Nelly

In the 12 months after his death, Jackson sold more than 8.2 million albums in the United States and 35 million albums worldwide, making him the best-selling albums artist of 2009. He became the first artist to sell one million downloads in a week in music download history, with a record-breaking 2.6 million downloads of his songs. Three of his albums, Thriller, Number Ones and The Essential Michael Jackson, sold more than any new album, the first time a catalog album has ever scanned more sales than any new album. Jackson also became the first artist in history to have four of the top 20 best-selling albums in a single year in the United States. Following this surge in sales, Sony extended its distribution rights for Jackson's material, which had been due

Biggie’s debut album “Ready to Die” was released on september 13th, 1994. Ready to Die reached number 13 on the Billboard 200 Chart and was the best selling rap album of the year. Ready to Die was eventually certified 4x Platinum (4 Million Albums were sold) and Biggie was named the “Rap King of New York” as he went on to win New Artist of the Year, Live Performer of the Year, Lyricist of the Year, and Album of the Year at Source Magazine's 2nd annual hip hop awards ceremony (Marcovitz, 2007, Pg 26). Biggie’s second album “Life After Death” was released on March 25th, 1997, and just 16 days after, Biggie smalls was shot and killed after an award ceremony in Los Angeles, California. Life After Death is currently the 3rd best selling rap music album of all time according to The Source Magazine (Centeno, 2013) .

After years of hard work Jackson released his second album in 1983, Thriller. It wasn’t merely the best selling album by a black artist; it was the best-selling album of all time. It sold more than 45 million copies worldwide, charted #1 in every western country, and dominated the U.S charts for 37 weeks. Thriller was so great that it forced through the racial barriers dividing music and k... ... middle of paper ... ... of race in music and also made efforts to “heal” the world. His unique musical sound and style has influenced numerous hip hop, post-disco, contemporary R&B, pop, and rock artists (“Biography”).

Elvis was gaining popularity, he signed with a producer by the name of Tom Parker. Later Philips sold Elvis contract to RCA Records. Elvis Presley first single was “Heartbreak Hotel”, which hit number one on both pop and country and western charts in the early 1956 and rose as high as number five on the rhythm and blue charts. Presley then gained more fame by playing on the Ed Sullivan show in 1956. In August he began filming his first movie, Love Me Tender, which was released three months later and recouped its $1 million cost in three days.

7 on the RIAA's list of top-selling artists of all time. As we approach the five-year anniversary of his death, we look back on 10 royal achievements that made Jackson the King of Pop. 1. Jackson made history with his brothers in the Jackson 5 when they became the first group in pop history to have their first four singles hit No. 1.

Picking up where his previous effort left off, "KING" (Grand Hustle/Atlantic) builds on the sound and the success of 2004's "URBAN LEGEND" - a blockbuster project that debuted at the top of Billboard's "Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums" chart and at #7 on the Billboard 200, spawned the RIAA platinum-certified single, "Bring Em Out" and the Grammy-nominated smash, "U Don't Know Me," registered over three million in ringtone sales, and was certified RIAA platinum, going on to sell over 1.3 million copies in the U.S. alone. Alongside its commercial success, "URBAN LEGEND" secured a multitude of award nominations, including Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Album at the 2005 American Music Awards, Best Rap Video ("U Don't Know Me") at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards, and Choice Rap Track ("Bring Em Out") at the 2005 Teen Choice Awards, plus landing T.I. his second annual VIBE Award for Street Anthem of the Year ("U Don't Know Me"). The kudos culminated with his Grammy nomination for "U Don't Know Me" for Best Rap Solo Performance, sharing the category with Common, Eminem, 50 Cent, Ludacris, and Kanye West. Since he first burst on the scene in 2001 with his impressive solo debut, "I'M SERIOUS," T.I.

After the release of his first album, Infinite, Eminem developed his alter ego Slim Shady. He then created The Slim Shady EP which created many opportunities for Eminem, jump starting his career. He obtained a contract with Interscope Records and was introduced to Dr. Dre who became his mentor. His first album with Interscop Records was The Slim Shady LP in 1999 followed by The Marshall Mathers LP in 2000. The combination of these two albums proved that Eminem was one of the most important and popular pop artists of the time (Thomas, 2013).

When America first met Jackson, he was a charming, likeable young teen that had a solid voice playing with his music family group called the Jackson 5. The flow of his music had: pop, rock, disco and jazz; Jackson tone had all of that. He began his solo career in which he became one of the most dominate figure in the music industry. The released of Thriller was the six album that had the world thrilled since this type of genre was never seen before. Every month 1 million of copies were sold.

Enrique’s first album, respectably named Enrique Iglesia,s did not waste much time topping the charts at all. It sold a million copies in the first five months alone, which is really, really something impressive. In Portugal alone it sold him enough to get his first gold record in only a week. Light rock tunes and soft pop ballads marked Enrique Iglesias's 1995 debut, but what obviously propelled him to the top of the charts was his young good looks and his father, the most famous troubadour in the music world, whis obviously helped. The fact that Iglesias scored five consecutive number one singles on Billboard from this CD may say alot more about the... ... middle of paper ... ...ound the world.

Don Mclean released a album called "American Pie," this single shot him to number one on the charts and is to this day the longest single in history to get there running at an amazing 8 minutes long. Nineteen seventy two was a great year for Led Zepplin he hit the charts with power scoring three hit singles Black Dog, Rock and Roll, and the classic Stairway to Heaven.