Few bands explode onto the music scene with the kind of jaw-dropping sales that make history, especially in a day and age when the never-ending story is of ‘declining record sales’ and the ‘death of the music industry’.
But Lady Antebellum have just blown the US charts wide-open, crashing straight into the Billboard charts at Number One with their album ‘Need You Now’ selling well over a million copies in four weeks. Now in its fifth week on the chart, it has just reclaimed the No.1 spot.
The title track of the album is currently sitting pretty at No.2 in the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart having sold 2.5 million copies in the past two months. It’s currently selling over 150,000 copes a week – putting it on a par with recent releases from Beyoncé, Black Eyed Peas and Lady Gaga.
‘Need You Now’ is a slice of modern pop music that brings to mind the drama of Fleetwood Mac, the sheen of Texas, the power of Bon Jovi, the punch of Kelly Clarkson and the kind of grit that can be found in the recent record from Robert Plant & Alison Krauss.
Having paid their dues playing gigs, releasing records and building an unstoppable momentum across the US since they formed nearly four years ago, Hillary Scott, Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood – collectively known as Lady Antebellum – kicked off 2010 in style by bagging themselves a Grammy. But nothing could prepare the trio for what came next; the following week they released the album ‘Need You Now’ and watched in surprise and delight as it sold over 480,000 copies in seven days. And kept selling and selling.
All that groundwork had resulted in an ‘overnight sensation’ which has taken America by storm. Across all formats and genres, the US has embraced Lady Antebellum turning them into stars and making Lady Antebellum the biggest band to break out in years.
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