Best Song, Best Album, and Best Video.

The World Music Awards were first held in 1989 in Monte Carlo, and have been held there annually except in 2004 (Las Vegas), 2005 (Los Angeles), and 2006 (London).

Advertisement

Additionally, a Legend Award is a reward for artists who have made an outstanding contribution to music, less than 50 as of 2016.

Further, a Diamond Award acknowledges artists who have sold 100 million albums – to date only six artists have made the cut: Rod Stewart, Mariah Carey, Michael Jackson, The Beatles, Celine Dion and Bon Jovi. British-American band Fleetwood Mac have recently been reported to have reached this level of success, and so may soon join this select group.

[/one_half_last]

Continue Reading

Economy

The Dangers of Travel!

Published

on

Travellers beware! If you have plans to travel to South or Central America, the United States or South Africa, be warned – as many tourism experts say: ‘Do not travel alone!’. In these areas and countries are found the 50 most dangerous cities in the world, in terms of crime in general and homicides in particular. True, some of these cities would not be at the top of most peoples’ lists as places to visit, but you may well have to transit them, and that in itself could be dangerous, as car-jackings and kidnappings are as common as outright homicides in many places, and far more lucrative!

Mexico travel advisory

Annual statistics correlating information from around the world are produced by CCSP-JP, a Mexican NGO, and the Igarapé Institute, a Brazilian think-tank on security and violence. NOT included are war zones, or cities for which there is little or unsubstantiated data. Only cities which have a minimum of 250,000 people are listed, and both organisations admit the difficulty of comparing statistics between countries, and even between cities in the same country, because of differences in reporting and retention of records, usually as a result of limited resources available. This means that cities with good record-keeping may be unfairly ranked. The rankings are based on numbers of homicides per 100,000.

Travel Alert5

However, on one statistic there is no disagreement, and that is that the Venezuelan capital of Caracas is top of the list of most dangerous cities. The country as of mid-2016 is suffering through a period of inflation that is touching 200%, with the drop in the oil selling price having a very significant effect on national income – the situation is clearly ripe for an increase in crime. Homicides are at 120 per 100,000 in Caracas, with attendant muggings, theft, drug gangs and street crime very common.

Countries in Latin and Central America dominate world crime statistics, conspicuous in that the areas are notionally ‘at peace’, although there are some encouraging signs. The notorious Colombian city of Medellin is no longer on the list, when just five years ago the homicide rate was over 70. The rate in the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula – top of the list for several recent years – has halved, although still over 100. Mexican cities on the list have fallen from 12 to five, also in five years.

Regretfully there are significant downsides too – only eight cities in the ‘top 50’ list are outside Latin and Central America, four in South Africa and four in the USA. El Salvador has taken over from neighbour Honduras as the country claiming the highest murder rate, and its capital San Salvador with a population of 1.8 million has experienced a doubling of the homicide rate to 1900 in just one year. The number of Brazilian cities on the list has risen from 14 to 21 in five years – not a comforting thought for travellers as well as the sporting fraternity visiting for the 2016 Olympic Games.

Travel Alert2

Somewhat surprisingly considering the unrest and terrorist activity elsewhere on the continent, South African cities figure prominently on the list, with Johannesburg and Cape Town leading the way. The USA’s position is perhaps less of a surprise, considering the prevalence of fire arms frequently reported, along with incidents of mass murder. Baltimore, St Louis, Detroit and New Orleans have all risen on the list from the previous year, with homicides on the rise countrywide.

There is some general good news – regardless of what is frequently highlighted in the media concerning instances of violence around the world, the assessment by both organisations is that it is in fact declining, albeit slowly. Many deaths are currently the result of ‘civil’ conflicts and acts of terrorism, otherwise the world in general has never seen a more peaceful overall environment. Except for in Latin America, violence has declined everywhere in the world in the last five years, and even from the last year.

Rank City Murder Rate (per 100,000)
1 Caracas, Venezuela 119.87
2 San Pedro Sula, Honduras 111.03
3 San Salvador, El Salvador 108.54
4 Acapulco, Mexico 104.73
5 Maturin, Venezuela 86.45
6 Distrito Central, Honduras 73.51
7 Valencia, Venezuela 72.31
8 Palmira, Colombia 70.88
9 Cape Town, South Africa 65.53
10 Cali, Colombia 64.27
11 Ciudad Guayana, Venezuela 62.33
12 Fortaleza, Brazil 60.77
13 Natal, Brazil 60.66
14 Salvador, Brazil 60.63
15 St. Louis, U.S.A. 59.23
16 Joao Pessoa, Brazil 58.4
17 Culiacan, Mexico 56.09
18 Maceio, Brazil 55.63
19 Baltimore, U.S.A. 54.98
20 Barquisimeto, Venezuela 54.96
21 Sao Luis, Brazil 53.05
22 Cuiaba, Brazil 48.52
23 Manaus, Brazil 47.87
24 Cumana, Venezuela 47.77
25 Guatemala, Guatemala 47.17
26 Belem, Brazil 45.83
27 Feira de Santana, Brazil 45.5
28 Detroit, U.S.A. 43.89
29 Goiania, Brazil 43.38
30 Teresina, Brazil 42.64
31 Vitoria, Brazil 41.99
32 New Orleans, U.S.A. 41.44
33 Kingston, Jamaica 41.14
34 Gran Barcelona, Venezuela 40.08
35 Tijuana, Mexico 39.09
36 Vitória da Conquista, Brazil 38.46
37 Recife, Brazil 38.12
38 Aracaju, Brazil 37.7
39 Campos dos Goytacazes, Brazil 36.16
40 Campina Grande, Brazil 36.04
41 Durban, South Africa 35.93
42 Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa 35.85
43 Porto Alegre, Brazil 34.73
44 Curitiba, Brazil 34.71
45 Pereira, Colombia 32.58
46 Victoria, Mexico 30.5
47 Johannesburg, South Africa 30.31
48 Macapa, Brazil 30.25
49 Maracaibo, Venezuela 28.85
50 Obregon, Mexico 28.29
Continue Reading

