Adele's '21' album and Gotye's 'Somebody That I Used to Know' single lead the 2012 annual tally.
- Jan 4, 2013
AceShowbiz - It's official - Adele's "21" is the 2012 best-selling album while Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know" is the best-selling single for 2012. As early as July last year, both artists were looking to top the Billboard 200 and Hot 100 charts respectively, and the two have since managed to stay on top until the year's sales records closed last week.
Adele's "21", which was released last 2011 and sold almost 6 million copies, topped the Billboard 200 albums chart again in 2012 with an additional 4 million plus records sold. It bested Taylor Swift's "Red", which came in at the second spot with more than 3 million.
Other top acts that made it to the top of the album charts were One Direction, with two albums ending up in the top 10, "Up All Night" at no. 3 and "Take Me Home" at no. 5, with Mumford & Sons's "Babel" stuck in between at no. 4., and Justin Bieber's "Believe" only managed to reach the 6th spot despite a very busy and controversial year for the pop teen sensation.
Gotye's smash hit narrowly edged-out Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" with only close to 400,000 units separating the two for this year's top single honors, with 6.8 and 6.47 million respectively. Fun.'s "We Are Young" got the third place in the digital singles charts with almost 6 million units, followed by Maroon 5's hit track "Payphone" featuring Wiz Khalifa making it to almost 5 million. The PSY monster hit "Gangnam Style", which hit 1 million views on YouTube, ended up only as the no. 9 single for 2012.
TV reality singing competition winners Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson made "American Idol" proud once again this year by making it to the 2012 album and singles charts respectively. Underwood's "Blown Away" album sold 1.2 million copies, just enough to trail behind Justin Bieber's "Believe" while Clarkson's single "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" beat PSY's "Gangnam Style" by a slim 200,000 plus units to end up as the no.8 single.
Although album sales went down by 4|percent| in 2012, digital song sales went up by 5|percent| even setting a new record of 1.336 billion sold. In the vinyl record sales charts, figures continue to increase every year, up by 18|percent| in 2012 and consistently improving for the fifth consecutive year this year. Jack White's "Blunderbuss" claimed the top spot from The Beatles' "Abbey Road", ending the band's 3-year run at no. 1.
Top Albums Of 2012
Top Digital Songs Of 2012
