# Top 10 selling rock albums in Canada



## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

Does anyone see anything very interesting in these current top 10 selling rock albums in Canada? What does this mean for Rock and Roll?

1) Bon Jovi - Greatest Hits
2) Queen - Absolute Greatest Hits
3) Cage the Elephant - Thank you happy birthday
4) Nickelback - Dark Horse
5) Linkin Park - Thousand Suns
6) Led Zeppelin - Mothership (Compilation)
7) Red Hot Chili Peppers - Greatest Hits
8) Foo Fighters - Greatest Hits
9) Avenged Sevenfold - Nightmare
10) Disturbed - Asylum

The top selling albums in Canada compiled from a national sample of retail store and mass merchants' reports collected, compiled, and provided by Nielsen SoundScan.


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

I bought Cage (#3) earlier this week but haven't listened to it yet. LOL @ all the legacy acts. Couldn't tell you if Linkin, Avenged, and Disturbed are old or new, zero interest, though my son is a big Avenged fan and could tell me if I wanted to know.


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

I find it very interesting that including the Zep album (which is basically another greatest hits) that 5 out of the 10 are greatest hits albums. Where is the new music?


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## traynor_garnet (Feb 22, 2006)

It tells me that young people don't buy CDs anymore and that we are seeing an "age effect" at work in the cited data. People in their 30s and above are more likely to go to a store and buy a physical cd. They are also more likely to buy music they "know."

This has nothing to do with "old music" being better than "new music." There is a ton of great new music out there.

Signed, a guy over 30 , who buys cds, but also buys NEW music on cd (ie. an "outlier")

TG


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

traynor_garnet said:


> It tells me that young people don't buy CDs anymore and that we are seeing an "age effect" at work in the cited data. People in their 30s and above are more likely to go to a store and buy a physical cd. They are also more likely to buy music they "know."
> 
> This has nothing to do with "old music" being better than "new music." There is a ton of great new music out there.
> 
> ...


I guess your right. It makes sense. So it is further evidence of the slow death of music stores


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## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

Yeah. I noticed the same thing a while back on another top 10 list - and admittedly, the 3 albums that I would consider buying on this list are all greatest hits collections.

It seems to me that a lot of new bands are returning to fostering a regional fan base, which I think is a good thing, but it means that we listeners have to do a little more work to find bands that we like.


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## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

Yesterday, on The Gear Page, I apologized on behalf of all Canadians, for the existence of Nickeback.


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## John Watt (Aug 24, 2010)

Maybe your definition of rock isn't fresh enough, this list just being old.
Is a band using loud distorted guitars, amplified bass and drums, a rock band?
That's all it took to be one when that equipment first came out.
But now Christian rock bands are sounding like that, in churches.
I'd call them rock bands.
Even Celine Dion uses the most modern state of the art recording technology,
and rock musicians, for her songs, so even if you don't like her, she's still rock.
At least she can beat her chest onstage without inducing a coke-stoke heart attack,
like most middle-aged rockers, so she might even be more agressive rock too.

I'm still waiting for another raggae hit from a wonderful raggae band, from Sweden.
That way I don't have to learn all the raggae bands in Toronto to decide what is real here.

Robert1950!
The Gear Page? It looks like you go there so others can give you the gears, if you have to apologize for Nickelback,
one of the biggest bands in the world right now. Cork-sniffer!
You probably were really looking forward to playing with "Jimi's Package".


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## bagpipe (Sep 19, 2006)

Did you apologize for Justin Bieber too, or was that implied ?



Robert1950 said:


> Yesterday, on The Gear Page, I apologized on behalf of all Canadians, for the existence of Nickeback.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

traynor_garnet said:


> It tells me that young people don't buy CDs anymore and that we are seeing an "age effect" at work in the cited data. People in their 30s and above are more likely to go to a store and buy a physical cd. They are also more likely to buy music they "know."
> 
> This has nothing to do with "old music" being better than "new music." There is a ton of great new music out there.
> 
> ...


