Some musicians go to mattress dreaming about the functioning day they earn their 1st gold or platinum history.

Most probably can’t even fathom the prospect of earning a diamond album.

The RIAA awards diamond certifications to albums that have presented ten million copies in the United States. It is the highest certification out there, signifying that an artist has accomplished the uppermost echelon of stardom. Consider all the rock stars who do not have a single: the Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Kiss, Motley Crue — all superstars in their pretty personal ideal, but none have ever accomplished that exclusive 10-million threshold.

As for the artists who do earn diamond albums? It can be the beginning of a lengthy, fruitful vocation or a portent of doom.

Some rockers get it excellent the to start off with time. Van Halen, Boston and Guns N’ Roses all soared to diamond position with their debut albums and would launch a quantity of considerably much more multiplatinum albums in short get. Meat Loaf, on the other hand, earned a diamond certification for his debut album Bat Out of Hell, then watched his profession crumble in excess of the subsequent ten years and a fifty %, only to recuperate when he issued a sequel to his debut.

Other artists — these forms of as AC/DC, Eagles and Pink Floyd — spent years climbing the ladder of stardom ahead of they reached their diamond-marketing peaks. And some other individuals, even now, managed to capture lightning in a bottle considerably much more than when, releasing a number of diamond albums in excess of the plan of their occupations.

See how these a lot of artists fared in our checklist of How 20 Rockers Followed Up Diamond-Providing Albums.