In my forthcoming Lean Media book, I talk a lot about the digital-driven convulsions of traditional, 20th century media. Some sectors of the media industry have had it worse than others, though, such as newspapers and recorded music. This post will look at one data point from the music industry that illustrates how much things have changed in recent years.
The chart below shows RIAA-certified diamond music albums from 1955 through 2015. You are probably familiar with gold-certified albums (500,000 units sold) and platinum (1 million units sold). The RIAA diamond certification represents 10 million albums sold in the United States. In other words, diamonds are monster hit records like Thriller and Hotel California.
I built the chart using a list of diamond albums that Billboard ranked, which excludes most greatest hits compilations, soundtracks, and live albums unless they contain mostly new material (such as the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack). Here’s what the RIAA diamond distribution looks like:
So what happened? In the late 50s there was a single diamond album — Elvis Presley’s Elvis’ Christmas Album — but then a long drought until the late 60s. At the time, low-cost singles ruled the U.S. album charts, and young people weren’t as interested in full-length LP (“long play”) records. It wasn’t until the Beatles and other rock bands expanded the idea of conceptual or themed albums that sales began to take off. Young members of the Baby Boomer generation had more money. As they entered the workforce they invested in larger home stereo systems, and bought more albums. “Generation X” (those born from 1965 to 1980) followed a similar pattern.
Diamond albums were released nearly every year from 1967 until the early 2000s, with a big spike in the mid to late 90s. The 90s was an especially profitable era for the music industry, which leveraged music videos, new digital technologies (including compact discs) and point-of-sale data to groom hit-makers and produce a slew of global hits. For each diamond album that was certified, you can assume there were scores of platinum and gold albums that were released in the same year.
And then sales plummeted. From 2005-2010 there were no diamond albums. You can thank Steve Jobs, Internet-connected PCs, and changing consumer tastes for this. Apple’s iPod ecosystem let people buy only the songs they wanted instead of the entire album. Many turned to their PCs to manage their song collections, and to the Internet to discover (and share) new music. Mobile phones and streaming music have only accelerated that trend. In the meantime, CD players have been disconnected, and music videos are now considered second-tier marketing tools. Now, the only recording artists who can hope to get RIAA-certified diamond status are the biggest global superstars. Adele managed this feat in 2011 with 21 and in 2015 with 25.
Below you can see the list of albums as well as the year they were released and the number of platinum certifications (that is, “15” means 15 million albums sold in all). I’ve removed Billboard’s quality ranking for the 88 on the list, but check out how Billboard ranked them as well as the contextual blurbs about each album.
| Artist(s) | Album Name | Year Released | Platinum certifications |
| Elvis Presley | Elvis’ Christmas Album | 1957 | 10 |
| The Beatles | Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band | 1967 | 11 |
| The Beatles | The White Album) | 1968 | 19 |
| Led Zeppelin | Led Zeppelin I | 1969 | 10 |
| Led Zeppelin | Led Zeppelin II | 1969 | 12 |
| The Beatles | Abbey Road | 1969 | 12 |
| Carole King | Tapestry | 1971 | 10 |
