Music: 2021 was a good year for Wallen, Adele — and vinyl

By MARK KENNEDY
AP Entertainment Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — New data from the music industry confirms what a lot of people long suspected — 2021 was a very good year for Morgan Wallen, Adele and vinyl. MRC Data’s year-end report, presented in collaboration with Billboard, shows that Wallen’s “Dangerous: The Double Album” ended 2021 as both the top country album of the year and the most popular album across all genres, with 3.2 million equivalent album units earned during the year. That’s despite Wallen being rebuked by the music industry after a video showed him blurting out a racial slur. Adele’s “30” recorded the highest album sales debut in four years.