People keep going on about ageism in the music industry, but it's only a problem when it comes to the Top 40 and radio plays. Barbra Streisand is 73 years old, but her last album sold over 300,000 copies in the UK and over a million copies in the US. Annie Lennox's last album has sold over 100,000 copies in the UK, and Celine Dion's last album has sold 300,000 copies. Vera Lynn hit number one on the album chart a few years ago. I can understand why older acts find it hard getting a hit on the Top 40 singles chart, but I wish people would stop using ageism as an excuse as to why their favourite pop star underperforms on the album chart. Madonna fans need to accept that her single and album sales have sucked in the UK for years now. MDNA has only sold 135,000 copies in nearly four years.
21 by Adele was bigger than anything released by Madonna:
1. None of Madonna's studio albums have sold anywhere near the 4.7 million copies that 21 has sold in the UK in just five years. Her highest selling studio album in the UK has sold 1.9 million copies and it has taken 30 years for it to sell that much.
2. Adele had two million-selling singles in the UK during the 21 era, but Madonna's never had one in her entire career.
3. Adele had three number one singles on the Hot 100 during the 21 era, something Madonna has never achieved (Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston have).
4. 21 has sold over 11 million copies in the US in five years, none of Madonna's albums have sold that many copies.
5. Even during the height of Madonna's career in the 1980s, none of her studio albums sold over 30 million copies worldwide like 21 has. True Blue is her highest selling studio album with sales of 25 million copies in nearly 30 years. 21 has sold over 30 million copies in just five years. The Immaculate Collection has sold 30 million copies worldwide, but it's taken 25 years to do it.
The Immaculate Collection is Madonna's highest selling album in the UK and worldwide, but it's a greatest hits album, not a studio album. Some fans claim that it's sold over 40 million copies worldwide, but there's no proof (fan "receipts" don't count) nor has there been an announcement by her record label. If it had sold 40 million copies, its sales wouldn't be down as 30 million, it wouldn't be missing ten million sales. Madonna fans are just desperate for her to topple the colossal 45 million copies that The Bodyguard by Whitney Houston has sold. It won't....ever.
I'm not expecting Adele to continue selling 4.7 million copies of every album she releases, but I don't think it's unrealistic to predict that she will surpass Madonna's UK album sales at some point in the next 10-20 years. Adele has sold nearly seven million albums in the UK with just two releases in seven years, 25 will probably her up total album sales to 9-10 million by the end of 2016, that's already over half what Madonna has sold in 32 years. Let's face it, Madonna is hardly selling albums in vast quantities anymore, Rebel Heart has only sold 70,000 copies so far and fell out of the chart in May. And before anyone starts arguing about the leak, the demos leaked, not the final album. Who knows if Adele will be having number one hit singles in 30 years, but I have a feeling she'll be fine if she isn't.
Hello has achieved 130 million views in one week whereas Bitch I'm Madonna has had the same number of views in four months and only because of the celebrities in it. Adele is the queen of the industry now.