Was Oasis the biggest band in the world?

Biggest band in the UK.

 

Never mind biggest, the best band in the world in the 90s was The Allman Brothers Band.

 

A lot of those sales were after Oasis later albums failed to generate the same numbers.


The album was first released on vinyl, followed by a release on CD and cassette two weeks later on December 6, 1994. The LP sold 34,000 copies in its first week of release, and until Jack White's 2014 album Lazaretto it held the record for most vinyl sales in one week since SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991.[1] Upon its CD release, Vitalogy became the second-fastest selling album in history, only behind the band's previous release Vs., selling 877,000 copies in its first week and went multi-platinum quickly.[2] The album has been certified five times platinumby the RIAA in the United States.

Pearl Jam Vitalogy
Album[edit]
Chart (1994) Peak
position
Australian Albums Chart[53] 1
Irish Albums Chart[54] 1
New Zealand Albums Chart[55] 1
Swedish Albums Chart[56] 1
US Billboard 200[57] 1
Finnish Albums Chart[58] 3
Danish Albums Chart[54] 4
Portuguese Albums Chart[54] 4
UK Albums Chart[59] 4
Austrian Albums Chart[60] 7
Dutch Albums Chart[61] 7
Norwegian Albums Chart[62] 7
German Albums Chart[63] 8
Spanish Albums Chart[64] 11
Italian Albums Chart[65] 16
Swiss Albums Chart[66] 17
French Albums Chart[67] 22
Japanese Albums Chart[68] 28
Chart (1995) Peak
position
Canadian Albums Chart[69] 2
Decade-end charts[edit]
Chart (1990–1999) Position
US Billboard 200[70] 76

Canada (Music Canada)[71] 5× Platinum 500,000^
Poland (ZPAV)[72] Gold 50,000*
United Kingdom (BPI)[73] Gold 100,000^
United States (RIAA)[74] 5× Platinum 5,000,000^
I don't have the other countries sales but the chart positions are good enough.
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Most popular band of each year in my opinion
1991 U2 (until Use Your Illusion I &II and the 'Black' album, then Guns N' Roses & Metallica-but probably G n'R)
1992 Nirvana (Nevermind from previous year was huge)
1993 Nirvana (not because of 'In Utero' necessarily but because everyone realized Nirvana broke open alt rock to mainstream so they were kings)
1994 Nirvana (Cobain's death, MTV Unplugged proving Cobain was a great songwriter too not just loud noise.)
1995 Pearl Jam (Vitalogy cemented them as best in the world with Oasis still not big in U.S. but growing.)
1996 Smashing Pumpkins (due to Mellon Collie and constant famous music videos like the revolutionary 'Tonight Tonight' video. Oasis finally was getting big in the US after Champagne Supernova was huge.)
1997 Rage Against the Machine (until OK Computer) then Radiohead
1998 Radiohead. Oasis are already on the way down in the U.S. never to return to being as popular as in '95-'97.

 

Kurt was gone 18 months before Morning Glory was released.
Besides all those bands like Nirvana had been around for 5+ years, when Oasis was on the cusp of their breakout.

I thought MTV played plenty Oasis. Wonderwall and Champagne Supernova were on endlessly, but maybe consider that Oasis wasn't much interested in MTV.
They did that Unplugged thing that Liam backed out of, but maybe considering the personalities it was wise to keep Oasis off the American TV interview circuit.

 

Love the Allmans but their prime was the 70s.

 

I think R.E.M. would also be contenders during their 1991-1995 peak of popularity.
"Out of Time" and "Automatic for the People" were huge sellers and whilst "Monster" wasn't as big, the world tour was a massive deal.

 

Agreed but they were also terrific when Warren Heynes stepped in.

 

U2 was the biggest in the nineties.

I'd also add Metallica and Iron Maiden. Did Oasis ever sell out arenas in South America or Japan?

 

You nailed it!

 

Can't possibly be as I don't have a single album.

