And The Best Selling Rock Album Of 2019 Is…
“Rock is dead” is the most cliché’ piece of conventional wisdom that I’ve ever heard. It’s also wildly untrue. There are still a ton of incredible active rock groups out there. From newer acts like Royal Blood and Ghost, to middle aged rockers like Foo Fighters and Mastodon, all the way to veteran classic acts that are still active like KISS and Aerosmith, I happen to think that the rock scene is thriving a lot more than what you might think.
Sure, it’s living in the shadow of pop, EDM, and bro country at the moment, but that shouldn’t really come as a surprise being that the rock genre was the biggest phenomenon on the face of the planet from the inception of The Beatles in the 60s to the demise of grunge in the late 90s.
Many of those groups aren’t exactly memorable (cough cough – almost every glam rock band) but one band that got it’s start back in the 90s that’s still going strong is my favorite band of all time - TOOL. These guys are awesome. Not only do they have a sound unlike anything else out there, but they’re also incredible musicians as well.
That’s why I’m thrilled that they had the best selling rock album of 2019. “Fear Inoculum” debuted at #1 on the Billboard top 200 with 270,000 units sold in the first week and 344,285 units sold to date. That is absolutely unheard of for most modern day artists They knocked Taylor Swift off of the #1 spot, which I'm still giddy about. The physical album costed me $50 but the thing came with an LED screen and speaker built into it. It's truly a work of art. Congrats to the mighty TOOL on some well deserved success!