Best selling music artists from 1969 to 2019

[Marina]

Timeline history of most popular music artists from 1969 to 2019 ranked by yearly certified record sales.

 

 

[Stumbler]

Wow! Did David Bowie never exist? Otherwise, very interesting. 

 

[Marina]

Maybe he never made it to the Top 10? I imagine there are a few others we might've expected to be there who aren't?

 

Interesting, though, to see that the Beatles and Elvis were there for at least 20 years!

 

I'm not up-to-date on music these days, so many of the more recent names don't mean anything to me (showing my age now  )

[Marina]

10 hours ago, Stumbler said:

Did David Bowie never exist?

He had a lot of hits and albums, but it seems not that many made it to No.1 and, when they did, they didn't stay there that long. Maybe that's why he's not in the Top 10 in the timeline video.

 

David Bowie | full Official Chart History | Official Charts Company

WWW.OFFICIALCHARTS.COM

---

All the singles and albums of David Bowie, peak chart positions, career stats, week-by-week chart runs and latest news.

 

What surprised me, too, was that the Rolling Stones didn't figure much in the timeline either, and then not until more latter years.

[Stumbler]

@Marina , it was a very clever video, but the underlying data does seem to be questionable..........

 

[Marina]

I wouldn't know, John...

 

The video's author says in its description:

 

Quote

Numbers are worldwide and adjusted to twelve months trailing average.

and

 

Quote

Data source: RIAA, IFPI, record companies

 

[Happymama]

Interesting.  No women until Madonna and then none for ages, really till mid 90's.  Then never went above half of the musicians at any point.  

 

Several I've never heard of, too.  Elvis persisted for a long time, reaching his nadir the year after he died.