a longstanding, oft-repeated claim in the music industry and the mainstream press is that styx were the first band to release four consecutive "triple"-platinum albums, signifying at least 3 million units sold. during the period when these albums charted, the riaa's only certifications were for gold (500,000 units sold) and platinum (1 million). multi-platinum awards were introduced in late october 1984. following this development, record companies submitted their most popular artists' sales records to accountants in order to achieve the new thresholds.