1 week ago
8
Reggae band Bob Marley & The Wailers holds the No. 1 position on the Billboard Year-End Reggae Albums Artists chart, as well as the Year-End Reggae Albums chart with their greatest hits collection Legend: The Best Of Bob Marley & The Wailers—for the fifth year in a row.
Tuff Gong, the label Marley founded in 1970, is No. 1 on the Year-End Reggae Albums Imprints chart, while Universal Music, the major label that markets and distributes his music, is No. 1 on the Year-End Reggae Albums Labels chart and the Year-End Reggae Distributors chart.
Billboard also revealed that Legend, first released on May 8, 1984, holds No. 51 (up from No. 66 last year) on the Year-End Billboard 200 Albums chart, which ranks albums across all genres.
Released today (December), the Billboard Year-End 2024 music charts recap aggregated metrics for artists and albums from their weekly charts dated October 28, 2023 through October 19, 2024, based on streaming equivalent album units, airplay, and sales in the United States, as reported by sales tracker Luminate (formerly MRC Data).
Marley’s five-year domination of the Reggae charts is no surprise because, on any given week, the 18x Platinum Legend album continues to sell (and stream) almost as much as the other nine entries on the weekly Billboard Reggae chart, combined. Billboard had amended its rules in January 2020, allowing the 40-year-old album to dominate the weekly Reggae chart for the last five years, except for the one week in 2022 when it was deposed by Stick Figure’s Wisdom.
Legend is Marley’s highest-charting album in the US, peaking at No. 5 on the Billboard 200. It is the best-selling reggae album of all time, with over 18 million copies sold in the US, over 4.2 million copies in the UK, and an estimated 33 million copies sold globally.
Year-End Reggae Albums chart
Meanwhile, back on the Year-End Reggae Albums chart, which covers metrics from the top 15 individual Reggae and Dancehall albums, Best Of Shaggy: The Boombastic Collection by Shaggy was at No. 2, followed by Dutty Classics Collection by Sean Paul at No. 3 and World on Fire, Set In Stone and Wisdom by Stick Figure at No. 4, 5 and 6, respectively.
Greatest Hits by UB40 is at No. 7, followed by Sean Paul’s Dutty Rock at No. 8, Damian Marley’s Welcome To Jamrock at No. 9 and Byron Messia’s No Love at No. 10.
UB40’s UB45 is at No. 11, followed by Bob Marley and the Wailers’ Exodus, Bob Marley and Wailers’ Rastaman Vibration, Masicka’s Generation Of Kings, and Ini Kamoze’s Here Comes The Hotstepper at No. 12 through 15, respectively.
Year-End Reggae Albums Artists chart
On the Year-End Reggae Albums Artists chart, which covers metrics from all albums released by each artist during the period, Stick Figure, Sean Paul, Shaggy, and UB40 occupy the No. 2 through 5 spots, respectively.
Damian Marley, Byron Messia, Masicka, Ini Kamoze and Rebelution are No.6 through 10.
Year-End Reggae Albums Imprints
Island Records, Stick Figure’s Ruffwood are at No. 2 and 3 on the Year-End Reggae Albums Imprints chart, while Atlantic and VP records are tied at No. 4.
Year-End Reggae Albums Labels
Rhino, Ruffwood, Ineffable Records, and Prince Swanny’s Ztekk Records are at No. 2 through 5 on the Year-End Reggae Albums Labels chart, respectively.
Year-End Reggae Albums Distributors
Independents, WMX and Sony Music are at No. 2 through 4 on the Year-End Reggae Albums Distributors chart, respectively.
English (US) ·