We all know that the 2nd album has a sort of 'curse' where the artist has a huge dip in sales/popularity/airplay/public attention compared to their first album, and it's very rarely that they actually have more success than the first. Why?

 

Katy Perry and Adele were both pretty big already in their first eras, but have now completely blown up with their new albums and have dominated the singles (Katy) and albums (Adele) charts worldwide since their releases.

 

They're the only two mainstream acts I can think of that haven't flopped/underperformed with their new albums.

 

I mean, even Ke$ha (yes, I know it's an EP but it's still technically a new era) is doing quite badly here in the UK compared to Animal. We R Who We R was fairly big, but Blow is now flopping at #32 and the re-released album probably only added about 10K to the originals sales. In the US Cannibal's album sales are dire, too. At least the last one went platinum!

 

Then there are obviously acts like Duffy (huge first era, second era was just plain miserable)The Saturdays (who had the infamous drop from #9 - #40 in a single week), Chipmunk (who just debuted at #10 with 9K sales!!), Leona Lewis (who underperformed majorly compared to her first), OneRepublic (big first era, album spent two weeks top 100 here), Scouting For Girls (huge first era, only one succesful single and poor album sales this era), The Script (underperforming compared to last album), JLS (none of their single sales matched the first era, album #2 almost out of the top 100 already), Cheryl Cole (Promise This didn't do *that* well, The Flood flopped and album out of charts fairly quickly), Gabriella Cilmi (album #2 BOMBED), Jordin Sparks (album bombed), The Fray (album bombed) and there are probably even more.

 

Gaga (i'm going to get some heat for this) is already underperforming. Born This Way isn't doing anywhere near as good as Just Dance did (and BTW had farrrr more hype) and Judas doesn't seem set to come near the popularity of Poker Face either. Her album will probably be really big, but nothing compared to her first era.

 

I bet even the likes of Tinie Tempah, Plan B, Ellie Goulding, Alexandra Burke, Olly Murs, Bruno Mars, Katy B, Jessie J, Pixie Lott (although her re-release singles flopped, The Wanted etc will probably suffer the "second era curse", too. I think that's why re-releases are becoming more popular, because labels are afraid too move on to the next album.

This is because the artists have set the bar for their work quite high so it is quite hard to get above it in the second era.

Edited April 25, 201114 yr by Griffo

The material for the first album will often have been written over a period of years with many other songs being rejected. The album may be made up of the best 12 songs from 30 or more. They will then be expected to come up with sufficient material for a second album within a relatively short time, especially if they are also spending time touring to promote the first album. Record companies are often too impatient to get the second album released which can lead to sub-standard material. The 12 songs may be chosen from only around 15 or so.

its tough to match the success if your first era is just so huge- most of the time, artists just can't live up to it, there have been many examples of artists underperforming over the years, singles wise, Lady gaga has underperformed a lot this year (although I think we should wait for the album before writing it off) and tbh I think this will happen to Adele with her next era- the signs are all there, as its just SO big (I'm no mystic meg but I'm only guessing :P )

 

artists who manage to stay huge throughout their career (Coldplay and Oasis come to mind) have imo managed to prove their not one trick ponies and make it as true musicians, and a place in music history

 

also, there are acts who sell consistently, but never in huge numbers but still remain largely successful, Muse are a key example of this

Edited April 25, 201114 yr by chart wizard

Also, a lot of the time the public has moved on.

 

Take a lot of the alumni Sound of.. as an example. Keane and Mika, both hugely successful with their first album and singles, returned to a lack of success (more pronounced in Mika's case :(). The same with Duffy and most of the other winners and runners-up. The one exception is Adele. That's all because of the hype for their first year, they can't live up to it when they return.

 

If they're lower down in the poll, it matters less, as with Scissor Sisters, McFly, and Dizzee Rascal, all of whom have had successful careers.

 

Taking Mika again, his music is very 2007. In 2009, it was already beginning to sound dated to the general public, particularly, with IMO a poor choice of lead single in We Are Golden. That pretty much killed the era for him, and it seems, his career. Also, he didn't get sufficient radio support. Radio is keener to latch on to new acts.

I think some artists are so big that it's not realistically possible to expect them to match their previous era. Even look at established acts. The current Black Eyed Peas album campaign is going worse than the previous one, but how could we have expected them to beat the previous one? Are we now expecting them to release the best-selling digital song of all-time with each new album?

 

And just because of one "flop" album, it doesn't mean the artist can't ever match their glory days in the future. Look at Rihanna's previous three albums, for example.

I was really (pleasantly though) surprised that The Script have had massive success with their second album. I thought they were going to "do a The Feeling" and bomb, horrifically. Really glad they didn't though.

 

Also, I think it's just all down to hype. The first era's are very, very difficult to follow as it's just about getting your name out there. Whereas anything after, people EXPECT something from you and if they're a tiny bit disappointed, they won't like it/buy it. One artist has been extremely lucky though. RIHANNA. Everything about her campaigns have been done PERFECTLY. She seems to be growing as an artist right in front of our eyes, with every release she does. She also has the best promotional/marketing team any label could ask for.

Put simply, there is a tendency now for acts to be hyped up right from their first album. Bands used to release material, often full albums, right from the off and keep releasing rather than touring and building up a fanbase. It means that their sales increase over time rather than what happens now, where bands are picked up on online/after a few gigs and hyped to the hilt before they've released a lot. Bands tour more than they used to, so albums come less regularly and momentum can be lost between releases.

They're the only two mainstream acts I can think of that haven't flopped/underperformed with their new albums.

