
"Always keep mystery. Not many interviews." There you have it, fledgling bands of the world. If you start right now and keep in mind those rules, as well as some key others, in about a decade's time you can have the number one album in the world.
Coldplay tops the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry's report listing the 50 best-selling albums of 2008. Coldplay moved 6.8 million copies of Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends, more than High School Musical 2, which had the number one spot in 2007.
Filling out the rest of the top 5 were AC/DC, the soundtrack to Mamma Mia!, Duffy, and Metallica, and who knows what this list is going to look like next year, now that the Earth has fallen through a wormholeinto the year 1998. See the rest of the list below.
1. Coldplay: Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends
2. AC/DC: Black Ice
3. Various Artists: Mamma Mia! The Movie Soundtrack
4. Duffy: Rockferry
5. Metallica: Death Magnetic
6. Leona Lewis: Spirit
7. Amy Winehouse: Back to Black
8. Various Aritsts: High School Musical 3: Senior Year
9. Lil Wayne: Tha Carter III
10. Rihanna: Good Girl Gone Bad
11. Madonna: Hard Candy
12. Beyonce: I Am...Sasha Fierce
13. P!ink: Funhouse
14. Guns N' Roses: Chinese Democracy
15: Britney Spears: Circus
16. Jack Johnson: Sleep Through The Static
17. Il Divo: The Promise
18. Taylor Swift: Fearless
19. Jonas Brothers: A Little Bit Longer
20. Various Artists: Camp Rock OST
21. Kings of Leon: Only By The Night
22. Nickelback: Dark Horse
23. Miley Cyrus: Breakout
24. Kid Rock: Rock N Roll Jesus
25. Enya: And Winter came
26. Mariah Carey: E=MC2
27. Take That: The Circus
28. The Killers: Day & Age
29. Usher: Here I Stand
30. T.I.: Paper Trail
31. Kanye West: 808's & Heartbreak
32. Michael Jackson: Thriller (25th Anniversary Edition)
33. Katy Perry: One of The Boys
34. Exile: Exile Ballad Best
35. Ne-Yo: Year of The Gentleman
36. Amy Macdonald: This Is The Life
37. Abba: Gold
38. Namie Amuro: Best Fiction
39. Jonas Brothers: Jonas Brothers
40. Seal: Soul
41. Sugarland: Love On The Inside
42. Celine Dion: My Love Essential Collection
43. Exile: Exile Catchy Best
44.Dido: Safe Trip Home
45. Taylor Swift: Taylor Swift
46. Chris Brown: Exclusive
47. Twilight: Twilight OST
48. Jason Mraz: We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things
49. OneRepublic: Dreaming Out Loud
50. Various Artists: Now That's What I Call Music Vol. 71
"global list", really?
Honestly, sometimes Americans are so ethnocentric that they forget there are another 6.5 billion people on this planet...
In addition, this list makes me lose faith in American pop culture in general.
Warren
Its by sales numbers warren, the numbers dont lie
EEEEeeee
Correct EEEEeeee, it's a worldwide list, not U.S. only.
This list proves to me that juveniles have too much money!
Krucifier
The world is coming to an end... this music is shiet, am i the only one who thinks so?
TheDevil
This is sad.
Umgan
There's no way in a fat hell that these were the top sellers.
I've been watching the international charts for years! There are sooooo many albums not shown. Plus, every site has a different line up for the most sold, which leads me to believe this site is yet another bias community.
Fox64
Yeah, it's pretty bad...why do people like crappy music?
Matt
I agree Devil....now lets play the same sh*t songs over and over and over again on corporate radio
repete
I wish we could go back 40 or 50 years to when the charts listed GOOD music.
Steve
I think there were alot of good albums on that list. Michael Jackson did pretty good compared to all the negative press, who always wants to break him down.. Here's the proof: Michael Jackson is unstoppable! His Thriller album which was released 26 years ago now has been over the top 50 list of best selling albums of 2008. Michael Jackson is in, he's the king, and he's coming back even STRONGER! Wait and see.
