Eminem Named Best Selling Artist Of The Decade Over The Beatles!!

He may have kept a low profile ever since he developed a problem with illegal substances and he also started focusing more on producing than recording music but, when one draws the line, rapper Eminem remains the best selling artist of the decade, USA Today informs, citing figures recently unveiled. Surprisingly enough, Em even managed to surpass The Beatles in terms of albums moved, thus securing for himself a place in music history.

Nielsen SoundScan just unveiled the numbers for albums sold these past 10 years and, to many people’s surprise, they have Eminem as the best selling artist of the period with no less than 32.2 million copies sold in total. Granted, these numbers would not have been possible without the hits “The Marshall Mathers LP” and subsequent “The Eminem Show,” both albums being landmarks of the decade in terms of items sold.

“The rapper emerges as the top-selling artist of the past 10 years, and the Fab Four have bragging rights to the best-selling album. With 32.2 million copies sold, Eminem leads the pack in overall album sales, followed by The Beatles with 30 million, according to Nielsen SoundScan, which releases its decade tabulations today. Data were tallied through Nov. 1, and though figures could rise through Dec. 31, they won’t alter the rankings,” USA Today says of the chart.
“An early and roaring start paid off for The Beatles and ‘N Sync. Released Nov. 13, 2000, “1” sold 595,000 its first week, 662,000 the next and 1.3 million during Christmas week. It spent eight weeks atop the chart. “No Strings,” issued March 21, 2000, sold 2.4 million its first seven days, the biggest week in SoundScan history. ‘When you get toward 11 million units, it has to be more than early momentum,’ says Eric Weinberg, president of Nielsen Entertainment. ‘It needs to be good. What’s amazing about this industry is that we really never know what the numbers are going to be’,” USA Today further says of how The Beatles’ “1” and ‘N Sync’s “No Strings” became such huge sellers.

Aside from Eminem, The Beatles and ‘N Sync, other prominent musical figures of the decade include rapper Nelly, whose “Country Grammar” ranks in at number 10 in terms of sales (8.5 million copies) and Norah Jones, whose debut “Come Away with Me” lands in at number 3 with an impressive 10.5 million items moved.