Darth Sidious
Babyface
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can you compare their album and tour success
İs Queen Bİgger Than U2?
- Thread starter Darth Sidious
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The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
edge3
Refugee
I'd say U2 have become bigger than Queen :
Album sales : Queen 135 million (might be too high as they've 'only' sold about 32 million in USA), U2 145 million (57 million now sold in USA)
Single Sales : I think Queen win here
Money from Touring : I'd say U2 must beat Queen here (surely only The Stones have made more than U2 from touring)
Btw - Q magazine recently (though before HTDAAB was released) compiled a list of the 50 biggest bands ever based on these factors...the result ? U2 4th, Queen 5th
Album sales : Queen 135 million (might be too high as they've 'only' sold about 32 million in USA), U2 145 million (57 million now sold in USA)
Single Sales : I think Queen win here
Money from Touring : I'd say U2 must beat Queen here (surely only The Stones have made more than U2 from touring)
Btw - Q magazine recently (though before HTDAAB was released) compiled a list of the 50 biggest bands ever based on these factors...the result ? U2 4th, Queen 5th
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ybird3k
War Child
i'd say U2 are bigger than queen too. who were 1, 2 & 3 in the list?
edge3
Refugee
The usual suspects :
# 1 Pink Floyd
# 2 Led Zep
# 3 Stones
I always thought The Beatles should have been # 1 though (they were 7th or 8th)
# 1 Pink Floyd
# 2 Led Zep
# 3 Stones
I always thought The Beatles should have been # 1 though (they were 7th or 8th)
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ybird3k
War Child
i would have thought the beatles would have been #1 too.
just out of interest, how many albums have Pink Floyd sold worldwide, 73M in the USA, maybe 170M worldwide?
just out of interest, how many albums have Pink Floyd sold worldwide, 73M in the USA, maybe 170M worldwide?
edge3
Refugee
ybird3k said:
Yeah, something like that.
I guess the one thing counting against The Beatles is that, despite selling the most records (about 500 m albums alone) & inventing stadium rock (Shea Stadium) they never actually did / didn't have much time to do many massive mega tours a la U2, Stones, Pink Floyd etc
fedeu2
War Child
The Beatles should be the biggest band ever.
I don´t know how Q magazine came up with that list but it doesn´t make quite a lot of sense.
Counting albums and singles sales alone, Beatles advantage with respect to the next contendor is what? 200 million? In terms of money I would say that it amounts to 2 billion dollars!
Is it possible that ticket sales more than make up for the difference?
I don´t know how Q magazine came up with that list but it doesn´t make quite a lot of sense.
Counting albums and singles sales alone, Beatles advantage with respect to the next contendor is what? 200 million? In terms of money I would say that it amounts to 2 billion dollars!
Is it possible that ticket sales more than make up for the difference?
edge3 said:
Popmartijn
Blue Crack Supplier
fedeu2 said:
That's easy. From their November 2004 issue (yep, the one with U2 on the cover
)So that's the criteria they used, something you should always state when you want to compare bands. To ask whether Queen is bigger than U2 or not is a matter of judging by which criteria.
BTW, based on my estimates, U2 are now in joint 3rd place on Q's list with as many points as the Rolling Stones have. Although I think the Stones win the tie-breaker, considering their huge single success in the Sixties and Seventies.
Marty
P.S. Pink Floyd is still way ahead and probably always will be unless The Joshua Tree sells another 10 million copies in the USA and UK alone.
ybird3k
War Child
its not fair to base 'biggest band ever' on the success of their biggest album. one band could have 1 album which sells 20M, and another could have 10 albums which all sell 10M.
and surely its more important to play to the most people in total, then the most people at a single show.
and surely its more important to play to the most people in total, then the most people at a single show.
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The Q Magazine criteria is flawed. But its true there is not a perfect way to determine the biggest band of all time, but the fundamentals should be total album sales and concert ticket sales. The problem with concert ticket sales is that some bands like the Beatles stopped touring for various reasons not having to do with the business, and there for, the type of success they could of had in this area can only be estimated.
As for Queen, it should be noted that while they had very strong popularity outside the United States, in the United States when they were still a band, their success was not on par with many of the top acts in both album sales and concert ticket sales. Albums did not always go platinum and the band only made it to the arena(20,000 seats max) level and would not sellout many shows.
In many ways, especially on the concert selling level in the United States, U2 had surpassed Queen by the end of the Unforgettable Fire in the United States.
Of course, thats just the United States, but the United States is 1/3 of the music market.
Queen has not been a band since Freddie passed away and planned events and other things have been constantly looking at the band in a way, they would not be looked at if they were still a band to this day with Freddie. Kind of the same way that Nirvana is looked at since Cobain died. This Nostalgia that elevates a band to a new level once the band is no more is something that U2 has not experienced and will probably not experience for a long time.
In Europe, Queen may have outsold U2 in albums, but they never did a tour that was in demand as the Vertigo tour has been or for that matter ZOO TV or Joshua Tree either. The Vertigo tour is the highest grossing tour in European history with only 32 shows played.
The only bands that can really top U2 in this catagory of biggest band of all time, at the current time, are probably the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Led Zep.
As for Queen, it should be noted that while they had very strong popularity outside the United States, in the United States when they were still a band, their success was not on par with many of the top acts in both album sales and concert ticket sales. Albums did not always go platinum and the band only made it to the arena(20,000 seats max) level and would not sellout many shows.
In many ways, especially on the concert selling level in the United States, U2 had surpassed Queen by the end of the Unforgettable Fire in the United States.
Of course, thats just the United States, but the United States is 1/3 of the music market.
Queen has not been a band since Freddie passed away and planned events and other things have been constantly looking at the band in a way, they would not be looked at if they were still a band to this day with Freddie. Kind of the same way that Nirvana is looked at since Cobain died. This Nostalgia that elevates a band to a new level once the band is no more is something that U2 has not experienced and will probably not experience for a long time.
In Europe, Queen may have outsold U2 in albums, but they never did a tour that was in demand as the Vertigo tour has been or for that matter ZOO TV or Joshua Tree either. The Vertigo tour is the highest grossing tour in European history with only 32 shows played.
The only bands that can really top U2 in this catagory of biggest band of all time, at the current time, are probably the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Led Zep.
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