 

Not in the world. But in the UK from 95 until 97 they were MASSIVE!! Every pub, every radio station and blasting from every car was Oasis. I can't actually remember a band as popular in my lifetime. They were good times. I happen to love Oasis.

 

Oh well, that settles it, then.

 

Glad to help

 

I also prefer the stone roses.

 

Yes the had more talent. Too bad they imploded.

 

o·a·sis
ōˈāsis/
noun

1. 
   a fertile spot in a desert where water is found.
   synonyms: watering hole, watering place, waterhole, spring
   "an oasis near Cairo. The second option seems more fitting....
2. a type of rigid foam into which the stems of flowers can be secured in flower arranging.

 

Great band, with a second album dedicated to Led Zeppelin, but it's Oasis for me.

 

Pearl Jam released two albums in the mid 90's

Vitalogy in '94

• US: 5× Platinum[23]
• AUS: 5× Platinum[31]
• CAN: 6× Platinum[26]
• UK: Platinum[29]
  
  

and No Code in '96

• US: Platinum[23]
• AUS: 2× Platinum[31]
• CAN: 2× Platinum[26]
• UK: Gold[29]
  
  

As impressive as those sales are Oasis topped them in the same period.

Definitely Maybe in '94

• BPI: 7× Platinum[7]
• ARIA: Platinum[25]
• IFPI SWE: Gold[26]
• IFPI SWI: Gold[27]
• MC: Platinum[28]
• RIAA: Platinum[29]
• RIAJ: Platinum[30]
• RIANZ: Platinum[31]
• SNEP: 2× Gold[32]
  
  
  
  and Whats the Story
  
  • BPI: 14× Platinum[7]
  • ARIA: 8× Platinum[36]
  • BVMI: Gold[37]
  • IFPI SWE: Platinum[26]
  • IFPI SWI: Gold[27]
  • MC: 8× Platinum[28]
  • RIAA: 4× Platinum[29]
  • RIAJ: Platinum[38]
  • RIANZ: Platinum[39]
  • SNEP: Platinum[40]
  
  

Worldwide Oasis, at the time, were the bigger act. America Pearl Jam likely were.

Just look at the hype and first day sales of Be Here Now. The expectation level was mental.

Debatable. Their follow up in '98 was a better album than Be Here Now but there was little buzz about it. Be Here Now managed to sell 8 million in the year of its release while Adore a few years to reach 3 million.

You can measure how big an artist is with the expectations and hype of their next product and there was just not the same level of anticipation worldwide for Adore that there was for the awful Be Here Now.

 

they were the biggest band outside America. Which for some reason Americans cannot fathom

 

no

 

In the mid 90's they released Zooropa, worldwide sales of over 7 million and POP, worldwide sales of over 4 million. They were, possibly, the biggest band of the 80's but no one seriously considered them the biggest in the mid to late 90's.

 

Iron Maiden weren't that big in the 90's with Bruce not being there. I remember them playing clubs and smaller places in the US during that time. I'd say U2 and Metallica were the biggest worldwide bands in the 90's

 

I would definitely argue that they were during 1995-96. REM and U2 were their immediate predecessors, but U2 was on hiatus during the Morning Glory era and REM had already peaked in popularity. Nirvana was gone, Pearl Jam was intentionally retreating from their successes, and there really weren't any other American bands standing out above all the others in the immediate post-Grunge years.

So enter Oasis, who wasn't the biggest band in America, but pulled one ubiquitous smash hit in the States and were able to have two almost-as-popular follow-up singles off that record. They were the only one of those bands to really break the States at all, and they were absolutely massive everywhere else in the world, in a way no one else really was at that moment. They may go down as the last real rock band to achieve that kind of worldwide success, to be honest.

 

NO.

 

If you count the Spice Girls they seemed to have the biggest group worldwide success with Spice in the mid 90s.

Spice:

• WW: 31,000,000[4][5]
• UK: 2,928,739[30]
• US: 7,453,000[31]
• FRA: 1,074,800[32]

Morning Glory:

• World: 22,400,000[11]
• UK: 4,700,000[34]
• US: 4,000,000[35]