Artists Who Abandoned Their Fanbases

[Jay23 87]

The irony of this thread on this site 💀 not a hater(clearly if I still come on here),  but if the shoe fits.. I mean yeah I felt like she abandoned her original fan base a while ago. 

[GagasEnigma4 713]

8 hours ago, monstertoronto said:

Honestly, y’all can’t be satisfied. Whenever an artist continues to deliver the same material that originally made them popular album after album, they get DRAGGED with “she doesn’t evolve”, “real artists show growth not the same old thing all the time”, like Katy Perry. When an artist like Gaga keeps making art to suit how she feels at the time and produces a diverse body of work it’s all “she doesn’t care about her core fans”. Gurl please. She can’t win.  And a lot of core fans genuinely enjoy the different eras. 

Thank you. I am a hardcore fan and I love the different eras because I love Gaga for the artist she is, not just if she turns out pop stuff. Only legends seem to be talented in many different genres and entertainment ventures, Gaga is clearly one of them and will go down in history books as a legend. I am so lucky to be alive to witness her beautiful talents and I will follow her into whatever genre of music or acting or Makeup she does next.

i know not everyone feeks that way and thats okay too. 

Edited June 4, 2023 by GagasEnigma4

[Ziggy 10,418]

8 hours ago, monstertoronto said:

Honestly, y’all can’t be satisfied. Whenever an artist continues to deliver the same material that originally made them popular album after album, they get DRAGGED with “she doesn’t evolve”, “real artists show growth not the same old thing all the time”, like Katy Perry. When an artist like Gaga keeps making art to suit how she feels at the time and produces a diverse body of work it’s all “she doesn’t care about her core fans”. Gurl please. She can’t win.  And a lot of core fans genuinely enjoy the different eras. 

I’m totally satisfied! I’m just saying she’s got diff priorities and like I said that’s cool and fine. We just can’t pretend like she’s the same artist she was 10+ years ago bc she isnt. That’s fine and great! She’s done amazing ****!

[Delulu Rogers 6,391]

18 hours ago, NATAH said:

but the coachella set was literally a surprise and a tour dvd would be more expected than a surprise tbh

Not anymore considering that nobody thinks it’s coming anymore 😂

[StrawberryBlond 13,371]

I don't think we should count teen idols who aged out, that's just basic maths, so I don't know why Shawn is included. But the other ones are very apt. Here's the ones I'm thinking of:

Full 360 change

Sam Smith - From the mum/granny market to the LGBT market very suddenly. The original market may be uncool but it's lucrative but it takes real work to be a gay icon and it seems to be very hit and miss so far. 

Madonna - From safe pop music to sex goddess in one album and then other massive changes (RnB, electronica, disco, hip pop, etc) over the years. Most of her current fans are ones she gained over the last decade or so and they're a lot younger as well. Her old fans who grew up with her in the 80's...you just don't hear from them anymore.

Black Eyed Peas - They were underground hip hop with their first two albums but then the hip hop trend took off and they went for a commercial style of it when Fergie joined. Then when EDM took over, they changed their style again for their next 2 albums. Then they took their massive break and came back with, surprise surprise, an album of current hip hop and Latin trends. They just mould themselves to whatever genre is popping and will.i.am does the same with his solo music. I truly don't think they consider how much this dates their work.

Christina Aguilera - Clearly inspired by Madonna, she's massively changed her style with every album, to her detriment as the change is too extreme and the breaks too long between each one. It's admirable that she takes so many risks but it's hard to maintain a solid fanbase when no one's got a solid idea of what they're signing up for.

Nelly Furtado - From indie sounding pop to commercial hip hop to cash in on the big trend at the time then she did a Spanish language album and did an indie experimental album after a long break and now she's trying to come back with another sound. I'm astounded she didn't stick with her Loose sound as it was the biggest success for her but she seems to like throwing her fans curveballs, it seems.

Miley Cyrus - I remember when she was promoting Bangerz and telling her "smilers" to download the new song and I thought that the fans she have are not her kid/teen fans that she had when she was Hannah Montana. She's thrown them out and starting over from scratch. And her repeated reinventions over time are a big part of why she struggles to sell albums and concert tickets as people are either all in or all out per album.

Changed somewhat

Katy Perry - Witness was still pop but it was clearly a big enough change that it made her fans drop her basically overnight. Her downfall never ceases to amaze me. It's scary how quickly your fortune can change. 

Taylor Swift - She made a big deal about shifting from country pop to full-on pop with 1989, even telling country awards not to nominate her anymore. Clearly, she's still got fans who have remained here since day 1 but I have heard of people who say they love her old style but thought she'd sold out when she made songs like We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together and lost interest after that.

Lady Gaga - I love how she's grown and support it but you can't deny that she left her pop fans behind from 2014 to 2020. While I wasn't wild about Chromatica, I appreciate that her fans who were in a pop drought were in heaven.

Pink - Her first big change was when she went from RnB to pop after her debut but it's most glaring in the last few years when she's dropped her rock rebel persona to something a lot more muted and middle of the road and her sales have clearly suffered as a result. Her fans just seem to support her old stuff and still want to see her on tour to hear them, though. 

Avril Lavigne - She was very skater punk at the beginning and was very explicitly clear how she disliked the sugary pop trends of the time and was very "not like other girls" and then she went full-on pop rock and wearing pink, skirts, knee socks and heels with The Best Damn Thing and her fanbase just tailed right off after that. It was a shame as she just got older and naturally embraced her femininity and got married which was going to change her musical output but it was just too much in the opposite direction.

Ellie Goulding - She was this indie pop darling but then she went much more commercial pop with Delirium and it wasn't well received by fans and she struggled to sell singles and albums ever since even though she'd built up serious success up until that point. She's gone more experimental again but it seems like it's a bit too late now.

Rosalia - She did something really different and intellectual when she broke through with El Mal Querer and then she did something simultaneously so commercial and so experimental with Motomami and it seemed to stall her success and make her fanbase question who they were stanning. 

 

I think Doja Cat may go through something similar when she puts out her next album which is going to move away from her cutting edge hip hop style. And after what I mentioned about Avril Lavigne merely growing up and yet being accused of selling out, that's already happening to the likes of Lorde and Billie Eilish who also started out in their teens with a style that seemed to be anti-sexuality at the beginning but the second they started making a racier song or showing a bit of skin, they were called sell-outs. It's a bit of a risk breaking out as a teen singer as you can change your views on the world, your style and music dramatically in those young years and to you it may be natural change but to the outside world, it looks like you sold your soul.