Beyoncé? :kink:

Beyoncé? :kink:

 

She does actually seem to be doing quite well to be fair, at least in the UK. I thought she'd be free-falling down iTunes now, but she's still selling consistently! :o

The material for the first album will often have been written over a period of years with many other songs being rejected. The album may be made up of the best 12 songs from 30 or more. They will then be expected to come up with sufficient material for a second album within a relatively short time, especially if they are also spending time touring to promote the first album. Record companies are often too impatient to get the second album released which can lead to sub-standard material. The 12 songs may be chosen from only around 15 or so.

 

100% correct. I thought about all my favourite albums the other day

 

Alisha's Attic - Alisha Rules The World

Counting Crows - August & Everything After

Half Man Half Biscuit - Back In The DHSS

Stevie Nicks - Bella Donna

Hue & Cry - Bitter Suite

Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run

The Cars - The Cars

Leona Naess - Comatised

Hootie & The Blowfish - Cracked Rear View

Del Amitri - Del Amitri

Semisonic - Feeling Strangely Fine

Fairground Attraction - First Of A Million Kisses

Deacon Blue - Fellow Hoodlums

Stew - Guest Host

Juliana Hatfield - Hey Baby

Killers - Hot Fuss

Jill Sobule - Things Here Are Different

Dido - No Angel

Tina Turner - Private Dancer

Sundays - Reading Writing & Arithmetic

Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes - Sacrifice

Alexz Johnson - Songs From Instant Star

Sarah Harmer - You Were Here

 

The vast majority off them are debut albums

 

--

Richard

Beyoncé? :kink:

 

I meant with a second album. :P

Boyzone? number 1 album and top 10 single but the sales arent impressive at all

Westlife? need i say more regarding them

Tinchy Stryder - album flopped, singles sold and charted poorly

 

etc

 

 

Yeah, Rihanna's the major exception to the role as she seems to get bigger with every single album. But otherwise there's a lot of disappointing comebacks, usually from my favourite new act of every given year...2007's was Mika and 2008's was Alphabeat, both of which really underperformed on their return. Mika didn't change his style enough, yet Alphabeat did change their sound quite a bit but simply no one seemed to care.

 

2009's was La Roux, and I'm almost certain there's no way they'll ever have a hit again...they'll go the same way as Mika and Alphabeat. :(

most artists careers peak on the first album because record labels demand instant sucess and by the second album they are old news.radio 1 is as much at fault here as anything due to their 'in new music we trust' policy which means you cant really play new material from bands on album no3/4 and they only play older artists when they have singles chart hits (pop artists,rather than indie bands).the perfect example being the pigeon detectives.they recently released album no4 which was ignored by radio 1 and just made the top 30 2 weeks ago whereas the previous albums were played flat out by r1 because they were new,fresh and relevant at the time.

 

the opposite can happen too though - snow patrol had 3 albums before 'run' became a massive hit in january 2**4.

 

 

 

 

You should not forget that the market is getting more agressive nowadays too. Budget is shorter, record companies are tighter, and artists are really crushed... It doesn't only have to do with money but with media and exposure too. Media consume new artists, they hype them and knock them down after that because that's more profitable for them (drama sells). They know there will be fresh blood and new artists next year to discover, hype ,then crush again... Artists that are around for 2 years somehow become old news!

 

I think there are much MORE young people that want to be singers and enter the business with all these talent shows nowadays. There is some kind of obsession... Not all of them are qualified to have a career of 10, 20 or 30 years! (most of them are just monkey business really, and 90% of them will go back to being nobody in no time)

 

I strongly agree with a point already mentioned here: debut albums are written throughout the artists whole life BEFORE he/she becomes a pro including lots of special and inspiring moments (I am talking about real artists here, who write their songs or music). Then they are thrown into deep waters and have to undergo the nerveracking promo and crazy lifestyle. A year later when the promo is over they head back to the studio, pushed by their label who doesn't want to loose 'momentum', to write a new album in a few months time...

Can they produce the same quality? Definitely not. Some of them may have run out of ideas permanently anyway; they just have said all they wanted to.

 

And one last thing. All artists (old and new) try to COPY success. They rip off other singer's hits... Well they won't live a second life as a hit! We've already listened to them, it is more about momentum. For example, almost every dance-pop singer tried to rip off Gaga, her crazy style and the beat of her songs :puke2: . I am fed up with it.

I think it's a mixture between there not being as much time spent on the album losing quality/too much time losing momentum and the fact that when artists tend to have huge era's the buying public expect more from the artists as they remember the album being better than it probably was, which then creates unreachable goals.

I meant with a second album. :P

That's what I meant, she didn't have a massive slump with her second album, like most artists do. I am understanding this conversation, aren't I? :unsure: :kink:

I think its been touched on inadvertently....but the internet is a major factor. Artists get found out about much more quickly, and people from all over the world latch on but as a result people tire of said artist a lot more quickly too, again over exposure.

 

If you look at a lot of artists that made their career debuts in the 80's/90's, before the interenet took off... and i know im using all American examples here but anyway..madonna, mariah carey, prince, micheal jackson, janett jackson - NONE of their first albums were their biggest because their weren't over exposed, so when it came to the next album expectations weren't so high.

 

This is what's worked in Rihannas favour. No disrespect, i love her but when she debuted people didn't expect her to last more than 6 months, and her debut album release was quite low key, so when it came to album no.2 - it was much easier for her to build on that. Whereas if she had started with the success of GGGB.....expectations would have been much higher and harder to follow..see what im saying?

 

 

rihanna didn't have as good as chart performance with rated r and it's singles compared with good girl gone bad but that was her 3rd or 4th album