Leona's 2nd album isn't a flop at all. It's realistically sold 1-1.1mil WW atm (not 1.4mil) off the back of 1 single. FF13 will help it as they said they were going to put out a big promo list. So My hands will definitely help Echo. ISY isn't related to the album so wouldn't sell it, although it raises leona's profile. IGY atm is starting to climb quite fast on itunes, currently @ 34. IGY IMO opinion is a slow burner and should help the album get another 100kish. In terms of US carreer. I have a feeling she will be relaunched in April. IGY has hit written all over it for US radio, it just needs to be pushed by the label. The tour will help the album and there is inevitably a re-release with an X-factor performance coming. The album will sell in the long term, it won't be like spirit, which had the monster BL to kick it off :)

I didnt buy either rachel stevans albums as i wasnt a fan but the singles from the 2nd album seemed stronger to me than those of her first but the 2nd album didnt do well at all which i found strange at the time as the singles had been percieved quite well.

Lmao @ this topic. Loon central! :wub:

Loons ftw though Jack

 

Seeing as this has turned into a lets discuss the state of Leona Lewis's career thread anyway....might aswell pinch in and say that I dont classify Echo as a flop at all. As has been pointed out before, it's sold more than Overcome. Fair enough though, both it and Happy didnt sell aswell as expected. A slight underperformance it may be but a flop it is not.

But that is a silly point to make as firstly, "I See You" from Avatar had nothing to do with Echo....it is not on the album, so why would her singing the song affect album sales?? Secondly, Final Fantasy XIII isnt even out here yet so the majority of people havent heard "My Hands" featured on it :wacko:

 

These Leona debates are getting so tiresome now on Buzzjack :rolleyes:

 

There's no need to justify and stick up for Leona - I wasn't slating here, I was merely pointing out both sides to the argument. I think her album can in many ways BOTH be considered a success and failure.

 

Having a re-release? Sorry, but if she does that again then it just proves it's a bit of a flop. It's essentially having two lead singles off the album. You can't deny she didn't promote her album silly when it was released, it's sold fairly well, and I don't really think it's a flop, but in the grand scheme of things, SyCo will have definitely have expected better things with the amount of promo she's getting/will have.

The curse of the second album isn't always true take 'Breakaway' by Kelly Clarkson as a mighty fine example :P

 

But yeah. Majority of the time, I guess it's true :(

Seriously though, it tends to be 'of the moment' artists who generally suffer the moment - in particular British Artists.

 

I fully expect Adele, Duffy and Kate Nash to suffer from it.

First of all, Rihanna's Rated R is NOWHERE as big as GGGB yet so why is she on the list? Also, Miley? WTF? Miley isn't an album seller, she's a franchise. She doesn't sell MUSIC, she sell HERSELF. Don't forget she just had an HUMUNGOUS British arena tour so I don't even see why she's on the list. Plus, My December is Kelly Clarkson's third album.

 

Mika is underperforming cause his first album is almost identical as his first. He was the "new" cool thing that was hyped, people loved it and then grew tired of it but his second album still has the exact same sound. Leona Lewis suffered from a similar thing: she was hyped to death, everybody loved her initially, grew tired and her second album brought nothing new to the table (and yes, it is underperforming and it probably is selling less than what her record company expected). Timbaland still can resurface but the main reason why he's not doing that well is because his music was so absurdly overplayed a few years ago, his trademark style now sounds aged. Jay Sean and Jordin Sparks are underperforming cause neither of them have an stable fanbase.

Edited February 19, 201015 yr by André

Why would anyone be a fan of Jordin Sparks?

 

Good voice and a couple of decent songs are not enough to build a fanbase worldwide.

 

One thing that might hurt artists is similarity. I'm pretty sure Alexandra Burke and Leona Lewis affect each other's sales.

 

Why would anyone be a fan of Jordin Sparks?

 

Good voice and a couple of decent songs are not enough to build a fanbase worldwide.

 

One thing that might hurt artists is similarity. I'm pretty sure Alexandra Burke and Leona Lewis affect each other's sales.

 

Because they are both black/mixed-race females who came from X Factor? :wacko:

 

Having a re-release? Sorry, but if she does that again then it just proves it's a bit of a flop.

 

That's a silly comment tbh. Good Girl Gone Bad (which basically had two re-releases) wasn't a flop, The Fame wasn't a flop, Leona's own album Spirit wasn't a flop. Having a re-release doesn't make an album a flop.

 

And i think this talk of "oh this album's a flop compared to it's predecessor" is stupid. An album should be judged on it's own merit.

Edited February 19, 201015 yr by SIX

re-release doesnt mean its a flop .. what the hell? bit of a stupid comment as most recently lady gaga's Fame just re-released and that was far from a flop..

There's no need to justify and stick up for Leona - I wasn't slating here, I was merely pointing out both sides to the argument. I think her album can in many ways BOTH be considered a success and failure.

 

Having a re-release? Sorry, but if she does that again then it just proves it's a bit of a flop. It's essentially having two lead singles off the album. You can't deny she didn't promote her album silly when it was released, it's sold fairly well, and I don't really think it's a flop, but in the grand scheme of things, SyCo will have definitely have expected better things with the amount of promo she's getting/will have.

