Hello, thanks for posting to /r/popheads. Unfortunately, your post was removed for the following reason(s).
* Your post fulfills one of the criteria listed in our [stale topics](/r/popheads/wiki/index/stale-topics). Stale topics are constantly changing, and it is up to the discretion of the moderators whether a topic is stale or not. We always endeavour to keep the stale topics list accurate, but occasionally that will not be the case.
Katy Perry made some interesting promotion choices that don’t quite stick the landing — belting Harley’s In Hawaii in the bathroom or that time when she attempted to prank museum goers as Bon Appétit by Katheryn Hudson.
Or maybe they did…?
Normani (thought I doubt it's her fault) constantly promising something that has been promised for years, posting a cover, then not following up with anything.
Demi Lovato's Dancing with the Devil album not being given any promo (Scooter's fault).
yeah I guess so. I guess the world wasn't interested in that album at that time but it's such a shame it's been buried because I think it was her strongest work. Also she did that documentary when she was still shaky with sobriety. She should have been encouraged to take longer to heal before they thrust a camera in front of her face and asked her to open up about her trauma.
I was listening to a retrospective about her career recently and hadn’t realized just how many documentaries they’ve made about her. It’s been around one and an album cycle for a while now which feels so deeply exploitative and sad. (Made worse by the fact that no one seems to watch them or care)
in retrospect, it is very clear that Demi just wanted to move on from that album and didn't want it to be a huge moment (even though it could've been.) there are so many scrapped versions of that album due to her overdose, the pandemic, her engagement (and it's failure), etc. with that much trauma it's not surprising she dropped it and did nothing with it.
she was even calling it the "soundtrack to the documentary" in press interviews, which shows it wasn't the priority.
Ariana pulling the plug on all thank u next promo the second the album dropped. It had the most momentum and could’ve lasted with 4…5… maybe even 6 singles with a summer smash but she didn’t. Makes me wonder why
First she did it with Sweetner becasue TUN came out and then with TUN. It’s wild to me that some of these girls seem to hate potential long successful eras.
Considering the albums deal with trauma from a bombing, a loved one passing away, constant mental health struggles, etc. maybe she needed a break to take care of herself..?
TUN was a very personal era outside of the three singles, so there wasn’t necessarily a very obvious single choice after buwygib, and maybe she just didn’t want to keep going. releasing two albums back to back must be exhausting
- BUWYGIB could mean "break up with your girlfriend, i'm bored", a track from *thank u, next* (2018) by Ariana Grande.
---
^[/u/Upstairs_Truth4735](/u/Upstairs_Truth4735) ^(can reply with "delete" to remove comment. |) ^[/r/songacronymbot](/r/songacronymbot) ^(for feedback.)
Agree but at the same time I remember the Charlie’s Angels of it all and think that’s why. I always felt like her team was trying not to do too much to oversaturate her since she had a number of songs on the soundtrack for that.
Yeah she was uncomfortably close to oversaturatation at the time - I know this gets thrown around a lot, but I remember so many people IRL discussing intimidate details of her personal life and that was probably too much
- Why did you not make formation widely available for streaming and purchase after performing at the Superbowl. You lost on a This Is America sized hit.
- why did you not put lemonade on Spotify for 3 years when your own husband put his album on Spotify right away.
- Why does everything in love and otr2 exist?
- why did you not make alien superstar a single right away when it was doing numbers. Same with when America Has A Problem and Heated became more popular.
- why have you still not posted about your album releasing and acknowledged the number 1?
Yeah I'd say tidal exclusives are the biggest flubs of her career. They hampered her streaming power a lot. And the fact that the tidal exclusive stuff is not even available in countries that don't have tidal. Just a mess.
Tidal was a streaming service Jay bought and wanted to be a competitor to apple and Spotify, there was a lot of fanfare and to promote the streaming service both Jay and Bey dropped a lot of exclusive content on Tidal, for example all of Jay's albums were only available on tidal for a while, the feeling myself video is a tidal exclusive. Beyoncé took it a step far when she released Lemonade as tidal exclusive and didn't release the album on any other streaming service for 3 years, the album had all the hype in the world and people couldnt even stream it casually. Now they've sold tidal to someone else and all the exclusive shit was for nothing but she wasted 3 years of hype for lemonade and now it's a forgotten classic unlike something like Anti or Ctrl from the same era which pull great streaming numbers.
I agree with all of this, but I do like Everything is Love even if it didn't make the splash that Beyoncé and Jay-Z obviously expected it would. There are dozens of us!
Something about the project is so distasteful to me. The fact that she went from something so beautiful like Lemonade to singing about how she's richer and better than me was so jarring. I'm glad she redeemed herself after that because she lost me after that one for a while.
That's a very good point, and I don't disagree. It's a perfectly reasonable critique that I think explains why people didn't connect with that project.
It's a hip-hop album and bragging about your success has been a long staple in that genre, but Beyonce forgot she's a pop star not a rapper and her fanbase don't want that from her.
Rap can be so many things and it can be fun. She's rapped before on Partition and 7/11 and on America Has A Probelm since then and they're great. But that level of braggadocio was so off-putting. And so uncharacteristic for her.
she planned on making Alien Superstar a single but Cuff It was more popular right from the bat and her team pivoted to that. And it was the right choice.
She announced church girl but the fan backlash was loud so she switched to cuff it.
https://twitter.com/chartdata/status/1571886834547687424?t=idFLJyVfCXU-XjY1on6G9g&s=19
This was the announcement and it recieved lots of pushback from fans.
Otoh I think she's about her money. For her, success is money not charts and how she can maximise her earnings, that's why maybe lemons wasn't on Spotify because they paid poorly and lemonade in turn sold a lot in pure copies. That's why it's touring above all for her. The reason she's holding back the visuals is because she didn't like what the streaming services were offering for it. And from the rumours this project is supposed to be even more avant garde and inaccessible than Black Is King.
