Taylor Swift, Lil Wayne are biggest sellers

People can't enough Taylor Swift, vintage metal lives, and Lil Wayne and T.I. rule the rap world.

Those are the conclusions we can draw from the Nielsen Soundscan list of the top-selling albums of 2008. Lil Wayne topped the list, but young pop-country singer Swift was the biggest-selling artist, with combined sales of 3.71 million in the States.

AC/DC and Metallica bolstered the metal scene, while Guns ‘N Roses failed to register in the Top 10 with "Chinese Democracy."

Looking at the top 10, it's hard to detect where things are trending, with seven different genres surfacing: rap, alt-rock, metal, R&B, jam-rock, pop-country and whatever you want to call Kid Rock.

It is unusual to see only one country artist on the list -- if you even consider Swift country artist, in light of her more polished pop sound on "Fearless."

Album sales in the U.S., including CDs and full-album downloads, were 428 million, a 14 percent drop from the previous year.

The Top-Selling Albums of 2008 

1. LIL WAYNE, "Tha Carter III" (Cash Money/Universal Motown); 2.87 million

2. COLDPLAY, "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends" (Capitol); 2.14 million

3. TAYLOR SWIFT, "Fearless" (Big Machine); 2.11 million

4. KID ROCK, "Rock N Roll Jesus" (Atlantic); 2.02 million

5. AC/DC, "Black Ice" (Columbia); 1.92 million

6. TAYLOR SWIFT, "Taylor Swift" (Big Machine); 1.6 million

7. METALLICA, "Death Magnetic" (Warner Brothers); 1.57 million

8. T. I., "Paper Trail" (Grand Hustle/Atlantic); 1.52 million

9. JACK JOHNSON, "Sleep Through the Static" (Brushfire/Universal); 1.49 million

10. BEYONCé, "I Am ... Sasha Fierce" (Music World/Columbia); 1.46 million