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What's the 'Best' selling FLOP album ever! |
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#1 |
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What's the 'Best' selling FLOP album ever!
I register a flop album as comparing it to a previous release standard set by a group or artist. There is no such thing a flop debut album because they have nothing to compare it to. Taking that into account surely Alanis Morissette's Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie wins hands down.
After Jagged Little Pills massive success the follow up started with a massive campaign, high airplay worldwide for single 'Thank You' and incredible debut sales around the world, especially in the US. However sales slumped, the album stormed out of the charts quickly in every territory which resulted in a decline of 70+% in sales, a string of flop/ uncharted singles, a massive part of her fan base alienated due to a new musical direction, limited media attention afterwards and overall lack of interest in her at all despite this release being one of her best releases and my personal favorite. For a normal album the 9,000,000 it did sell would be a brilliant feat but coming from the success of Jagged Little Pill which has sold 33,000,000 worldwide and continues to sell 2,000+ weekly in the US and is labeled one of the best albums of the 90's and probably of all time. Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie is arguably one of the biggest flops of the last 20 years despite it's decent sales. What's do you think is potentially the best selling album that could or is labeled a 'flop' release. |
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#2 |
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From user name only I think most of the forum could tell what your post was going to be about before they even open the thread.
I am kind of 50/50 on it. Most people can see that it was not technically a flop. I see where you are coming from and totally accept your point, but I am not sure how many people saw it as a flop outside the hardcore fans and some music mags. Most of the music media didn't start the backlash until way after URS. HABL. Now there is a flop in the real sense. But again, pretty much her own fault through not giving a shit about it after the first single. |
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#3 |
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Quote:
From user name only I think most of the forum could tell what your post was going to be about before they even open the thread.
I am kind of 50/50 on it. Most people can see that it was not technically a flop. I see where you are coming from and totally accept your point, but I am not sure how many people saw it as a flop outside the hardcore fans and some music mags. Most of the music media didn't start the backlash until way after URS. HABL. Now there is a flop in the real sense. But again, pretty much her own fault through not giving a shit about it after the first single. |
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#4 |
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Quote:
HABL isn't really a flop though her last album barely sold 600,000 and estimations say HABL has reached like 400,000 worldwide. I would say that's pretty good considering.
I adore her and have supported her since 95, but you would have to be very disillusioned to believe HABL was anything but a flop. In the sense you are talking about in this thread. It split the fans, it sold very badly and it died within months. I love it, I have 12 different editions of the frigging thing, but it has not sold very well. I accept your point about FOE, that didn't set the world alight either. But she doesn't seem to care and is pretty happy. On the other side of it, Souleye will consider his CD to have sold well with a tenth of those sales, which will have a huge contribution from Alanis fans wanting the 3 duet tracks. |
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#5 |
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Michael Jackson's BAD is seem as a flop by some, as it sold far less than Thriller, but it is still one of the best selling albums ever, and generated so many hits.
MJ's Invincible got a lot of criticism and again is seen as a flop, but i'm sure it still sold over 10million, which is a figure most artists dream of. |
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#6 |
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Adele's next album will be deemed a "flop" if she fails to shift at least 20 million units
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#7 |
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Madonna's 'Erotica'. Obviously far from the sales of 'LAV', 'TB' and most importantly 'LAP', but still a decent success. Too bad that it seems to be remembered as part of her underperforming period alongside with 'Bedtime Stories'.
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#8 |
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Quote:
Adele's next album will be deemed a "flop" if she fails to shift at least 20 million units
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#9 |
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'Tusk' maybe?
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#10 |
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flop
a defintiion is required it is: a. a heavy underperformance based on critical appraisal or expected/predicted sales and/or b. below 20% of previous album or album average sales for an artist and/or c. a negative equity (despite heavy promotion, music videos, advertisments - the sales of singles/albums or tours for era lead to a 20% of previous or average era`s for an artist) |
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#11 |
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Lots of big names from the 70s normally had a couple of albums that did not chart in their back catalogue. As it was sometimes the 3rd 4th or 5th album that broke them.
However the fans of these bands often claim that the first two albums by these groups are just as good or better than the breakthrough album. Some of these albums have gone gold and still sell well today even though they never charted on the UK album charts. |
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#12 |
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It depends on the artist. Born This Way could be considered a flop as it failed to match the success of even The Fame Monster.
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#13 |
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Quote:
Madonna's 'Erotica'. Obviously far from the sales of 'LAV', 'TB' and most importantly 'LAP', but still a decent success. Too bad that it seems to be remembered as part of her underperforming period alongside with 'Bedtime Stories'.
