Forum
Incredible job! This must have took ages to do. Keep up the amazing job, I love reading this site!
Hi Raffi!
To answer your question about physical singles sales, since IFPI started reporting the format in 1973 the best year has been, maybe surprisingly, 1983 with 800 million singles sold Worldwide. This figure is kind of a mistery to me as the main markets we know US / JP / UK / FR / GE added for only 399 million for the year, down from 405 million in 1982 while only 580 million singles were sold in the World, so this may have been a typo from the IFPI.
If we focus on the five main markets, the peak was in 1979 with 493 million singles sold. It was a pretty stable total as from 1973 to 1982 the number stayed in the 405-493 million range. Starting from 1979 peak it decreased every year until 1988 though, reaching a 276 million low that year. Then it climbed back up in almost all years until a new high point in 1997 at 466 million. The interesting point is how linear those figures are ultimately as from 1973 to 2001 the lasticity is less than 1 to 2 since the low point of 276m is still a healthy 56% of the peak at 493m.
While comprehensive figures aren't available for earlier years, Japan was big from mid-60s but still weaker than later years, the US market was huge in several eras including 350 (!) million in 1947 and 200+ million during the 60s, a figure it never reached again after 1974. The big difference during the 60s though was in the remaining markets - countries like Italy which had very low markets since 40 years were massive singles markets in the Beatles decade. While a mere 2 million singles were sold in most years of the 90s there, some stand-alone singles shifted close to 1 million units during the 60s. The same situation was true for various World markets.
Bee Gees Music Sales Grow 669% Following Grammy Salute
http://www.billboard.com/articles/colum ... mmy-salute
Good work!
But I miss something.
You should count Andy's #1 singles, Chain reaction, Emotion and some other Bee Gees compositions as Bee Gees. In our times, these collaborations are called 'Featuring'.. and most of their songs for others were featuring The Bee Gees.
Hi Susanne!
No need to say you are correct, this is now fixed 😉
Hi Marc!
You have a real argument when you mention today most of those songs would get the featuring credit. I'll check those songs in detail and try to define a rule to adjust that evolution within' the music industry habits!
Hi,
Do you know what the album sales were for "Main Course" in the UK and why was it so low and why did it not chart? Thank you so much!
Hi Jacob!
It is really hard to tell. At the time though the Bee Gees were coming from multiple albums that failed to chart so they had truly no following. They got moderate hits but the albums weren't popular. Main Course fits into the R&B category too which was hardly selling albums in the UK by then. A third element is the size of the chart, it was only a Top 50, which is always easier to miss than a Top 100/200. No fanbase / poor selling genre / short chart, you get an era with a #5 lead single but no chart presence by the album!
First time reading this article fully. Great work buddy.
They have sold 72.8 million physical singles worldwide????? OOOOMMMGGG!
MJ
Do you have a list with the top 10 most streamed Bee Gees videos on YouTube with the respective figures?
Thanks a lot in advance
Marc, add their songwriting and production work from their earliest days in Australia to big successes with Barbra Streisand, Kenny Rogers, Diana Ross, Dionne Warwick, Carola, Jimmy Ruffin, etc. and they've even more massive.
Collecting all the potential "feat" instances will be quite a task, so I will not expect it. You've already done a lot. Starters would be the Barry and Robin solo albums at least. Most of the "feat" I can think of would be just 1 or 2 brothers, so whether that counts as Bee Gees, I am just not sure. You have to draw a line somewhere. One thing I would have put in are the pre-1967 Australian albums, but since they were almost exclusive to Aus and sales were not much, they would not make much difference in what you have done here.
May I point out that on the page cspc-bee-gees-popularity-analysis/32/cspc-bee-gees-popularity-analysis/32/ that is a photo of a tribute band, not the Gibb brothers.
The Top 100 Most Streamed Songs, By Decade in the USA
Stayin Alive the most Streamed song of the 70s in the US.
1950s Mack The Knife, Bobby Darin 24.03 M
1960s Hey Jude. The Beatles 84.74 M
1970s Stayin Alive The Bee Gees 244.37 M
1980s Billie Jean Michael Jackson 450.72 M
1990s I Will Always Love You, Whitney Houston 315.17 M
Source: On- Demand U.S Streams (Audio and video combined) According to Nielsen Music
Great job!
Any chance to also include solo albums from Barry and Robin?
For sure they sell lesser than Bee Gees album, but I have never seen any estimation.
MJD, is there any particular reason why disco acts like Bee Gees or ABBA has pretty strong streamings yet somebody who is known as the biggest Disco singer of that era like Donna Summer seems to have very weak streams. I always wonder.
Hi Jazz!
It depends on where you are from. Donna Summer was huge in the US, while ABBA weren't. Globally though, there have been no match even during the disco era, the Bee Gees and ABBA were simply way, way bigger than her. US media tag lines (like the "Disco Queen") often disturb the perception of the reality in the long run.
Thank you MJD. I guess it make sense. Often times this Queen Of... makes you think they are bigger than people thought they are when it is not always the case.
PLEASE ,one more time ,again and again, the BEE GEES are NOT a disco group ,they are talented songwriters and performers , they wrote more than 1040 songs for them as a group and solo efforts ,their brother Andy Gibb and other artists ( Warwick ,Dion , Streisand , Kenny Rodgers and Dolly Parton ,Ross , and hundred of artists covering their songs from Presley to Al Green ,Bolton, ,Bubble ,etc... etc...) , their dance oriented period and style ( in fact rnb blue eyed soul ) was from 75 to 79 , the Fever soundtrack contains only 5 new songs ( plus 2 others from previous albums) , they recorded from the 60's till 2003 as a group and 2012 for Robin ( and his last classic " Titanic " requiem , composed with his son Robin - John , and Barry still writes and records albums ,please , definetely not a disco group , please watch their video biography This is where we come from and the last film How can you mend a broken heart from Frank Marshall.
