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The race for the best-selling album of 2009 was tight, and had Susan Boyle’s I Dreamed a Dream been released one week earlier, the headline on this story would be reversed. But according to Nielsen SoundScan’s final figures, Taylor Swift managed to stave off the Britain’s Got Talent sensation as Fearless sold 3,217,000 copies to become the top seller of 2009. Boyle was right on Swift’s heels, ending the year with 3,104,000 in sales and the distinction of having the best-selling release of 2009 (Fearless debuted in November 2008).
(Check out Rolling Stone’s Best Albums and Best Songs of 2009.)
Unsurprisingly, Michael Jackson was the year’s best-selling artist, as the singer’s June 25th death led to a massive resurgence of his catalog. In total, the King of Pop sold 8,286,000 units in 2009, easily beating out the 4,643,000 combined albums Swift sold last year. Jackson’s 2003 compilation Number Ones was also the year’s third-best-selling album, totaling 2,355,000 units sold. Jackson came in at Number Three on the top-selling digital artists chart.
In a year that featured new releases by U2, Green Day and Pearl Jam, it’s surprising that the year’s best-selling band is, well, no longer a band. As Rolling Stone previously reported, the Beatles’ best-of collection 1 was the decade’s top-selling album, and 40 years after the breakup, the Fab Four were amazingly also the top-selling act of 2009. Thanks to their remastered catalog, the Beatles sold 3,282,000 units in 2009 without the aid of digital music services, placing the group third behind Jackson and Swift and in front of Boyle on the 2009 top-selling artist chart. Additionally, Abbey Road was the year’s best-selling vinyl with 34,000 copies, beating out Jackson’s Thriller and Animal Collective’s ...
Article Source: Rolling Stone : Rock and Roll Daily