ZacJ20
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J. B. Fletcher
Superior Member
Justin's new album drops from #5 to #86 in its second week on the U.K. chart. Its sales haven't even reached 10k yet. This figure is poor for an artist like JT, even in today's climate. In comparison, Fine Line by Harry Styles is at #85 in its 224th week on the chart.
Post it please !
Regarding the album underperforming, it makes me sad for him somehow. I really like the album, it’s fun. I feel like his career has taken a lot of damage through the past decade.
timberlakesbitch
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Re: Album underperformance
I truly think the cause is the huge, huge lack of promotion. He did not promote the album at all during its first two weeks for whatever reason. He's mainly promoted the tour. The tour has several TV commercials promoting it in various areas, but no such thing was done for the album. Those tour numbers show how consistent promotion can go a long way. It's predicted to be his highest-grossing and fastest-selling tour, beating his last tour, which was his previous personal best. I think he cares more about getting on the road than pushing an album to sell the most, which is good. He's already proved himself, and the fact that people expected bigger numbers from him is proof of that. Fortunately for him, he's not fulfilled by a number or a chart position.
I truly think the cause is the huge, huge lack of promotion. He did not promote the album at all during its first two weeks for whatever reason. He's mainly promoted the tour. The tour has several TV commercials promoting it in various areas, but no such thing was done for the album. Those tour numbers show how consistent promotion can go a long way. It's predicted to be his highest-grossing and fastest-selling tour, beating his last tour, which was his previous personal best. I think he cares more about getting on the road than pushing an album to sell the most, which is good. He's already proved himself, and the fact that people expected bigger numbers from him is proof of that. Fortunately for him, he's not fulfilled by a number or a chart position.
QuietPrelude
Worshipped Member
I remember I used to masturbate to this photoshoot on the DAILY when I was in high school.
![7194D15B-4EA7-49F5-ADE9-A729D00B3922.jpeg]( "7194D15B-4EA7-49F5-ADE9-A729D00B3922.jpeg")
Yup. The EXACT same thing happened with Usher. Usher hasn’t said a peep about his album since it came out. In fact, Justin promoted his album even more by performing on and visiting different platforms early in the album’s cycle. However, once the album came out, Justin was weirdly quiet except for social media, which we know isn’t him posting. However, what’s the common theme with both of them? Their tours are doing very well and they haven’t even performed a single date.
These are markers of entering legacy act status, where people eventually lose interest in their current music, but will pay top dollar to see them live. It’s very normal but unfortunately JT’s has come with a lot of undeserved negativity.
I saw tons of promotion. He himself was throwing hints on social media, they had promos and free concerts in major cities, he hosted SNL and he went on many "tonight shows" to promote the album.
I think they stopped promoting because the tour is literally 1 month away from opening night. JT and his team are more than likely focusing on the tour and stopped cold turkey with the album due to time.
His tour was what I saw received little promotion other than to his fans. I asked my non JT lover friends if they knew about the tour and none knew a thing, but hear he put out "a new song." It's surprising and a very good thing his tour is selling very well, but I'm still confused how a tour is going to do better than the actual album. Tours are usually tied to a new album, so they are usually synonymous with the success.
As I have said before, he doesn't have to worry about album sales/streams yet, but that definitely is some kind of indication of career longevity. 2 consecutive albums doing lower numbers is never something anyone should just ignore. I love JT, but he definitely needs to refocus after the tour on what he and the team are doing wrong. He is not that old or talentless to be irrelevant. I also wouldn't blame scandals on poorer sales because many celebrities have scandals and do just fine.
I can't wait to see the tour (undecided if I'll attend) and future projects he brings us, but gone are the days of taking long breaks.
Beyonce pops in just fine though. She literally does bare minimum promotion and does well.
I think JT's top issues are the branding/vision of his music career and the years long hiatuses he takes. If your music isn't strong, the hiatuses will seem pointless.
Yes, this is true. But I also saw people say his promo was “outdated”. Snippets on social media and visits to legacy media platforms (SNL, Graham Norton, Kimmel) and Tiny Desk aren’t exactly exciting methods of promotion in 2024. I’m just echoing what I saw.
It’s not surprising to me because he’s a legacy act. They ALWAYS do well on the road while their new music goes almost ignored. If the people who are buying up tickets for his shows bought the album or gave it a stream, he would have done better on the charts. This is the new normal.
True BUT Justin’s image has been smeared online, which technically isn’t “real life”. However, it’s completely changed his narrative, which is so unfair. Look at how negative the reviews were. JT’s album wasn’t THAT bad for it to get such bad reviews. How he’s currently viewed affected the reception of his music.
I’ll keep saying it. Beyoncé is an anomaly. She stopped traditional promo a decade ago and hasn’t looked back since. What this does is increase anticipation for her every move because she’s unpredictable. Plus, she’s done the almost unachievable thing of keeping her core fan base happy while picking up new loyal ones along the way as a middle aged Black female pop star.
Justin’s hiatuses helped in the beginning because it built up hype. I remember when 20/20 came out. The anticipation was INSANE because he was gone from music for 7 years. It stopped working when he released MOTW.
Beyonce and Madonna are/were able to do this while being older than Justin. It's exactly what you stated, they focused of making what the fans wanted. Madonna started flopping once she went her own way, but Beyonce has managed to give her fans what they want.
JT's team needs to realize, we haven't been living in those times anymore for quite a while now. If I know this, I can't imagine how out of touch the JT fam is with today's music landscape.
I'm still sticking to my points that taking years hiatuses and coming back with weak vision material is what's causing JT issues.
Not going to lie, I though EITIW was going to be a hypersexualized dance album from JT. I'm pretty sure most people would want this. The man is in self-doubt and complacent mode. That's never a good thing in any creative career
True but Beyoncé and Madonna have airtight visions as artists. Even when the music doesn’t hit, they hit you over the head with it, are confident in their approach. They are very take it or leave it. Justin did have a vision for MOTW but it was executed in a pretty shallow manner. He’s very self-serious but people laughed AT him with that album because it almost seemed like a parody. I agree with your points wholeheartedly.
Justin doing a fun, sexed up disco album would make him a appear looser and rid himself of the “dad core” image he had.
Yep, exactly. Everything you stated is exactly how I see things. I really think that after the tour, JT needs to release an album ASAP and completely commit to the vision. Give it to me all and be unapologetic about any of it. Give me a dance/disco album with a sexually mature, unapologetic, sure of himself as a man, shirtless, sweaty and full of energy album.
THIS is what he should have done after MOTW! Course-correct himself, but life and work happens, so it's easy for us to say he should have released immediately. Beyoncé has been very consistent with her releases - even if they aren't studio albums. Let's look at the last decade:
2013: BEYONCÉ
2016: Lemonade
2018: Everything is Love (joint album with Jay-Z)
2019: Homecoming (Beychella Live Album)
2019: The Gift (The Lion King Soundtrack)
2022: RENAISSANCE
2024: COWBOY CARTER
I would LOVE if he gave us that kind of sexy sound and aesthetic for an album. He seems very "buttoned up" and that's cute but the last time he REALLY pushed his sex appeal in a shameless manner was the Justified era. Let's bring it back.
I’m not even gonna front. I absolutely prefer this Justin to the one from 2013 and onward. I am very shallow when it comes to my male pop stars lol. Now that we KNOW he still has that ripped body underneath those suits, he needs to do right by us and show it us more. In photo shoots, music videos and on stage.
JEEEZ. got a video to this hotness?
DAMN justin. Sit on my face and let me eat and then lay over my lap so I can spank it
