Why do we care so much about the commercial success?!

[Chump 1,094]

6 minutes ago, CurlyBae said:

I already told you though   "TIHTY didn't chart because we knew the song like 1 year before it got released. I personally didn't buy it.And I don't know many people that did xD"  Fans didn't buy TIHTY.. It's not like we are 10.000 and we can't make a song chart  Her fans are millions.A big part of them buys her lead singles (mostly) and her albums

Sadly at least one third of her fans doesn't buy anything, there are even hardcore stans that don't but her stuff. And if LG5's lead single is not dance pop, even those who buy her lead singles may not do it this time. You know some stans hate Dope, what if a song like that is LG5's lead

[Fiona Apple 13,006]

19 minutes ago, Chump said:

Sadly at least one third of her fans doesn't buy anything, there are even hardcore stans that don't but her stuff. And if LG5's lead single is not dance pop, even those who buy her lead singles may not do it this time. You know some stans hate Dope, what if a song like that is LG5's lead

It's OBVIOUS that if she releases music that even the fans don't like,then she will be destroyed. But as long as her fans like it ,she will be okay. It's obvious that a BIG part of the fans doesn't buy anything.But it's like that with every artist so it's not weird.Think about it.ARTPOP had so much negativity ,a big part of the fans didn't like it,a big part of the fans didn't even buy it and it still managed to sell decent numbers!.

[StrawberryBlond 14,900]

Whether we like it or not, commercial success is crucial to enjoying Gaga to the fullest extent. And note that when I say this, I'm talking about avid music listeners, the kind who go on GGD everyday, who love all Gaga's music and videos, live for live performances from her and want to see her on tour. If you're not a person like that, then commercial success really doesn't matter to you. But for most Gaga fans, we are all of the above. So, with that in mind...

Gaga needs sales because that equals money and with money equals promotion, more singles/music videos, tours and most importantly, the ability to give us more work that suits her vision in the future. Let's look into the reality of what will happen without commercial success...

Record labels only give promo to the artists who they think actually stand a chance in garnering sales and they aren't going to do this if Gaga is flopping. That means no more iconic chat show performances on Ellen/Jonathan Ross/Oprah/Graham Norton, etc., no more iconic reality show performances like X Factor/The Voice, no more iconic general performances like iheartradio music festival, MTV awards, Grammy awards, the Oscars...This is the stuff that Gaga fans live for because Gaga is one of the best live acts there is. With a lack of live performances, it's like a day without sunshine.

Record labels only let artists with successful singles make more of them. Successful singles spawn more singles, meaning the era can last a long time. With a lack of success, the plug on the album's entire promo campaign is pulled. For most of us fans, the AP era felt so short because it was all over after just 3 singles, one of which didn't even have a video. And speaking of videos, we can kiss goodbye to high budget, HD, long, highly artistic videos without the money to fund them. And videos are a big deal to Gaga fans - they have to be good. If we get more albums that perform like AP, expect less singles and fewer music videos.

Record labels only let the most successful artists have world tours in arenas and stadiums and she'll have small tours in small venues if she flops (or might not even be allowed to tour at all). That means fans in lesser populated countries won't be able to see her or will have to travel miles. We won't be able to go to multiple shows. And this all means that the tour will pull in less money and with less money, Gaga doesn't have the budget to do everything else in her career. Touring is where the real money is, especially for someone like Gaga who is a touring force and doesn't have the big hits she once had. And once again, touring is one of the most important things to Gaga fans. An album without a tour is unthinkable to us. Note that plenty of artists haven't been allowed to tour with an album even if it was a success. Rihanna's Talk That Talk sold more than AP with 2 impactful singles and she didn't tour with it. So, Gaga was extremely lucky to tour with AP but she may not continue to have that luck if things keep going downhill.

And of course, with a lack of commercial success, the label loses faith in the artist. They're reluctant to allow the artist to experiment or do things a bit differently. They may not even let them write some of the album's songs, instead hiring professionals to pen the lead single and many more because the artist can't be trusted to make a hit on their own. Imagine a world in which Gaga can't write her own songs? And the ones that she does write involve heavy compromise? Gaga wouldn't have been able to make BTW if her label didn't believe in her. The success she'd had up until that point gave them the reason to trust in her that she knew what she was doing. If we want to continue to give Gaga the chance to share her complete vision with us, she needs commercial success. We falsely believe that being commercial must make you bad. Wrong. There are lots of good commercial songs out there, TEOG being the epitome of that. More songs of that quality and level of success and we can expect lots of Gaga for years to come.

Just now, CurlyBae said:

Do we really earn anything (or Gaga herself) if she is selling 15m instead of 3m?

Of course we do. You can't pretend like the AP era felt just like TF and TFM eras. Or even the BTW era. With TF and TFM, she was everywhere and had all the opportunities. With AP, she wasn't promoted as heavily, she wasn't played as much on the radio, she wasn't as talked about, she was niche. Her tour really only pulled in fans and was very short. A lot of things didn't go as planned and were cancelled. 15m and 3m make all the difference in the world.

