Album sales of the most famous metal bands in America?

2.5 million units US, with some other sales for an EP and video.

 

More metal than Metallica.

 

But metal is rock, doesn't exist outside it, and the foundation bands for the genre exist within it . Always found it funny when tinny sounding thrash bands are held up as heavy, when your average Killing Joke, Motorhead or even Swans album is heavier.

 

Always fun when a thread devolves into what is metal and what isn't metal

"so and so is so much more METAL than so and so"

 

Maiden's Number of the Beast is considered the biggest Maiden classic and according to RIAA it is certified only one Platinum in the USA, but a certification date is October 2, 1986(3 decades ago). I personally believe that NOTB has sold more than two million copies in the USA to this day.

And RIAA says that Priest's Sad Wings of Destiny isn't certified at all in the States till now. I just can't believe it. I doubt whether these RIAA data about album sales are accurate if albums by particular music artists aren't re-certified in the last couple of years.

 

Scorpions, according to wikipedia

Lovedrive - Gold
Animal Magnetism - Platinum
Blackout - Platinum
Love at First Sting - 3 Platinum
World Wide Live - Platinum
Savage Amusement - Platinum
Best of Rockers n' Ballads - Platinum
Crazy World - 2 Platinum

 

Do people realize how silly it looks when there are dozens of genres created and no one agrees which act belongs to what one?
I am glad I like a given song by how it sounds to me.

 

How does a thread about popularity and album sales turn into an argument about who is and is not metal? Does it really matter?

 

Whitesnake (Hard Rock, metal..whatever)
20th Century Masters- Gold
Greatest Hits- Platinum
Slip Of The Tongue- Platinum
Whitesnake- 8 x Platinum
Slide It In- 2 x Platinum
12.5 million

 

That's not up to RIAA. They'll do the certifying if the label asks/pays for it. (And I don't think it's expensive.)

 

Motorhead don't belong on this list. They played Rock N Roll. Lemmy said it before so many of their shows., most of which were well attended.
Lemmy just about died on stage, passing away a few weeks after the last show. He knew he was going down to die, and went out his way.

 

Less than 550 votes in a forum with almost 70,000 members? Not that reliable IMO.

 

Pure numbers always require a second look. A band can have say one 5xplatinum album and then have their careers tank while another band can have 5 individual albums each go platinum.

Which album is more popular, one that goes diamond in two or three years or one that does the same in 10? In the end, they both have 10,000,000 in certified sales.

 

when did this obsession of Metal or Not Metal started ?
it wasn't there when i was growing up in the 80's...back then, whoever was in Circus or Hit Parader magazine (or played in KNAC) were all considered metal and that's pretty much everyone that got rejected in this thread.

 

Rather than focusing on who is or isn't; maybe we can concentrate on the theme of the thread.

 

Ozzy is a legend and the normal rules don't apply to legends.

 

The I'm The Man EP went platinum as well.