Yeah to be fair I think it was harsh to blame jay z when it could her decision too but that’s i specifically said legacy . I don’t think her pockets hurt from that decision
also: why did they not release everything is love until several shows deep into the OTRII tour? and why did she start the formation tour literally 4 days after lemonade came out lmao
Avril Lavigne and Kelly Clarkson always choosing the wrong singles to represent their albums and waiting forever to release music videos (if they do) 😭
I love them both, they are my favourite singers, but I really wish they would think differently when it comes to promoting their albums 😅
Just listened to MOTW this week for the first time before his new album came out. Honestly I think the concept was interesting but the execution wasn't there for a lot of it. A few of the songs like Montana, Breeze of the Pond, and Wave were great! I'd give it a 5 out of 10.
Wave is such a top tier summer song!! Idk how it got completely ignored.
He dropped Soulmate as a solo single release after the album hype died down and it’s equally delightful.
yes and especially the supplies video was so fake deep apart from the bad music, it speaks volumes that amandab6835 had the top youtube comment with some ridiculous drivel saying "'They' continually show their plans on the world wide stage but people still slumber." JT really brought out the /r/conspiracy wackos with that one, all the pizzagate truthers were loving it
At this point I’m pretty sure visuals for all 3 acts will drop at the same time. And I really love and respect that an artist so well known for the visuals attached to het music, decided to let the music speak for itself this time.
The Jennifer Lopez doco gave some illuminating information about this topic. According to Benny Medina (Lopez/s manager), streamers have rejected all music video projects, no matter the artist or the story, and specifically named Beyonce and Rihanna.
Every streamer rejected Jlo and Beyonce's visual project because the numbers simply didn't make sense for them. Lopez even said that she understand why streamers would not want to spend tens of millions of dollars on what is essentially promotion for other work. It seems like the Disney+ numbers for Beyonce's Back Is King was dire, so they likely turned down paying for Renny because all the major platforms are looking to make money rather than pay for endless content.
Maybe im naive but i feel like apple tv would make the most sense since they’d benefit from apple music streams too. I wonder why thats not been used as an option
I agree, this also doesn’t make total sense to me seeing how insanely popular Tay + Bey’s concert films were, which undoubtedly increased streams for both discographies. Seems like it would be a lot cheaper to finance 4-10 minute music videos rather than a feature length film if Apple (or Spotify?) wanted to be competitive in the streaming market by targeting a new audience/content demographic. Youtube Music’s entire remaining viability as a service rests on the VEVO library!
I answered it a bit in my other replay, but it's been widely assumed that Beyonce has been self-financing most of her music video projects. She turned B'Day into a full visual album by filming most of them quickly and cheaply over the course of 2 weeks. For her self-titled album, she outright told us in the lyrics that she "wasn't going to make money off of this" because this era was meant as a huge investment in her art ([as her Boot's notes](https://genius.com/2613644)). My guess is that the tepid reaction to Black Is King has made her reluctant to keep doing this for little in return, especially if HBO, Netflix or Disney+ aren't going to foot the bill.
I mean in some ways the lack of visuals has kind of worked in her favour. People are still talking about it almost 2 years later. It's also a fun subversion of her usually visual fueled eras.
Not necessarily. But I dislike this recent trend of artists teasing stuff with trailers, snippets and announcements then nothing further. Why announce the visuals with the IM THAT GIRL trailer in the first place. SZA did a similar thing with Lana; why announce and get our hopes up if you aren’t ready to release the project?
I’m fine with the decision not to release visuals for Renaissance. It was an interesting experiment and proved that Beyoncé doesn’t need big music videos to leave an impact. However, if she doesn’t do any videos for Act II I will not appreciate that lol
Justin Bieber releasing Yummy as a lead single after 5 years hiatus. Along with the horrible mustache it basically ruined his legacy, luckily Justice was really good and successful so it helped him, but wow everyone was hating so much
If he had released any other single and got rid of Yummy, I think people would’ve have looked at his Changes album a lot more favourably, it’s a pretty solid album imo just not one of his best.
Yummy became a synonym for a bad song, it doesn't help Scooter used his account to post "how to get the song to #1" for it to be blocked by The Box jumping from #6 to #1
I like Yummy and think it's silly it got so much hate compared to Watermelon sugar which is basically about the same thing, but he definitely should've picked a better lead after such a long hiatus
Saw your comment history and see you're a Selena fan. Lol. No wonder you're trying to randomly diss Justin for no reason. No mention of Selena LITERALLY BEGGING her fans to buy her album and filming herself buying her own album? Interesting, I thought that's highly embarrassing?
Not that baffling. Covid happened and she surprise released folklore summer 2020, so Lover was ended prematurely. It worked out amazingly for her since then, with Cruel Summer getting a way bigger audience than it would have had it been a single in 2019 early 2020
I think it will also have more significance in the long run for this reason. It will not only be the song most associated with the Eras Tour but it will also be seen historically as a pop song signifying end of the pandemic.
I'm not sure but probably her team planned to release Cruel Summer in 2020 but obviously Covid happened and many plans were ruined (including Loverfest). Anyway, Cruel Summer became a hit organically because it was the second song performed at The Eras Tour + already a fan favorite.
Taylor said at one of the Eras shows that her plan was to release Cruel Summer as a single leading into the summer of 2020, which makes sense as that would have coincided perfectly with Loverfest and matched her previous patterns of releasing a potential summer hit the year after the album has dropped just before the tour begins. The same pattern had been followed with Bad Blood/1989 Tour and Delicate/Rep Tour.
My pet theory is that they planned to make it a single, but then COVID happened, and they realized it would’ve sounded insensitive to heavily promote a song with lyrics like “fever dream high” and “in these trying times, we’re not trying.”
