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Best-Selling Musical Acts by Category

For each category, name the best-selling musical act.

Quiz by formerfrontpage

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First submitted	October 26, 2010
Last updated	August 30, 2018
Times taken	20,512
Rating	2.83

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Keep scrolling down for answers and more stats ...

Category	Sales	Musical Act
Pop	176,000,000	The Beatles
Country	128,000,000	Garth Brooks
Hard Rock	111,500,000	Led Zeppelin
Jazz	48,000,000	Kenny G
Folk	38,500,000	Simon & Garfunkel
Rap	37,500,000	Tupac Shakur
Boy Band	37,000,000	Backstreet Boys
Celtic	26,500,000	Enya
Disco	26,000,000	Bee Gees
Grunge	31,500,000	Pearl Jam

Category	Sales	Musical Act
R&B	33,000,000	R. Kelly
Punk	22,500,000	Green Day
Female	71,500,000	Barbra Streisand
Plays Piano	79,500,000	Billy Joel
Latin American	43,000,000	Santana
Canadian	50,000,000	Celine Dion
Born in the 1970's	63,000,000	Mariah Carey
Born in the 1980's	32,000,000	Britney Spears
African American	69,500,000	Michael Jackson
Female African American	55,000,000	Whitney Houston

tschutzer

level 83

Dec 23, 2010

Can you accept Zeppelin, please? Most of us who take a lot of these quizzes are in the habit of typing the one-word common name for almost everything, to save time.

Quizmaster

level ∞

Nov 28, 2011

The data comes from here:
http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinum.php?content_selector=top-selling-artists

Arp2600

level 77

Jun 13, 2014

Ok, so this is in the US, not worldwide.

joeythelemur

level 79

Nov 17, 2014

Ahh, a note that states US sales only would have been useful. AC/DC was the first thought for hard rock, and probably true for worldwide?

wasserwand

level 70

May 28, 2016

I think it's time for a little update - there have been changes over the last years

alohonyai

level 40

Jul 17, 2012

Kenny G is elevator music at best, not jazz

yankeh

level 65

Nov 9, 2012

Can you accept Kelly for R. Kelly, please?

Ozchris

level 40

Jan 5, 2013

Tupac beats NWA, Beasty Boys and Eminem? Surprising.

johnsonncn5

level 43

Oct 29, 2018

Pretty sure Em has 45 million

Professor

level 46

Feb 28, 2013

Please don't call Kenny G a jazz musician. As a matter of fact, please don't call Kenny G a musician at all. It's demeaning.

buck1017

level 73

Jun 27, 2013

Not sure why everyone hates on Kenny G. Sure he looks like a goofball, and the soprano sax looks weird, and he playes out of the side of his mouth...but he's good. I like him...not saying I would listen to his album with a bunch of my friends over, but it's still pretty good.

yodasocko

level 43

Jul 8, 2013

You have catagories for Celtic and Disco but not metal? Wow!

quizwhizz

level 67

Dec 19, 2013

If Justin Bieber had sold more records than Celine Dion then I would finally have lost all faith in the world.

Arp2600

level 77

Jun 13, 2014

Rush should outsell them both :p.

ander217

level 75

May 27, 2014

Simon and Garfunkel are folk rock. I believe Bob Dylan has outsold them in that genre, but both crossed over into other genres as well.

Rozzi

level 50

Sep 4, 2014

If these figures are US only (as seems to be the case), could you please say so in the quiz description?

Jonathan

level 31

Oct 20, 2014

I would have kept Kenny G out of this quiz on principle...lol

sillie

level 81

May 26, 2015

I'd never have guessed that Beatles = pop. When they were playing pop wasn't even invented yet, it was rock 'n' roll.

McLerristarr

level 62

Mar 13, 2016

The term "pop music" was used back then. They're definitely either pop or rock, but regardless of what category they would fall in, they really should be everyone's first guess. As the best-selling artist of all time, they're clearly going to fill one of the categories.

rahrl

level 45

May 26, 2015

I got Simon & Garfunkel but I missed Michael Jackson...

MrAlexJodoin

level 17

Jul 3, 2015

I thought Pink Floyd sold more album's than Led Zeppelin

dogla305

level 53

Apr 4, 2016

Michael Jackson was the king of pop...

TheWombat

level 71

Apr 18, 2016

Does Bob Dylan span too many genres to be considered folk? He must have sold more albums than Simon & Garfunkel, surely?

NellyFurtado

level 58

May 29, 2018

this is stupid because it is only in America. Why can't it be in the world. Why does it have to be only American sales? People like Garth Brooks for example, not many people outside America know him compared to all the other best selling artists.

Quizmaster

level ∞

May 29, 2018

Exact worldwide sales are not known.