Adele Hits it Big with New Album, '21'

While some artists struggle to make hit follow-up albums after their initial debut records, Adele Adkins is one talented British singer who has had no such problem.  After her debut album, 19, Adele has created a smash follow-up, appropriately entitled 21, to indicate an increase in age and experience when she wrote the songs on the record.

Adele

Although 19 only made it to No. 10 on the Billboard U.S. pop album chart, Adele's follow-up album went straight to No. 1 with "the biggest sales total for any release since November [2010]" (Caulfield, 2011).  Unlike other No. 1 debut albums in the U.S., what makes this new album so significant is its strength in digital sales.  Based on Nielsen SoundScan data, "62 percent of the sales for Adele's 21 in its first week out were for the digital album version, with only 38 percent of its overall 352,000 units sold coming from CD sales" (Perpetua, 2011).  With Justin Bieber's Never Say Never: Remixes coming in a distant second last week with only 102,000 units sold, Adele would have made No. 1 on digital sales alone (Perpetua, 2011).  If that's not a testament to how influential the digital age has become and the growing obsoleteness of CDs, then I don't know what is.

Adele's music sells because she isn't a cookie cutter star and doesn't rely on Hollywood glitz and glam to get recognized.  All she needs is her raspy, jazz voice and relatable, raw lyrics to hit home with listeners and draw them in.  She also has a down-to-earth, enjoyable personality that will make you fall for her even more.  (Watch the recent RollingStones video at the following link to see what I mean: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/videos/adele-on-21-the-songs-on-here-are-the-most-articulate-ive-ever-written-20110216.)  Both the everyday American public and other U.S. celebrities can't get enough of this soul artist right now. Take Kelly Clarkson's tweet from early this morning where she says "I have been listening to Adele's new album pretty much non-stop and oh my goodness what a talented girl! If you don't have her album yet, trust me you need it!".  I definitely agree.

Get a nice taste of Adele's new album in this interview with New York Post:

References
Caulfield, K. (2011, March 2). Pop singer Adele leads U.S., UK pop album charts. Retrieved March 6, 2011, from http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/02/us-sales-idUSTRE7216Y220110302


Perpetua, M. (2011, March 4). Adele hits number one on huge digital sales. Retrieved March 6, 2011,   from http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/adele-hits-number-one-on-huge-digital-sales-20110304

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Retrieved March 6, 2011, from http://www.thisiswomen.com/adele-adkins/