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I do not think visual popularity is a truly fair, sensible or logical comparison here. It would be similar to measuring say only LP sales by the four and without any context, that would look pretty poor for Metallica. I don't think you can measure a contemporary act, that came into the industry just as visual representation was truly taking off and resulted in music video becoming a prerequisite, against three acts, who were not even around in 1981 when MTV kicked off.
I'd presume when people want to use Youtube to access music, it's usually because they want to watch the video as well as listen to the song and the most common or wanted version is the original official music video version. The problem Led Zeppelin have in this regard is, they do not have an original official music video (that was made at the time) for any of their songs, not one! People obviously still come and listen to audio or live versions but the having no original contemporary visual representation of any of their songs, IMO, kind of defeats the purpose of "watching" Led Zeppelin on Youtube. The Beatles also suffer from this, although not to the same extent as Zeppelin, with many of their most loved tracks only appearing as an audio version, kind of rendering a "viewing" redundant.
No one needs to beat their 534 weeks. Because the record is 942 weeks. That's the number to beat.
You're comparing them to a band that hasn't released an album in 40 years.
None of us are saying that Metallica isn't huge. They're HUGE! Their tours are huge. But other acts have bigger box office returns; pop stars and rock bands alike.
You seem to be taking these numbers as a value judgement on the quality of their music.
The biggest selling US album is the Eagles' Greatest Hits. The UK's biggest selling album is Queen's Greatest Hits. There's nothing wrong with being a singles band so long as those singles are good.
That's just one version, you need to add up all the versions. Metallicas numbers from this article in Feb 19 were
Nothing Else Matters 1,297,400,000
Enter Sandman 660,500,000
One 540.700,000
The Unforgiven 463,500,000
As of today all versions of Stairway To Heaven come to 491,500,000, which I think is a great number for a song with no official video, something that all four of those Metallica tracks have.
Metallica sold more albums than Madonna in US
RIAA will confirm this soon
Hi Erdos!
Ain't you bored of that cheap Metallica stanning? I have been off for quite some time and it seems half of the messages I missed is you stanning them in a fairly childish way. I'll just start moving your messages to spam if this continues.
Hi MJD,
why on the site of the RIAA Garage inc. in the US is 5 platinum discs?
Hi MJD,
Thanks for the great update! I'm just wondering. What is the second most successful album in 1991? Is it Pearl Jam's Ten or Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusions double album combined?
In addition, I would like to request the analysis for Neil Young, Radiohead and Pearl Jam, since these artists may have very intriguing results.
Nevertheless, keep posting the articles! They are great!
Cheers,
Hagai
Going by the lists, it appears to be Dangerous by Michael Jackson but maybe not!
Sales
1st 14. 1991 – Metallica – Metallica – 30,790,000 (Feb 19)
2nd 20. 1991 – Michael Jackson – Dangerous – 29,550,000 (Sep 17)
3rd 24. 1991 – Nirvana – Nevermind – 27,750,000 (Nov 17)
EAS
1st 10. 1991 – Nirvana – Nevermind – 52,930,000 (Nov 17)
2nd 19. 1991 – Metallica – Metallica – 45,418,000 (Feb 19)
3rd 20. 1991 – Michael Jackson – Dangerous – 45,391,000 (Sep 17)
I'd presume the above article takes into consideration that Dangerous gained 28,000 or more units, since Sep 2017. Saying that, I don't imagine it will be long before Metallica assumes #2 position, it it hasn't already.
Thanks for the response Martin!
Well, it seems that the black album is currently second most successful album in 1991. An extraordinary achievement, since there were plenty of great and successful albums in 1991. Yeah, I think it may soon become the third most successful album of the 90s (Just behind Whitney Houston's The Bodyguard and Nirvana's Nevermind). Anyway, looking forward for the new articles!
Cheers,
Hagai
You are entirely correct on both points Martin! Regarded as #2 up to date is Dangerous, but Metallica may win it in the long run 🙂
At least Jagged little pill and Come on over are currently superior to the black album
Metallica was taken off Billboard at that number because Billboard decided to throw all old albums onto their catalogue chart instead of the active top 100.
If not, today, the Black Album would still be in the top 100, setting a world record for the 1st multi-generational rock album, beating even Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon"
You're being very naive, as given the information we have at hand, you should have been able to see that, what you're saying, is actually impossible.
If you were to add Metallicas BB200 wks 540, to it's BB Contemporary wks 160 and assumed that it was on every week (333) between it being taken off/falling off the BB200 in January 1997 and the Contemporary charts inception in 2003, it would be on 1.033wks.
If we do similar with DSOTM, add it's BB200 wks (943wks) to it's Contemporary (292wks), it's already on 1,235wks and bear in mind, under the Billboard 200 "No Catalog" rule, it was not allowed to add any weeks at all, between 1991 and 2009.
Now, "if" we were to take all that in and get ourselves an educated "if" figure, it all points to Floyd actually being even further ahead and by some considerable margin, most likely in the region of 500wks+.
This century alone Metallica did $600 million on concert box office. U2 did $1.800 million playing less concerts. Not all Metallica concerts were sold. Even Madonna made over $1.200 million playing less half their concerts. Both U2 and Madonna played for more people this century. Where did you get those 35 million? Are counting also with all the festivals they played where there were also other big acts playing? Even if you are the number seems too big when they played to around 6 million only during this century.
That's just on YouTube... not on sales. Check out the sales and EAS number and compare.
606 million YouTube gives only around 53k EAS
Led Zeppelin 2 biggest tracks
Stairway To Heaven [Led Zeppelin IV] – 26,530,000 EAS
Whole Lotta Love [Led Zeppelin II] – 14,790,000
Metallica 2 biggest tracks
Nothing Else Matter - 14,620,000 EAS
Enter Sandman - 14,510,000 EAS
Not only Led Zeppelin had 2 biggest tracks than any Metallica songs but their biggest track has almost twice the EAS than Metallica biggest track.
Streaming from YouTube, Spotify and other sites is increasing but it still is a lot less important than sales, especially for songs and albums that were released before streaming era.
Is there somewhere statistic how much Metallica albums sold at once they were published? For example during the first week, month or year.
Metallica's "Phantom Lord" from "Kill 'Em All" has recently passed 10M plays on Spotify (10,267,000).
Why is that significant you ask? Because now all songs on "Kill 'Em All" have passed 10M - in fact ALL SONGS on Metallica's first FIVE albums have passed 10M plays.
That's five albums in a row released between 1983 and 1991 with all songs above 10M on Spotify!
For a legacy act to have one album achieved this is pretty big, but five in a row is insane!