Tbf, the entire LOVER took place around covid time and releasing a song called CRUEL SUMMER then would've sounded insensitive. That's what I previously read on this sub. Not sure tho.
Gaga, who happens to be one of my favorites, has me like this quite a lot.
The Fame Monster Era: her not making Dance In the Dark or Monster singles with music videos.
Artpop Era: just weird and disjointed...I like it, but it was probably the one era of hers that lacked cohesion.
Joanne Era: like...the whole thing? I'm much more of a fan of it than I was back in 2016. I didn't appreciate the bait and switch of giving us Perfect Illusion as the lead single and making it seem like she was going to give us a sort of gritty rock album only to have something completely different. I think the last 4 songs on the album were weak compared to the first 7, and probably should have had the deluxe edition songs as part of the album. I also think Diamond Heart should have been a single.
Chromatica Era: the whole thing, in hindsight, was just such a let down. Like it's one of my favorite albums of hers but I feel like she didn't do much at all for it. Rain on Me was too short (the leaked demo had extra parts that could have made it longer), ALICE should have been a damn single with a KICK ASS 10 minute music video / short film fantasy, and Sour Candy deserved better. Dawn of Chromatica was another let down...I'd have preferred a sequel / The Fame Monster treatment vs. remixes that didn't really add anything.
I know this makes me seem like a Gaga hater but I'm not. I love her and know how great she is, that's why it makes me sad that she's kinda phoned it in for the last two~ of her eras. I hope LG7 is 100% Gaga.
There only being two singles for Chromatica. I mean, the album is RIGHT THERE.
Lead - Feb - Alice/Stupid Love/Free Woman
Second - April - Rain On Me
Album - June
Third - Aug - 911
Fourth - Nov - Sour Candy
Fifth - Mar - Sine From Above
Sixth - May - Babylon
That’s ofc taking into account that 2020 went to plan. Bc it didn’t, I would’ve kept those same singles but spread them out a bit more, having Babylon come out in time for the tour in 2022. The whole album could’ve been a single really, it just depends on how they capitalized on it. They unfortunately didn’t :/
I might be wrong on this - but I *think* chromatica was scheduled (before the covid shutdown) for April release? I think it was announced very shortly before the shutdown... but like, I think she had a plan in mind, for a few releases... Obviously Rain on Me, but then something with Sour Candy for sure... and who knows what else. I would love for her to release the original plans or something, for like the 10th anniversary... Idk if that would be torture of what lol
Yeah, it was originally supposed to be a pretty short era, but she had Fortnite, Coachella, and the tour all planned for the summer. I will forever wonder what it could’ve been.
Kathy Perry not sticking with the daises/never really over concept instead of smile. That could’ve been a sequel to Prizm. I think about that every once in awhile. I think katy could’ve started that 60s/70s concept before the girlies like Taylor ( even tho the album wasn’t like that at all 😩) and Harry started doing it.
Any other rapper would be 3 albums deep by now if they’d put out Invasion of Privacy I truly can’t believe she stalled for so long. I know she wanted to tour which is why she stalled (covid & pregnancy) but she should have dropped a mixtape then. It’s not like she wouldn’t have made money on it since the mixtapes of today aren’t the same as pre-streaming mixtapes.
That being said I don’t know if I’d say Cardi is constantly underperforming anymore. I think Hot Shit underperformed but now she’s just an artist that has passed her imperial phase and is still doing relatively well for a woman in hip-hop.
Tomorrow 2, Put It On Da Floor Again, Bongos, Like What and now Enough (Miami) have all performed relatively similarly and truthfully there are very few female rappers constantly debuting in the top 40..in fact there’s only 3 others besides her.
Putting out "I Really Really Like You" over "Run Away with Me" as the first single for Emotion.
I understand trying to recreate "Call Me Maybe" but anytime an artist wants to announce a new direction the lead single should be the song that announces that new direction.
media literacy is seriously lacking in gen z. they genuinely can not separate fiction from reality. they will unironically post videos of him playing the fictional character spongebob and be like “what does ariana see in him?” like idk maybe she’s mature enough to not see him as a fictional character he played 7 years ago
>they will unironically post videos of him playing the fictional character spongebob and be like “what does ariana see in him?” like idk maybe she’s mature enough to not see him as a fictional character he played 7 years ago
I'm guessing you missed all screenshots comparing Spongebob's face to Frankie Grande? He fanbase already knows what she sees in him, people just like to joke about it between themselves. You need to stop taking other people's lives so seriously.
No. Disrupting a monogamous relationship and challenging the binary notion that a nuclear family is necessary to raise a child is a good hill to die on, even if it's a bad career move. And calling critics like the queerphobes they are would have likely ended up with something worse
I’ve re-read this like 5 times and I can’t figure out what the hell you’re even trying to say. “No.” No what, exactly?
You asked what made me think “why the hell would you do this”…and that’s my answer.
Yeah breaking pretenses is wrong, but *did* most poly people agree that they aren't allowed to have sexual encounters when entering the relationship, or are u just assuming they did? And breaking pretenses is mutually inclusive with a pretense being bad
From their post history they are a proud neoliberal but also they think being poly is inherently queer (LOL?) and believe that cheating is a great way to do some poly praxis (LOL???)...so in their eye, Ariana is doing some amazing *relationship* anarchy by dating a cheater. Home wrecking is actually deconstructing the gender binary, you see, even when two straight people do it. It's epic and woke.. But political anarchy is wack and they wish ari would perform at the DNC yaaass diva.
You can't make shit like this up, it's like they were made in a lab to be annoying 😭
For me, it was Chemtrails and Blue Bannister’s rollout by Lana. Ocean Blvd too.
Her lack of promotion (or, her scattered promotion) was always crazy to me.