An excellent observation. Were recorded music available in only one medium (such as it was when vinyl was king), then sales of that medium would tell an accurate story. At this point, music is obtainable in so many ways, that any sales figures for a particular medium really tells you more about who prefers/accepts that medium, than about what sorts of artists rank higher or lower among all listeners, generally speaking.

I guess it's a bit like gauging popularity by 8-track sales in 1981.


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## corsair64 (Jan 9, 2011)

What I see is a massive lack of Canadian talent in this list.... I like some of it but as Canadian content goes, we're coming up short... again....


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## 4345567 (Jun 26, 2008)

__________


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## Accept2 (Jan 1, 2006)

Actually its has been accurately shown that the video game industry has killed the music industry. It started about 10 years ago, and it has really steam rolled it over. Music execs are all in denial, but facts are facts..........


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

mhammer said:


> An excellent observation. Were recorded music available in only one medium (such as it was when vinyl was king), then sales of that medium would tell an accurate story. At this point, music is obtainable in so many ways, that any sales figures for a particular medium really tells you more about who prefers/accepts that medium, than about what sorts of artists rank higher or lower among all listeners, generally speaking.
> 
> I guess it's a bit like gauging popularity by 8-track sales in 1981.


So basically we can say that this shows us what is being purchased by those dregs of society that have not yet figured out how to use a computer or have never heard of an iPod or similar device. Which would clearly point out that those few dregs left are not listening to much of anything that was not recorded at least 15 years ago. After you put in the filters that have been pointed out here that is what the data is showing.


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## Stratin2traynor (Sep 27, 2006)

My guess is that there are more older gens paying for their music than newer gens.


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## cheezyridr (Jun 8, 2009)

corsair64 said:


> What I see is a massive lack of Canadian talent in this list.... I like some of it but as Canadian content goes, we're coming up short... again....


canadia has produced some of the most awesome bands in history. however, wether anyone agrees with me or not the list tells me that whoever is buying the records on that list has very little taste in music, and is really only looking for backround noise to kill the silence they are afraid of.

1) Bon Jovi - Greatest Hits wrote one good song, and is from new jersey. born in suckville usa, and is now the mayor.

2) Queen - Absolute Greatest Hits one of the greats, but also overplayed by the radio, ignoring some really good material, while playing bohemian rapsody and fat bottom girls continuously.

3) Cage the Elephant - Thank you happy birthday  never heard of these guys. i'll look into them, but if i haven't heard of them, how good can they really be?

4) Nickelback - Dark Horse please...if anyone could cram more suck into anything, i'd be surprised.

5) Linkin Park - Thousand Suns ok, well, these guys are equal to the above in suck. 

6) Led Zeppelin - Mothership (Compilation) a great band that's been overplayed so much that only pink floyd has been more overplayed than them. so much great music they've done that is completely ignored by the radio pukes. 

7) Red Hot Chili Peppers - Greatest Hits these guys made 1 great album, and one good one. after that the suck factor became so huge it could barely be contained. 
flea is the most over rated bass player in the history of the world, rivaled only by mcartney.

8) Foo Fighters - Greatest Hits i really like dave grohl, but i don't like foo fighters much

9) Avenged Sevenfold - Nightmare  meh, mediocrity abounds

10) Disturbed - Asylum one trick pony. had potential but squandered all credibility by going "ooohhh wah-ah-ah-ah" way WAY to much.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

GuitarsCanada said:


> So basically we can say that this shows us what is being purchased by those dregs of society that have not yet figured out how to use a computer or have never heard of an iPod or similar device. Which would clearly point out that those few dregs left are not listening to much of anything that was not recorded at least 15 years ago. After you put in the filters that have been pointed out here that is what the data is showing.


I wouldn't say that. I would imagine that hard core jazz fans, whose taste and knowledge exceeds that of the average iTunes downloader, are likely to get much of their music by buying CDs, simply because it lends itself to that medium. Should someone be taken to task for having an interest in music that is older than 10, 20, 40 years old? I think not.

I think one also has to be at least a little suspicious of what the list-makers classify as "rock". There may be stuff you hold in esteem that the list-makers have called something else, like "alternative", or "indie", or "hard rock". or AOR, or whatever.


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

mhammer said:


> I wouldn't say that. I would imagine that hard core jazz fans, whose taste and knowledge exceeds that of the average iTunes downloader, are likely to get much of their music by buying CDs, simply because it lends itself to that medium. Should someone be taken to task for having an interest in music that is older than 10, 20, 40 years old? I think not.
> 
> I think one also has to be at least a little suspicious of what the list-makers classify as "rock". There may be stuff you hold in esteem that the list-makers have called something else, like "alternative", or "indie", or "hard rock". or AOR, or whatever.


I think you have to acknowledge the fact that kids today do not go to the record store. My two have not been in a record store since I used to take them when they were 10 years old. They are 25 and 23 now. They simply do not go to record stores for any reason. Marnie's kids are 15 and 17 and as long as I have known them they have never been in a record store. DVD store yes, record store? Never. They do however both have iPods with about 10,000 songs on them. In fact, neither of them have a cd player nor as far as I know own a CD. So there is clearly a shift. Who is buying these cd's? Its not the kids.


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## WarrenG (Feb 3, 2006)

cheezyridr said:


> 3) Cage the Elephant - Thank you happy birthday  never heard of these guys. i'll look into them, but if i haven't heard of them, how good can they really be?
> 
> 4) Nickelback - Dark Horse please...if anyone could cram more suck into anything, i'd be surprised.


Number 3 sounds like White Stripes to me.

Number 4's a guilty pleasure... along with Jennifer Love Hewitt.


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## v-verb (Mar 29, 2007)

My fave music store Sunrise Records in the Oshawa shopping Centre closed a couple of weeks ago. Very bummed about it. Many more to close I fear...


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## keeperofthegood (Apr 30, 2008)

cheezyridr said:


> flea is the most over rated bass player in the history of the world, rivaled only by mcartney.


I was not aware that mcarney played an instrument :O never paid that much attention to him.



GuitarsCanada said:


> I guess your right. It makes sense. So it is further evidence of the slow death of music stores


The very last music store CD I purchased was Dead Can Dance Spiritchaser when it was released in 1996!!

Since then, I have P2P downloaded it (as my son DESTROYED every single CD I owned); used it on comp, reburned it used it on a CD player, reburnt it again and used it on my DVD player, and now, when I want, I just youtube it. It is there, it goes away, it comes back its just like a radio only I dont flip stations when the tampon commercials come on.

[video=youtube;-GRl0Kk9YAE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GRl0Kk9YAE[/video]


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

GuitarsCanada said:


> I think you have to acknowledge the fact that kids today do not go to the record store. My two have not been in a record store since I used to take them when they were 10 years old. They are 25 and 23 now. They simply do not go to record stores for any reason. Marnie's kids are 15 and 17 and as long as I have known them they have never been in a record store. DVD store yes, record store? Never. They do however both have iPods with about 10,000 songs on them. In fact, neither of them have a cd player nor as far as I know own a CD. So there is clearly a shift. Who is buying these cd's? Its not the kids.


The better music stores in Ottawa (i.e., not HMV) tend to have mostly folks over 35 browsing when you walk into them.


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## prodigal_son (Apr 23, 2009)

What does this all mean? It means that good rock bands still sell CD's. It also means that the dominant media is certainly not the CD. It should be pretty safe to assume that the downloadable music file is winning. I would be curious to see the Canadian top 10 vinyl LP rock genre sales. Let's face it folks, the microchip has destroyed the music industry as we once knew it.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

I buy CD's, mostly at shows. I need to start ordering them online as I can never find what I want - and it's not that obscure either.

I don't really care what the top 10 is, I'm gonna listen to what I dig 

... I suppose that doesn't contribute much to this thread, does it?


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## Chubba (Aug 23, 2009)

"born in suckville usa, and is now the mayor." 

Awesome! thank you for that...lol 

I still buy CDs of bands that I like, (and not much of the music i ever liked would show up on the top 10) - i know they'll disappear, but i find them more manageable than 1000s of files on my mp3 player...actually i don't even have an MP3, but I use my wife's sometimes...


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