Justdid some checking and it seems that Madonna and Iron Maiden are close but difficult to substantiate because the previous counting methods favor acts who get tracked religiously through big chain sellers. Maiden wasn't sold at these respectable places and the record companies weren't out to see their investments pay off with them because they didn't invest in them as they did with Madonna (or MJ). BUT something called the Novella award in England was given to Maiden in 2002 for reaching 80 million and according to a site called "absolute Madonna" her total sales stand currently at 120-130 million. I'd give the edge here to Maiden and like I said, Madonna or Michael Jackson fans never believe! Now gimme my money!
And taking my thread back some more! So when Cliff Burton died, anyone who wasn't a Metallica fan never heard about it and if they did, thought it must have been a shitty little band since there wasn't any coverage of it. A couple years later, Gloria Estefan gets injured in a car wreck and wow, she is so huge and all the world cares Of course NOW it would be a big deal if a member of Metallica died but back then, the industry HATED acts that were huge without their marketing, and that album that year destroyed with little airplay and no video (mtv was long done with metal and metallica didn't expect it would help them much to do them). that record was Master of Puppets and there won't be another time like that to compare anything else to what that thing did.
Oh I see how we doin' it now....It's On!!! Not that it really matters, but 120-130 million is still 40-50 million more than 80 million and unless you just suppose there are 40-50 million unaccounted for sales somehow (what about pop acts having unaccounted for sales?)...... How in the name of all that's sweet and sticky do I owe you money??? I'm goin' with: Sounds like you ran into figures from actual record stores and chains......you know.....the places where most people bought records back then.......LOL!!! It's not like they didn't keep track of metal act's sales just because there wasn't a sign out front or a life-sized cutout of them in the store. And hatin' on the lack of investment is a cop-out too homie. It's not like not getting played on MTV those first few years didn't stop a bunch of black artists from having bigger sales too......so this isn't just about marketing either. Metal had to fight for respectability...no doubt, but that fight didn't include a racial stigma to get around.....so let's keep it real on this! When CBS has to threaten to pull every other act to get something by a black artist as benign as Billie Jean played on MTV...it's not like you can say the entire musical establishment just handed over support to every pop act. You might want to recalibrate on this one homie......cause you're acknowledgement (read that to mean bitterness....LOL!!!) of the way some pop acts were handled/viewed vs. metal acts just kinda means: You're too close man!!!.....LOL!!! I like how you didn't include Mike's numbers in the above quoted when comparing Maiden, but threw him in at the end as if he and Madonna are the same.......when his numbers probably dwarf hers too if you count all the places where black folks buy records that aren't included in anybody's official counts. Mike ain't here to tell you this but: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGoOegtBq-o&feature=related And just to twist the knife a bit.....forget the pop acts you mentioned and my original bet....which I clearly won by the way...LOL!.......I'll buy you a jersey cheesesteak when you finally get in the area if you can find me a single source that lists Maiden or Judas Priest higher than even the Backstreet Boys!!!.........LOL!!!!! Yeah I said it....Backstreet....what now? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eesNA_W44SU And about takin' your thread back: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M--ha2s8yA So I'm goin' wit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvdf5n-zI14&feature=endscreen&NR=1
no wait! Yeah that was just for your funny with what I did there with MJ and Madonna but I let him go and trapped you into supporting Madonna---so no need to bring up MJ again (or Herbie Hancock having to be invisibble and wearing gloves to be on MTV before MJ). MJ's early problems with MTV (none later! and airplay , he flat out dominated the endless loops even before his nose turned into a clitoris!) acknowledged (as well as him being elvisesque in popularity), we're talking about a heavily marketed, bubblegum pop, sex selling white girl the oppressed Iron Maiden is competing against here for record sales. Look at the dates for that 80 million--it was 2002...Madonna's was current so what came out ahead, Maiden certainly isn't "beat by a mile". Now I don't have a bunch of metal videos to show you that pertain to this conversation but here's this and gimme my money!...
I do plays cards, but don't like to gamble...though my college rep for my spades game earned me and my partner the nicknames Deuce (him) and Ace (me) of Spades....so you ain't said nothin' but a word homie!!! LOLOLOLOLOL!!!!! Oh you wanna try and switch it up on a brotha huh?.... Das OK........ I'll stick with Madonna! A look at her current numbers after "Ray Of Light" and other techno crap she did....oops did I say that out loud...anywho.....a look reveals that her numbers of confirmed sales are 157.6 million albums sold....with claimed sales near twice that. (Guiness says she's the number one selling female artist of all time with over 300 million albums sold and they're kinda good about keeping records!) But for the sake of this discussion, we'll use the confirmed sales for her and not the other ones. Then I'll let you use the claimed sales of more than 85 million for Maiden instead of the confirmed numbers of between 15.4 and 65.2 million confirmed album sales depending on which source you believe. So to be clear we'll go with the over 85 million or the high estimates for Maiden and the 157 million or the low estimates for Madonna. That still is over 70 million more albums for her or darn near double the amount of maybe, we hope so, my mama said we sold that many albums for Maiden! Me thinks almost doubling you is "beat by a mile" by most standards sir! But I'll explain in language with which you're more familiar; You're allowed to think you have this won, but only if you also admit you've been ridin' this: and livin' in one of these: on this: And if you think I'm gonna pay you on this one....well: So let's just: Cause to that I say:
boxes and boxes of that crap sent to wal mart and all accounted for I'm sure. the wiki you found for Maiden was based on a nyt piece recently that doesn't list a source. The number counting systems work best when the sales are from big box stores who purchase millions of units at a time and aside from not being played on the radio (you saw that part too in the wiki?), Maiden wasn't sold in those stores back in the day your Material girl was popular because we didn't say so. I'm sure there's some interesting politics and pay in how those units are moved and magically called sales too! I went with a trusty Madonna fan site but elsewhere I've seen it as high as 300 million too! Yeah, the good folks at guiness surely counted every customer with a loved copy in his hands and not relied on the boxes and boxes of door stoppers Wal-Mart purchased through some co-opped marketing scheme. So I'm guessing my made up Maiden numbers beat your made up Madonna numbers especially since album sales are more useful to an "artist" like Madonna. Back to point!....you Madonna fans never believe that a band like Maiden sold half as many as her 300 zillion album sales! Becasue they are icky and never on TV. NOW....
You've proved nothing other than what you believe....to yourself! Several sources list her numbers up around 300 million, but ok....take the fan site you wanna trust and call it 120-130 million and I went with the same source when I found Maiden at 85 million.....so whatever accounting screw up they made for Madonna.....they probably made for Maiden......so taking the wiki numbers on the high side for them and low side for her seemed fair to me. Other places have it further apart and nobody else I saw had their numbers over 80 million other than wiki....so what sources are we trusting here? I'll use your original numbers.....so we're back to saying 40-50 million more units were sold for her and that makes them just as big even though you know dang well they weren't due to marketing and promotion. This is just straight flimsy homie and I:
Proof doesn't work well with record sales but let's just agree to disagree or come to a compromise and say that MJ outsold Iron Maiden and Iron Maiden outsold Madonna! This conversation right down to "You've proved nothing other than what you believe....to yourself"! reminds me of the 3:29 mark of this clip and I think you know that I never thought Maiden or Priest sold as many as MJ or Madonna (though I was surprised at how close it was with Madonna when I looked after you got incredulous)
Let's just agree to agree that that's just wrong and try not to burn anybody's country music awards!!!
