I wouldnt shove Leona in this category tbh. As has been pointed out before Echo has sold over 300k now I believe. More than the Alexandra Burke album and several other albums considered a sucsess.

To expect an artist to sell thousands upon thousands with every album is being unrealistic.

 

I agree with what Gooddelta says though. Duffy, Adele and probably several others wont see the high sales their debuts got with their second albums. But yet again, theres always a chance of recovery with the third.

Mika, as an example was always going to struggle. There was so much hype around Grace Kelly that anything remotely inferier would struggle. As the awful comeback single did.

Clarkson's 'Thankful' was quite big in America I believe. It just bombed here.

I think it's a combination of waiting too long in between records. People get bored. The UK public are as fickle with music as they are with relationships, TV shows. Heck anything really. Also a lot of artists do put out pretty $h!t material for a follow up. Mika is a recent example.

I don't expect Adele do great with her second album too.

Lady Gaga has two albums?

I'd say one album and one EP since I can buy them in one package and there was just a year in between them.

 

And Rihanna.. Music of the Sun wasn't that successful. A Girl Like Me was a bigger hit and then came GGGB which was huge. She has nothing to do with the second album syndrome imo.

 

The most important aspect is the personality of an artist/band. If consumers don't see any, the success can't be repeated.

Edited February 17, 201015 yr by SKOB

I noticed that the artists seems have a huge debut album and then have a unsuccessful album. Just name few for you: Mika, Leona, Miley, The Saturdays, Kelly Clarkson, Rihanna (but she's HUGE now) and Jordin Sparks. This is awful news as the albums ain't half bad.

I add James Blunt in this category.

 

Lady Gaga has two albums?

I'd say one album and one EP since I can buy them in one package and there was just a year in between them.

 

And Rihanna.. Music of the Sun wasn't that successful. A Girl Like Me was a bigger hit and then came GGGB which was huge. She has nothing to do with the second album syndrome imo.

 

The most important aspect is the personality of an artist/band. If consumers don't see any, the success can't be repeated.

 

Well SKOB, Look on the first page. People were angry with me because I didn't her put down in the second album syndrome. Mostly the Leona Loons. :D

Edited February 17, 201015 yr by Tacticz

Kelly Clarkson is mentioned below but doesnt fit this as her 2nd album was far more successful than her first, jamelia was another act who had a flop first album and huge second album that apart there always seems to alot of 2nd album syndrome, kaiser chiefs,saturdays, gareth gates,holly valance, delta goodrem,rob thomas, i know there is loads more that wont come to me right now but the 2nd album can opften be what ends a career, maybe im wrong in saying this but my belief is if you can have 3 fairly decent well percieved and sell well albums your on a safe enough route to longeivity fior many though they never even make it this far.

There is also a "third album" curse. But it seems to apply more to indie-rock bands like Kaiser Chiefs, Razorlight and Arctic Monkeys. All have pretty bad times with their third album :unsure:

The Feeling's first album sold about 750k in the UK and 1.3 million worldwide, their second album "Join With Us" flopped, I don't think it's sold 200k worldwide.

Ms Dynamite definitly suffered 2nd album syndrome, it ended her music career for the difference. Sometimes i blame the first album but the lack of success for the 2nd, for example i bought sophie ellis bextors first album and apart from the singles i thought the album was rubbish and i said i would never buy another sophie album again no matter how good the singles are, so sometimes i think when someones buys a debut album on the back of one or 2 singles and they dont like it it can definitly put them off buying the follow up no matter how good or bad the material from the second album is.

 

Likewise i bought shakira's laundry service album on the back of whenever whereever and i wasnt that keen on the album so i class shakira as an artist who i enjoy the singles but not albums apart from a greatest hits collection. so again that put me off buying her follow up studio albums.

Edited February 17, 201015 yr by Feel_The_Fever

wasn't kelly clarkson's second album breakaway???

Thankful (2003)

Breakaway (2004)

My December (2007)

All I Ever Wanted (2009)

That is Kelly's album order, Thankful only reached number 41 here in the UK, but it topped the Billboard 200. Kelly certainly didn't suffer from this curse, Breakaway is number 50 in the Best Seliing Albums of the noughties in the UK :yahoo: love that album. Thankful was good 2, it should have been bigger

It's a combination of lots of things.

 

The casual buyer gets bored and only either their devoted fans or music lovers will bother checking out a second album if it doesn't have a big hit single.

 

Secondly, Some artists often get overexposed with their first album and the sound becomes tired old - look at James Blunt. I will be shocked if Duffy does well with her second album and if Amy Winehouse doesn't make a drastic change in her sound then she will do less well also.

 

Then there's the change in direction. Some artists change and lose the interest of the casual buyer - and it is casual buyers who make up the majority of sales, people who buy an album just to hear two or three good songs and lots of filler.

 

 

Then again, there's nothing wrong with having a poorly performing comeback album after having a huge seller - look at Pink. Try This didn't do well but since then her sales have picked up again. In the long run I think artists are better off not having a huge seller, like Muse.

I don't expect Adele do great with her second album too.

Adele has admitted that she's finding it very hard to even write any new material and if she doesn't release anything this year she'll find she's been forgotten about.

 

There is also a "third album" curse. But it seems to apply more to indie-rock bands like Kaiser Chiefs, Razorlight and Arctic Monkeys. All have pretty bad times with their third album :unsure:

And Keane too.

 

All these acts charted their first hit at pretty much the same time, during a indie rock revival and that revival is more or less at an end. There's a whole host of indie rock acts from 2003 to 2005 who had some chart success back then but have more or less vanished from the scene.

 

That's twice i've made a thread on Digital Spy and seen it on this forum the next day. :P

That's twice i've made a thread on Digital Spy and seen it on this forum the next day. :P

 

 

Your threads are obviously so great that they get copied.

That's twice i've made a thread on Digital Spy and seen it on this forum the next day. :P

 

:blink: Ok then.

Thankful (2003)

Breakaway (2004)

My December (2007)

All I Ever Wanted (2009)

That is Kelly's album order, Thankful only reached number 41 here in the UK, but it topped the Billboard 200. Kelly certainly didn't suffer from this curse, Breakaway is number 50 in the Best Seliing Albums of the noughties in the UK :yahoo: love that album. Thankful was good 2, it should have been bigger

Love 'Breakaway'. My favourite Album from Her.

 

Adele has admitted that she's finding it very hard to even write any new material and if she doesn't release anything this year she'll find she's been forgotten about.

 

 

Would that mean that she is at the same stage as she was before she became famous? With god music, she should get good reviews and people will start talking about her again.

 

It shouldn't matter how long you stay away- if you make good music there will always be a market. You may not sell a million albums each time though.

I wouldnt shove Leona in this category tbh. As has been pointed out before Echo has sold over 300k now I believe. More than the Alexandra Burke album and several other albums considered a sucsess.

To expect an artist to sell thousands upon thousands with every album is being unrealistic.

 

I agree with what Gooddelta says though. Duffy, Adele and probably several others wont see the high sales their debuts got with their second albums. But yet again, theres always a chance of recovery with the third.

Mika, as an example was always going to struggle. There was so much hype around Grace Kelly that anything remotely inferier would struggle. As the awful comeback single did.

Echo = under 200k

Overcome = 525k+

 

:unsure: