Interestingly enough, The Eminem Show has more streams on Spotify than 21, despite releasing 9 years earlier

You named a bunch of big ass young people albums lowkey

Young people are who determines what is popular

You said he’s the actual Adele. If someone doesn’t have a 21 that can’t be said about them point blank. There’s no more nuance to that tbh

Man you know what I mean especially in comparison to what 21/Thriller/Rumours/SNF are

PIGDELE GOT BLOWN THE F*** OUT

I just really don’t see how you’re putting 21 there and leaving out other albums

Like yes on paper it is the best selling album of the 21st Century

But a Norah Jones album is #4 of the century and nobody in here even knows what it’s called

No one can name a single song from The Fame outside of the first 4 tracks.

ANTI is a millennial/Gen Z album. I doubt older people know about it. And I still think of Good Girl Gone Bad as her biggest album.

There is one album listed that is the male counterpart to 21, tho... both were huge at the same time. That one album, I agree. What do they have a common? Massive appeal to older audiences.

Doo Wops & Hooligans has one Double Diamond Diamond song, another at 16x Platinum, and one more at Diamond

Rolling in the Deep
Someone Like You

Already two of the most prolific crossover hits of the century. Then add in the all ages and all nationalities appeal of them. Then add the level of cultural and academic reverence they has. Then add the specialty of Adele’s performances

There’s no other megahits that are operating on that level this century apart from a handful. That’s Billie Jean/Staylin Alive/Dreams type s***, like don’t tell me California Gurls is one of those songs

Can anyone in here name one non-single off 21 without looking it up?

Like what are we doing here? Majority of massively popular albums are carried by the popularity of their singles

On Spotify, the three singles on 21 have 2B+ each, and the rest of the tracks all have less than 500K streams

21 itself as an album performed like this on top of just having Rolling in the Deep and Someone Like You

Turning Tables
Don't You Remember
He Won't Go

But it would not have performed anywhere close to what it did without those singles, the same is true of literally any pop album ever. Thriller would not be the best-selling album of all-time without Billie Jean, Beat It, PYT, etc.

What are we doing here?

And I could do the same for any of the albums I mentioned, but the majority of people will only know the popular songs obviously. It’s a moot point

This is getting into semantics territory and doesn’t refute the actual point I’m making about 21 being alone for that level this century tbh

Not really. You’re propelling 21 up because of the strength of its’ singles while ignoring numerous other 21st Century albums with singles that were just as successful

What does that have to do with me saying it’s on that level? I’m not making a point about if it “would have performed anywhere close because of XYZ”

You said “it performed like this on top of just having the singles”

You’re not realizing that it only performed like that BECAUSE of those singles (as is the case for any massively popular album ever)

Well, that's the album I was talking about.

DW&H is the male 21.

Lowkey the biggest pop album of the century (i'm not talking about total album sales, kasich2028!).

All those artists I named? That’s me acknowledging all the other huge albums with huge singles. I wouldn’t have named them if I was ignorant to that or didn’t acknowledge them

But that’s not enough, and having a bunch of huge singles alone is not enough to be on that level I’m talking about. I’m not about say Divide or Scorpion are up there, I’m not about to say Loud is up there, I’m not about to say Teenage Dream is up there; all albums with a higher # of hits. And yeah Rolling in the Deep and Someone Like You are two songs, but back to my previous post in their qualities - those are two songs worth four normal huge singles

TheFader has a habit of keep on arguing because he doesn’t know that the point you’ve just commented totally ended the first point he brought up and hence the whole discussion. He goes on about something much less important in your second point instead.

And there’s something else that needs to be mentioned: 21 is on that level because the WHOLE ALBUM - regardless of singles - is notably a great album alongside the S tier commercial and cultural and academic cache it has for EVERYONE

Again that’s rare air. That’s Thriller/Rumours/SNF

You wouldn’t know what an argument-ending point was if it slapped you in the face