CSPC: Oasis Popularity Analysis
More than 20 years after Oasis‘ peak, both Noel and Liam Gallagher shot to #1 in the UK this year, both with one of the Top 5 highest debuts of the year. This demonstrates how solid their following remains in their native country. One may wonder how they managed to create such a powerful fan base. Obviously, if you can put Wonderwall, Don’t Look Back In Anger, Roll With It, Morning Glory, Champagne Supernova, Some Might Say and She’s Electric into the same studio album, you are very likely to perform well. The string of memorable smashes that Oasis dropped from 1994 to 1997 raised the band’s status from unknown guys to one of the biggest bands on Earth in no time. Their Beatles-esque style opened the door to ferocious debate and arguments in both commercial and artistic points of views. Even though the band has been past its peak for a while those talks still continue to this day.
These discussions are fed with several myths. We can read everywhere that (What’s the story) Morning Glory? sold 22 million units to date, or that Definitely Maybe sold 15 million. As a wise reader of ChartMasters.org, you know that you have to take these claims with a pinch of salt – or two, or three pinches. On the other hand some argue that the group never broke into the mainstream of America. Unlike discussions surrounding stars from today which happen between fans and haters talks related to Oasis have been widely covered by all forms of media including the biggest ones.
The lack of accurate facts and objective comparisons based on reliable data prevented the argument from being solved. However, now is the time to solve that argument. At last, the answers are coming!
As usual, I’ll be using the Commensurate Sales to Popularity Concept in order to relevantly gauge their results. This concept will not only bring you sales information for all Oasis‘ albums, physical and download singles, as well as audio and video streaming, but it will also determine their true popularity. If you are not yet familiar with the CSPC method, the next page explains it with a short video. I fully recommend watching the video before getting into the sales figures. Of course, if you are a regular visitor feel free to skip the video and get into the figures.
Blur, The Cure, Pulp and The Stone Roses CSPC !!!
Absolument impressionnant.
Hi,
I love your work and check your website frequently. Will you keep updating these figures? Or only with huge new sales (as I saw you did with for example Drake and Arianna Grande)?
Oasis’ early singles stayed over 100 weeks in the uk top 200 as they were really EPs with 3 extra tracks that were unavailable elsewhere at the time.
The uk sales figures for Definitely Maybe,(What’s the Story) Morning Glory and to a lesser extent Be Here Now are much higher than the figures given by the OCC – can you explain the difference?
Hi Kevin,
The OCC is much less accurate that it claims to be. Just like Soundscan, it excludes Music Club sales. Morning Glory alone sold nearly 400,000 units at Brittania Music Club. This is why the early albums (as long as Brittania was still going strong) have a sizable gap with their OCC figures.
I dont know the song “dont look back in anger” but i know wonderwall, stand by me and champagne supernova. Ill check the songs i dont recognize later when i go to an internet cafe.
Oasis are soooo huge in U.K………there are artists in all the major markets that are only big in their respective markets (Oasis is lucky to have 3 successful albums in the U.S.A.)
I’d love to see a few more artists that are only big in specific markets…(but HUGE in those markets, aka “the Beatles” of Cambodia or whatever “insert country here”)
Example……….I’d love to see Robbie Williams or Simply Red
Brazil has a lot of this “only famous there” artists, specially when it comes to One hit wonders. I’d love to see a detailed analysis of their market, which is very similiar to the UK market despite having a way bigger population
MJD, please add a list of best selling artists in the UK 🙂
Hi MJD
Do you include live versions in you streaming analysis?
Familiar to Millions doesn’t have any huge streaming giants, although Don’t Look Back in Anger is close to 3m.
Other acts have some rather popular live tracks. Hotel California has two pretty big live versions (8.23m+6.35m) as well as some smaller ones. That adds up quite well.
The AC/DC track Hell Ain’t a Bad Place To Be has two live versions (4.27m/3.09m) rivaling the studio version (3.56m), as well as some much small versions (<0.2m each).
Thomas
And Metallica has very healthy live tracks.
All tracks on S&M are 2.5m-10m, all tracks on Through the Never are 3m-8m
Hi Thomas!
Yes, all versions of tracks are added together, it isn’t rare to get more than 5 versions of one song on our Excel sheets 🙂
Hi,
Champagne Supernova is certified gold by RIAA (500.000+), so why only 15.000 physical sales?
Hi Matty!
Champagne Supernova was certified in 2005 for Digital Sales, it wasn’t released as a physical single which is why it never made the Hot 100 in spite of charting 4 months inside the Top 75 Airplay Chart. Until June 2006, the Gold criteria for digital sales was 100,000 units, so this is what this song is certified for 🙂
Thanks MJD,
Probably if the broke the US mainstream (specially in 96/97) we’d be talking about all other numbers,
although I believe it could never happen 🙂
Another question: on the band’s official site we can see that Don’t Believe the Truth sold around 7 million copies worldwide while in this report only 2,2. Why this difference?
Same thing with Morning Glory 22 million counter 17.
Hi Matty! Labels need to be accurate on their claims, they can’t inflate figures. If they publish an official statement saying an album sold 7m while it sold 2m, the artist can use it to sue them and claim for royalties on 7m units sold. Thus, claims from labels have a legal value. This is when tricks get part of the game. It is very easy to be misled about the legal value of a claim. The general public gives credit to claims from the artists, their managers and Medias, but none of them are legal representatives of a label,… Read more »
I have the physical CD single of Champagne Supernova back home! They have released it 🙂
Hi Stephane!
It came out only in Australia – everywhere else there was only promo singles / imports!
They really sold lots of records in UK