Although sales of pop music in Australia continue to be erodedby illegal downloading, a couple of acts managed to generateblockbuster sales in 2008.
The biggest-selling album in Australia last year, according tocharts released yesterday by ARIA, was Kings of Leon's Only ByThe Night. The American rockers sold 422,108 copies of thealbum, outselling pop queen Pink's Funhouse by just over3000 copies.
Kings of Leon and Pink had sold-out arena tours in the firsthalf of 2008 and have been neck-and-neck at the top of the ARIAcharts for the past two months.
Only two Australian acts made the top 10 albums chart: AC/DC(No.3) and Sydney duo The Presets (No.5). AC/DC sold 306,107 copiesof their album Black Ice in Australia. In the US, the albumwas the fifth-biggest seller of the year, shifting over 2 millioncopies.
Of the top 100 albums of the year, 23 were Australian. Stronglocal performers included Gabriella Cilmi (No.13), the Veronicas(No.17) and Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu (No.21) who sold 63,554copies of his album Gurrumul since September.
The end-of-year ARIA charts are based not on exact salesfigures, merely on chart positioning. For example, the albumUnessential Listening by comedic duo Hamish & Andy hassold 78,664 copies, yet charted one position lower thanGurrumul, owing to the fact the latter had charted higherand for longer during the year.
Other local acts which featured on the chart included PeteMurray (No.26), Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson (No.31), DamienLeith (No.41), The Living End (No.45), David Campbell (No.51),Angus and Julia Stone (No.60), Vanessa Amorosi (No. 69), DeltaGoodrem (No.72), John Butler (No.73), The Whitlams (No.84), Empireof the Sun (No.88) and Paul Kelly (No.100).
Andre Rieu had three titles in the top 100, including hisLive In Australia CD/DVD, which sold 242,675 copies. Rieuwas easily the biggest-selling music DVD artist of the year.
He held positions one to six on the chart, as well as seventitles in the top 10 and 21 in the top 100.
THE TOP 10
1 Only By The Night - Kings of Leon
2 Funhouse - Pink
3 Black Ice - AC/DC
4 Viva La Vida - Coldplay
5 Apocalypso - The Presets
6 Mamma Mia! - Soundtrack
7 Exclusive - Chris Brown
8 Death Magnetic - Metallica
9 Good Girl Gone Bad - Rihanna
10 We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things - Jason Mraz
Source: Australian Recording Industry Association