Could Gaga debut with +1 million first week sales?

[LateToCult 39,566]

lol sis can’t even crack 300k and you’re talmbout 1M 

[steven 5,298]

Imagine if she debuts with Smile's numbers 

[sexy 3,135]

Could anyone? Music industry is far too fractured. Taylor Swift pulls it off because she's literally the equivalent of Disney/Marvel/Pixar in music. She's a durable, safe brand who has exceptionally wide appeal across a lot of very different demographics. She's literally like a Disney princess. Little tweens and Gen Xers and grandparents-taking-their-kids-to-the-concert-turned-fans all love her. But just like Disney, she's the queen of tiptoeing a line, playing it safe, staying acceptable to everybody. The trade-off of achieving such huge commercial success: you need to be very careful about how you approach topics that might turn a demographic off. 

Gaga came out with BTW as barely her second album three years into her career when same-sex marriage was legal in only 5 states. She became anathema to large swaths of the world right out of the gate with her support for LGBTQ+ rights. Contrast that with Taylor, who lent her tepid support 13 years into her career and during her seventh era and once same-sex marriage had already become legal in the U.S. 

I'm not shitting on Taylor, I really do love her music, but when we're talking about her overwhelming success and cultural-event-worldwide-tour and pulling these ginormous numbers on the charts over and over, and then we ask, "Could Gaga do the same?" it's almost like asking, "Could Gaga be Taylor Swift?"

They're such inherently different artists who have taken such radically different trajectories that comparing them in this way just doesn't make sense (imo) because it's an impossible hypothetical. It's like, can you imagine Taylor Swift ever having the theater-girl showmanship to sell so well the bonkers insanity of bleeding to death on stage? Or could she handle the choreography and maintain her vocals on a show like the Super Bowl? It's just like, of course not. That's the kind of thing this question invites. 

I feel like Beyoncé and Gaga are much more alike in performance philosophy and their approach to their careers, and are a much better comparison than to Taylor, and I think Renaissance's numbers are probably the limit for what Gaga can do nowadays. If she pulled 400k with LG7, that would be a huge triumph. 

[Monet 803]

4 hours ago, bpmMonkey said:

I still believe she very much so could, if she/her team goes the old school flood the entire media with content route as pop girlies used to. Talkshows, social media takeovers, billboards, the thing where they sing in the streets of New York and some pseudo fan engagement on social media like Taylor does… will she ever do it? Doubt it. She kinda does so with her movie projects, but I think music holds a different, more vulnerable place in her heart where she really stopped focusing on the big big numbers 

Actors have to promote their movies, like they contratually have to, that's why she does a lot of interviews and stuff like that.

Also, i think performances and interviews are a thing from the past. Her team should invest massively in playlists. And maybe Tik Tok, who can make a song go to the top of the charts (i'm saying this, but i hate this app and their speed-up versions )

Edited November 14, 2023 by Monet

[LIKELADYAGAGA 4,063]

2 hours ago, Corous said:

The thing is that with the hype of ASIB and bundles Gaga only achieved 274,000 with Chromatica so seeing this background it is really difficult for her to achieve big sales even with the hype of the Joker movie

Good point. I'm hoping that Joker will be a lot bigger than even ASIB. This is the sequel to the biggest rate-R movie of all time so it could be a whole new level of stardom. 

[LIKELADYAGAGA 4,063]

52 minutes ago, LateToCult said:

lol sis can’t even crack 300k and you’re talmbout 1M 

I remember in the beginning of 2017, I thought Gaga would never have top ten hit again. And then she has multiple and a couple #1 hit singles too.  

[monstertoronto 8,738]

Taylor is lazer focussed on this kind of success and not only has the breadth of fanbase but also marketing genius to maximize her releases impact.  I don’t think anyone else can do it right now. And Gaga certainly doesn’t prioritize this measure of success to the degree that Taylor does, and I think the artist needs to be all out committed to marketing the project for this to happen. 

[JustTea 4,020]

Worldwide? - Yes! 

In the US only? - Very, VERY unlikely even with some BTW shenanigans... 

[NCgaga 4,274]

9 hours ago, Hurem said:

No.

Her streams are not strong enough, nor does she have a fan base strong enough to deliver great sales. Just remember the meltdowns over how low Stupid Love's physical sales were  

I would consider anything above 400k a big success for Gaga.

If she woild actually release a solid first single instead of songs like Stupid Love and Perfect illusion, she might get bettter traction. 

[Modern Ecstacy 3,836]

12 hours ago, SharGaga said:

No she can't. Taylor Swift is the only person alive who can achieve this kind of feat.

Adele says 'Hello' 

[Taylucifer 5,055]

Worldwide I am sure she could with the right promo 

She would need to really drive up hype, probably take a couple record cycles or massive singles. She probably also needs to bring in a younger demographic who want to buy every version and stream constantly. Maybe with the Joker 2 push plus a smash hit she could get somewhere close?

[ALGAYDO 29,806]

She will never sell as many albums as Taylor, and that’s okay, numbers only matter to the executives at her label who are money-hungry. You don’t need popularity to make great music, and I don’t think Gaga is focused on music sales especially now that she’s making a ton of money with acting and with her acting career lol 

[River 104,338]

With her cheap fans?

[Psyduck 1,049]

With good marketing and songs like Shallow and ARUTW, she'll pull 1m+

[PartySick 144,360]

If she put out an album full of Shallows and Bad Romances then absolutely beat herself to death on the promo train then yeah, probably.

But honestly who really cares about charts these days

Her album will be #1, just like her last 6 albums. She'll have a cute hit or two. But most importantly, we'll get some great music from mother