A Look Back at 2013: Music – More Than Taylor Swift & Harry Styles

As the year winds down, book stores are full of almanacs and other time capsules reflecting on the year that was.

Throughout the next few weeks, we’re going to take a look at some of features in the World Almanac and Book of Facts 2014, which was released in print in November and in e-publication earlier this month.

Let’s take a look at the year in music: Albums and singles (both digital and CDs), artists and more.

Top-Selling Artists (Digital Sales)

1. Taylor Swift
2. Rihanna
3. Katy Perry
4. Lady Gaga
5. Kanye West 

Multi-Platinum Albums – and these are the only multi-platinum CDs for the year.

• Mumford & Sons – Babel
• Jenni Rivera – Joyas Prestadas
• Jenni Rivera – Joyas Prestadas
• Jenni Rivera – La Misma Gran Senora
• Taylor Swift – Red
• The 20/20 Experience – Justin Timberlake

Multi-Platinum Videos – again, only these ones, no others.

• Adele – Live at the Royal Albert Hall
• One Direction – Up All Night: The Live Tour
• Psy – Gangnam Style

A couple of little-known tidbits for you all:

• The top-grossing North American music tour over the last 30 years is The Rolling Stones tour from 2005. U2’s 2011 and 2005 tours are second and third.
• The most popular musical genre in the U.S. right now is, at least according to commercial radio, country. The second most popular is news/talk. Spanish is third.
• Between 2011 and 2012, CD sales dropped 18.5 percent and cassette sales haven’t been tracked since 2008. Digital sales went up 17.3 percent between 2011 and 2012.