Music

Best of British

16 January 2015

By Lauren E. White

For the first time in history, British acts have filled the top 10 best-selling artist albums in 2014 according to figures from the Official Charts Company.

US artists have been knocked off the list for the first time ever thanks to the likes of One Direction, Ed Sheeran, George Ezra and seven more fantastic home-grown talents. Of course, it is not just the artists themselves who are making the British charts actually British, it is the rising number of music streaming that has pushed UK sales to more than £1 billion – almost double the number of streams in 2013.

It is Sheeran’s X that has stole the show as it was the most popular album of 2014, selling 1.7 million copies – the biggest one-year total since Adele’s chart-topping 21 back in 2011. It is the tenth consecutive year that the biggest-selling artist album has come from a British act and the second largest-selling album was the new God of heartbreak, Sam Smith’s In the Lonely Hour.

With 2015 being the supposed return of Adele, it will be a very difficult year for artists releasing music as her album is anticipated to be the biggest in a long time. However, it has been confirmed that the biggest band on the planet, One Direction, are set to release a new record by Christmas as well as a new Madonna album. Whatever the outcome, we’re hoping for another fantastic year of music that is hopefully dominated by us Brits… sorry, Madge!

 

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