Country Dominates RIAA Certifications
The Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA) January and February Gold and Platinum reports show that, relative to other formats, country music is going strong. Capitol Nashville’s Lady Antebellum’s sophomore album Need You Now was certified Platinum in just one month this winter, with legions of fans lining up to bring the power trio their second RIAA Platinum album award. In addition, the album’s title track, “Need You Now,” went 2x multi-Platinum.
Big Machine superstar Taylor Swift scored the highest Gold & Platinum album certification of any artist in January and February. Swift earned the top spot when her Album of the Year Grammy-winning Fearless certified 6x multi-Platinum in February. Her song “Today Was A Fairytale” from the Valentine’s Day soundtrack went Gold in less than a month, totaling more than 500,000 downloads sold since its January release.
Arista Nashville’s Carrie Underwood racked up several winter accolades. She not only scored a 3x multi-Platinum album award for Carnival Ride but also Gold and Platinum album awards for her latest release, Play On. With Play On Underwood continues a winning streak that has seen all three of her albums certified Platinum or higher.
Other albums taking Platinum plaques in January and February included Norah Jones’ The Fall, Lady Gaga’s The Fame Monster, Daughtry’s Leave This Town, Rihanna’s Rated R, Alicia Keys’ The Element of Freedom and Justin Bieber’s My World.
Another country standout was Capitol Nashville’s Luke Bryan, who received his first Gold song awards for his single, “Do I.”
Country veteran Alan Jackson earned his 15th career Platinum award for Good Time in February. Jackson’s career album sales have reached 43 million since the release of his debut, Here in the Real World in 1990.
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Country Music is going strong? Is it really? How is country music doing compared to R&B and Hip-Hop?