Entertainment

Is Fiction More Attractive Than Fact!?

Published

on

Tourists and travellers from many countries around the world sometimes go to extreme lengths in time, physical exertion and cost to visit places with usually justified reputations to deserve that effort. Several surveys and millions of people who have visited such landmarks confirm that.

However, there are a few places with reputations which either exist only in peoples’ minds, and never actually existed at all, or have been falsely promoted by those with a vested financial interest in doing so. Regardless, many people seemingly ignore the obvious, and still make the effort to pay such places a visit. In some cases there is an apparent desire for historical reasons, to establish an event or place as factual, but many are clearly inventions of fiction which nonetheless continue to draw the attention and attendance of visitors.

Below are a number of such false, fraudulent places – very few people would be under the illusion that these places are ‘real’, and no-one is forced to visit them any more than people choose to visit genuinely – are you fascinated enough to pay them a call?

Plymouth Rock, Plymouth, Massachusetts USA

Plymouth Rock, Plymouth, Massachusetts USA10

Of course ‘rock’ can indicate a relatively small stone, a hill or a mountain, so when the pilgrims on the Mayflower landed on Plymouth Rock, what did that actually signify? Some 121 years after the landing, a local man indicated a specific boulder-sized ‘rock’ which his father had told him was ‘the’ rock.

His unidentified, uncorroborated story is that his father related that some passengers, pilgrims of the Mayflower, assured him that the rock was the real thing. There is no factual evidence at all, but Americans perhaps need to have such a landmark on which to base a significant moment in the country’s history, so are semi-convinced that Plymouth Rock is authentic.

Hans Brinker tourism, Netherlands

Hans Brinker tourism, Netherlands1

“Never let the truth stand in the way of a good story.” So said popular American writer of fiction Mark Twain, which ironically could apply to the fictional character created in 1865 by fellow American author Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker, in her book of the same name (also called The Silver Skates). Dodge’s story concerns a Dutch boy who plugged a leaking dike with his finger to save his village from being flooded. Subsequently tourist attractions have appeared around Holland to honour Hans, and no doubt make a little out of the story.

Apparently to satisfy the curiosity of visitors, even statues of Hans have been erected in such places as Harlingen and Spaarndam, and in Amsterdam a plaque marks the place where the mythical boy is supposed to have been born, even giving him a mythical birth date (27 August 1799).

Bridge on the River Kwai, Kanchanaburi, Thailand

Bridge on the River Kwai, Kanchanaburi, Thailand1

There was a similar bridge built by POWs over the Mae Khlaung river during World War Two – in fact one of many in Thailand and Burma for “the Burma Railway” – but not over the Kwai as depicted in the highly-rated 1957 film by David Lean. Not to let such an opportunity slip, the local community quickly renamed it Kwae Yai to get a bridge that could become a tourist attraction. (For the movie, the village of Kitulgala, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), was used for filming the famous scene in the film in which the POWs blow up the bridge.) Certainly Kanchanaburi has become a destination for many tourists, particularly and understandably from Australia and the UK.

Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin, Germany


Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin, Germany1

For forty-five years, the famous border-crossing between East and West Berlin, and therefore the two Germanys, was symptomatic of a pass through to freedom for those living behind the Iron Curtain – particularly after 1961 when the Berlin Wall was erected – with many dying in the attempt. Located at the junction of Zimmerstraße and Mauerstraße (ironically named in history and meaning ‘Wall Street’), with Friedrichstraße it was also the sole place where Soviet and US forces physically faced each other during the Cold War, and the only crossing point for Allied military personnel.

Advertisement

However, when Germany was unified in1990, the buildings including guard shack were dismantled, or demolished – the very modest allied building is now housed in the Allied Museum in western Berlin. The buildings standing which can be seen now are very loose imitations; however, make-believe soldiers charge tourists to take their photos, and fake chunks of the wall can be bought, if you are gullibale enough! A somewhat sad scene at an historically significant place.

