People who were skeptical of Radiohead and Kid A in 2000 must have been reading music magazines and blogs at the end of 2009 and subsequently had changes of heart. They thought, “Maybe I should have bought that weird, futuristic album everyone was talking about in Y2K, after all.” And it seems that is exactly what they did.
Tiny Mix Tapes has reported that Kid A is currently situated at number 100 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart–right now, in January 2010. This is the same Kid A that has been on music store shelves for ten years, and it’s competing in a sea of very capable newbies such as The xx (who were not quite decade darlings but certainly ranked highly on 2009 lists).
Here is the interesting thing: The Billboard 200 chart reflects physical copies. Kid A also happens to be ranked #24 on the Digital Albums chart. Basically, a lot of copies of Kid A are being purchased a decade later, digital and physical. Talk about permanence in the music world–Radiohead has got it. Will the ranks on the charts keep climbing? Stay tuned.