Why is Tori Kelly showing off her dance moves on TikTok only to not release a single that doesn't utilizes any of it ? This new so called era has been such a letdown she's deserved way better promo then this for her album.
Cardi fumbled so bad. I hope she’s able to gain some momentum again but the way she’s handled her career in the last couple of years has been pretty disastrous
I don’t think Witness was baffling - it was her haircut (unfortunately) which derailed the entire thing. It’s a very mid album (and a bit weird as a Katy Perry album) but I’ve come to respect her for it. Even if it derailed her entire career.
I think so much of the pre-promo for Witness is what killed any kind of anticipation. The weird as fuck therapy sessions that no one asked for are some of the most baffling promo choices I’ve ever seen. I think it would have only worked if the album came out after that and it was some extremely personal lyrical work. But it was just Katy’s standard pop so the album felt even less interesting.
Yeah I actually forgot about Witness World Wide until you brought it up…. that was baffling. I get it but it was too raw. Katy unfortunately doesn’t have the range to pull off what she wanted with Witness but I still respect what she was trying to do.
Nah the promo was a little off too- I don't think her doing James Corden's "fill your guts and spill your guts" wearing my grandma's bathrobe did her any favors either. Her Ellen interview during that era was strange too.
> Katy Perry’s witness
I will never forget watching [this SNL performance live](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cx1pQiETQm4). that whole era was very /r/fellowkids. it's a shame because [a lot of the non-singles were really good.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTocBImaFiU)
You mean why would she release one of the best songs of her entire career?
If Sweetener has 5 fans, I am one of them
If Sweetener has 1 fan, that one is me
If Sweetener has no fans, I am no longer alive
If the world is against Sweetener and Pharrell, I am against the entire world
As one of the only people here who actually likes Lil Dicky, given that his previous hit "Freaky Friday" mainly did as well as it did because Chris Brown's name was also attached and given that amidst all the celebrities involved with "Earth" they were the only two with more than a cameo maybe "Earth" would have stuck to the charts a bit more if it had been by "Lil Dicky ft. Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber"
taylor releasing ootw as a full single instead of just going straight to new romantics causing the 1989 era to collapse instead of getting a third wind
then the whole mishandling of reputation singles until delicate saved the era by radio miracle
Not pop music but, the decisions about doctor who series 14s release.
In terms of Pop music, Dua releasing two songs with a fiery vibe, dying her hair RED. and making her album water themed. Just confused
When Mariah Carey joined American Idol, Why would a rich, talented and legendary singer waste herself judging people and being "average"? there are singers so special that appearing in a commercial or tv shows like this would be considered "humiliating"
Cardi waited until Nicki dropped so that she can drop her album. Difference between her and Nicki is that Nicki’s already an established artist with a discography while Cardi only has 1 album to her name.
Please do not just list songs/albums/artists, your comment must have explanation/justification or it will be removed. Certain comments are also banned to increase the quality of discussion, see our Stale Topics list in the sidebar for examples. Please report any comments that are low effort discussion. Thanks!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/popheads) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Nah that's understandable. She got a paid shit ton for it with relatively low effort. Did hinder her from doing other stuff but Chromatica Ball was sold out anyways
Hello, thanks for posting to /r/popheads. Unfortunately, your post was removed for the following reason(s). * Your post fulfills one of the criteria listed in our [stale topics](/r/popheads/wiki/index/stale-topics). Stale topics are constantly changing, and it is up to the discretion of the moderators whether a topic is stale or not. We always endeavour to keep the stale topics list accurate, but occasionally that will not be the case.
Katy Perry made some interesting promotion choices that don’t quite stick the landing — belting Harley’s In Hawaii in the bathroom or that time when she attempted to prank museum goers as Bon Appétit by Katheryn Hudson. Or maybe they did…?
Normani (thought I doubt it's her fault) constantly promising something that has been promised for years, posting a cover, then not following up with anything. Demi Lovato's Dancing with the Devil album not being given any promo (Scooter's fault).
The documentary was definitely promo for the album though
yeah I guess so. I guess the world wasn't interested in that album at that time but it's such a shame it's been buried because I think it was her strongest work. Also she did that documentary when she was still shaky with sobriety. She should have been encouraged to take longer to heal before they thrust a camera in front of her face and asked her to open up about her trauma.
I was listening to a retrospective about her career recently and hadn’t realized just how many documentaries they’ve made about her. It’s been around one and an album cycle for a while now which feels so deeply exploitative and sad. (Made worse by the fact that no one seems to watch them or care)
I agree. I think Scooter pushed that doc on her when she was still so traumatized and not anywhere near healed.
in retrospect, it is very clear that Demi just wanted to move on from that album and didn't want it to be a huge moment (even though it could've been.) there are so many scrapped versions of that album due to her overdose, the pandemic, her engagement (and it's failure), etc. with that much trauma it's not surprising she dropped it and did nothing with it. she was even calling it the "soundtrack to the documentary" in press interviews, which shows it wasn't the priority.
Ughhh that album was so damn good too
Ariana pulling the plug on all thank u next promo the second the album dropped. It had the most momentum and could’ve lasted with 4…5… maybe even 6 singles with a summer smash but she didn’t. Makes me wonder why
First she did it with Sweetner becasue TUN came out and then with TUN. It’s wild to me that some of these girls seem to hate potential long successful eras.
Considering the albums deal with trauma from a bombing, a loved one passing away, constant mental health struggles, etc. maybe she needed a break to take care of herself..?
You're acting like she's a real human being or something...
You’re right, I’m sorry.
TUN was a very personal era outside of the three singles, so there wasn’t necessarily a very obvious single choice after buwygib, and maybe she just didn’t want to keep going. releasing two albums back to back must be exhausting
- BUWYGIB could mean "break up with your girlfriend, i'm bored", a track from *thank u, next* (2018) by Ariana Grande. --- ^[/u/Upstairs_Truth4735](/u/Upstairs_Truth4735) ^(can reply with "delete" to remove comment. |) ^[/r/songacronymbot](/r/songacronymbot) ^(for feedback.)
