Music's Winners & Losers of 2014
There have been some big surprises on the pop charts this year. An Australian female rapper had one of the year's biggest hits. For the first time in more than 50 years, a comedy album reached No. 1. An a cappella group had the year's biggest Christmas album. Here's a recap of the Winners & Losers of 2014 in pop music.
Winners
1. Taylor Swift
The megastar made the year's gutsiest move when she resisted pressure to put a few country tracks on her fifth studio album — to satisfy her original fans. Swift wanted to make an all-pop album and stuck to her guns. She knew what she was doing. That album, '1989,' has spent five weeks at No. 1 and has spawned two No. 1 singles.
2. Ariana Grande
The petite 21-year old with the big voice rose to the top ranks of female pop singers this year. Her sophomore album, 'My Everything,' debuted at No. 1 in August and received a Grammy nom for Best Pop Vocal Album. Grande has had four top 10 hits this year, more than anyone else. She's the new Mariah Carey!
3. Beyoncé
Her fifth studio album spent its first three weeks at No. 1 in December 2013. The album's sudden, surprise release — in a hype-saturated world — earned Beyoncé goodwill. Beyoncé received six Grammy noms, a total matched this year only by Sam Smith and Pharrell Williams.
4. Pharrell Williams
5. Iggy Azalea
The Aussie rapper's "Fancy" (featuring Charli XCX) was No. 1 for seven weeks and received a Grammy nom for Record of the Year. It was the first all-female collabo to be nominated in that category since "The Boy Is Mine," the 1998 smash by Brandy and Monica.
6. 'Frozen'
7. Meghan Trainor
The charming, doo-wop-shaded "All About That Bass" topped the Hot 100 for eight weeks and received Grammy noms for Record and Song of the Year. Trainor's follow-up, "Lips Are Movin," is in the top five. A plus-size star is born! (We needed one to represent all the women who don't look like Beyoncé and Taylor.)
8. John Legend
9. Sam Smith
10. Ed Sheeran
11. "Weird" Al Yankovic
12. Pentatonix
13. Miranda Lambert
14. Blake Shelton
15. J. Cole
Losers
1. Robin Thicke
There are peaks and valleys in every career, but rarely has an artist gone from career-high to butt-of-jokes so quickly. Thicke's seventh studio album, 'Paula' (an album-length plea to his estranged wife), spent just one week in the top 40. His best hope is that it was such a bomb that his wife will feel sorry for him and take him back.
2. Mariah Carey
Carey's 11th regular studio album, 'Me. I Am Mariah…the Elusive Chanteuse,' sold just 58K copies in its first week. That was Carey's lowest first-week sales tally since Nielsen SoundScan started tracking music sales in 1991.
3. U2
It's not really a surprise that 'Songs of Innocence' didn't sell as well as past U2 albums. After all, Apple gave it away for free to all iTunes users. Even so, you'd expect it to sell better than it did (just 63K copies in its first seven weeks). 'Songs of Innocence' received a Grammy nom for Best Rock Album, but it was passed over for Album of the Year.
4. Nickelback
5. Jennifer Lopez
'A.K.A.' sold 33K copies in its first week. That's the lowest first-week sales tally for a Lopez studio album to date. It's even lower than her 2007 Spanish-language album, 'Como Ama Una Mujer.' Even so, the album spawned a top 20 hit, "Booty," that got a lot of attention (which probably matters more than sales in J.Lo's world).
6. 50 Cent
7. Jennifer Hudson
8. Colbie Caillat
9. Rick Ross
10. Jennifer Nettles 
the new #1 it girl 
Congrats to Taylor and Bey though. 