| Led Zeppelin | Led Zeppelin IV | 1971 | 23 |
| Pink Floyd | Dark Side of the Moon | 1972 | 15 |
| Led Zeppelin | Houses of the Holy | 1973 | 11 |
| Led Zeppelin | Physical Graffiti | 1975 | 16 |
| Eagles | Hotel California | 1976 | 16 |
| Boston | Boston | 1976 | 17 |
| Stevie Wonder | Songs in the Key of Life | 1976 | 10 |
| Meat Loaf | Bat Out of Hell | 1977 | 14 |
| Billy Joel | The Stranger | 1977 | 10 |
| Fleetwood Mac | Rumours | 1977 | 20 |
| Various Artists | Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack | 1977 | 15 |
| Van Halen | Van Halen | 1978 | 10 |
| Pink Floyd | The Wall | 1979 | 23 |
| AC/DC | Back in Black | 1980 | 22 |
| Michael Jackson | Thriller | 1982 | 32 |
| Def Leppard | Pyromania | 1983 | 10 |
| Lionel Richie | Can’t Slow Down | 1983 | 10 |
| ZZ Top | Eliminator | 1983 | 10 |
| Van Halen | 1984 | 1984 | 10 |
| Bruce Springsteen | Born in the USA | 1984 | 15 |
| Madonna | Like a Virgin | 1984 | 10 |
| Prince | Purple Rain | 1984 | 13 |
| Phil Collins | No Jacket Required | 1985 | 12 |
| Whitney Houston | Whitney Houston | 1985 | 13 |
| Bon Jovi | Slippery When Wet | 1986 | 12 |
| Beastie Boys | Licensed to Ill | 1986 | 10 |
| Various Artists | Dirty Dancing Soundtrack | 1987 | 11 |
| Def Leppard | Hysteria | 1987 | 12 |
| George Michael | Faith | 1987 | 10 |
| U2 | The Joshua Tree | 1987 | 10 |
| Guns N’ Roses | Appetite for Destruction | 1988 | 18 |
| Garth Brooks | Garth Brooks | 1989 | 10 |
| Hammer | Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em | 1990 | 10 |
| Garth Brooks | No Fences | 1990 | 17 |
| Garth Brooks | Ropin’ the Wind | 1991 | 14 |
| Pearl Jam | Ten | 1991 | 13 |
| Metallica | The Black Album) | 1991 | 16 |
| Nirvana | Nevermind | 1991 | 10 |
| Kenny G | Breathless | 1992 | 12 |
| Various Artists | The Bodyguard Soundtrack | 1992 | 17 |
| Mariah Carey | Music Box | 1993 | 10 |
| Hootie and the Blowfish | Cracked Rear View | 1994 | 16 |
| Boyz II Men | II | 1994 | 12 |
| Various Artists | The Lion King Soundtrack | 1994 | 10 |
| Shania Twain | The Woman In Me | 1994 | 12 |
| Green Day | Dookie | 1994 | 10 |
| Mariah Carey | Daydream | 1995 | 10 |
| Alanis Morissette | Jagged Little Pill | 1995 | 16 |
| Smashing Pumpkins | Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness | 1995 | 10 |
| TLC | CrazySexyCool | 1995 | 11 |
| Matchbox 20 | Yourself or Someone Like You | 1996 | 12 |
| Celine Dion | Falling Into You | 1996 | 11 |
| No Doubt | Tragic Kingdom | 1996 | 10 |
| 2Pac | All Eyez on Me | 1996 | 10 |
| Garth Brooks | Sevens | 1997 | 10 |
| Various Artists | Titanic Soundtrack | 1997 | 11 |
| Celine Dion | Let’s Talk About Love | 1997 | 10 |
| Backstreet Boys | Backstreet Boys | 1997 | 14 |
| Jewel | Pieces of You | 1997 | 12 |
| Notorious B.I.G. | Life After Death | 1997 | 10 |
| Shania Twain | Come On Over | 1997 | 20 |
| *NSYNC | ‘N Sync | 1998 | 10 |
| Dixie Chicks | Wide Open Spaces | 1998 | 12 |
| Creed | Human Clay | 1999 | 11 |
| Santana | Supernatural | 1999 | 15 |
| Britney Spears | …Baby One More Time | 1999 | 14 |
| Backstreet Boys | Millennium | 1999 | 13 |
| Kid Rock | Devil Without a Cause | 1999 | 11 |
| Dixie Chicks | Fly | 1999 | 10 |
| Britney Spears | Oops! I Did It Again | 2000 | 10 |
| *NSYNC | No Strings Attached | 2000 | 11 |
| Linkin Park | Hybrid Theory | 2000 | 10 |
| Nelly | Country Grammar | 2000 | 10 |
| Eminem | The Marshall Mathers LP | 2000 | 10 |
| Shania Twain | Up! | 2002 | 11 |
| Norah Jones | Come Away With Me | 2002 | 10 |
| Eminem | The Eminem Show | 2002 | 10 |
| OutKast | Speakerboxxx/The Love Below | 2003 | 11 |
| Usher | Confessions | 2004 | 10 |
| Adele | 21 | 2011 | 14 |
| Adele | 25 | 2015 | 10 |