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#14 |
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WTF...
Well surely if someone's debut under performs from the record labels expectations then their album has flopped(e.g. Tulisa)? However, I think this whole comparison thing is stupid. For example, Adele's third album is very unlikely to match the success of her second. So even if it goes platinum and outsells many other albums, it's still going to be labelled a "flop" isn't it? I find that rather pathetic TBH. Edit: Oh crap, I see all my points have already been made. But I'm still going to leave my post here in protest as I just find this whole thing very annoying. |
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#15 |
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Quote:
Michael Jackson's BAD is seem as a flop by some, as it sold far less than Thriller, but it is still one of the best selling albums ever, and generated so many hits.
MJ's Invincible got a lot of criticism and again is seen as a flop, but i'm sure it still sold over 10million, which is a figure most artists dream of. |
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#16 |
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I hate the word flop.
It's unfair to gauge a successful album as a failure simply because it underperformed compared to it's predecessor, especially if that predecessor is an album like Adele's 21, which had unusually high sales figures. People can't expect exponential growth in an area such as album sales. labelling a relatively successful album a flop is unfair and gives an inaccurate image of how an artist is doing. For example, you'd swear by posters on here constantly saying that Lady Gaga's Born This Way was "flop flop flOP FLOP FLOOOPPPP!" that it had completely bombed and that her career was in dire straits. But it was still in the Top 10 best selling albums of 2011 in both the UK and worldwide.
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#17 |
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Quote:
I hate the word flop.
It's unfair to gauge a successful album as a failure simply because it underperformed compared to it's predecessor, especially if that predecessor is an album like Adele's 21, which had unusually high sales figures. People can't expect exponential growth in an area such as album sales. labelling a relatively successful album a flop is unfair and gives an inaccurate image of how an artist is doing. For example, you'd swear by posters on here constantly saying that Lady Gaga's Born This Way was "flop flop flOP FLOP FLOOOPPPP!" that it had completely bombed and that her career was in dire straits. But it was still in the Top 10 best selling albums of 2011 in both the UK and worldwide. ![]()
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#18 |
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#19 |
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Quote:
HABL. Now there is a flop in the real sense. But again, pretty much her own fault through not giving a shit about it after the first single. Wouldn't Leona's Echo qualify for this thread? |
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#20 |
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Quote:
Erm, which album is HABL?
Wouldn't Leona's Echo qualify for this thread? ![]() Yes i would say so Echo flopped everywhere except the UK which also saw a huge decline in sales no matte rhow much her fans argue against it
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#21 |
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Join Date: Jun 2010
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Quote:
I hate the word flop.
It's unfair to gauge a successful album as a failure simply because it underperformed compared to it's predecessor, especially if that predecessor is an album like Adele's 21, which had unusually high sales figures. People can't expect exponential growth in an area such as album sales. labelling a relatively successful album a flop is unfair and gives an inaccurate image of how an artist is doing. For example, you'd swear by posters on here constantly saying that Lady Gaga's Born This Way was "flop flop flOP FLOP FLOOOPPPP!" that it had completely bombed and that her career was in dire straits. But it was still in the Top 10 best selling albums of 2011 in both the UK and worldwide. ![]() In terms of Born This Way, it appears that folk online have repeated that it was a flop enough that they've warped reality and now people genuinely believe it. |
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#22 |
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Quote:
And HABL is Havoc And Bright Lights her last album
![]() It feels like she mellowed herself out after that album and became less interesting although I did give up on her after Under Rug Swept. |
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#23 |
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Thanks. I loved SFAJ but that was because it was messy, harsh and quite challenging at times. Loved the agressive sound of Baba, Sympathetic Character, Can't Not and Joining U.
It feels like she mellowed herself out after that album and became less interesting although I did give up on her after Under Rug Swept.
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#24 |
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Invicible is regarded as a flop because the label spent a ridiculous amount of it. Apparently they spent 25 million on the whole project and none of it was ever made back. I don't know if that is true.
On the other hand you have Michael Jackson putting forward the view that Sony wanted it to be a flop so that they could push him to bankrupt and gain control of his song catalogue (which has the rights to the Beatles songs and many others, and is a massive money spinner) All in all, I don't think the album is as bad as people claim, it has some decent songs...but suffers from being over-produced (in a style that now sounds dated) and has too many slow songs and ballads, when it is really the fast-paced songs that Michael Jackson is best remembered for. |
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#25 |
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Born this Way was nowhere near a flop.
But she made some bad decisions with the album. Sheisse should definitely have been released but she released You and I which was a terrible choice of single then she released Marry the Night too late. |
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