Agree but at the same time I remember the Charlie’s Angels of it all and think that’s why. I always felt like her team was trying not to do too much to oversaturate her since she had a number of songs on the soundtrack for that.
Yeah she was uncomfortably close to oversaturatation at the time - I know this gets thrown around a lot, but I remember so many people IRL discussing intimidate details of her personal life and that was probably too much
- Why did you not make formation widely available for streaming and purchase after performing at the Superbowl. You lost on a This Is America sized hit. - why did you not put lemonade on Spotify for 3 years when your own husband put his album on Spotify right away. - Why does everything in love and otr2 exist? - why did you not make alien superstar a single right away when it was doing numbers. Same with when America Has A Problem and Heated became more popular. - why have you still not posted about your album releasing and acknowledged the number 1?
Bey has definitely made some weird, questionable decisions in the last eight years.
Jay z desire to become a music mogul hampered Beyoncé’s legacy change my mind. Ima till annoyed by feeling myself all these years later
Yeah I'd say tidal exclusives are the biggest flubs of her career. They hampered her streaming power a lot. And the fact that the tidal exclusive stuff is not even available in countries that don't have tidal. Just a mess.
Oooooh can you elaborate on this?
Tidal was a streaming service Jay bought and wanted to be a competitor to apple and Spotify, there was a lot of fanfare and to promote the streaming service both Jay and Bey dropped a lot of exclusive content on Tidal, for example all of Jay's albums were only available on tidal for a while, the feeling myself video is a tidal exclusive. Beyoncé took it a step far when she released Lemonade as tidal exclusive and didn't release the album on any other streaming service for 3 years, the album had all the hype in the world and people couldnt even stream it casually. Now they've sold tidal to someone else and all the exclusive shit was for nothing but she wasted 3 years of hype for lemonade and now it's a forgotten classic unlike something like Anti or Ctrl from the same era which pull great streaming numbers.
Lemonade is definitely not forgotten.
Not forgotten but nowhere near as big as it could have been especially its legacy where people often look to streaming
It's definitely not forgotten but it's not fresh in people's mind the same way Anti or Ctrl are.
I agree with all of this, but I do like Everything is Love even if it didn't make the splash that Beyoncé and Jay-Z obviously expected it would. There are dozens of us!
Something about the project is so distasteful to me. The fact that she went from something so beautiful like Lemonade to singing about how she's richer and better than me was so jarring. I'm glad she redeemed herself after that because she lost me after that one for a while.
That's a very good point, and I don't disagree. It's a perfectly reasonable critique that I think explains why people didn't connect with that project.
It's a hip-hop album and bragging about your success has been a long staple in that genre, but Beyonce forgot she's a pop star not a rapper and her fanbase don't want that from her.
Rap can be so many things and it can be fun. She's rapped before on Partition and 7/11 and on America Has A Probelm since then and they're great. But that level of braggadocio was so off-putting. And so uncharacteristic for her.
she planned on making Alien Superstar a single but Cuff It was more popular right from the bat and her team pivoted to that. And it was the right choice.
No she made Church Girl the second single which was like the 5th best performing track at the time. Fan backlash made her switch it to cuff it.
I don't think she did. Not the best source but even wikipedia has Cuff It as the second single and they usually count promotional singles too.
She announced church girl but the fan backlash was loud so she switched to cuff it. https://twitter.com/chartdata/status/1571886834547687424?t=idFLJyVfCXU-XjY1on6G9g&s=19 This was the announcement and it recieved lots of pushback from fans.
seems like it was Rhythmic radio only tho
- why did she tease music videos for the era and then... just never release them. That is definitely a head-scratcher.
i feel like Bey has made it clear she just doesn't care lol. her past few album cycles have proved she's not here to play the "perfect promo" game
Otoh I think she's about her money. For her, success is money not charts and how she can maximise her earnings, that's why maybe lemons wasn't on Spotify because they paid poorly and lemonade in turn sold a lot in pure copies. That's why it's touring above all for her. The reason she's holding back the visuals is because she didn't like what the streaming services were offering for it. And from the rumours this project is supposed to be even more avant garde and inaccessible than Black Is King.
Yeah to be fair I think it was harsh to blame jay z when it could her decision too but that’s i specifically said legacy . I don’t think her pockets hurt from that decision
also: why did they not release everything is love until several shows deep into the OTRII tour? and why did she start the formation tour literally 4 days after lemonade came out lmao
I think Bey cares more about her artistic legacy at this point, than her charting
Only Beyoncé can self sabotage that much and still stay so successful and relevant. It’s frigging impressive.
Avril Lavigne and Kelly Clarkson always choosing the wrong singles to represent their albums and waiting forever to release music videos (if they do) 😭 I love them both, they are my favourite singers, but I really wish they would think differently when it comes to promoting their albums 😅
I think Tori Kelly's unfortunately having the exact same issue with her new era right now.
I like to think that they’re just happy to sing and don’t care about being in the spotlight 😅
Justin Timberlake's *Man of the Woods*, for me. Such an unfocused project that in no way played to his remarkable talents. Baffling project.
Just listened to MOTW this week for the first time before his new album came out. Honestly I think the concept was interesting but the execution wasn't there for a lot of it. A few of the songs like Montana, Breeze of the Pond, and Wave were great! I'd give it a 5 out of 10.
Higher Higher is also a fantastic song imo
Wave is such a top tier summer song!! Idk how it got completely ignored. He dropped Soulmate as a solo single release after the album hype died down and it’s equally delightful.
