Is sex no longer selling in music?

[holy scheisse 21,613]

its a combination of Lorde, Adele, Lana Del Rey, etc. coming into the scene in later years reminding us that the anti-popstars can be so much better than actual popstars.

Gaga knows this. tahts why shes doing jazz

[Riot Poof 2,236]

I think we'll know for sure when 2016 rolls in and all/most of the major players release their albums.

I def hope that the pop landscape becomes less sexual, tho. We need a balance!

[Fiona Apple 13,006]

13 hours ago, KURUSHITOVSKA said:

But Anaconda...

Anacoda is a massive flop commercially compared to its popularity. Applause actually sold x2 as much

[EdX 2,857]

I love this tbh. I am so tired of all the twerking and shaking etc. 

[PMKKARDASHiAN 8,570]

Sex will always sell...if a particular artist is deemed "sexy". As another user stated, these girls today are not (imo) sexy. Miley is attractive but not sexy, ariana looks like a child=not sexy, demi isn't sexy, selena is far from sexy (image wise, her music is sensual) and the likes. All these nick/disney girls pushing sex is...weird to me at least... 

Personally I don't find gaga sexy, she's a pretty girl, but sexually, her body isn't that sexy to me... Katy is sexy, rihanna is sexy, Beyonce is sexy.. 

There's something about sex and sexuality you can't fake, it's either natural or it isn't, and some of the pop girls are clearly faking it, thus it's not genuine, thus, it's not believable.. have I completely veered off topic?? Fuk.. 

But yea sex still sells, just depends on who's trying to sell it. 

[RAMROD 104,186]

Sex still sells, but if only done right.

Example, Mark Ronson's song earlier this year, Uptown Funk.

It's nice, not too explicit, not banal, the beats just right,

and people can sing it without feeling embarrassed.

 

[monketsharona 52,813]

Yeah I think sex songs are not as successful it was. I mean everybody already did it..

I really hope LG5 won't get any sex songs (at least not explicite ones)... I hope brand new themes on it (Gaga already milked fashion, fame, gay, drug and sex too much).

[Didymus 34,379]

I think it's stupid to pretend that sex always sold in the past, apparently just because an element of sex appeal is in there, as a rule. Absolutely not the case.

And Miley is a wrong example.. her performances aren't sexy She was widely discussed exactly because it was not sexy, because it was vulgar, wild and "wrong". And you can only do that trick once, which is the real reason no one cares about her running around the stage like it now. It's become predictable. But it has nothing to do with sex. It's about provocation using sex. And that does not usually sell, just look at Madonna's career, the Erotica era in particular. I'm sure if you could write about it then, then you'd say "oops, sex isn't selling anymore" too.

I also think you're just.. weird in how you don't define your audiences. I mean, the people who would think these pop stars are sexy the most would be heterosexual men, right? But that's not the group of people that's listening to pop music I mean, do you really expect guys who think Ariana is hot to buy her single? That never happened. So you seem to just be talking about attractive young women who are successful, apparently not because of the quality of their music (that's what I find particularly funny) but just because they're "modest". Can you find me an example of a young attractive female pop artist who always was sexualized and always was successful because of it though? I mean, just today in another thread people are discussing how songs like Christina's Dirrty and Britney's I'm a Slave 4 U actually were commercial failures. If your theory would be correct they'd be massive hits, even more successful than non-sexualized songs (definitely not true for Christina and Britney, ever during their career).

So basically I just think you're constructing something that isn't really there and hasn't been there.

[Nemo 4,197]

I think Miley should be understood as having consciously stepped out of the race. She's doing fine on her own, new terms; she's just not playing the pop game anymore, at least not for this cycle.

[Lextyr97 18,960]

Definitely still sells but I hope the shift is on the horizon. 

[MGC 226]

Sex will always sell, but not as much as music really relatable to ppl. This is, I believe, the key of the success for TS, Adele or Sam Smith. They sing about situations ppl can truly relate to. About Miley, Selena and Ariana, I think you took 3 wrong examples. Miley is out of the game, she's not getting coverage for her project because no one makes money from it. Plus the music is not commercial at all. Focus is just a bad song which came out the same week of hello and with the strong competition of JB between the teen idols. Finally, Selena is quite more a local act, she's nice and her music is good but quite forgettable(except for the immortal bop slow down)

[Chump 967]

16 hours ago, KURUSHITOVSKA said:

Success means people talks about it. If people talks about it they're gonna watch it on YouTube

If people watch it on youtube and don't want to buy it, is it success? Artists record music and put it on iTunes, if their music doesn't sell there, they obviously didn't succeed. MVs are supposed to help sell the songs, not bring the attention to artist's ass

I mean if showing her ass to as much people as possible is Nicki's main priority, then its success

But if her main priority is music, then her success is pretty average

[Chump 967]

16 hours ago, DrewStevens said:

YouTube views are money and popularity which could basically mean success.

Artists gain most from touring, sells bring them much less money, youtube views bring less than sells. Minaj is good at youtube views and not so at sells and touring. If views mean popularity, then why such popular artist struggles to gross $30M on tour?

[Creyk 17,001]

16 hours ago, holyscheisse said:

its a combination of Lorde, Adele, Lana Del Rey, etc. coming into the scene in later years reminding us that the anti-popstars can be so much better than actual popstars.

Gaga knows this. tahts why shes doing jazz

Don't count Lorde.

Her latest single flopped embarrassingly and her follow-up album is nowhere to be seen. She's over.

[DrewStevens 5,249]

1 hour ago, Chump said:

Artists gain most from touring, sells bring them much less money, youtube views bring less than sells. Minaj is good at youtube views and not so at sells and touring. If views mean popularity, then why such popular artist struggles to gross $30M on tour?

Because being popular doesn't mean people love you or that people care enough to see you live. Almost everyone knows who PSY is but most people from around the world wouldn't pay to see him  live.