How Adele brought back "the real" and saved the music biz

FEBRUARY 10, 2012

Right in the middle of Super Bowl hoopla and the Republican primary and fervent Oscar overkill, the Recording Academy giddily trumpeted its most relevant news in almost a decade:

"ADELE TO MAKE MUCH ANTICIPATED RETURN TO THE STAGE ON THE 54TH ANNUAL GRAMMY AWARDS."

If watercooler chat that day started with whispers of Mitt, Manning and Moneyball, by noon it was about Brit neo-soul belter Adele, who hasn't performed in five months due to problems with her vocal cords. Her 2011 album 21 was tops last year with 5.82 million sold. That more than doubled the No. 2 seller — Michael Buble's smarmtastic Christmas — and was pivotal in helping album sales increase, even if just a smidge, for the first time since 2004.

READ THE STORY.

Posted by seandaly at 12:56:39 pm on February 10, 2012 | Permalink | Comments

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Pop music critic Sean Daly of the Tampa Bay Times brings you the latest music news and concert reviews. He writes about rock music, country music, rap music and whatever sounds are out there. Cool job, isn't it? And his CD collection -- from Journey to Dylan, Prince to U2, Public Enemy to Stan Getz -- is much bigger and better than yours.

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