The Billboard Best Of 2009 and Best Of The Decade charts have been released, which ranks the top selling albums and songs as compiled by sales data and radio airplay from Nielsen SoundScan. Here's a quick review of the main chart as well as a few others that focus solely on Christian music.

Billboard Top 200 Of 2009
Despite one of the best years of quality releases in recent memory, Christian music is surprisingly absent from the Top 100. The Fray's self-titled sophomore release had the sole position from a Christian band on the Billboard Top 100, coming in at #35 while charting #10 on Top Rock Albums and #13 on Top Digital Albums. Interestingly, the band was not included on the Christian Albums chart. The next chart position by a Christian artist doesn't occur until #111, where Mary Mary's The Sound charts at #111, despite dominating other charts where they were #33 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, #2 on the Top Christian Albums chart and conquering the #1 spot on the Top Gospel Albums chart. While living mostly in the mainstream market, Paramore landed at #113 and Owl City landed at #119, both lead by outspoken Christians. Worship fared well this year with Michael W. Smith's A New Hallelujah charting at #139, followed closely by Chris Tomlin's Hello Love at #143. Casting Crowns' Christmas album, Peace On Earth, continues to sell well for the band in its second cycle after releasing last year, charting at #141 and Third Day's Revelation charted at #151. Skillet's widely anticipated new album, Awake did well at #156 after being available for just a few months, and Jeremy Camp's Speaking Louder Than Before closes the chart for Christian music at #193.

Billboard Top 50 Christian Albums Of 2009
So what were the biggest selling Christian albums of the year? A surprisingly eclectic mix of styles make up the top 10, combining Adult Contemporary, Gospel, Praise & Worship and Rock. In the age of music where the single continues to dominate the consumer's tastes, it's no surprise that WOW Hits 2009 topped the 2009 Christian Albums chart with this year's edition, WOW Hits 2010 coming in at #23 after just a few months from being released. Mary Mary's The Sound, Michael W. Smith's A New Hallelujah, Chris Tomlin's Hello Love and Casting Crowns' Peace On Earth rounded out the top 5. Other chart highlights includes the debut from Tenth Avenue North, Over And Underneath, coming in at #10, joined by other debuts in the Top 20 from Francesca Battistelli and Kari Jobe. Lecrae charted the only rap album in the Top 50 with Rebel coming in at #31. MercyMe's All That Is Within Me is the oldest album in the Top 50, charting at #35. It released November 20, 2007. On the flip side, Flyleaf's Memento Mori and Switchfoot's Hello Hurricane are the newest albums on the chart, both releasing November 10th of this year and charting at #33 and #50 respectively.


Billboard Top 100 Songs Of 2009
It was certainly a disappointing year in Christian music crossing over into the general market. The Fray's "You Found Me" came in at a solid #13 and rounded out the top 100 closing the list with "Never Say Never." Owl City's recent success with "Fireflies" showed as it charted at #60. No other Christian artist made an appearance in the Top 100.

Top 50 Christian Songs Of 2009
There has been an ongoing debate for years regarding the impact of Christian radio on album sales, and when you compare the Top 50 Christian Songs of the year, ranked by radio airplay audience impressions as measured by Nielsen BDS, to the Top 50 Christian albums of the year, you'll see a few clear examples that support this argument. The top 10 is made up of songs on releases that didn't chart on the album list including "Revelation Song" by Phillips, Craig & Dean at #3, "More Beautiful You" by Jonny Diaz at #6 and "Lead Me To The Cross" by Chris And Conrad at #7.

The biggest song of the year came from Matthew West. "The Motions" marked the third song from Matthew that has dominated radio. Matthew previously scored the biggest AC hit of 2003 with "More" and followed that up last year with "You Are Everything," the most played Christian song of 2008. With a new album scheduled to hit in late 2010, we'll see if he can quickly dominate the chart for a fourth time.

Top 200 Albums Of The Decade
Expanding the view to the last ten years finds two Christian albums penetrating the Top 200 selling albums of the decade. P.O.D.'s Satellite marks the first entry of a Christian artist on this chart at #137. The album, released September 11, 2001, catapulted this band into the mainstream with #1 hits "Alive," "Boom," "Youth Of The Nation" and the title track. Switchfoot's The Beautiful Letdown is the other album to chart at #195 with their album. That album, which is argued by many as their best effort to date, included many hit singles for the group like "Meant To Live," "More Than Fine," "Dare You To Move" and "This Is Your Life."


Top 50 Christian Albums Of The Decade
Looking at decade sales for just Christian albums is very interesting. P.O.D and Switchfoot kick off the chart at #1 and #2 respectively, with Alan Jackson's Precious Memories, MercyMe's Almost There and Songs 4 Worship: Shout To The Lord rounding out the top five, the latter no doubt buoyed by an agressive long-term Time Life TV campaign. The rest of the top 10 includes Christmas Extraordinaire by Mannheim Steamroller, albums from gospel greats Yolanda Adams and Donnie McClurkin and Michael W. Smith's first praise album that kick started a decade long focus, Worship, which lands at #7. Casting Crowns' debut tops all their other releases to date at #11 with Lifesong trailing closely at #13 and The Alter And The Door hitting the #18 spot. Also making multiple appearances in the Top 50 is Third Day with Wherever You Are charting at #28, Come Together at #33, Offerings: A Worship Album at #37 and the follow-up, Offerings II at #39. The WOW Hits series has also remained incredibly strong, with the 2001 edition peaking at #17 and other annual editions taking spots #21, #22, #24, #30, #34, #35, #36, #41, #43 and #48. Talk about a dominating series of albums.

A decade is a long time and before the pop music bubble burst, Christian music made its mark with a few artists. Stacie Orrico's self-titled sophomore album (remember her?) comes in at #26, and Plus One's The Promise (remember them?) follows closely at #27. While Billboard.com is only reporting the Top 50, I'm guessing other Pop2K albums from Jake, ZOEgirl, Rachel Lampa and Jump5 are close behind.

As with anything, you can't move forward without looking back, and my hope is that as we explore next year's chart, along with the decade charts in 10 years, we'll see Christian music make an even larger dent in the overall landscape of music.