 

I agree especially in the usa and worldwide where it has "Flopped" and a re-release is needed.

 

 

Some people on this thread. Great analysis on these artist projected. Sorry if I caused an uproar. These were the artists I noticed doing badly.

Because they are both black/mixed-race females who came from X Factor? :wacko:

 

No.. Because they come from the same concept. I believe the exposure Alexandra Burke had last autumn killed Happy (and Echo) because people were more interested in hearing Alexandra's debut single and album (Hallelujah was just an X Factor product). X Factor is a concept which requires that the audience move on each year. Only the strongest ones survive.

 

I don't live in the UK and don't know the true popularity of Leona and Alexandra but from my point of view both of them will struggle in the long run because they rely on their voice and songs that are given to them, not their artistry. Given the amount of artists coming from talent shows very few of them have been successful after first or second album (I can think of Girls Aloud, Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Will Young and maybe Chris Daughtry).

 

You can sell loads of one album with right promotion but to have two or three albums standing on their own is a different story. People must like the artist, not just the music she/he's singing.

 

 

 

No.. Because they come from the same concept. I believe the exposure Alexandra Burke had last autumn killed Happy (and Echo) because people were more interested in hearing Alexandra's debut single and album (Hallelujah was just an X Factor product). X Factor is a concept which requires that the audience move on each year. Only the strongest ones survive.

Echo has outsold Overcome, so I don't quite think that's the situation. Plus they sing entirely different types of music, Leona sings ballads and Alex sings uptempos.

Edited February 19, 201015 yr by MrLovett

Echo has outsold Overcome, so I don't quite think that's the situation. Plus they sing entirely different types of music, Leona sings ballads and Alex sings uptempos.

 

Exactly. And it's quite funny actually because Leona's 3rd single is likely to be an up-tempo (Outta My Head) while Alex's 3rd single is a ballad (The Silence) so they won't exactly clash with each other.

 

SKOB, tbh most music acts in the UK aren't artists and rely on the songs given to them (JLS, GA, Sats etc). Leona and Alex are fortunate enough to actually have great voices to back that up. And Leona is beginning to have creative input (co-writing most of the tracks on Echo, managing theme of tour) and i'm sure Alex will grow as an artist too.

Its a shame this debate has focussed more on people's favourite artists than the concept. The "difficult second album" (or sometimes this is applied to third instead) is an established theory, probably for many of the reasons already mentioned. I think the mistake often made and what this thread has shown is that it's often not the 2nd album people are on about, but the "post-breakthrough" album. So for example, Kelly Clarkson's 1st Thankful, had minimal impact here, but after the roaring success of Breakaway the 3rd My December was considered a flop, despite having outsold her first album.

 

Most artists are lucky to get one "in the moment" album, like Breakaway, or Spirit for example. But is it realistic to expect that level of sales to continue or increase, and is that how we should judge "a flop"?

 

Some artists do pull the feat off twice, e.g. Dido with 2x3mil selling albums (though look at the 3rd - syndrome!), or the Spice girls to an extent whose 2nd album was still massive though failed to match the debut's sales (2.9mil --> 1.5mil), and third struggled.

 

Then there are the occasional artists who continue this, e.g. Robbie Williams (half dozen 2mil sellers though rudebox was obviously a mis-step), Coldplay or The Killers (few mil+ sellers a piece).

 

This is definitely the exception rather than the rule. I think how you measure a flop is totally subjective. It seems unfair in a way to call Leona or Rihanna a flop at this stage for example, and i'll give an example why: consider Kylie Minogue. Fever was a huge seller (1.7mil) and she's generally thought of as a huge artist. She and her albums since have been thought of as successful despite selling far less (Body Language 350-400k, X 450-475k), and in fact sold similarly to the previous one too, hailed as her big comeback at the time (Light Years, 350k). Now there was a minority of people i remember when BL and X came out who said flop, didn't sell as much as fever but i don't think that was the general consensus.

 

By contrast, Rihanna has already sold 300k+ of Rated R (her 2nd biggest album) and Leona~600k of Echo but Kylie has never been written off for these level of sales (and she sold even less at some phases of her career). So should flop be based on just the previous/biggest album, career averages, absolute units shifted, comparison to other artists or (as in the case of record companies i'm sure) return on investment?

 

Sorry about the ramble, kind of spun this out a bit. Debate away! :wacko:

God grief i haven't even read the other comments but you need to research a bit better with reference to Kelly Clarkson.

^ @ Spicefunk

I don't think there is such pattern. There are various factors causing the second album to flop or underperform - same with 3rd albums and 4th.

 

Spice Girls were falling apart between Spiceworld and Forever. Geri left and that kinda killed the band tbh. Dido had a huge gap between her second and third album and there was no real lead single - or commercial one at least.

Edited February 19, 201015 yr by SIX

^ @ Spicefunk

I don't think there is such pattern. There are various factors causing the second album to flop or underperform - same with 3rd albums and 4th.

 

Spice Girls were falling apart between Spiceworld and Forever. Geri left and that kinda killed the band tbh. Dido had a huge gap between her second and third album and there was no real lead single - or commercial one at least.

i wasn't saying there was a pattern of any kind, merely an observation of what people say not necessarily being accurately what they mean in this debate