Smile debuts at #5

[Varys 30,891]

Omg even alternative artisit like Lana Del Rey and Melanie Martinez do better 

and Lana doesn’t even promote. I’m sad for Katy after all the effort she put in the promotion

[ICouldntThinkOfOne 215]

1 hour ago, ItWasntLaauv said:

Y’all are acting like #5 is a death sentence or sumn, it’s not that deep. She still made top 5, that’s still good.

Chart position is kinda tricky because albums with lower sales can go number one. Gwen Stefani went number 1 with 75k in 2016 with 'This is what the truth feels like', I believe, but a few months later, Britney went number 3 with 96k with 'Glory'. Taylor Swift went number one with 833k and is still number one with 133k.

Liberation by Xtina went number six with 68K. Marina went number 8 with 46K with Froot. Lana Del Rey went 3 with NFR at 106K.

Sales and Chart positions don't necessarily correspond, but a lot of has to do with how popular they are and how much they are promoting/being promoted. 

There is no denying this, for a popstar at Katy Perry's level, this is embarrassing.

[Taylucifer 5,154]

yikes.mp3

[StrawberryBlond 14,874]

A truly sad state of affairs. The money that will have been piled into all the music videos plus the many animated ones and promo will have been huge with not much return on investment. It wasn't even a highly competitive week. To do worse than a live Metallica album is pretty bad. We've seen those kinda sales get #3 before, so she really got unlucky with this release week, only made a little better by Drake not surprise releasing. Remember that whenever we get frustrated at Gaga not putting out new videos and feel the era slipping away, she's never been in a tight spot like this before.

8 minutes ago, Varys said:

Omg even alternative artisit like Lana Del Rey and Melanie Martinez do better 

and Lana doesn’t even promote. I’m sad for Katy after all the effort she put in the promotion

Just shows you that loyal fanbases are what keep you going. The fact both of them could do better sales with no hits preceding them, with better video views and likes than Katy's been getting recently into the bargain (despite less subscribers) show how many of an A-listers fans are faked.

[SchwineLove 1,374]

I think the "clown" and "circus" concept as a whole is off-putting and not catching interest.

She needs to serve serious and elegant impression, maybe couple of honest ballads (because she got the vocal, Smile's vocals is her best yet I think). She needs to get rid of the cartoony image, but not hyper fake edgy like Witness. I think NRO visual as her whole album concept is a right path, I wonder why she choose to switch to tacky Smile visuals.

[SchwineLove 1,374]

46 minutes ago, ICouldntThinkOfOne said:

Non-promoted? of all the albums released this year, it got the most promotion. Regular performances, multiple copies, tons of videos.....

Maybe that's also the problem, abundant of promotions but lacking impacts. And maybe (sorry to sound rude) her publicized pregnancy while promo can be off-putting to public, like maybe GP treat it like a tacky shameless gimmick (maybe, for me I just take that she wants to prove that a pregnant woman can be extremely productive)

[derpmonster 22,412]

Yikes. It did 12k pure album sales according to the Rolling Stone chart (which doesn't count bundles).

[PunkTheFunk 124,466]

Yeah she's #1, scratch that baby she's #5

[GagaTheExplorer 3,053]

2 hours ago, Dominic said:

Maybe thats the music she just likes to make? I dunno why people are so insistent on her changing all the time. She seems happy with the product, a majority of the fans are happy, her sales are decent and what some other artists would love to achieve. It's all a win-win, no need to force her to do something

Lets just be real, those sales are not decent, there are not even underperforming, this is real pure hardcore tanking, and we are talking about the woman who had 5 number one singles from one album not too long ago.

if she does not change something, her career will be over, and I mean, really really over, just a throwback act, the one who would only be seen again as a judge in a music competition or giving an award to some other new pop artist

her fans grew up but her music did not evolved, the new generation did not embrace her, and now here we are finding excuses for this mess.

[pop ate my heart 2,865]

1 hour ago, StrawberryBlond said:

Remember that whenever we get frustrated at Gaga not putting out new videos and feel the era slipping away, she's never been in a tight spot like this before.

i think what frustrates me and a lot of people is exactly this. The fact that Gaga has NEVER been in an losing situation as big as this one, yet it's still very hard for her to deliver more than 2 mvs per era since 2013  i know NOW that Chromatica is very much alive, but the fact that she went silent for 3 whole months before the vmas, while having all the opportunities to do HUGE things, making us think that she just abandoned the era completely, was VERY frustrating. Other artists would kill to have the gp attention she has and the chances of doing whatever she wants with her art. Hopefully those 'huge things' are about to come with 911 and CTV

[pop ate my heart 2,865]

--

[farting 629]

Is this supposed to be “purposeful pop”? 

[farting 629]

Also have a public breakdown, shave your head, then come out with a circus themed album 

[StrawberryBlond 14,874]

1 minute ago, pop ate my heart said:

i think what frustrates me and a lot of people is exactly this. The fact that Gaga has NEVER been in an losing situation as big as this one, yet it's still very hard for her to deliver more than 2 mvs since 2013  i know NOW that Chromatica is very much alive, but the fact that she went silent for 3 whole months before the vmas, while having all the opportunities to do HUGE things, making us think that she just abandoned the era completely, was VERY frustrating. Other artists would kill to have the gp attention she has and the chances of doing whatever she wants with her art. Hopefully those 'huge things' are about to come with 911 and CTV

Yeah, I feel at the very least that she could've told us before she went on blackout that she was taking time out to allow BLM to shine and to prepare for more videos and plans in her downtime. To just go silent with no explanation felt like a bit of a betrayal after we'd just given her a massive #1 single (her first from a studio album in 9 years) and #1 album. Honestly, if BLM hadn't risen up, she might not have done this, let's be real. After delayed plans due to the pandemic and then the relief of getting the album this year after all, this had to happen into the bargain to make her roll-out even trickier. But her resilience to get through it all and get sales despite all the odds shows just how much not only fans but the public love her. This, along with having over a solid decade of success, is a sign that she'll be around for years to come, mark my words.

[pop ate my heart 2,865]

2 minutes ago, StrawberryBlond said:

Yeah, I feel at the very least that she could've told us before she went on blackout that she was taking time out to allow BLM to shine and to prepare for more videos and plans in her downtime. To just go silent with no explanation felt like a bit of a betrayal after we'd just given her a massive #1 single (her first from a studio album in 9 years) and #1 album. Honestly, if BLM hadn't risen up, she might not have done this, let's be real. After delayed plans due to the pandemic and then the relief of getting the album this year after all, this had to happen into the bargain to make her roll-out even trickier. But her resilience to get through it all and get sales despite all the odds shows just how much not only fans but the public love her. This, along with having over a solid decade of success, is a sign that she'll be around for years to come, mark my words.

Yesssss agree completely.

But yeah, those 3 months of complete blackout without a single explanaition, and not even mentioning she'd still be working on more stuff for the album (which Nicola ended up confirming recently) wasn't a good look at all for her. And the fact that her very first move after it was a godd@mn WATCH AD on her instagram was the cherry on top lmao, those were dark times.