Could Gaga debut with +1 million first week sales?

[PartySick 139,847]

10 hours ago, sexy said:

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. 

This is the greatest post I've ever read on this site.

[River 97,644]

5 minutes ago, PartySick said:

This is the greatest post I've ever read on this site.

I feel betrayed  

[PartySick 139,847]

4 minutes ago, River said:

I feel betrayed  

Your posts aren't posts, they're threats and fever dreams

[River 97,644]

1 minute ago, PartySick said:

Your posts aren't posts, they're threats and fever dreams

[Chromatikitten 622]

Manifesting LG7 400k-500k+ first week

[ryansamonster 1,428]

I’m confused with a few people saying Gaga’s fanbase is getting smaller when TCB literally had the largest crowds in the US she’s ever played for… 

Isn’t she top 50 Global Spotify as well? Actually top 30 I just checked 

[Divine 1,468]

17 hours ago, Sine From Above said:

No, nor does she need to. Like that say McDonald’s sells more than fine food, does that make it better? 

Alright, so Adele's '25' is McDonald's level for selling three million plus in its first week?  I don't know about you but Adele's music for me is more than just McDonald's unless you want to shade a specific artist and you are just too coward to be direct. 

Babe, if you just wanna trash on Taylor just criticize her constructively. Just as how active you have been towards Taylor threads these days, it's pretty obvious the cringey shade you wrote was made for her. This does not make you look any better at all just respect people's preference.  

[Divine 1,468]

13 hours ago, sexy said:

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. 

I agree. This is how you make a stance not with a shade. 

[Guest]

19 minutes ago, Divine said:

Alright, so Adele's '25' is McDonald's level for selling three million plus in its first week?  I don't know about you but Adele's music for me is more than just McDonald's unless you want to shade a specific artist and you are just too coward to be direct. 

Babe, if you just wanna trash on Taylor just criticize her constructively. Just as how active you have been towards Taylor threads these days, it's pretty obvious the cringey shade you wrote was made for her. This does not make you look any better at all just respect people's preference.  

Lmao I didn’t even talk about Taylor swift ?! It’s actually hilarious how aggressive you are about defending her as if she pays your bills, how do you know I wasn’t talking about Adele ? You are a psycho ! @SharkmanthaC I hope this person gets WP for harassing people in threads, not ok !

[stateofgaga 49]

18 hours ago, Art Deco said:

When you said McDonalds I thought about that particular singer 

Leave Katy alone! 

[stateofgaga 49]

17 hours ago, Sine From Above said:

I won’t lie I did talk about Taylor and her variants but did any one else see travis Scott sell about 100 versions of the same album ? Lmao.

Variants are the industry standard. Everyone just fixates on Taylor's because well she sells a lot and we want her popularity for our faves but albums like Lover and Folklore are still selling 10k pure weekly years after release so it's obviously not the reason. For example, nobody cares or even remembers that Miley had a similar number for ESV 

OT - She did with Born This Way! 

Edited November 15, 2023 by stateofgaga

[RAMROD 99,696]

No, I doubt she could. 
 

Even with the many variants she can put out, she still won't. She is not GP and streaming friendly.  
And while hardcore fans will buy it, not alot of those type left in the fanbase now.

Proof is with Chromatica. She just came off a huge publicity from winning an Oscars, put out that new album, got plenty variants to choose from, in and outside her webstore, and still only managed to sell 205K of pure sales on first week. And no, covid got nothing to do with it. I can say that cos Taylor's folklore & Evermore, which also released during covid, moves more numbers on first week sales. 846K & 1M respectively.

Her only 1M first week sales is BTW, and that's mainly because Amazon decided to sell the hard copies & digital of the album for 99 cents upon release. That's her peak musically so far. 
She cannot do that anymore, cos Billboard quickly updated their rules to block this loop hole. 

[Guest]

57 minutes ago, RAMROD said:

Even with the many variants she can put out, she still won't. She is not GP and streaming friendly.  
And while hardcore fans will buy it, not alot of those type left in the fanbase now.

Gaga has lots of hardcore fans still lol, just not on here as I think they chose not to be.

[RAMROD 99,696]

Just now, Sine From Above said:

Gaga has lots of hardcore fans still lol, just not on here as I think they chose not to be.

[SharGaga 2,906]

8 hours ago, Modern Ecstacy said:

Adele says 'Hello' 

I was waiting for this. 30 didn't debut with 1M. Let's wait for 35 and see how much more she declines. 25 was coming off pretty much one of the the biggest albums ever in the 21st century. With 5-6 year long breaks and no desire to reinvent herself or her music do you really think she can open with 1M when 30 did like 800k+. If anything the next album is gonna do the same or even less unless she has a smash. In 2026/2027 I doubt she'll have the same selling power. Casual listeners I know have been checking out since Hello or Easy on Me.

Edited November 15, 2023 by SharGaga