Just now, Chic said:

Humans like what they like. But they also like to be right. Commercial success can validate some people's enjoyment of something, but also negate it. Some people value feeling validated for their interests over enjoying their interest.

It's a good point. I like to think that's only something we do when we're young, though. I remember being such a big Spice Girls fan back in the day and thinking about how it was probably the only thing that stopped me from being the biggest loser in class because I liked something that all the popular girls liked. That wasn't why I liked them, but it was nice to get the validation. Being part of the crowd can feel nice in some respects. And there's no denying that it feels amazing to hear a song, love it, and it goes on to be a big hit. It tells you had the correct intuition, that you have good taste, that you're musically knowledgable and with it. And as a music reviewer who frequently makes the wrong predictions, it's a great ego boost when you get it right.

[Fiona Apple 13,006]

4 minutes ago, StrawberryBlond said:

 

Of course we do. You can't pretend like the AP era felt just like TF and TFM eras. Or even the BTW era. With TF and TFM, she was everywhere and had all the opportunities. With AP, she wasn't promoted as heavily, she wasn't played as much on the radio, she wasn't as talked about, she was niche. Her tour really only pulled in fans and was very short. A lot of things didn't go as planned and were cancelled. 15m and 3m make all the difference in the world.

 

The reason that AP era didn't feel like TF and TFM is because Gaga was depressed and lazy.. The problem wasn't the sales.The problem was the negativity,the messy era. How does it really affect you if she is not played as much on the radio or talked as much? She came with the ArtRave in my country for the first time.So I don't care if it was shorter 

[Chump 1,094]

8 minutes ago, CurlyBae said:

It's OBVIOUS that if she releases music that even the fans don't like,then she will be destroyed. But as long as her fans like it ,she will be okay. It's obvious that a BIG part of the fans doesn't buy anything.But it's like that with every artist so it's not weird.Think about it.ARTPOP had so much negativity ,a big part of the fans didn't like it,a big part of the fans didn't even buy it and it still managed to sell decent numbers!.

ARTPOP did decent because after all it had a great promo at the beginning, I think many people who aren't fans bought it. Yes, I know that every fanbase has stans that don't buy anything. And that is exactly why artists nowadays have to appeal to the GP. You know, before the digital era has started, some rock artists which weren't really big, had such great number which are fantastic and unattainable for current pop girls, now industry is decreasing every year. We can't be sure that there will always be enough fans who support Gaga

[giskardsb 12,565]

It's so obvious that many Gaga fans have no experience of music outside of big money Pop. 

[Fiona Apple 13,006]

5 minutes ago, Chump said:

ARTPOP did decent because after all it had a great promo at the beginning, I think many people who aren't fans bought it. Yes, I know that every fanbase has stans that don't buy anything. And that is exactly why artists nowadays have to appeal to the GP. You know, before the digital era has started, some rock artists which weren't really big, had such great number which are fantastic and unattainable for current pop girls, now industry is decreasing every year. We can't be sure that there will always be enough fans who support Gaga

The good part is that Gaga has a lot of old fans. I mean like really old (60+) . Everytime I check on the comments of her photos I see 70 years old ladies! It's great because old people always buy music. That's why Adele sells a lot (people from all ages listen to her).. And also Gaga's fans are like OBSESSED with sales (as I say in the OP) so they won't let the album to flop

[StrawberryBlond 14,900]

Just now, CurlyBae said:

The reason that AP era didn't feel like TF and TFM is because Gaga was depressed and lazy.. The problem wasn't the sales.The problem was the negativity,the messy era. How does it really affect you if she is not played as much on the radio or talked as much? She came with the ArtRave in my country for the first time.So I don't care if it was shorter 

She was kinda depressed back in TFM era too. She went on to say later that she was so depressed during that era (which goes to show that success doesn't equal happiness, although it hardly suggests that success made her depressed). I don't think she was lazy at all - her label was. They all but gave up on her promo trail. Where were all her UK performances? The only place she performed Applause was at the itunes festival, so that was as good as not performing it at all. And the Australian promo didn't happen because it was when she was going through that management crisis, so it all got cancelled. Consequently, the album performed poorly in these countries despite them normally being big markets for her. Promo is all decided upon by the label, the artist has no say in it. And of course it affects the fans - we can't enjoy her the way we're used to. Look, she came to my city twice with artRave and I saw her twice and it was brilliant, but that didn't detract from the fact that the rest of that era was troublesome. Bad management, wrong single choices, loss of a music video, lack of promo, short era, being laughed at for being her fan. There was always a downside to every good moment in that era. Great single...but with no music video. Great live performances...but not enough of them. Great tour...but with cheap costumes, cut-down songs and notable omissions of favourites. That all has an affect on you as a fan. And if it keeps happening, you start wondering if you should remain a fan at all. I'll always remember the time I stopped being an Xtina fan. It felt horrible. But there's only so many instances of things going wrong before you realise that they're not the same artist anymore, that things aren't going to get any better, that you'll just keep getting disappointed. And you move on. Because stanning for them becomes too anti climatic and exhausting.

