What is the only song from the 21st century to have sold over 10 million copies?
When defining musical success, saying that artists have sold millions of records becomes a token phrase. However, as the 21st century wears on, this has increasingly transformed into a misnomer, as physical sales face freefall and digital streaming has exacted the tightest grip on the industry seemingly forevermore.
This changing of the tides in the way the music sphere operates at large comes at the expense of much of the music of the current century, in many respects, which comes nowhere near to climbing to the stratospheric heights of the canon of the previous 100 years as far as sales are concerned. While shifting millions of physical copies from the shelves used to be the most valuable currency in assessing sonic power, in the past 25 years, we have witnessed the gravity of that weight cave in, in real-time.
Indeed, all of this is to say that of the entire 21st century so far, only one song has sold over ten million copies – and most likely will never succeed on that front since streaming has assumed the reins. But compared to the likes of Band Aid, Abba, and George Harrison, who managed to conquer the feat in decades gone by, the illustrious tune in question may come as a bit of a surprise. No, it’s not some transcendentally electrifying rock banger, but instead ‘Dragostea Din Tei’ by O-Zone.
That name may not be ringing too many bells, but the 2003 smash hit from the Moldovan band took the world by storm with its thumping beat and nonsense lyrics. If you’ve ever been on a budget holiday or to a school disco in the 2000s, you will inevitably recognise its annoyingly ear-worming shrill riff and its stream of untranslatable words – which O-Zone themselves bizarrely claimed were about having sex under trees, strange as it sounds. But nevertheless, ranking high above its chart compatriots, having sold 12million physical copies alone, ‘Dragostea Din Tei’ takes the crown for the only song in the 21st century to surpass the multi-million sales heights.
How have music sales changed in the 21st century?
It does warrant saying that the picture being painted with regard to the lifeblood of music in the 21st century is not wholly as bleak as it may seem. With digital purchases and streaming largely taking over from the physical buying of records and singles as the turn of the millennium came into force, it was only natural that the new technological format would dominate listening habits as it increasingly became the common medium of use.
Take a look at digital downloads and streaming numbers of over ten million, and the 21st century leads the entire board in a complete switch from that of physical sales. If nothing else, it demonstrates plainly the irreversible, tangible impact that technology has made on mass music consumption for the rest of time – and in doing so, opening a whole other can of worms in how the music industry can continue to profit when this different method of sales is so much more difficult to quantify than before.
However, the fact remains – ‘Dragostea Din Tei’, for better or for worse, has made its own permanent imprint on the course of music history as a marker of the dying breaths of physical singles. It may not be the most glamorous effort, but it certainly is catchy.
