15 years ago, Adele won a huge year in pop

2011 was one of the poppiest years in music history. We’re talking about singles because that’s not necessarily true of albums: there was a three-week stretch in January and February where Cake, the Decemberists, and Amos Lee all had chart-topping LPs. The indie trend was reversed over the next three weeks, though, thanks to #1 releases from Nicki Minaj, the Now compilation series, and Justin Bieber.

On the songs side, a charming young upstart named Bruno Mars landed his third #1 single with “Grenade” in January. Later that month, “Hold It Against Me” became Britney Spears’ second song to debut at the top, which made her the second artist to enter the Billboard Hot 100 chart at #1 with multiple songs, after Mariah Carey. Lady Gaga kicked off the Born This Way era with the album’s title track topping the chart.

Then there was Katy Perry, who had an absolutely extraterrestrial year. She went #1 with both “E.T.” and “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.),” which helped her match a historic feat previously only pulled off by Michael Jackson: 2010’s Teenage Dream was the second album, and first by a female artist, to produce five #1 singles, after Jackson’s Bad. In nearly any other year, that would be music’s headlining story. It’s an amazing accomplishment! Yet, Perry was not 2011’s biggest artist. In fact, she wasn’t even close. Furthermore, the person who holds the title wasn’t even making contemporary pop music.

In the late 2000s, Adele was becoming a star in her native UK. Her 2008 debut album 19 went #1 over there, and she had two top-five singles with “Chasing Pavements” and a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Make You Feel My Love.” The project was popular in the US, too, but not in quite the same way: 19 peaked in the fourth spot, and “Chasing Pavements” was the only single to chart, at #21. She wasn’t an American superstar yet, but most artists would kill for that kind of first-album success in a non-native country.

It was especially impressive considering Adele’s music had nothing to do with contemporary trends. Perry and Gaga and their peers were making of-their-era, radio-tailored pop. Meanwhile, 19‘s biggest single was timeless soul that sounded like it could have been recorded any time in the previous four decades. It wasn’t trendy, but Adele’s voice was so undeniably smooth and powerful that she could have still succeeded had she instead made a polka-metal album. With 19, Adele made her presence known. On the follow-up, 2011’s 21, she became difficult to ignore.

She announced the project in late 2010. In a post on her website (before this sort of news would have been instead shared in an Instagram caption), she said of it, “It’s different from 19, it’s about the same things but in a different light. I deal with things differently now. I’m more patient, more honest, more forgiving and more aware of my own flaws, habits and principles. Something that comes with age I think.” The post also includes some evidence that she was swinging for the fences with this one: Adele worked on the project with legendary producer and hairy enigma Rick Rubin. It additionally revealed that the lead single, “Rolling in the Deep,” would be out in January (it ended up dropping sooner, that November). Adele described the then-unheard song as a “dark bluesy gospel disco tune.”

When “Rolling in the Deep” came out, the first thing that could be heard was a quietly strumming guitar. Then came Adele with vocals as assured and mighty as they were a few years earlier: “There’s a fire starting in my heart, reaching a fever pitch and it’s bringing me out the dark.” Halfway through the first verse, a simple, steady, deep drum (like the “stomp-clap-hey” percussion that plagued the era, minus the suspenders and manicured mustache) added some intensity. Adele then delivered one of the most memorable and tactfully executed choruses of the modern era, singing with power but control: “We could’ve had it all / Rolling in the deep / You had my heart inside of your hand / And you played it to the beat.”

It was a break from everything else going on in the music world. At the same time, “Rolling in the Deep” was as immediately catchy as hits from LMFAO and Maroon 5 that would drop later in the year. Still, it took time for it to catch on. “Rolling In The Deep” debuted at #68 on the Hot 100 in December, climbing the ranks gradually. On May 21, it became Adele’s first #1 single in the US. Once Americans caught on, they were all in: The song stayed on top for seven weeks. 

“Rolling in the Deep” ended up being the second-longest run of the year, after Rihanna and Calvin Harris’ “We Found Love” dominated in November and December. As far as overall performance, though, it was Adele’s smash that topped Billboard’s year-end chart. It also wasn’t her only hit: “Someone Like You,” a bare piano-and-vocal number, returned Adele to the top of the Hot 100 for an additional five weeks later in the year. The numbers indicate this has proven to be the most enduring 21 track, as it’s Adele’s most-streamed song on Spotify with over 2.6 billion plays.

This was all fantastic news for 21, which ended 2011 as the year’s biggest album. It spent thirteen weeks in the peak Billboard 200 position. It was, by a wide margin, the year’s best-selling project, moving over five million copies compared to a measly two million for Lady Gaga’s Born This Way. Actually, it was the biggest-selling album of any year since Usher’s Confessions sold eight million units in 2004. Worldwide, it was the best-selling album of 2011… and 2012. Today, it would take willful ignorance not to call it the defining album of the modern era. It’s actually one of the biggest LPs ever: 21 is among just a couple dozen albums to sell at least thirty million copies. Of those, excluding compilations, it’s the only one released after the Nineties.

Adele was not completely without precedent; Amy Winehouse comes to mind as a predecessor who reached great heights with a primarily retro sound. “Rehab” was an international hit, peaking in the top ten of the UK and US charts. Nobody in this lane dominated the culture like Adele, though. She won all six of her Grammy nominations in 2012, including Record of the Year, Song of the Year (“Rolling in the Deep”), and Album of the Year (21). The years that followed have been a masterclass in keeping fans wanting more and delivering when she does decide to drop. She’s only shared two albums since 21: 2015’s 25 and 2021’s 30, both going #1 in pretty much every territory that tracks music sales. The albums produced massive hits like “Hello” and “Easy On Me.” 

Adele is one of the best-ever cases of authenticity, even if that means bucking current trends, being the right move. “Rolling In The Deep” hitting #1 was whiplash on the top of the charts: It followed the Kanye West remix of Katy Perry’s “E.T.,” which spent five non-consecutive weeks on top before Adele took over. Lyrically, we reached “Think of me in the depths of your despair / Make a home down there, as mine sure won’t be shared” after enduring “Tell me what’s next, alien sex? / I’ma disrobe you, then I’ma probe you.” These are two acutely different examples of “just be yourself,” but somehow, they’re both very 2011.

Derrick Rossignol is a writer and editor whose work covering music, video games, and other areas of pop culture has appeared in publications like The A.V. Club, The Boston Globe, CBR, The Guardian, Nintendo Life, and Uproxx.

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