[Fiona Apple 13,006]

4 minutes ago, StrawberryBlond said:

She was kinda depressed back in TFM era too. She went on to say later that she was so depressed during that era (which goes to show that success doesn't equal happiness, although it hardly suggests that success made her depressed). I don't think she was lazy at all - her label was. They all but gave up on her promo trail. Where were all her UK performances? The only place she performed Applause was at the itunes festival, so that was as good as not performing it at all. And the Australian promo didn't happen because it was when she was going through that management crisis, so it all got cancelled. Consequently, the album performed poorly in these countries despite them normally being big markets for her. Promo is all decided upon by the label, the artist has no say in it. And of course it affects the fans - we can't enjoy her the way we're used to. Look, she came to my city twice with artRave and I saw her twice and it was brilliant, but that didn't detract from the fact that the rest of that era was troublesome. Bad management, wrong single choices, loss of a music video, lack of promo, short era, being laughed at for being her fan. There was always a downside to every good moment in that era. Great single...but with no music video. Great live performances...but not enough of them. Great tour...but with cheap costumes, cut-down songs and notable omissions of favourites. That all has an affect on you as a fan. And if it keeps happening, you start wondering if you should remain a fan at all. I'll always remember the time I stopped being an Xtina fan. It felt horrible. But there's only so many instances of things going wrong before you realise that they're not the same artist anymore, that things aren't going to get any better, that you'll just keep getting disappointed. And you move on. Because stanning for them becomes too anti climatic and exhausting.

In the ARTPOP era she wasn't just depressed.She was LOST. You could see that on many interviews.She was going crazy tbh.I agree about the promo though

[StrawberryBlond 14,900]

Just now, CurlyBae said:

In the ARTPOP era she wasn't just depressed.She was LOST. You could see that on many interviews.She was going crazy tbh.I agree about the promo though

Mainly because she was at loggerheads with her label who weren't respecting her choices. The only thing she really had to be depressed about was overcoming her addictions, but she had the support of family and Taylor, so it wasn't like she was battling alone, which can lead to feelings of helplessness. No, it was all because the label was interfering too much and stifling her vision. Which wouldn't have happened if she had been mega successful. To think, all that success she had with BTW still wasn't enough for Interscope to let her do exactly what she wanted. So, can you imagine how she'll be treated if doesn't make a proper comeback with the next album? She has more understanding management now but that can all change if she doesn't live up to what they planned for.

[Fiona Apple 13,006]

1 minute ago, StrawberryBlond said:

Mainly because she was at loggerheads with her label who weren't respecting her choices. The only thing she really had to be depressed about was overcoming her addictions, but she had the support of family and Taylor, so it wasn't like she was battling alone, which can lead to feelings of helplessness. No, it was all because the label was interfering too much and stifling her vision. Which wouldn't have happened if she had been mega successful. To think, all that success she had with BTW still wasn't enough for Interscope to let her do exactly what she wanted. So, can you imagine how she'll be treated if doesn't make a proper comeback with the next album? She has more understanding management now but that can all change if she doesn't live up to what they planned for.

Gaga doesn't work like that 

[StrawberryBlond 14,900]

Just now, CurlyBae said:

Gaga doesn't work like that 

What do you mean? No artist "works" like that. This is how label employees work. If you don't perform well, you'll get limited/no support from the label. That's how it works across the board. Gaga's not immune to this, no one is.

[Dangerous Man 9,245]

It is important for an artist especially the new ones to have a commercial success.A commercially successful era will be bigger and longer bc the label will invest more thus the artists' fans will get stunning videos, lots of tour dates around the world, more singles, etc.

At the end of the day, this is music business so... 

[Fiona Apple 13,006]

8 minutes ago, StrawberryBlond said:

What do you mean? No artist "works" like that. This is how label employees work. If you don't perform well, you'll get limited/no support from the label. That's how it works across the board. Gaga's not immune to this, no one is.

That's not what I mean...Who even told you that record companies work this way? It's obvious that she gets limited but at the end of the day she does what she wants. she released a jazz album and we are without pop music for 2 years+. I am not sure if her record company is happy for that

[StrawberryBlond 14,900]

Just now, CurlyBae said:

That's not what I mean...Who even told you that record companies work this way? It's obvious that she gets limited but at the end of the day she does what she wants. she released a jazz album and we are without pop music for 2 years+. I am not sure if her record company is happy for that

That's how all record labels work, it's a fact. Maybe some of the indie ones are better, but I'm talking about mainstream ones. Yes, she wanted to realease a jazz album but I'm sure the label saw the potential money in this as well. Because the public was getting bored of craziness and wanted something more stripped back, that Gaga had always been praised for her voice, that Tony's last album had been a big success and given him a comeback...it had all the makings of a new beginning. She wouldn't have been allowed to make such an album back when her pop and crazy antics sold. And I think the length of time between albums has been ok. She's hardly pulled an Xtina. Katy's started taking 2+ year gaps between music, as has Britney and Madonna and Ellie and so on and so forth. Even Rihanna, queen of the annual release. It's a normal schedule these days.