Traditionalists might not want to admit it but there's a good chance that Taylor Swift is single-handedly keeping Country music in the mainstream consciousness.  Not only was Swift the top-selling Country artist of the year but she was Neilson SoundScan's top-selling artist in all genres with over 4 million units sold this past year.  "Fearless" was the third best-selling album behind rapper Lil' Wayne's "Tha Carter III" and Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" with over 2.1 million copies sold.  Her two-year-old self-titled album was the 6th best-seller with 1.5 additional sales brings its total sales to over 3 million copies sold. 

Swift also continued to do well in the digital arena as she was the second-best selling digital artist, for all tracks, with nearly 9 million copies sold. Sugarland, who also is criticized for being too 'pop-sounding' by many traditionalists, was the 10th best overall seller of the year with their albums.  According to The Neilsen Group's numbers, the duo sold over 1.5 million copies of their three albums this past year. 

This is the first time in the history of Nielson SoundScan that one artist (Taylor Swift) Placed two different albums in the Top 10 on the year end album chart. She also gives Country music the distinction of having two out of the last three year's chart toppers as Rascal Flatts topped 2006's Chart tally.