Would any other popstar have toured with Artpop?

[StrawberryBlond 13,292]

This was a question I asked myself when some fans criticised the artRave for not going to enough territories and criticising the setlist, stage, costumes and dancing. At the end of the day...should we count ourselves lucky that we even got a tour? If you look through the touring history of some of the world's biggest popstars, you'll find that it's not unusual to just skip touring with an album that's not very successful. Britney didn't tour with Blackout and she's only including 2 songs from Britney Jean in her residency show. Rihanna didn't tour with her debut or Talk That Talk. The latter surprised me as that was a decently successful album with a massive hit leading it. Beyonce didn't tour with 4 or Beyonce - the Mrs Carter Show was a showcase of her biggest hits and personal favourites, with only Europe seeing her perform some stuff from Beyonce at the very end of the tour. Madonna didn't tour with her debut, Bedtime Stories or Music, preferring to do a tour supporting 2 albums whenever she skipped one. And pity the plight of the popstars who took a big stumble commercially, thus resulting in the cancellation of a tour, like Christina Aguilera (Bionic tour was cancelled due to lack of public interest, Lotus didn't even get acknowledged) and Kelly Clarkson (My December tour was cancelled after poor ticket sales).

What this has proved is that a lot of popstars and their labels, are very afraid to take a risk when it comes to touring. Indie artists can do small, inexpensive tours with every album, but popstars have a lot running on them being successful in order to be able to tour large venues. Tours cost so much money to host and if they're supporting an underperforming album, you have to deal with half empty venues at best, cancellations at worst. Understandably, record labels don't want this hassle and just pull the plug on an entire album's campaign if it isn't taking off. With that in mind, I praise Gaga and Interscope for having the bravery to embark on the artRave. Most popstars and their labels wouldn't have had the guts.

So, what do you think? Were we lucky to even get a tour for ARTPOP? Would other popstars have been brave enough to tour with it?

[Vanilla 660]

I think that when you have a solid fanbase like Gaga's, they will always tour. There will always be an audience for her to play for

[xoxo cupcakke 4,781]

One correction you should make. Madonna didn't tour with Ray of Light because of her pregnancy but she did with Music and brought back Ray of Light from 1998 and called it the Drowned World Tour which took place in 2001 

 

Anyway, the artRAVE should have been enough to calm the chill of her fans. It was successful because fans wanted to see Gaga and Gaga knew that. For a supposed flop, ARTPOP's tour was global and successful. I feel Gaga was confident in her fans being there which is why another musician probably wouldn't have done what Gaga did after realizing ARTPOP was slowly going downhill

[AccountClosed 4]

Well Gaga is obviously known for having strong creative influence over her work, and to me that means that no matter how "bad" (´cause lets face it, theres people who would kill to sell as much as ARTPOP sold) the sales are, she is going to want to share her own personal work with the public through touring... I.E. she is not sharing the label´s work but instead her own creative masterpiece that needs to have that exposure for her growth as an artist.

Bottomline: What we already know, her work is about sharing it regardless of the check at the end of the tour.

[mattyx 1,859]

I think as long as the tickets sell they will continue to tour.  So yeah, regardless of how "bad" an album does they can continue to go on the road.

[Fiona Apple 13,006]

Well Ariana and a lot of other artists are touring with the 1/4 of ARTPOP's sales so Yea..

[Dorothy Gale 7,575]

Yeah, I think most would still your an album like ARTPOP. 

[LeoFameMonster 1,592]

there are tons of other artists who have less successful albums and tour with them.

but there are also tons of other artists who have major successful albums but can't tour or if they do its like extremely small shows and dates.

Also keep in mind everyone wants to see Gaga in concert regardless of if they liked her album or not. She is a touring god

 

[HauntingHollow 4,310]

molly would ?

[Rainbow Unicorn 82]

Live Nation and her management team didn't take any risks with the artRAVE tho. Gaga was a remarkable touring force with the BTWBall, selling nearly 1,8 million tickets worldwide, visiting arenas, parks and several stadiums. We got a tour with ARTPOP because she still sold 2 million copies of her album, and she wasn't at the lowest of her career compared to some of the popstars you quoted. But Gaga really loves taking risks, so, yes I really think some popstars are not touring just to hide the fact that the decay is real... 

I also think we have an amazing chance that our idol really loves performing and to be close to her fans. I'm pretty sure that even if Gaga doesn't have success anymore she'd still tour in theaters/concert halls to travel the world. I'm so proud 

[PrinceGaga 7,245]

It's such a shame ARTPOP has the label "flop" - any mainstream artist these days would have been absolutely 100% stoked to have sales like it. Especially since it had limited promo bumping it along. Just imagine if it all went to plan...

Maybe she felt like she had to tour with the BTWB cancellations or she just really wanted to see her fans again after the blackout and didn't know when she would be on the road again. I'm so glad she did though, both nights I went to were just the best thing ever and I'm sure many others felt the same. 

 

Also keep in mind everyone wants to see Gaga in concert regardless of if they liked her album or not. She is a touring god

Yes this! The people seated around me at the artRAVE hadn't actually even heard ARTPOP yet...