Adele Is Back With "25"

It's been about four years since we last heard from Adele, when she began her domination of the record industry. "21" came at a time when album sales were at an all time low. Not even albums by Beyoncé or Lady Gaga could sell as well as earlier efforts; To say the record industry was slogging is an understatement. But then Adele came, and her cross generational appeal combined with being absolutely different from the Gagas and the Katy Perrys of the world that were flooding the radios sent "21" to the top of the charts. It is now one of the best selling albums of all time, and to date has sold 30 million copies worldwide. It still is sitting pretty within the Billboard Top 100.

Taylor Swift's "1989" is the Fastest Selling Album Since Usher's "Confessions"

It's hard to imagine the music industry before Taylor Swift. Ever since she burst onto the scene with the record breaking "Our Song", Swift has slowly but surely climbed up the ladder of leading female pop stars, breaking record after record after record. Who knew the young girl Kanye West interrupted back at the VMA's in 2009 would be a pop music titan.

It's even harder to measure up Swift's latest album "1989" to that of her debut, or even Album of the Year winner "Fearless". Not just because "1989" sees Swift finally admitting she's a pop star (something she had hinted at with releases like 'Love Story' and 'You Belong With Me' before moving on to 'We Are Never Getting Back Together'), but because Swift has truly grown as a lyricist and as an artist.

'Shake It Off' and 'Blank Space' (the two first outings from the record) have been huge successes, and even 'Style' and 'Bad Blood' have followed in their footsteps. But the album's commercial performance has exceeded all expectations. Though Swift has always been a trustworthy artist when it comes to record sales (her debut scanned 5x platinum in the US alone), no one expected "1989" to perform as well as it has.

True, it was predicted to break the record for highest first week sales of all time for a female artist (a feat established by Britney Spears' "Oops!... I Did It Again"), and while it just missed that number, it became Swift's highest first week sales (at 1.287 million copies sold). Since then, "1989" has not left the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 200, and has hit #1 on iTunes multiple times since being released last year. As of yesterday, the album has become the fastest selling record to reach 5 million copies sold in the US since Usher released "Confessions" about a decade ago.