Friday, February 22, 2008
This record club no longer takes members
Ralph Berrier
Riffs, the regional music scene as heard by The Roanoke Times reporter Ralph Berrier, will appear weekly on Sundays.
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Sorry, Jack Johnson. The pool is closed.
Alicia Keys, I think you're gorgeous, but I'm locking you out.
That goes for all of you -- Mary J., T. Pain and, yes, even you, too, Miley. I know you're all currently in the Top 10, but our club is more exclusive than that and we aren't accepting any new members.
Well, it's not really my club. It's the recording industry's. It's the snooty Best-Selling Albums of All-Time club and it's closed for good.
The club made the news last week with the re-release of one of its most prestigious members -- Michael Jackson's 1982 blockbuster "Thriller," which went platinum so many times over it caused The Great Platinum Shortage of 1983 that nearly wrecked the American economy. But it sure was good for Columbia's (Records, that is).
Last week, the debate arose again about whether "Thriller" truly is the biggest-selling album of all time.
According to the Recording Industry Association of America's numbers, that distinction goes to "Eagles: Their Greatest Hits: 1971-1975," which sold 29 million copies in the United States compared with "Thriller's" 27 million. Jackson's fans -- all seven of them that are left -- note that "Thriller" has surpassed the 100 million mark in worldwide sales, making the King of Pop the global ruler.
I'll let others debate the merits of "Witchy Woman" versus "The Girl is Mine." You'd get 27 million different answers.
What is inarguable, though, is that neither album's sales figures will ever be challenged by any future band, singer or boy band. Mega-selling albums are like Jheri curls and Members Only jackets -- they're soooo 20th century.
Are numbers everything?
The reason is simple. People don't buy music like they used to, literally and figuratively. They don't buy albums because we live in a singles-dominated age. When they do buy one, many people download it, sometimes paying for it, sometimes not.
I'm not here to judge whether "file sharing" is stealing. The RIAA has taken up that fight and is losing badly. The record industry can sue all the college students it wants, but CD sales will still plummet.
I'm just saying that even if people pay for downloads, album sales will never eclipse the gilded age of the 1980s and '90s, when no fewer than four dozen albums sold more than 10 million copies. So far this decade, just six albums have reached that mark, none since Outkast's "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below" in 2003. Prospects for another "Diamond platinum" (as the RIAA calls it) club member appear grim.
Some in the biz have even talked about dialing down the qualifications for gold and platinum status. Currently, sales of 500,000 or more qualify as a gold record. One million sales denote platinum status.
The best-selling album of the past 10 years is Carlos Santana's "Supernatural," which has sold 15 million copies since 1999. Other major sellers over the past decade include Britney Spears ("... Baby One More Time" and "Oops, I Did It Again," which combined to sell 23 million), the Dixie Chicks ("Wide Open Spaces," 13 million), Backstreet Boys ("Millennium," 13 million), 'N Sync ("No Strings Attached," 11 million), Norah Jones ("Come Away With Me," 10 million), Linkin Park ("Hybrid Theory," 10 million) and those whippersnappers, The Beatles ("1," 10 million).
But sales aren't everything, right? That list isn't exactly Rock and Roll Hall of Fame material. Some of the best albums of the past 40 years sold only a fraction of what the Britneys and boy bands moved in one week.
So, cheer up, Alicia, Jack and Mary J. Even though you may not gain entrance to the "Diamond Club" with Michael and Don Henley (and what a club that must be!), you're all currently in the Top 10, which still means people dig your music.
And I repeat, sales aren't everything. After all, Hootie and the Blowfish sold 16 million copies of "Cracked Rear View."
