Do artists release new albums too regularly nowadays?
swordofomens
Posts: 267 Forum Member
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I was just thinking this as acts like Michael Jackson & Madonna used to release new studio albums every like 3 - 5 years back in the 80s & 90s but nowadays people like Rihanna release new studio albums yearly or every couple of years.
Do you prefer long gaps or close together releases? I personally like longer gaps as you get to miss the artist and its more exciting when they make a new record.
Longer gaps also enable the artist to have more artistic growth.
Do you prefer long gaps or close together releases? I personally like longer gaps as you get to miss the artist and its more exciting when they make a new record.
Longer gaps also enable the artist to have more artistic growth.
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Although people moan about Rihanna doing it (and people have been doing it for decades), she shows loads of growth in her music and she continues to be more and more successful
Dirty Mind, Controversy, 1999, Purple Rain, ATWIAD, Parade, Sign O The Times, Lovesexy and not forgetting The Black Album.
Perhaps the likes of Madonna & MJ, could not compete on that level.
Rihannas music is not becoming more and more successful though.
She's more of a factory than an artist, churning them out one after the other.
How is she not becoming more and more successful?
Diamonds and Stay have been huge hits all around the world and her Tour has been a huge success. She is the youngest artist ever to have sold out stadiums at the age of 25. If that isn't continued success, then what is.
Well Album sales seem to have kept going down since Good Girl Gone Bad, with the exception of Loud and that is still down by a million sales in the US & over a million sales down on worldwide.
That's what I meant, her music isn't selling as well.
And I believe that's a decline in quality.
Each album has got poorer and poorer since good girl gone bad.
And she doesn't even write her own music, so its not like she's tired out from creativity .
No Rihanna doesn't write her music, but she isn't the only one. But that doesn't mean she isn't tired. Rihanna knows what producers and songwriters to work with. She knows the theme, the type of songs she wants as well as having a say in the videos and tour she does. I believe she is more hands on than what people think.
They have a writing camp with a bunch of producers and songwriters for her every year. It isn't so much as her knowing what producers and songwriters to work with. It's more of them all working together to present her something to see if she likes it.
the longer times between releases were initiated by record labels who wanted more time to market albums as a product so didn't want their biggest artists releasing more often than every two years. prince was one of the artists famous for disputing this as he would create so much music so quickly that the record company had a problem in releasing it
newer artists are encouraged usually to release an album each year at the beginning to keep the momentum of sales and fans going, especially pop artists, which is why it seems like some acts have an album out almost every few months. unfortunately those type of acts don't have half the talent of stevie wonder and james brown so the releases suffer
Her stadium tour was crap too. She really needs a break :sleep:
I wonder how on earth Black Sabbath fans managed to cope.
The Saturdays did at first (Chasing Lights came out in 2008 and Wordshaker came out in 2009) but excluding Headlines they seem to be releasing new albums every two years now.
Def Jam's approach with Rihanna is more akin to the Japanese formula of frequent EPs to package new singles, than it is with her peers. They know that with her, she's only as good as her last hit single so as long as they consistently deliver those each year (regardless of how many flops come inbetween) they're safe - and by creating and delivering new music within months, they ensure the highest possibility of hit by riding current trends and using the hottest producers/writers. There's far less risk there than predicting a year or so in advance or creating something timeless that will smash regardless.The album isn't of high importance to them - they're effectively B sides to singles.
There's next to no integrity or artistic merit to that approach, but it's certainly on the ball in terms of marketing.
For people that mainly listen to female pop stars or rock music, 12 new songs a year seems like a lot. In the world of hip hop or even dance, 12 songs a year isn't much. There's artists in these genres that might go a year without releasing anything, but there's also loads releasing an album, and also a dozen other songs (remixes, collaborations, mixtapes, etc.), which makes Rihanna's music output seem quite normal to me.
Unlike Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, rock groups, etc, Rihanna crosses over to urban and dance audiences a little bit, and with those people a higher output of music is expected.
JLS every year, Olly Murs every year, One Direction every year and Little Mix every year I know it's not the same as Ri's output for length but it looks like the plan (except JLS now disbanding!). Of course these are X Factor acts so have to get the album out end of the year for X Factor promo
Oh and just thought hasn't Bruno Mars had an album a year too?
Yes Bono trying to right the World