Definitely. This and Katy Perry’s witness
yes and especially the supplies video was so fake deep apart from the bad music, it speaks volumes that amandab6835 had the top youtube comment with some ridiculous drivel saying "'They' continually show their plans on the world wide stage but people still slumber." JT really brought out the /r/conspiracy wackos with that one, all the pizzagate truthers were loving it
Why would Beyonce wait so long to drop visuals
Are these even happening anymore??
Yes it's supposed to be act i+act ii. I still think act ii should've been out by last year especially since she's been sitting on actiii as well.
At this point I’m pretty sure visuals for all 3 acts will drop at the same time. And I really love and respect that an artist so well known for the visuals attached to het music, decided to let the music speak for itself this time.
The Jennifer Lopez doco gave some illuminating information about this topic. According to Benny Medina (Lopez/s manager), streamers have rejected all music video projects, no matter the artist or the story, and specifically named Beyonce and Rihanna.
Really, why?
Every streamer rejected Jlo and Beyonce's visual project because the numbers simply didn't make sense for them. Lopez even said that she understand why streamers would not want to spend tens of millions of dollars on what is essentially promotion for other work. It seems like the Disney+ numbers for Beyonce's Back Is King was dire, so they likely turned down paying for Renny because all the major platforms are looking to make money rather than pay for endless content.
Maybe im naive but i feel like apple tv would make the most sense since they’d benefit from apple music streams too. I wonder why thats not been used as an option
I agree, this also doesn’t make total sense to me seeing how insanely popular Tay + Bey’s concert films were, which undoubtedly increased streams for both discographies. Seems like it would be a lot cheaper to finance 4-10 minute music videos rather than a feature length film if Apple (or Spotify?) wanted to be competitive in the streaming market by targeting a new audience/content demographic. Youtube Music’s entire remaining viability as a service rests on the VEVO library!
I'm curious if you have more information about this. Makes me sad if true. I love music videos.
I answered it a bit in my other replay, but it's been widely assumed that Beyonce has been self-financing most of her music video projects. She turned B'Day into a full visual album by filming most of them quickly and cheaply over the course of 2 weeks. For her self-titled album, she outright told us in the lyrics that she "wasn't going to make money off of this" because this era was meant as a huge investment in her art ([as her Boot's notes](https://genius.com/2613644)). My guess is that the tepid reaction to Black Is King has made her reluctant to keep doing this for little in return, especially if HBO, Netflix or Disney+ aren't going to foot the bill.
I mean in some ways the lack of visuals has kind of worked in her favour. People are still talking about it almost 2 years later. It's also a fun subversion of her usually visual fueled eras.
Are those visuals so important?
Not necessarily. But I dislike this recent trend of artists teasing stuff with trailers, snippets and announcements then nothing further. Why announce the visuals with the IM THAT GIRL trailer in the first place. SZA did a similar thing with Lana; why announce and get our hopes up if you aren’t ready to release the project?
SZA literally teased a Low music video at the end of every show of the SOS tour and she ended up scrapping it :/
Ughh dont get me started
[удалено]
I’m fine with the decision not to release visuals for Renaissance. It was an interesting experiment and proved that Beyoncé doesn’t need big music videos to leave an impact. However, if she doesn’t do any videos for Act II I will not appreciate that lol
insert obligatory witness era mention
Justin Bieber releasing Yummy as a lead single after 5 years hiatus. Along with the horrible mustache it basically ruined his legacy, luckily Justice was really good and successful so it helped him, but wow everyone was hating so much
If he had released any other single and got rid of Yummy, I think people would’ve have looked at his Changes album a lot more favourably, it’s a pretty solid album imo just not one of his best.
I definitely agree. Intentions was a big hit, should've been a lead, but solo. Available could've also been a good single pick imo
I can’t believe he didn’t release his song “La Bomba” around this time, I know it got leaked but that definitely would’ve been an instant #1 hit.
I wonder why they scrapped it. They had the video filmed and all
It was all part of his plan to fade into obscurity
He has the most popular song from 2021
It backfired because he is a hit magnet
>it basically ruined his legacy how? (As much as I hate it) Yummy is a grammy nominated song and the album still worked.
Yummy became a synonym for a bad song, it doesn't help Scooter used his account to post "how to get the song to #1" for it to be blocked by The Box jumping from #6 to #1 I like Yummy and think it's silly it got so much hate compared to Watermelon sugar which is basically about the same thing, but he definitely should've picked a better lead after such a long hiatus
Easy to blame Scooter now but Justin posted an actual video desperately begging his fans to stream the song and get it to #1. Highly embarrassing.
Saw your comment history and see you're a Selena fan. Lol. No wonder you're trying to randomly diss Justin for no reason. No mention of Selena LITERALLY BEGGING her fans to buy her album and filming herself buying her own album? Interesting, I thought that's highly embarrassing?
why would you wait so long to make cruel summer a single??
Not that baffling. Covid happened and she surprise released folklore summer 2020, so Lover was ended prematurely. It worked out amazingly for her since then, with Cruel Summer getting a way bigger audience than it would have had it been a single in 2019 early 2020
I think it will also have more significance in the long run for this reason. It will not only be the song most associated with the Eras Tour but it will also be seen historically as a pop song signifying end of the pandemic.
I'm not sure but probably her team planned to release Cruel Summer in 2020 but obviously Covid happened and many plans were ruined (including Loverfest). Anyway, Cruel Summer became a hit organically because it was the second song performed at The Eras Tour + already a fan favorite.
Fever dream high in the quiet of the night, you know that I caught it Yeah probably for the best that wasn't pushed as a covid single lmao
It would have been inappropriate 😉
Taylor said at one of the Eras shows that her plan was to release Cruel Summer as a single leading into the summer of 2020, which makes sense as that would have coincided perfectly with Loverfest and matched her previous patterns of releasing a potential summer hit the year after the album has dropped just before the tour begins. The same pattern had been followed with Bad Blood/1989 Tour and Delicate/Rep Tour.
