10 Best-Selling Rock Albums Of The 1980s
6. The Joshua Tree - U2 (25,000,000)
Who knew that every single person in the world called Joshua was grown on the same tree?
Nature is truly marvellous.
Irish rock legends and that thing Bono does when he's not trying to save the world, U2 were already fairly successful by the time this album had come out. Their two previous records had topped the UK charts and they were making tentative steps into the US market.
But The Joshua Tree changed everything.
Influenced by the band's fascination with America, The Joshua Tree captured the disparate spirit of the nation in the way only a group of outsiders could. This combination of wistful lyrics and riff-heavy sing-a-longs caught fire and drove millions of people to their nearest record stores.
The Joshua Tree was the first U2 album to top the charts in the US and it's shifted 10 million copies there since its release. It sold well everywhere else too, only missing out on a clean sweep of number ones thanks to a third place finish in Australia.
Damn you, Oz!
Even without the support of the Aussies, The Joshua Tree remains one of the biggest rock albums of all time in so many different ways.