The Prehistoric Wall (Mural de la Prehistoria), near Pinar del Rio, Cuba

The Prehistoric Wall (Mural de la Prehistoria), near Pinar del Rio, Cuba1

Americans can now visit Cuba again, with minimal bureaucracy in the way, but as with anything ‘new’, there are also several tourist traps on the island. Apparently one such is the Prehistoric Wall, which is now a drop-off point for tourist buses on day trips in the mountains around Vinales. However, visitors are charged about $15/ £10 to see this mural, to inspect what was actually painted in 1961; not exactly prehistoric!

The Sherlock Holmes Museum, 221B Baker Street, London

The Sherlock Holmes Museum, 221B Baker Street, London1

In theory – actually fiction of course – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s creations, the private detective Sherlock Holmes and his side-kick John Watson, supposedly lived there from 1881 to 1904, but not only did the address not exist then, it doesn’t now either. If facts really mattered, the actual street address for the museum would be 239 Baker Street. Then, why not have a fictional address for a fictional character? Visitors clearly don’t seem to worry too much about reality – still good stories!

House of the Virgin Mary, Ephesus, Turkey

House of the Virgin Mary, Ephesus, Turkey1

On Mount Koressos (also called Nightingale Mountain), can be found a small stone house, a holy place where supposedly the Virgin Mary lived in her final years. Problem: the house wasn’t ‘discovered’ until 1881, based on reported visions of a Catholic German nun – Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich who died in 1824 – and not publicised until after her death.

Although the Catholic Church has never supported the ‘find’, the Vatican has still designated it as a “holy site,” to the delight of dedicated pilgrims of course, and a few locals.

Juliet’s Balcony in Verona, Italy

Juliet’s Balcony in Verona, Italy1

If ever a fictitious place was needed to actually exist, this is it. Thousands of Shakespeare’s captivated fans of his tale of young love gather around this balcony where Romeo and Juliet are supposed to have confessed their undying love.

Problem: there is no balcony in the play, most likely because they didn’t exist in Shakespeare’s day! This one was actually built/nominated n the 17th century, simply because visitors to Verona demanded one. There’s not even any evidence that the house even belonged to Juliet’s family. Still, visiting tourists arrive in droves every year, and use chewing gum to stick love notes to the walls.

Sleepy Hollow, New York State, USA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Did the legendary ‘headless horseman’ ever exist? Well of course not, but even now there are sufficient numbers of visitors prepared to be scared out of their wits, who congregate in and around the historic village of Sleepy Hollow every year. Located on the Hudson River 40kms north of Manhattan, Sleepy Hollow has preserved much of its history and natural beauty, surrounded with parks, forests, rivers, lakes, streams and trails along one of which Ichabod Crane is (fictitiously) supposed to have met the ghoulish apparition in 1790. Author Washington Irving has a lot to answer for, including the continued prosperity of the village.

The Sound of Music

Sound of Music Meadow, in Marktschellenberg, Germany1

One of the most financially successful films ever made – although it is based on fact, the story of the von Trapp family – it is full of inaccuracies, although relatively unimportant to the essential story. What is most important is the location of where the movie was filmed, regardless that it was set in and around Salzburg. The iconic song ‘The Hills Are Alive’ was actually filmed in what is now called Sound of Music Meadow, in Marktschellenberg, Germany, but Salzburg has certainly benefited from the scenery depicted in the movie, with named sight-seeing tours being run in and around the city from 1965, just a year after the film’s release; of course, many unconnected ‘places of interest’ were and are included in the tour.

Advertisement

However, the whole area does exist factually, and is probably well worth a visit in its own right.

Continue Reading

Recommended

Lists19 hours ago

The Untold Truth About ‘Bath Crashers’

Home renovation-shows are certainly more than a TV trend at this point. Although this specific brand of reality series has...

Lists19 hours ago

What happened to Tony from “Garage Gold”?

While we’re used to seeing reality shows featuring celebrities displaying their luxury life, or doing extreme things for a living,...

Lists19 hours ago

Who pays for Yard Crashers?

Reality TV is constantly changing as years pass. However, the audiences’ general fascination with home-improvement shows seems unlikely to end...

Lists19 hours ago

What happened to Rust Valley Restorers?

Some TV shows are so meticulously planned, that there’s no way they can’t become successful. However, there are other series...

Lists19 hours ago

How did Joel Taylor from Storm Chasers die?

It’s known that reality series are, in fact, not always as real as they make it seem. Despite that, some...

Lists19 hours ago

What happened to Ray on Trailer Park Boys?

TV shows come and go all the time, but “Trailer Park Boys” definitely isn’t easy to forget. Ever since its...

Lists19 hours ago

How real is History Channel survival show Alone?

Out of all the reality TV shows you might find, survival competitions are truly the most extreme ones you would...

Lists19 hours ago

The Untold Truth About Expedition Unknown

Although stories about previously unknown, ancient treasures and unveiled mysteries are usually seen as fictional fantasies, those same topics are...

Lists19 hours ago

What happened to Tiny House Nation?

Tiny houses have been a trend in the US for quite some time now. While some people see them as...

Lists19 hours ago

Why did Jordan Butler leave Misfit Garage?

With so many shows out there, it’s not easy to keep up with what reality TV has to offer nowadays....

Trending