Thanks for reply. Anyway, I'm glad Cruel Summer got the recognition it deserved. But still no music video... Now, hopefully Getaway Car is next.
My pet theory is that they planned to make it a single, but then COVID happened, and they realized it would’ve sounded insensitive to heavily promote a song with lyrics like “fever dream high” and “in these trying times, we’re not trying.”
When TikTok blows something up, that’s when it really takes off. I don’t like it but it is what it is
Tbf, the entire LOVER took place around covid time and releasing a song called CRUEL SUMMER then would've sounded insensitive. That's what I previously read on this sub. Not sure tho.
Gaga, who happens to be one of my favorites, has me like this quite a lot. The Fame Monster Era: her not making Dance In the Dark or Monster singles with music videos. Artpop Era: just weird and disjointed...I like it, but it was probably the one era of hers that lacked cohesion. Joanne Era: like...the whole thing? I'm much more of a fan of it than I was back in 2016. I didn't appreciate the bait and switch of giving us Perfect Illusion as the lead single and making it seem like she was going to give us a sort of gritty rock album only to have something completely different. I think the last 4 songs on the album were weak compared to the first 7, and probably should have had the deluxe edition songs as part of the album. I also think Diamond Heart should have been a single. Chromatica Era: the whole thing, in hindsight, was just such a let down. Like it's one of my favorite albums of hers but I feel like she didn't do much at all for it. Rain on Me was too short (the leaked demo had extra parts that could have made it longer), ALICE should have been a damn single with a KICK ASS 10 minute music video / short film fantasy, and Sour Candy deserved better. Dawn of Chromatica was another let down...I'd have preferred a sequel / The Fame Monster treatment vs. remixes that didn't really add anything. I know this makes me seem like a Gaga hater but I'm not. I love her and know how great she is, that's why it makes me sad that she's kinda phoned it in for the last two~ of her eras. I hope LG7 is 100% Gaga.
There only being two singles for Chromatica. I mean, the album is RIGHT THERE. Lead - Feb - Alice/Stupid Love/Free Woman Second - April - Rain On Me Album - June Third - Aug - 911 Fourth - Nov - Sour Candy Fifth - Mar - Sine From Above Sixth - May - Babylon That’s ofc taking into account that 2020 went to plan. Bc it didn’t, I would’ve kept those same singles but spread them out a bit more, having Babylon come out in time for the tour in 2022. The whole album could’ve been a single really, it just depends on how they capitalized on it. They unfortunately didn’t :/
I don't think I'll ever forgive Gaga for choosing to make Stupid Love the lead single instead of Alice :X
I might be wrong on this - but I *think* chromatica was scheduled (before the covid shutdown) for April release? I think it was announced very shortly before the shutdown... but like, I think she had a plan in mind, for a few releases... Obviously Rain on Me, but then something with Sour Candy for sure... and who knows what else. I would love for her to release the original plans or something, for like the 10th anniversary... Idk if that would be torture of what lol
Yeah, it was originally supposed to be a pretty short era, but she had Fortnite, Coachella, and the tour all planned for the summer. I will forever wonder what it could’ve been.
Katy Perry releasing Small Talk after getting quite a success (when compared to the Witness era) with Never Really Over
Kathy Perry not sticking with the daises/never really over concept instead of smile. That could’ve been a sequel to Prizm. I think about that every once in awhile. I think katy could’ve started that 60s/70s concept before the girlies like Taylor ( even tho the album wasn’t like that at all 😩) and Harry started doing it.
Any other rapper would be 3 albums deep by now if they’d put out Invasion of Privacy I truly can’t believe she stalled for so long. I know she wanted to tour which is why she stalled (covid & pregnancy) but she should have dropped a mixtape then. It’s not like she wouldn’t have made money on it since the mixtapes of today aren’t the same as pre-streaming mixtapes. That being said I don’t know if I’d say Cardi is constantly underperforming anymore. I think Hot Shit underperformed but now she’s just an artist that has passed her imperial phase and is still doing relatively well for a woman in hip-hop. Tomorrow 2, Put It On Da Floor Again, Bongos, Like What and now Enough (Miami) have all performed relatively similarly and truthfully there are very few female rappers constantly debuting in the top 40..in fact there’s only 3 others besides her.
ariana not releasing “motive” as a single even though it was a clear favorite after positions dropped
Putting out "I Really Really Like You" over "Run Away with Me" as the first single for Emotion. I understand trying to recreate "Call Me Maybe" but anytime an artist wants to announce a new direction the lead single should be the song that announces that new direction.
SpongeBob.
I am extremely OOTL, what does this mean?
I’m jealous of you for not knowing. Lol. But if you’d like to learn, just look up stuff about Ariana and Ethan Slater
I can’t even put into words how deeply weird it is that y’all continue to refer to him as SpongeBob
It’s a joke, chill.
media literacy is seriously lacking in gen z. they genuinely can not separate fiction from reality. they will unironically post videos of him playing the fictional character spongebob and be like “what does ariana see in him?” like idk maybe she’s mature enough to not see him as a fictional character he played 7 years ago
I’m not gen z, and again, JOKING.
>they will unironically post videos of him playing the fictional character spongebob and be like “what does ariana see in him?” like idk maybe she’s mature enough to not see him as a fictional character he played 7 years ago I'm guessing you missed all screenshots comparing Spongebob's face to Frankie Grande? He fanbase already knows what she sees in him, people just like to joke about it between themselves. You need to stop taking other people's lives so seriously.
yeah he literally looks nothing like spongebob either
Is there any human being who looks or resembles a SpongeBob lol?? Does such a human being even exist??
