There’s nothing particularly shocking about saying that Adele was the pop artist of 2011.
DETAILS: Rolling In The Dough: Adele Is The Biggest Selling Artist Of The Year
One of the realest quotes Jay-Z ever said is “men lie, women lie, numbers don’t.”
And trust, you can’t make up the stat-line Adele and her sophomore album 21 has accumulated in 2011: 45 weeks on the charts, 14 weeks with the number one album, 5.68 million records sold, two number one singles and $18 million dollars pocketed.
Those are Michael-in-his-prime-numbers right there (anyone: Tyson, Jordan, Jackson.)
DETAILS: Adele’s “Rolling In The Deep” Is The Best Selling Digital Song Of All Time!
With all that being said, though, Adele’s dominance has to feel a little bit surprising, no?
The British singer’s first album, 19, which was released back in 2008, was relatively successful over here in the States, selling over 900,000 copies in its first run (it has sold considerably more since the success of 21). However, it wasn’t the super duper smash her sophomore album would eventually be.
So what changed in that short little span in the United States where Adele went from a niche British singer to running this music sh*t?
*Shrugs* I don’t know.
I mean, I know —“Rolling in the Deep,” “Someone Like You” and, to a lesser extent, “Set Fire to the Rain” were three of the biggest songs of the year.
But I just don’t understand why they were able to connect so well.
The three soulful singles are so different from the European influenced pop sound that runs Top-40 (Because that transition from LMFAO’s “Sexy & I Know It” to “Someone Like You” doesn’t sound awkward at all.)
I might not fully understand Adele’s crazy success, but it does give me hope.
You see, Adele pulled in this crazy, dominant year, really, on her own talent and merits. Remember: Adele doesn’t have the sex appeal of a Rihanna (I love you, boo <3), the shock value of a Lady Gaga, the cool factor of a Justin Bieber, or even the attitude of a Katy Perry or Ke$ha.
Naaah. She’s just this meek British girl who got her heart broken by some dude. And, oh yeah, she can f*cking sing her a*s off.
Adele’s accomplishments give me hope that real, individual and unique talent can not just be successful in a douchy-coffeehouse-loving-hipster kind of way, but also in a reach-the-masses-reign-supreme-on-top-40-and-break-some-album-sale-records kind of way.
It’s still kind of amazing to me. In a year where Lil Wayne released his highly anticipated post-prison album, where Rihanna might have reached her pop music-nadir, where Beyonce yelled out about ruling the world and where Jay-Z and Kanye West collaborated for one of the loudest rap albums in years, it was Adele’s smoky, heartbreaking voice who was the loudest of them all.
Nobody was fu*king with Adele in 2011, son.
–D.S.