Nikolaj
this has to be a worldwide list since two of the albums are from Japan.. it isn't just US..
alice
I think the list is correct, coz numbers speack the truth, and maybe you american doesn't know, Coldplay is HUGE in asia (as you know, there are many people in asia, it is not a surprise for them to sell that many copies.)
well, there are only 3 albums from asia.
Exile is on No.34 and 43 sold 1.5 million and 1.2 million copies,
and
Namie Amuro is on No.38 which sold 1.4 million copies.
Cyrus
Gods of of rock AC/DC beaten by crappy coldplay, what is the world coming to.
coldplay suck
A lot of you guys seem rather angry at that list....Maybe its not what u guys listen to but it doesnt mean its bad..its juts what this generation likes and its us who keep music alive. Coldplay rocks, its just a proven fact, when 7 million people buy an album its not because it has a pretty cover. If it was that easy to write songs as great as "Clocks" or "Viva La Vida", some of u should have done it and show Coldplay what music should sound like.
Im not a big fan of Duffy, Britney Spears and Rihanna but i respect them because theyve reached a musical and success level only a handful of people ever got to. And because none of you will ever reach this level, you should respect every single artist on that list.
iheartmusic
This list is as such because all the good music is stolen and technically never tracked.
snaapz
Death Magnetic all the way.
What? Yes.
The masses are asses
pop punk sucz
Nikolaj.... you jinxed it! lol
I have to agree tho, he WAS a legend!
AcE
YA METALLICA!! METAL UP A**!!!!!
Bob
wow Britney reached top 15 when her album came out December 2 ,2008 only months before January 2009
ken
When you are in America you fail to see the world as the rest of the world sees it. Such lists are made by Americans for Americans and you are not supposed to take it as the gospel truth. These are guys trying to make a living and you are not supposed to think they know about the WORLD. They write things based on what little info they get and assumptions and what they think Americans want to hear. Don't underestimate the rest of the world. A quick example is P-SQUARE, a duo group in Africa. they sold 8000000 copies in 2007 (You can confirm via Wikipedia) but were not in the so called World-wide list. Same goes for those most-famous celebrity lists. I've been to Africa and they don't know these high-rated celebs like Angelina Jolie. Instead, they tend to be more familiar with musicians like Celine Dion, Beyonce, Mariah, etc coz most people dont have TVs but many have Radios. Plus people who don't understand English were more likely to listen to English songs (Google 'kenlee' and witness for yourselves) than they were to watch an English movie. And I think the trend is the same in other third-world countries outside Africa. So remember the people who write these lists are as ignorant as we are if not more ignorant.
9eric
fantastic list, i own most of these albums, Coldplay's album is amazing and has earnt #1 position, shame Madonna's Hard Candy wasn't higher because that is just EPIC!!
Britney did extremely well for one month of sales, as did Beyonce and P!NK, Duffy has grown on me and so has AC/DC's album.
Michael jackson has proved to be unbeatable and may he rest in peace :).
cannot wait to see the list for 2009, it's a British invasion and electropop year too!!
Florence & The Machine,Lady Gaga, Madonna, Rihanna, Beyonce, Britney, Michael Jackson, Whitney,Muse,The Beatles,La Roux,Mika,Robbie Williams,Alexandra Burke, Leona Lewis,Timbaland, Jay-Z,Little Boots,The Noisettes,David Guetta, Calvin Harris,The prodigy and Dizzee Rascal are to name MAJOR performers and rockers who have released major material this year which i think will prove GOLD when in the chart of 2009, some big in UK which may score highly on the charts!!! :) i live in hope XD
Josh
9eric, could you be any more ignorant. the list is based off numbers from IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry), it's based in London. Yes, it's the closest thing there is to an organization that tracks global sales.
JohnB