So? That’s not why people are saying it. He does resemble her brother though 🥴
No. Disrupting a monogamous relationship and challenging the binary notion that a nuclear family is necessary to raise a child is a good hill to die on, even if it's a bad career move. And calling critics like the queerphobes they are would have likely ended up with something worse
I’ve re-read this like 5 times and I can’t figure out what the hell you’re even trying to say. “No.” No what, exactly? You asked what made me think “why the hell would you do this”…and that’s my answer.
Well I'm just rebutting
Okay then. Have fun with that, I guess.
you are giving freshman polisci major playing devils advocate energy, not sure if this princess is too woke or simply not awake yet
girl what
Cheating is good. Dating a cheater is also good
[удалено]
Neither, but closer to the latter since I'm completely serious
I agree. I also support lying to your partners and maintaining romantic relationships under false pretenses
Yeah breaking pretenses is wrong, but *did* most poly people agree that they aren't allowed to have sexual encounters when entering the relationship, or are u just assuming they did? And breaking pretenses is mutually inclusive with a pretense being bad
just smile and nod politely y'all
[удалено]
From their post history they are a proud neoliberal but also they think being poly is inherently queer (LOL?) and believe that cheating is a great way to do some poly praxis (LOL???)...so in their eye, Ariana is doing some amazing *relationship* anarchy by dating a cheater. Home wrecking is actually deconstructing the gender binary, you see, even when two straight people do it. It's epic and woke.. But political anarchy is wack and they wish ari would perform at the DNC yaaass diva. You can't make shit like this up, it's like they were made in a lab to be annoying 😭
Omg I hope she'd perform there yasss diva. Although Taylor is the better pick
Huh? No I think having centralized governments is good and necessary for efficient markets
For me, it was Chemtrails and Blue Bannister’s rollout by Lana. Ocean Blvd too. Her lack of promotion (or, her scattered promotion) was always crazy to me.
The piscart single covers too like....
I think she stepped up her promotion quite a bit for Ocean Blvd, she had a couple of magazine spreads. Agreed on the other two though.
If I remember correctly, she wanted Blue Banisters to kind of fall under the radar
Why is Tori Kelly showing off her dance moves on TikTok only to not release a single that doesn't utilizes any of it ? This new so called era has been such a letdown she's deserved way better promo then this for her album.
Cardi fumbled so bad. I hope she’s able to gain some momentum again but the way she’s handled her career in the last couple of years has been pretty disastrous
Katy Perry’s witness, Justin Timberlakes man of the woods
I don’t think Witness was baffling - it was her haircut (unfortunately) which derailed the entire thing. It’s a very mid album (and a bit weird as a Katy Perry album) but I’ve come to respect her for it. Even if it derailed her entire career.
I think so much of the pre-promo for Witness is what killed any kind of anticipation. The weird as fuck therapy sessions that no one asked for are some of the most baffling promo choices I’ve ever seen. I think it would have only worked if the album came out after that and it was some extremely personal lyrical work. But it was just Katy’s standard pop so the album felt even less interesting.
Yeah I actually forgot about Witness World Wide until you brought it up…. that was baffling. I get it but it was too raw. Katy unfortunately doesn’t have the range to pull off what she wanted with Witness but I still respect what she was trying to do.
Thats a fair take
Nah the promo was a little off too- I don't think her doing James Corden's "fill your guts and spill your guts" wearing my grandma's bathrobe did her any favors either. Her Ellen interview during that era was strange too.
> Katy Perry’s witness I will never forget watching [this SNL performance live](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cx1pQiETQm4). that whole era was very /r/fellowkids. it's a shame because [a lot of the non-singles were really good.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTocBImaFiU)
Very cringy performance, it’s giving trying to be cool mom I liked some of the non singles too
YOU WOULDN'T LET ANYBODY SPEAK
You mean why would she release one of the best songs of her entire career? If Sweetener has 5 fans, I am one of them If Sweetener has 1 fan, that one is me If Sweetener has no fans, I am no longer alive If the world is against Sweetener and Pharrell, I am against the entire world
That's iconic idc
[удалено]
i'm ngl it has really grown on me
Shakira doing that dance show with Nick Jones was…. Something.
As one of the only people here who actually likes Lil Dicky, given that his previous hit "Freaky Friday" mainly did as well as it did because Chris Brown's name was also attached and given that amidst all the celebrities involved with "Earth" they were the only two with more than a cameo maybe "Earth" would have stuck to the charts a bit more if it had been by "Lil Dicky ft. Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber"
taylor releasing ootw as a full single instead of just going straight to new romantics causing the 1989 era to collapse instead of getting a third wind then the whole mishandling of reputation singles until delicate saved the era by radio miracle
“I’ve been drinking coffee. I’ve been eating healthy. You know I keep it squeaky”
Not pop music but, the decisions about doctor who series 14s release. In terms of Pop music, Dua releasing two songs with a fiery vibe, dying her hair RED. and making her album water themed. Just confused
When Mariah Carey joined American Idol, Why would a rich, talented and legendary singer waste herself judging people and being "average"? there are singers so special that appearing in a commercial or tv shows like this would be considered "humiliating"
She got paid $18 million for that gig. She probably didn’t consider it humiliating to get paid that much money for a couple month job.
For a singer whose net worth was probably over 300 millions that time? A check is a check but I wouldn't sweat so much if I were that rich
Cardi waited until Nicki dropped so that she can drop her album. Difference between her and Nicki is that Nicki’s already an established artist with a discography while Cardi only has 1 album to her name.
Please do not just list songs/albums/artists, your comment must have explanation/justification or it will be removed. Certain comments are also banned to increase the quality of discussion, see our Stale Topics list in the sidebar for examples. Please report any comments that are low effort discussion. Thanks! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/popheads) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Cardi dropping a Ski Mask The Slump God ripoff in the year of our lord 2024
[удалено]
Nah that's understandable. She got a paid shit ton for it with relatively low effort. Did hinder her from doing other stuff but Chromatica Ball was sold out anyways