Yep, you read correctly. Bob Marley's thirty year old greatest hits collection, Legend, sits in the top ten both sides of the Atlantic.
"How?" I hear you ask. Well, that's mainly down to Google Play selling the album for 99¢ in US. Not sure what happen but I'm guessing 99p in England? "Oh, that's obvious then," well, kinda but not really. Two questions I ask, why Bob Marley's album and why now? Is it the "Rude" effect?
"We love to celebrate artists like Bob Marley whose music is timeless and beloved," says Google Play head of global music partner management Gwen Shen. "Our hope is that this promotion ... will introduce his music to the next generation of fans and continue his legacy."
For the record (pun intended), the set already peaked at #29 over here in the UK without any such promotion and has spent the last couple months in the top 75 (as it does every April to Sept/Oct when big guns come out). It is the 5th longest running album in the UK chart of all time. This is an album that costs £7.99 on UK iTunes. Most albums over 3 months old are lucky to be £5.99.
It also averages at around "3,000 and 5,000 copies per week, and has sold 11.6 million copies in the United States since 1991, when Nielsen SoundScan started tracking sales."
Bob Marley's legacy is one of, if not the strongest of any recording artist worldwide. His impact on music, life and culture is unrivalled. People across the world are inspired by the messages in his music to this day. Look at the amount of people wearing dreadlocks (whether their hair is made for it or not), even if they don't sight Rastafari, they're all aware of Bob Marley. And there isn't anybody in the world who listens to reggae and isn't familiar with Bob Marley. And reggae is a worldwide thing.
All of this from an artist who came from the ghettoes in Jamaica without assistance of mainstream media telling you it is what you need, or constantly reminding you of his legend like they do for rock and soul peers.
Source for UK album chart position
"How?" I hear you ask. Well, that's mainly down to Google Play selling the album for 99¢ in US. Not sure what happen but I'm guessing 99p in England? "Oh, that's obvious then," well, kinda but not really. Two questions I ask, why Bob Marley's album and why now? Is it the "Rude" effect?
"We love to celebrate artists like Bob Marley whose music is timeless and beloved," says Google Play head of global music partner management Gwen Shen. "Our hope is that this promotion ... will introduce his music to the next generation of fans and continue his legacy."
For the record (pun intended), the set already peaked at #29 over here in the UK without any such promotion and has spent the last couple months in the top 75 (as it does every April to Sept/Oct when big guns come out). It is the 5th longest running album in the UK chart of all time. This is an album that costs £7.99 on UK iTunes. Most albums over 3 months old are lucky to be £5.99.
It also averages at around "3,000 and 5,000 copies per week, and has sold 11.6 million copies in the United States since 1991, when Nielsen SoundScan started tracking sales."
Bob Marley's legacy is one of, if not the strongest of any recording artist worldwide. His impact on music, life and culture is unrivalled. People across the world are inspired by the messages in his music to this day. Look at the amount of people wearing dreadlocks (whether their hair is made for it or not), even if they don't sight Rastafari, they're all aware of Bob Marley. And there isn't anybody in the world who listens to reggae and isn't familiar with Bob Marley. And reggae is a worldwide thing.
All of this from an artist who came from the ghettoes in Jamaica without assistance of mainstream media telling you it is what you need, or constantly reminding you of his legend like they do for rock and soul peers.
Source for UK album chart position
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