Despite the presumed dominance of the many high-profile album releases over the last few months (Britney, J,Lo, the Beastie Boys, etc.), the biggest-selling star is British powerhouse Adele, whose sophomore album "21" just snagged the #1 spot on the Billboard albums chart for the seventh week since its release.

Adele fans aren't surprised, given the album's rave reviews and the chart-climbing single "Rolling in the Deep," but the fact that the somewhat lesser-known U.K. import has basically defeated pop-music royalty has raised a few eyebrows.

One man who couldn't be more excited about the new crop of album sellers is songwriter/producer Evan Bogart. When MTV news caught up with him recently to discuss one of his many projects — he's an executive producer on the upcoming Bravo songwriting contest "Platinum Hit," which premieres May 30 — we got sidetracked with a conversation about the state of pop music and current chart-toppers.

"I think the songwriting is getting a lot better," Bogart said. "I think that the general public is becoming more in tune with real artists and you see the recognition finally of people like the Black Keys and people like Mumford & Sons jumping on the scene, and obviously people like Adele," he said. "I think those people are selling albums, and I think there's a lot of top 40 candy pop — which, by the way, I definitely write some of — are selling a lot of singles. I think the line between who's selling singles and who's selling albums has been drawn in the sand."

Bogart, who's responsible for hits like Beyoncé's "Halo" and Rihanna's "SOS," went on to say that it's becoming more apparent which artists are in it for the single and which ones are in it for a career.

"The people who are in it for the career are starting to cut through the nonsense," he said, which brought us back to Adele and "Rolling in the Deep."

" 'Rolling in the Deep' is still climbing, like, 2,000 spins a week. It's still flying up the top 40 charts. That makes me so happy," Bogart said. "I know at this point, people who are Adele fans or people who are on it are like, 'Oh my God, I'm sick of this song, can we just talk about the rest of the album?' But it's so important that this song gets into the top five and reaches #1," he emphasized. "It's so important for music. People don't understand how important it is that someone like Adele can top the top 40 charts; it's going to change music. Real music can be done, and it doesn't have to be something with a four on the floor and a rehashed synth with the same kind of chords played in a different order, basically the same song written over and over and over again, in order to get top 40 success.

"It really, really makes my soul happy to see a song like that flying up the charts," he continued, adding that it's a sign of very good things to come. "I think both the music business and the actual music within the music business are on the precipice of a new golden era, a new golden age."

Do you agree with Bogart? Are we on the precipice of a new age in music? Tell us in the comments!

Why? The album, which won't get released on CD until January 20, dropped on January 6 in a deluxe double-LP 180-gram gatefold vinyl format accompanied by a full album download. And thanks to a series of listening parties across the country, it just might break into the albums chart next week, thanks to vinyl sales only. Yeah, that's right, vinyl sales only (and, oh man, do Web sites loooooove to write about this wacky anachronism).

In an age when downloads are routinely trouncing physical sales, the prospect of one of those old-school albums crashing the party is as quaint as, well, having a bandleader named Panda Bear (as Animal Collective does). Based on the low-hanging-fruit figures on the most recent Nielsen SoundScan tally — which represents the typical early-January dead zone in sales — Merriweather could chart in the mid-160s thanks to the immediate sellout of all 4,500 copies of the initial run.

But because so many of those albums were sold in independent stores that don't report to SoundScan, it's impossible to know until Wednesday if the official figures will put the band on the charts. At press time, an unofficial tally on SoundScan put sales at less than 200 copies. To put this feat in perspective, though, Domino Recording Company spokesperson Peter Berard said that Merriweather sold almost as many vinyl copies in one day (including preorders) as the band's September 2007 album, Strawberry Jam, has sold to date on vinyl.

For now, one of the only places you can get Merriweather is Amazon.com, but Berard said a second press run is under way and another 5,000 vinyl editions should be available within the next three to five weeks.