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That is very interesting, and it shows the general decline of sales from the 70's onward.
Madonna had a cultural impact, especially in the US. But Queen is not without cultural impact, Queen have been associated with a lot of big global events. Live Aid was viewed by almost 2 billion people, the Freddie Mercury tribute concert was viewed by over billion people. Freddie Mercury's music was used for the Olympics. Queen were also involved with the London Olympics. There was the Wayne's World movie, and now recently the Bohemian Rhapsody movie. Queen have been involved with huge cultural events, through the years. Many other musicians and artist through the years have been influenced by Queen.
Actually sales only started to decline in the 2000s. The Beatles, Pink Floyd & co. sold most of their albums after the 1970s.
Queen smashes Madonna, better music, better musicians... Madonna was more a media celebrity than a musician...
RLAAMJR wrote "Madonna has more worldwide hit songs than Queen so most people know/recognize more Madonna songs than Queen’s."
And yet Queen's songs are fare more streamed / bought / well known (and were long before the movie in case you want to make that argument). So no, you're wrong again.
Madonna hasn't been relevant in a long time. Her sales (including physical sales) have been fairly dire for years. On Spotify, she has 12,321, 321 monthly listeners, and 3,748, 181 followers. Compare that to Queen, who have 32,589,782 monthly listeners and 23,382,494 followers. Spotify numbers that even The Beatles or Michael Jackson can't compare to.
In fact, this very website said back in 2017 (long before the movie) that Queen would overtake Madonna in overall sales even if she releases another album. And that's exactly what's happened.
And no, Madonna doesn't have the cultural impact that Queen has worldwide outside of America.
@Nuno. No, most of Queen's sales were not after Freddie Mercury's death. You're talking nonsense.
That's right Lawyeris.
I don't believe a movie about Madonna would have any more of an impact than the Elton John movie. It certainly wouldn't do anywhere near as well as the Queen movie did. What a people like Nuno don't get is, the reason that the movie was so successful, was because of the group the movie was about. People absolutely love Queen.
The U.S isn't the world, Jake. You need to realise just how big Queen are worldwide, that even with losing America in the 80s, they still managed to outsell all those other artists.
Aye Jules, you're not wrong. Queen is streaming on Spotify way ahead of Madonna, Michael Jackson and The Beatles as well.
It's not equal. Queen are quite a long way in front. Madonna's current streaming numbers and physical format sales are quite pathetic compared to Queen's too.
Nobody was as big as MJ at his peak. MJ thriller album alone is enough to cover 3 of Madonna's top selling album. So stop talking non sense. .
Omg, me playing my casette and cd over and over again wasn't counted as well as people all over the world who requested songs on radio stations and music channels, and people playing songs on their cellphones, cars, etc.
Also, it's possible Madonna's songs arent streamed more because they had it saved directly through their cellphones, usb , computers, etc.
For example, , a Madonna fan have bought Madonna albums save her songs directly on the phone/pc then the fan gets to watch Bohemian Rhapsody and listens to their songs on spotify.
Madonna still releasing albums, do tours and networth bigger than Queen. She is an actress while somebody just played as them on the BR movie.
That's just because most silly old music lovers prefer like male bands. Maybe they used to bought Madonna's albums, they still just prefer male bands. They think that it is weird of a adult old man listening to a attention ho's songs. But time will tell the truth. In the Rolling Stone artist top 100, Madonna ranked 36th, Michael Jackson just ranked at 35th. This do speak about how good Madonna is. It is silly to compare a female singer to a male band who has a much wider audience ever and ever. Madonna will still be the best-selling female artists based on value of all-time, and no matter how well Queen sells, they will always be outsold by The Beatles. The Beatles will always be the best-selling band ever, which Queen will never ever top. This is the difference. The only thing Madonna has to do is just to keep her name of the top of female artists, she desn't have to compare to Queen at all. It makes non-sense.
Madonna sold 75 million physical singles. Queen just sold 50 million physical singles. Madonna has more worldwide hit songs than Queen for sure, bacause Madonna outcharted Queen on single charts everywhere in the world, too.
Hey dj dj, your point lost me right when you mentioned The shitty Rolling Stone magazine. There is so much rubbish written in that mag, that there is no credability what's so all with this. Let's face it Madonna is a spent force.
You spoke about physical sales? Really? Madonna sold 202 million albums and 75 million physical singles. Queen sold 192 million albums and 50 million physical singles
lol Queen do not even have a Grammy. First, the top 100 artist of Rolling Stones is not shitty.It depends on who wrote article. Maybe some articles of them is shitty, but thats just because only one writer wrote it. Top 100 artists and Top 500 albums of it are so so different. It is academic authority for music industry. Then, it is delusional of you to compare a solo female singer and a male band who has much wider audience over and over again.
I was just looking at the discographies which sold over 100 million units for each decade. After the 70's they declined every decade, according to these numbers.
Queen's main focus were never singles, they are a rock band. I don't see why being a women is suppose to be some type of a big cultural event. Most people listen to music because it resonates with them, or simply because they enjoy it. Not because of someone's gender. There have been far more interesting and better female artists through the years then Madonna. Practically no one would think of Madonna as being one of the best singers, or one of the best song writers of all time.
Look at surveys and polls everywhere, Freddie Mercury is generally regarded as being the best singer and front man of all time. Brian May is practically always counted as being one of the best guitar players of all time. John Deacon is often counted as being one of the best bass players. Queen's Live Aid performance has been voted as the best live performance of all time. Bohemian Rhapsody is in the Guinness world record as being the best song ever written.
Queen are known for their sophisticated and diverse songwriting.
You can assign loads of labels, to Queen. You can say Freddie Mercury with Queen was the first Indian rock star, or the biggest gay artists. But these labels say absolutely nothing about their music, and are therefore completely useless. Instead people value someone like Freddie Mercury for his magnificent voice, incredible songwriting and musicianship.
Those are Album sales, streaming and equivalent track sales all together and it's just for 2019. The movie was released in 2018 on theaters, In 2019 was available on cable TV and on DVD/Bluray. Also most of its awards were received in 2019 influencing sales and streams positively.
Actually they did not beat Madonna in sales. They beat in EAS and Streaming only.
Madonna pure album sales from 2017 are still higher than Queen album pure sales from 2020.
Plus,
Madonna numbers are not updated by her former label for years (Warner Music did stated in 2001 when released the GHV2 compilation that Madonna sold over 200 million albums on their press release - well her total on this website is just 2 million over that... right....) for a very long time and I'm sure number here on this website miss a big parcel of her sales. Even US physical singles are underestimated on this website (not sure why as Billboard did publish a few figures). They will probably update her numbers when she releases a new GH packaged or something like that.
Let's also not forget that Madonna is the best selling maxi-single artist worldwide (and a $8.99 maxi-single single counts here for EAS the same as $2.99 physical single).
Queen are huger in UK... I mean... 27.6 million pure sales from a 60 million population total is a lot. They sold 47 million pure sales in US ( over 300 million population in the country).